I am trying to remove passenger foot pegs on my 2018 Harley-Davidson Heritage Classic to install Saddle Bag guards. The bolts will not break. I have broken a bits and sockets. With an extension and 1/4 driver, a breaker bar and an impact driver did not work to loosen the bolts.
Has anyone had success in removing the bolts for passenger foot pegs on a 2018 Harley-Davidson Heritage Classic? Any suggestion to remove the bolts for the passenger foot pegs?
Star bolts for the passenger foot pegs.

 

Not on a Heritage, but on my Fat Boy. It was a bear. I ended up using an impact to break them loose. They have some serious thread locker on them and even after breaking loose they were tight all the way out. I ended up ordering what was described in the catalog as a Torx Plus 45 Snap-On (6" long) socket, but when it came it was marked T45. It looks more like a Torx than a TorxPlus too.

 

On my 2018 fatboy , right side passenger peg came right off.
not so on the left side.
stripped the torx head. Havent figured out what to use to remove the bolt yet. Do i drill it out?

 

Yes, you'll have to drill it. You can try to drill the center and use an easy out but you may break that off too. if you can drill it dead center you should be able to gradually increase the size of your bit until you've removed the entire head of the bolt. It will then release the peg stem. You shouldn't need to go in any more than about a shy 1/4" from the bottom of the torx hole, in to remove the entire head, the idea being to avoid going so deep that you contact the threads in the frame. This will leave more of the bolt to grab onto when you are able to get at it from the side when the grip stem has been removed.

edit: Also it might be a good idea to try and remove these bolts right after riding. The heat from the exhaust may help in loosening the bolts, by softening the compound they use on them.

 

 

You're welcome. Mine never "broke" loose. I never applied the force I felt that would strip them. With that socket I got the best bite on them I had yet gotten after many tries with different bits and wrenchs. Used the impact for a few seconds then switched to a ratchet. When they did finally start coming out it was a slow, grudging release. And as I mentioned they stayed tight all the way out. I don't think you'll feel them break loose at all. But if you pay close attention you'll feel them start to ease out. Grudgingly

Scary part was that slow release felt much the same as it would if the heads were stripping out

 

 

Copied from my previoust post in The Everything 2018+ Heritage Thread and start at post #707: "I attempted to remove the existing right side passenger peg post but could not break lose the bolt holding it into the frame. In trying to break it free, I messed up the Allen Wench socket head. Since the bolt is recessed deep inside the peg post there was no way to get any kind of vice grip on it. So I decided to drill it out. It was a beast of a job but I managed. I had to buy a 9/16” dia. drill bit because a ½” bit just wasn’t quite large enough to remove the full bolt head. I used a series of drill bits from small to large cooled with WD-40 to drill out the bolt head. High speed drilling eats up drill bits as you all are probably aware. Once the bolt head was removed, the peg slipped off easily and I was left with the headless bolt projecting from the bike frame. It took extreme clamping power to fix a vice grip to the bolt and I had all I could do to back the bolt out. The Lock-tite they used was not red, but it sure held it very tightly."

PS: Back them out slowly being careful not to snap them off. I was told to add heat, but did not have the means to do so. It was a bare of job. Had a sore arm from pushing on the drill for a week after.

Good luck.

 

Be sure you use a T-45 to attack the bolts. A T-40 will fit well enough to confuse you. Don't ask me how I know!