When it comes to removing stuck or broken things, there are usually two choices: air hammer or drill. If a bolt is broken off or completely stripped and seized, you have the option of using a chisel bit on an air hammer to try to turn it, or drill the whole thing out and tap new threads.

Ignition switches on Hondas contain the steering wheel lock, which means they are something you don’t want to be easily removed by thieves. To hold it onto the steering column there are special bolts whose heads snap off when fully tightened, so there’s no easy to remove them. The service manual says to drill the heads off, but that would take a really long time. The easier way to do it is with an air hammer with a chisel bit, and it took only a couple minutes to remove both. I once had to do this with a regular hammer and chisel in the parking lot in the middle of winter, and that took a lot longer and was not fun.

New blog posts every Monday and Thursday, plus pictures throughout the week on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

Mechanical Malarkey T-shirts, hats, and stickers are available to order!

-Dan