12 Points of EVIL

[3Gear]

Well VW must have employed some sadistic Nazi Ba$t@rd to design the 12 point star bolt.  What a colossal piece of $h!t  &m&  He must have wanted to torture people in the future!!
Ok, replacing an axle with CV joints should be quick and easy, 12 bolts all together. Not with the retarded 12 point star bolts it is not. They do not sell bit for them at advance or auto zone, pepboys has them, but in a kit with three sizes for  d-s 15. Annoying but I suck it up and buy them. I go nuts with the PB blaster and a scrub brush on the bolts. The first bolt comes out with ease, the second, the tool shreds itself. m-d &m& m-d2  Now I go back to Pepboys, and exchange for a non fubar tool. When I get back I hammer the bit into the bolt to make sure it is all the way in and 10 of the 12 bolts do great, the other 2 are butt.  I can’t get them off with vice grips, so I grab the angle grinder and notch them. I use a big a$$ flat head and an adjustable to crank one off. The other, doesn’t work so well...   m-d &m& m-d2 After an hour I decide to grind the whole head off of the bolt, which I should have done on the first place...  Once the head is off I pull the axle assembly off and easily notch the headless bold and it comes out with ease  :icon_cheers: ;D  Reassembly is quick and painless, considering I have awesome 6mm Allen head bolts to work with!!!  So about 4 hours to remove and replace 12 bolts!!

Hope yall enjoyed my fun BO**
I'll be returning the 12 point kit to the store today, since it is fubar too.

Cheers,

Marc and no I wasn't stoned# ...

[njgt-1]

Hope yall enjoyed my fun

welcome to the "FUN" world of "VW CV Joints", now you know why they never get changed!

[lovebus (jack)]

If you had a brass or aluminum hammer and tap them hard even the tight ones come out easy. It brakes the rust between the bolt and plate.

[3Gear]

If you had a brass or aluminum hammer and tap them hard even the tight ones come out easy. It brakes the rust between the bolt and plate.

trust me jack, they were "tapped" with great vengance but no dice...

i love my grinder  !5!

[rockdog2877]

I just changed over mine back to the stock bolts. All four boots were ripped. I had a nightmare trying to get the normal hex heads off. they were mostly rounded and stuck. It worked out to 1/2 hour a bolt. I had some success with a torch to heat then up to breakup some of the grease and rust. fig2
(I didn't learn the trick about rolling the bus around to get the hard to reach ones untill after I was done)
I got my "star" bit from the bus depot  8 bucks.
I believe the lesson is that old bolts no matter what style are a nightmare.

[steveo]

NEVER SEIZE everything m-d2
Steveo

[rockdog2877]

NEVER SEIZE everything m-d2
Steveo

like an engine,control or a loved one

[scarecrow]

I went through 3 of those stupid bits when I did my CV's. Could never figure out why they used them instead of bolt. Oh, & the big phillips head screws the hood the door hinges in are a lot of fun to m-d &m& m-d2