The bottom drain bolt on the fork legs can be a pain sometimes.
The bolt is totally stuck and the hex was starting to strip. I don't want to damage my tools, so decided to drill the bolt out.
I used come cutting compound, but you can just use oil (WD40, etc) or a little grease. It helps keep the cutting face of your drill bit in good condition.
Part way through.
Head snapped off the bolt. You need to use a drill bit that's the same size (or slightly larger) than the shank of the bolt.
There's a copper washer underneath the bolt (to seal it as this is where you drain the oil, it would leak without the copper washer), so as long as you take it easy, you won't damage the fork leg.
I could then take the fork apart and extract the remains of the bolt. With no head it had released the pressure on the bolt and it easily unscrewed. This bolt was most likely overtightened last time the forks were rebuilt.
Since the bolt was a hex socket head it aligned the drill bit easily.







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