HELP. BROKEN HEADER BOLTS

[Anonymous]

ugh!!!! i bought a kerker 4 into 1 megaphone system today for $100 allmost mint, black. 3 of my header bolts broke off. 2 have atleast 3/8inch of threads sticking out but one is real close. how do i get them out. and when i buy new bolts should i get stainless steel?

 

[Anonymous]

All i can say is you are in deep shi* be very careful how you go about this one it is probably safest to remove the head and get a pro to extract the offending items you only get one chance at it about the stainless i find these can bind and tear thread out prefer normal allen head bolts with nickel anti seize on them never had trouble since using anti seize
ozman

 

[Anonymous]

ya i think i will take it to a shop. it sucks because i just got my new loud exhaust and it sounds like shit. and there would be no point in putting the stock back cause that f"cker is heavy! i couldnt believe the weight differance. one side of my stock exhaust (#1,2 header and muffler) weights 2 times what the whole kerker system weights

 

[Anonymous]

if you can take it to a welding shop with a tig welder they will be able to put a small amount of weld on the end of broken stud enough to grab with a pliars or vise grips and back it out. the fact that you just added a bunch of heat to just the stud also helps alot 8) Mark
yes, i do it for a living

 

[Motorcyclemodeller]

Use studs instead of bolts, insert the studs using anti-seize compound. Then just hook on the exhaust and use nuts to bolt it up. You will never be stuck in this situation again. Do not use screw extractors, if you break one of these off; your machining fees will rise 300%. Just bring it in and have them removed, have all the other threads checked, heli-coil any bad ones.

Good luck!

8) Dr. Dre 8)

 

[Anonymous]

Use studs instead of bolts, insert the studs using anti-seize compound. Then just hook on the exhaust and use nuts to bolt it up. You will never be stuck in this situation again. Do not use screw extractors, if you break one of these off; your machining fees will rise 300%. Just bring it in and have them removed, have all the other threads checked, heli-coil any bad ones.

Good luck!

8) Dr. Dre 8)

i have easy out bits but i dont want to f"ck up again. i hate having to bring my bike to a shop when i should be able to fix it :twisted:

 

[terry]

I did the same thing a couple of years ago, because the factory used standard steel bolts with no anti-seize compound the the bolts chemically welded themselves into the head by "electrolysis". (nothing to do with unwanted hair removal!)

This is a common problem with using steel and aluminium together in engines where there is plenty of heat and water involved, ask anyone who's tried to remove the cylinders off an old GT750 "Waterbottle" for example.

I took my head off after a rather nasty incident with a bolt extractor breaking off etc, and took it to a shop, where it sat for a couple of weeks without moving, so I brought it home again.

I knew that heli-coiling was going to be the only fix anyway, so I centre punched the broken bolts and using the "smallest to biggest" drill bit method I drilled out the remains of the bolts, then used an 8 x 1.25mm heli-coil kit to replace all eight threads.

I now use stainless bolts with "copper kote" anti-seize (copper grease) and have had no problems since. I thought about replacing the bolts with studs and I know that will work fine, but I was worried about the studs fouling the frame downtubes when removing the engine, as I've done a couple of times recently. :twisted:

 

[Anonymous]

I have been in that situation, but I only had two bolts shear off. It only took me four hours to fix it. The way I did it was to drill out the bolt with a drill bit slightly smaller than the bolt (i.e. small enough to not drill away at the thread). The remaining metal was then removed by using a tap that fitted the original thread.
I did that over two years ago now and have had the exhaust off numerous times since and have had no leaks or problems with it.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm in that situation also with the studs busting. I think ill try to get them out myself. sounds like a winter project though

 

[Billy Ricks]

I had one bolt break off years ago. Lucky for me it was an outer one. I just punch the center of the bolt, then drilled through the old bolt and tapped the hole the correct size. From that point on I've used anti-sieze lube on just about every bolt I take out and put back.