This may be a long shot but I really need some help.
Over the weekend I was adjusting my cockpit and was not paying attention to my torque wrench and tighten one of the bolts on my stem, where it slides on the fork, too tight and snapped the bolt. The bolt is snapped clean off only in the threaded half of the stem. I have tried to get another bolt thread behind it to just push it out but I can not get it threaded.
I thought I would see if anyone here has advice so I can fix it this week before seeing what the LBS has to say next weekend.
Given the fact that you overtorqued the original bolt, and then tried to “push” a semi-threaded bolt out, I wouldn’t advise you to attempt what I consider an easy fix. Let someone else with a better feel and more experience do it, or risk really farking up and buying a new stem. If you’re up to it;
From the “front” use an EZ out and drill bit of proper size - this sounds easy, but getting the drill bit centered can be a bugger at times (a punch helps)…or,
If you have access from the “back” (i.e. the stem is open) you can get to the original, flat bottom of the bolt - drill into center and run a sheet metal screw into it. Going in this way allows either the CW spin of the drill or the tightening screw to free the broken bolt.
I make one mistake with the torque and now I am incompetent to do anything handy.
In response to your idea, the only problem I had with that is that I will be drilling with a small drill bit into a small screw where it would be easy to not drill straight and mess up the threading of the screw.
With everything being so small the margin of error is very small and I just want to make sure I have looked at all possibilities before trying something.
Either the bolt was defective and you did yourself a favor breaking it, or you really farked up.
Be thankful you didn’t crush your steering tube. Unless the broken piece is really tight, it doesn’t take much of a hole to get a good grip with an ex out. Use a quality bit and a quality ez and you’ll be fine.
I’ve been working with my hands my entire life and screw up on a daily basis…its the fixit that defines our work in the end.
In this case I tend to agree to with him. Unless you’re comfortable with potentially damaging your stem, have someone more experienced take a look at it. Me personally, I’m generally willing to sacrifice a part or two to my education. The advice provided here is pretty standard and having to removing a broken bolt is a common thing for many non-bike folks as well.
Whether you work on it yourself or get assistance, definitely remove the stem from your bike before attempting any repair.
Oh, I am sure that he did not mean any offense, I was being sarcastic (should have used the pink).
I understand that I could possibly damage my stem trying to remove this bolt, which can be traced back to my stupidity anyway. But I am new to this maintenance thing so 1 there are people on here with much more experience than myself and I thought might be able to offer some insight and 2 like yourself I am OK with messing up a couple parts for my knowledge.