Dealing with a stuck JIS screw

[the Ferret]

New parts are cheaper than new bikes. Plus I like this one a lot and they don’t make them anymore (much like the CB1100). Assuming a 4-year replacement interval, all US CB1100s would need to be retired by their original owners by now.

No-go on the impact driver attempt before this solution. It didn’t work and was stressing the master cylinder (risked shearing the locating pin on the handlebar).

I’ll look into Drive-Grip, Houtman. Another idea I have going forward is stainless steel hex head screws.

wow.... "back in the day" we used an impact driver all the time on stuck engine case screws.

Went to bleed the brakes on my CBR250R and one of the cover screws wouldn't budge, even using the proper JIS screwdriver. It started to cam out and displace metal in the screw head.

I decided to get a ball-peen hammer and carefully beat the protruding metal back down into the screw head. This made the screwdriver fit very tightly and I was able to break the screw loose by momentarily turning it clockwise and then counter-/anti-clockwise.

This is the screw after I loosened it:


Looks like there's some galvanic corrosion happening between the screw and the cover, so both will be replaced with new + a small amount of anti-seize compound.

This method was less scary than a drill and a tiny back-out, and saved the master cylinder itself from being damaged.

You are reinforcing my strategy of keeping bikes for a max of 4 years or 20K miles.

20K isn't even ONE good year's worth of riding (doubt I'll make that this year although I'm already over 5K)