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Warning: A stripped bolt on a vintage Raleigh turned my whole afternoon around
I was helping a friend fix up his old Raleigh three-speed in his garage, the kind with the Sturmey-Archer hub. We were trying to adjust the shifter cable, and the tiny 5mm bolt on the cable anchor was just frozen solid. I gave it a careful turn with my Park Tool hex wrench, felt it slip, and my heart sank. The bolt head was completely rounded out. I spent the next hour trying everything: a torx bit hammered in, some penetrating oil I had in my truck, even a pair of vise grips. Nothing worked. I finally had to drill it out carefully with a 3mm bit, which felt awful on such a classic part. The whole job, which should have taken 20 minutes, ate up most of the day. Has anyone found a better trick for those tiny, rusted cable anchor bolts besides just drilling?
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jennyp192d ago
Wait, you had a 5mm bolt on a Sturmey cable anchor? Every one I've ever seen uses a tiny 4mm bolt. Are you sure it wasn't a 4mm that was just so chewed up it felt bigger? That might explain why the hex wrench slipped so fast.
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foster.charles2d ago
Could be, but I swear my calipers read 5mm. Did yours have any weird aftermarket parts maybe?
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