Advice on removing a stripped seat rail bolt in a hard to get at area

[tailwind22]

I was removing the passenger seat of my 89 Carrera to get at the under seat amp and was surprised to find a stripped allen head bolt. It is the rear one closest to the front one and because of that I cannot get a drill bit in there to either drill out or bore for an easy out. They are I believe 10mm bolts with a 6mm allen head. Suggestions???

[pete3799]

Can you get a Dremmel on it and cut a slot in it then use a flat screwdriver bit?

[tirwin]

On my '83 if you completely remove the bolts on the front ends of the rails, the seat will actually move much further forward which gives you better access to the rear rail bolts. You might try that and then do as Pete suggested.

[schumicat]

I think he may have power seats which are different. OP you might want to clarify that.

I would force in an allen bolt that doesn't really fit (like an SAE size).

Originally Posted by tirwin

On my '83 if you completely remove the bolts on the front ends of the rails, the seat will actually move much further forward which gives you better access to the rear rail bolts. You might try that and then do as Pete suggested.

[nineball]

i have power 993 and manual 74-80 sport seats and in both cases i have to remove the front bolts in order to move the seat far enough forward to get at the rear.

if you don't have a dremel, or can't get one in there, you can always use a hacksaw blade to cut a slot into the top of the bolt to get a flathead in there to remove it. it's not easy or fast but it gets the job done. good luck.

[alterednines]

Try grabbing the threaded part of the bolt from under the the seat mounts that are attached to the body with a vise grip. There should be enough thread sticking down past the internal nuts to grab and make a few turns. Then get a torx driver that is slightly larger than the correct Allen wrench, jam it into the stripped Allen head and that should do it. You might just skip to the torx and try that first.

[175K911]

If you're referring the second of the two front bolts (should only be one on each side in the rear I I recall) then it's pretty tough to get at. Sometimes removing both rear bolts will allow the seat to slide back just enough to work.

Otherwise the only way I've found that works is to use a Torx bit that's just slightly too big then hammer it into the allen head. Otherwise you may have to very carefully drill the head off

[tailwind22]

Lots of good ideas here. On the 89 carrerra (power adjustments but manual slide) there is one bolt on each side at the front and 2 each side at the rear. Removal of the 2 front bolts does nothing to alter how far forward the seat will slide. I cannot even get a 90 degree drill in there to drill. Dremel sounds like an idea to pursue or prehaps sacrificing a torx bit.

[Porboynz]

Cut a slot with a hacksaw blade and use an impact driver.