My wrenches must be magical!

[Fat Don]

My wrenches must be magical because every time one of them touches my bike something breaks or something disappears! Now admittedly, I have zero experience working on bikes but it seems the most basic of maintenance tasks always turns into a magic act of some sort. Take yesterdays show for example. I wanted to change my newly aquired bikes oil from black to amber. In the process I figured I would also change my oil filter. Glad I did because it looked as though this had not been successfully accomplished before. As it turns out to get to the oil filter I had to remove the exhaust headers because of someones lame decision to put these four into one exhaust on my bike that seem to drag on every right turn. All went well until I wrenched off the final bolt while reinstalling the headers. Thats when it occurred to me. I think my wrench made the collars for the exhaust disappear. There are flanges on there but all of the flanges seem to be bent convex and the bolts seem to bottom out before completely securing the header.

Should there be collars of some sort on there?

I'm pretty confident I can remove the bolt but I can't find anywhere on the forum or in my manual what the size of the bolts are so I can replace them.

I know this information is somewhere on the forums but I have exhausted my computer time for today looking for it so please someone what size are those bolts and am I missing the collars? It's a 1978 GS 1000.

Here's a picture of the busted bolt and the huge gap where I think a collar should be.



and heres another shot of what my magic wrench made disappear this time.



and heres a shot of what the rest of the convex flanges look like.



and heres a picture of why my bike ran like crap all the way home when I bought it.

[Big T]

Your gap problem may be caused by

1. Lack of exhaust gaskets between head and header
2. Lack of collars

I believe some brands of headers have integrated collars with the flanges, yours apparently does not.

Also, you can avoid snapping off bolts by getting a torque wrench and using it.

Fortunately. you broke the outer bolt. Carefully drill that out, starting with a really small bit to get a pilot hole in the center, then a larger bit and deeper, then a larger bit and deeper, repeat until most of the bolt is removed. You can determine how deep how deep to drill based upon the broken bolt and unbroken bolt. Go slow and take your time to avoid much more work with more expensive tools (or taking the head off and to a machine shop).

[nisom512]

My wrenches must be magical

that or your arms are just monsters!!!!

[Fat Don]

The thing about that is I did'nt wrench all that hard. The other bolts came out and went in pretty simple. That paticular bolt was hard coming out and I really lubed it well with antiseize. It just kept turning until snap.

Anybody know what size those bolts are?

[nisom512]

The thing about that is I did'nt wrench all that hard. The other bolts came out and went in pretty simple. That paticular bolt was hard coming out and I really lubed it well with antiseize. It just kept turning until snap.

Anybody know what size those bolts are?

your best bet is to just bring it with you to the local ACE and measure it up with the plates they have there for that.

to bad yeah I have broken a lot of bolts doing that I thought is was fine then snap. I have been getting a feeling for it tho lately I will just quit before it breaks.

[atb1998]

magic wrench

good luck on getting those busted bolts out!! did the same thing on gs 1000 L. ended up breaking 2 easy outs, three drill bits and ended up using helicoils. The angle and the frame being in the way really make for a hard job.

[robertbarr]

.

Anybody know what size those bolts are?

http://www.boltdepot.com/Fastener-Information/Printable-Tools/?WT.svl=how2

[Billyboy]

Egh. Pull the motor and go to town.
Pain in the butt, but those arent gonna be the only seized bolts.

[howling60]

Your gap problem may be caused by

1. Lack of exhaust gaskets between head and header
2. Lack of collars

I believe some brands of headers have integrated collars with the flanges, yours apparently does not.

Also, you can avoid snapping off bolts by getting a torque wrench and using it.

Fortunately. you broke the outer bolt. Carefully drill that out, starting with a really small bit to get a pilot hole in the center, then a larger bit and deeper, then a larger bit and deeper, repeat until most of the bolt is removed. You can determine how deep how deep to drill based upon the broken bolt and unbroken bolt. Go slow and take your time to avoid much more work with more expensive tools (or taking the head off and to a machine shop).

aww heck... if you've got a welder... you're styling... and no need for drilling (and possibly killing the head)... not saying Big T's advice isn't good... this is just another method i've found... and it has worked EVERY time for me learned it from an oldtimer..

grab your mig welder, a hammer, vice-grips, and a can of your favorite penetrating fluid (i use pblaster)... use the welder (with heat set HIGH) and toss a blob of weld on the remainder of the bolt, remove welder, hit the weld blob with the hammer, spray with pen fluid, hit with hammer, weld again... the goal here is threefold... heat + impact + penetrating fluid + a new "head" for the vice-grips to grab hold of.

every 3-4 weld cycles, lock your vice grips on, and give it a small "wiggle" turn (both loosen & tighten) till it starts coming out freely.

i've used this method on an alum head for exhaust studs on a car, a cast exhaust manifold (again, broken stud)... seen it used on a wheel hub from a 1-ton truck, used it on a cast iron/steel engine block.

now, granted a welder does qualify as "more expensive tools".. but many people either have one, or know someone that has one. AND, you don't have to worry about the JOY of drilling off-center (and buggering your threads), snapping drill bits/easy-outs, etc..

good luck!

-Nate

[Dave8338]

Howling60...VERY good advise right there!
I've even drilled a piece of 3/16" flat stock, about a foot long and welded it (through the drilled hole) to broken studs/bolts and and used it for a lever and or to rap on it with a hammer... as mentioned, HIGH heat setting so that the weld penetrates the broken fastener...

[Zooks]

I've got a big old screwdriver in my tool cabinet that is used for welding to broken bolts. I tack it to the end of the broken bolt (at a right angle) and the bolt comes out every single time. Once it's out I grind the old bolt off the end and the old screwdriver goes back in the cabinet until next time.

The 'wiggling' techinque is the key. Turn it in and out, multiple times, until it comes loose.

[howling60]

Howling60...VERY good advise right there!
I've even drilled a piece of 3/16" flat stock, about a foot long and welded it (through the drilled hole) to broken studs/bolts and and used it for a lever and or to rap on it with a hammer... as mentioned, HIGH heat setting so that the weld penetrates the broken fastener...

thanks I just hope it helps someone else, i know it's helped me!
the only problem i see (and have seen) with the "weld on a bar" method... is that you might just end up snapping the bolt/stud off further down inside.. if you use the hammer & pen oil method, you are assured to get the entire thing free w/out breaking more stuff off.

Now, to go buy myself a little welder... since the only one i have available is my fathers... and when i need it, driving 1.5 hours isn't going to be possible :P

-Nate

[paintmann111]

HAHAHAHA, I just have to laugh, this same thing happened to me 2 nights ago. I got all of them off except for the last one using insane amounts of wd-40. The last one was half way out when it snaped flush with the head. I threw my wrench across the garage, I WAS SO CLOSE! Anyways, the head is going to a machine shop to be redone, so he is going to deal with it for me.

[SqDancerLynn1]

If you intend to remove the ex alot for oil changes You might consider changing to studs & use a serated nut. I think it is 8mm x 1.25 x 50mm
.

[Flaggo60]

http://www.boltdepot.com/Fastener-In...s/?WT.svl=how2

That's a really useful reference-thanks!