cam gear bolt, drill out vs leave alone?

[biker43]

Hey 944 group:

As careful as i was trying to remove 8v cam gear belt i still managed to smooth the bolt. no way its coming off. i was doing belts and the water pump so i was going to do all seals. the cam seal or at least the area around the cam is dry as a bone. both balance seals look fine but i am changing them anyway. crankseal is leaking. seals are around 7 years old maybe 20,ooo miles.

would you leave the cam bolt and seal alone? and hope for the best?

or drill out the cam gear bolt?

if i drill out the bolt should i use a helicoil to fix the thread??


thanks guys...john

[WaA420]

You won't have to drill the bolt all the way out, just enough to knock off the head with a chisel. I've had to do this same thing myself and I used a drill bit a little bigger than the size of the shaft of the new bolt. Once the head pops off you can thread the remainder out.

[biker43]

i have an 83 8v. the bolt is inside the hexagonal housing which is used to mount rotor. i can only get to the cheesehead at ~90 degrees. knocking it off with a chisel aint gonna be easy.

[WaA420]

I know what you are saying, you have to use a drill bit to take away the material so the head will fall off easily. The bit has to beslightly larger than the shaft of the bolt.

[biker43]

ok gotcha. btw i added this question to tech issues. dont know how i got it to post in classifieds...