Skeletons in my..uh..ignition cover?

Well, after about a year of fairly complication-free riding/wrenching, I was wondering if my bike had any "skeletons" at all..Til I finally decided to replace that bolt that I twisted off in the ignition cover a couple weeks ago..So I popped the cover off, and found a 6mm bolt stuck in JB weld in a hole that had been drilled/tapped BADLY and the JB weld was to hide their mistake. Oddly enough, the JB weld threaded out of the hole just fine once I had the cover off. First picture is to show how rusty everything in there is, the 2nd pic is of the damaged hole after removing the JB weld. I dug out an 8mm x1.25 thread bolt to see if it would fit, and it threads in without any catch and seems to hold well, so I'm thinking about cleaning everything up (including all the metal shavings left in there), putting a light coat of heat resistant sealant on the cover edge and a little extra around the bolt hole and not worrying about it. Any ideas?

Post edited by: Werewolfx, at: 2006/06/05 18:37

The hole

Take off the ignition plate and rotor and go over everything with steel wool etc. The rust needs to be off of the rotor. Hopefully the bolt holding it on won't snap off. Use liquid wrench, tap on it with a little hammer, and maybe wait over night. The advancer should be disassembled and lubed.

To fix the cover bolt-hole, the best way is to get a professional, aluminum welder to replace the metal so you can properly re-tap the hole.

Make or buy a good gasket, clean the surfaces, and try a thin layer of anti-sieze on the gasket so it comes off easily and won't bond to the aluminum.

Those parts would have looked like new if water never got in there. It doesn't need a sealant, but the metal surfaces need to be clean so the paper seals out water.

Post edited by: loudhvx, at: 2006/06/05 20:11

Does that thing have electronic ignition advance?
If mechanical, you'll be in for a lot more fun when it's working!

I'm pretty much hoping for a cheap temporary fix, the gasket should be easy to make, I'll make sure its pretty well water-tight at that bolt and see if i can find an aluminum welder in the area to fill the hole in so I can re-tap it properly. After looking at the cover, even the hole in the cover had been tapped, but much better it seems..or atleast there wasn't enough there for them to screw it up that badly.

82 550 ltd has mechanical advance. The advancer hub needs to be removed, cleaned, and greased (sparingly).

I thought about one thing thats going to be a problem: I don't have a timing light (I'm assuming I'll need one when reassembling the advancer) and I have..$0.93

is that a drywall screw on the top of the plate? it sure looks like it.

kawsakiman wrote:

is that a drywall screw on the top of the plate? it sure looks like it.

That does huh!!???!!?! But I think its cause we're eye ballin it straight on. :lol: :laugh:

Reminds me, I need to look for a timing light. I had one but tossed it as I had nothing to time but NOW...
My little nugget of experience/advice. I have a couple of lubricants I use for certain jobs. One is a product called Zoom RustBuster and Zoom Oil. They are usually available at appliance/heating/ cooling supply houses. They have these telescoping spouts that can really reach into tiny holes. That Rust Buster will do amazing things.
My main profession is firefighter-16 yrs, well actually I drive a firetruck.But one of my other hats is 14 yrs experience appliance repair and that stuff kicks!

Skeletons? dOOd, you got *The Mummy* in there...:woohoo:

When you popped that cover, I'm surprised it didn't turn into a swarm of beetles and skitter off into the bushes. :whistle:

*Amazing* machines.

Yeah I was going to add a comment along the lines of "I found a GRAVEYARD under my ignition cover"

I use PB blaster for all my rust-busting needs..I get it dirt cheap by the case ($1.50/can from a friend of mine..I don't ask where he gets it, he doesn't tell me)