The E50 motor uses (4) M6x1 Phillips pan head screws to hold on the clutch cover. I'm not sure what the correct size Phillips head should be used, but it's a biggin'! I recently needed to repair a motor with (2) very stripped out heads and (1) semi drilled out screw. (1) was kind enough to come out without a fight. Ugh. what to do, what to do.....

By the way....

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Step 1: Let's Try the Impact Driver.

I have a cheapie-but-goodie impact driver with (2) different sized flathead "stot" bits and (2) Phillips bits. The sized range from "large" to "fuck-off large". I used the latter size phillips head bit.

Start by seating the bit into the munched screw. Give it a few love taps with a small-ish hammer to help seat it....

Connect the impact driver to the bit, turn it so it's in the left hand driving position (righty tighty, lefty loosie), and start whacking it with the hammer while, at the same time, gripping and turning to the left. I used a large rubber mallet, but a decent sized hammer works well too. Don't murder the damn thing, just a good few whacks. Hopefully it breaks loose and you're home free!!!!!! (Sorry, no pics of that process. I tried taking pictures of the hammering process, but just ended up with pictures of my thumb....

Step 2: Well, That Didn't Work. Time for the Big Guns!

Dang! The impact driver didn't do diddly. Fortunately, I was able to borrow a set of screw extractors from a buddy and tried those. These particular screw extractors were double sided. On one side was something like a center drill (reverse), and the other side was a threaded cone type thing. I set it in a drill and made a shallow hole with the center drill (again, drilling in reverse). I've heard that this will sometimes grad the eff'd up screw and drive it out. That was not the case for me though. I flipped the bit in the drill, and slowly REVERSE drilled into the new hole with the "threaded cone" section of the extractor.

It stuck in there real good.I unchucked it from the drill and put an adjustable crescent wrench on it. When I first started trying to turn it, it wouldn't budge. I was worried that it would snap off. That would have made me very sad! So, I gently started rocking the wrench back and forth, and CHA-BAMM! The screw came loose. I could turn it out by hand!

Step 3: Time to Drill!

The final screw was wasted and had been poorly drilled out. The head was almost gone. I found a drill bit that was about the same size of the M6 bold (around 6mm) and drilled just a wee bit. The clutch cover then popped off and I took a deep breath.

Horray. that was a nerve wracking job. Needless to say that the replacement bolts that go back in there will be new M6x1 SOCKET counter sunk screws.

Sorry for the cappy pictures. Doing this job and taking pictures while having greasy hands, not so practical...........

Best of luck with all your FUBAR repair attempts!

Thanks for reading!