Hello. I'm a new rider who recently purchased a ten year old bike. I have ZERO mechanical know how, but decided that I wanted to learn.
So far I managed to take both the front and rear wheels off to get the tires changed and I managed to change the oil. Since I am unskilled, it took a LOT of fumbling through these to get things going...including breaking some nuts (rear axle nut was stuck and I originally only had a 12 point socket) and bolts (overtorqued an oil filter cover bolt despite using a torque wrench) and buying replacement ones.
Since the bike is 10 years old, I know that all of the fluids need to be changed. I feel comfortable attempting the actual change for the brake fluid from my research EXCEPT I don't want to irreparably damage this area. The front brake works fine, but the sight glass is totally clouded and opaque, so I cannot visually check the condition or level of the fluid.
These are JIS screws and I have purchased replacement screws. Any advice here? Please consider my novice skill level lol.
I bought some screw extractor bits but do not have an impact driver. I have some JIS screwdrivers, a hammer, a regular drill, penetrating oil, and replacement JIS screws.
Thanks!
A standard drill should work for the screw extractors, but that depends on what kind you bought, I suppose.
A last resort, and pending any other suggestions, you could drill off the heads of the screws, lift the cover off and then use a locking wrench to twist out the remaining "posts" of the screws that are left. This is a pain in the ass in its own right and you risk cracking or damaging the plastic cover.
Edit: Just wanted to add another risk to drilling the heads off. If the screws happen to be brittle, you also risk snapping off the bit of "post" that is left and leaving yourself with a screw that you can't extract easily. NGL, screw/bolt extraction can go wrong really fast if you don't take your time or are just unlucky.
On that note, I just thought of two different methods that are in the same family.. If the component allows for a little bit of force, you may be able to hammer a screwdriver into the head giving you just enough bite to turn the screw. (This will either break any corrosion or damage the threads of the screw.) Also, while it probably won't work for this particular case, cutting a new slot in the screw head (using a file or a Dremel tool) may work to use a flathead screwdriver to extract.
In all of the above solutions, the theme is the similar: Don't let the constraints of the original tool design interfere with brute force. You just need to either make the screw irrelevant (destroy it) or think of a creative way to turn the damn thing.