Predator 212cc Throttle Cable Screw Stripped

#1
Hello everyone, long time lurker, first time poster. Lots of good information and people to be found here :) Please bear with me if I refer to anything with the incorrect names/terminology, I'm a newbie when it comes to this stuff, but I'm here to learn!

Well, I purchased a "home made" Minibike/Frankensteinian contraption from a local guy off of CL, (I'll post pics when I can) and the bike itself is... Sketchy, but after tightening up some loose bolts and whatnot, it runs pretty good!... That is, until the throttle cable broke, which brings us to my problem...

While attempting to remove the old throttle cable, I noticed that the screw/bolt that's included with the predator that secures the throttle cable to the throttle arm, is stripped... REAL good. I've tried absolutely everything I had at my disposal to get that screw out, including pretreating it with some rust penetrating oil to try and loosen it up before going at it. I've done everything short of drilling into it, which scares me quite a bit, since it's close/connected to so many "precision" parts/springs/etc, and I hear the success of using a drill screw extractor is kind of 50/50. It either works, or messes your stuff up a lot worse than before, which I'm not too keen on.

The guy I bought the bike from must have had this same issue, because he had his throttle cable jury rigged to the throttle arm. (Something I noticed only when I went to replace the cable myself after it broke). The way he did it, he somehow managed to put a nice tight loop at the end after feeding it through the cable cover/sheathe thing, and slipped the loop OVER the screw/bolt that it's supposed to go INTO. (The bolt has a little hole drilled out that the cable goes into, and the screw goes into the bolt, holding the cable firmly into place)


The screw itself is in a really hard to get at spot, making it that much more difficult to work with, and I have NO confidence in my ability to put the bike/engine back together if I were to take it apart in order to get better access to the throttle screw, so that's not really an option for me at this time. This particular screw can only be removed if the bolt it's in is secured with a wrench or something too, or else it just keeps spinning, making it that much more "fun".

With all that being said; what would one of you more knowledgeable members do in my situation? Do you guys have any tricks up your sleeves when it comes to removing stripped/rusted screws from minibike engines?
I've tried jury rigging it myself the same way the previous owner did as a temporary solution, but for the life of me, I can't figure out how he, A: Managed to make such a tight loop in the cable that didn't come undone, and B: Made it so it NEVER slipped off of the screw.

In the case that the screw just CANNOT be removed by ANY means... is there some "easy" alternative way to hook the throttle cable up to the throttle arm?All your input is really appreciated! Thanks guys!
 
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#2
I can't figure out what you are asking :laugh: without pictures. Don't worry, it's probably just me. Can you text pictures of what you are asking about?
 
#3
Sorry! I tend to ramble sometimes.... I edited my first post to accentuate my major questions.

I'll have pictures posted of what I'm talking about in particular when I get out of work today. :)
 
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#6
I didn't know it was that cheap. I might actually go ahead and give it a shot when I get back home in that case. I'd much rather do it right than make a rigged-up temporary solution that I'll have to deal with in the future every single time I need to mess with the throttle.

Got any recommendations for an extraction product/drill bit to use for extracting it? (Like Grab-it) Or will drilling it out completely with a standard bit be the best bet?

Edit: Just saw the post above: It's hard to tell without looking at the engine itself, but I think it's either 19, 22, or 21 in the image above. I'll have an actual picture of the screw uploaded in roughly 3-4 hours when I get back home.
 
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#7
Back from work, getting the pictures on my computer, then uploaded.



Edit: Alright, got some pictures on my computer. First one is the problem from a top view, the rest are different angles and some pics of the beast itself.
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20160809_192003.jpg 20160716_144753.jpg 20160716_144801.jpg
 

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#8
If its screw #21 its the actual cable clamp....very small screw . Have you tried vice grips ?




Green or red ?
 
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#9
It's the Green circled screw that's stuck for me. (I finally have pics uploaded above of my stubborn one) No I haven't tried vice grips, I don't even have any handy! I actually don't have a drill handy either, so either way I suppose a trip to the store may be in order? Never thought to try vice grips, you think they'd work on such a small headed screw? (Never used the tool before, honestly)
 
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#10
Yep...I would try a small pair of vice grips on the top of the screw and hold the bottom part with a 10mm wrench....you will probably need a new screw from your hardware store, I'm sure that little rascal is metric also.
 
#11
Thanks for the advice! Worst case scenario, if it doesn't work, I'll have a new handy tool to put in my very meager toolbox, haha!

I have an hour till the hardware store closes, time to make a run! :)
 
#14
Back from the store! Going to go ahead and give the vice grips a shot, see if they'll do the trick. Success or fail, I'll keep ya guys posted for sure.
 
#16
Use the ends of the vice grips... not the center its probably to big to actually clamp down on the screw, use the ends of the vice grips and clamp them on really tight.
 
#18
:laugh: Not laughing at cha....but with you...yea I 've had that happen a lot,vice grips popping off. I wouldn't try drilling it its to small of a screw.
 
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