If you ride an ATV, chances are you’ll eventually have to repair the machine or one of its accessories. Those repairs usually go well for people who are mechanical and have the right tools for the job, but occasionally quad repairs are a pain in the neck due to a stubborn bolt or nut.

Before you round off the head with a wrench or throw that wrench into the neighbor’s back 40 due to frustration, try these methods to remove the hardware.

The first thing to try when loosening a stubborn bolt is to apply heat. This expands the metal and loosens the corrosion or thread-locking agent that’s holding the hardware together. Stubborn nuts and bolts can usually be coaxed apart with just a few seconds worth of heat from a propane or MAPP gas torch; they work well because the flame can usually be set to a fine point for more control and they heat the parts more evenly and steadily than an acetylene torch.

Be careful not to melt seals, rubber or plastic parts and by all means, make sure that the flame is nowhere near flammable liquids like gasoline.

Products like PB Blaster Penetrating Oil work well to sneak in between the threads and eat the corrosion that keeps the parts bound up. We keep a can of this on hand and it’s bailed us out many times, but we’ve heard of this product damaging rubber so be careful when using it around engine and transmission seals. Sea Foam says its Deep Creep spray withstands heat better than penetrating oils so it can be used in conjunction with a torch to loosen bolts.

Have a Phillips screw head that’s damaged and won’t securely hold the tool anymore? Use a hand-held, electric rotary tool (Dremel) or hacksaw to cut a slot across the head. This will allow you to use a slotted screwdriver and turn the screw. Impact drivers work well to loosen screws, too.

They use rotary force caused by impact from a hammer to break loose the fasteners. Be sure to hold steady pressure with a hand in the direction the bit will turn in order to transmit maximum torque to the screw.