A Newbies Adventures in Maintenanceland!

keith1 wrote:

9am53 wrote:

crappy, I went out and bought new ones...ah well. Are there supposed to be washers under the bolts? the manual doesn't mention them

nope and dont go bannanas on em.... just snug em up good.....

Never use the monkey wrench!

I know it's not a monkey....

Just got in, tonight I was going to put the cams back in. Everything started out fine enough until:



Other than my piston ring re-do this is the first major issue, and it has me worried! I have taken out seized bolts that still have the head on, but in this case the bolt broke off with I think about 3/8" inside the head. Other than buy a new set of cam cap bolts what is a newb to do? Is there a remover type tool for broken off bolts like they have for simply stripped ones? I would get a pic of the head but I didn't have my camera there. There is a little bit of bolt still sticking up within the bore so if I heat that area of the head up I may be able to work it out somehow, but then I would worry about cracking the head...maybe let it soak in PB blaster and try the bolt remover tool? Anyways, some help would obviously be much appreciated. THanks in advance

OH and one other somewhat non related thing, when I put the cams in I got my exhaust cam as close to perfect as I could, and counted 44 pins, and found that the arrow on the intake sprocket would point below or above the 44th pin. It would either be JUST below, like a hair, or quite a bit above, but I could not get it right on. When I go through putting the cams in again, I can take pics and get opinions, but should the arrow not be pointing directly at the 44th pin?

Ack! one of my reoccuring nightmares! Just to educate the rest of us, why do you think it broke? Were you using a torque wrench?

that bites,thats why i always run a botteming tap atleast through all bolt holes and lube threads . :S

Damn that sucks, been there...

I've had very good results with the Mastercraft Screw Extractors. Thier made from chrome vanadium steel, very hard and I havn't broke one yet.

Oil it overnight, heat it, then hammer it a bit. Then extract.

The arrows on the cams should point directly to the gasket surfaces, parallel to eachother.

Good luck!

Link14 wrote:

Ack! one of my reoccuring nightmares! Just to educate the rest of us, why do you think it broke? Were you using a torque wrench?

I was using my torque wrench, I had cinched down the first bolt, and this was the second, just as I was expecting the wrench to click the bolt snapped.

TeK9iNe wrote:

Damn that sucks, been there...

I've had very good results with the Mastercraft Screw Extractors. Thier made from chrome vanadium steel, very hard and I havn't broke one yet.

Oil it overnight, heat it, then hammer it a bit. Then extract.

The arrows on the cams should point directly to the gasket surfaces, parallel to eachother.

I'll go to crappy tire and grab that extractor tonight after work. Would heating it not risk cracking or warping something? I set the exhaust cam so that it was as close to perfect as I could (before I got the caps on) and then counted pins on the chain like my manual says, but the arrow on the intake sprocket seems to point to just below the 44th pin...the arrow is parallel to the other arrow, just don't want to be on the wrong link on the chain.

I just talked to Chris at z1, and for the J bikes they would have to order the cam cap bolts. They are $3.12 each. I know it would be best for me to order all new ones, but is it really neccesary? I am running quite low on funds, and can't really afford to pay 50 bones for some bolts, when only one is broke. I thought I would buy 2 or 3 incase some other bolt broke, is this bad? could I maybe go to a good hardware or fastener store and buy the bolts there? do these bolts have a weird thread or anything?

Like Plummen said it would be nice to chase those threads with a bottoming tap and clean out the wells real good before trying it again. There is thread locker on those bolts right? I bet you could find the bolts at a hardware store but usually the problem is the shoulder length. I wouldn't replace them all but inspect the threads and have at least two more new ones JIC. GLuck!

OK, just got back. Link's nightmare turned out to be nothing but a little bad dream. I got a tap handle and a screw remover and it was out in half an hour.

Now on to the really bad news. I got the cams in, and I thought they were good, put the caps on and started to tighten them down with my torque wrench again. Low and behold, one of my bolts didn't break this time, but it stripped the aluminum, and I pulled it out with a little spiral of head material. I freaked out and had a smoke even though I quit 2 years ago this new years.

Subsequently I calmed down and checked out my cam sprockets and found that after they were tightened down the exhaust was a bit off. I pulled the cams out again and reset them, started tightening them down again, and ANOTHER bolt stripped the aluminum. The rest of them are in there and torqued down to 12 foot pounds, but now I have a bolt missing, which is not a problem, and 2 holes that are stripped. What the hell am I to do now? Is there a type of anchor I can put into the hole and then thread the bolt back in? Lets say there is, seeing how 2 bolts stripped the head out like this, who's to say that some others in there are not on the verge as well? I feel like the only way the fix this would be to drill out all the holes and anchor them all, that is if there is such an anchor type repair.

Would it be better to maybe re-tap the holes? but then what would I use as my cam cap bolts?

This really spoiled my mood and killed my buzz with this project, things were just going too well I guess.

Sorry to hear that. That sucks. Helicoil or time serts.
Tap the stripped hole to the size of helicoil or time sert
and your bolt treads into that. Someone else will chime in with more and better specifics I have never used either myself but have heard of them from here.
Good luck $$

ok, I measured the bolt and I think it's M6 (6 mm), I don't know the thread pitch and whatmot, but would something like this be the ticket?
cgi.ebay.com/M6-X-1-00-Perma-Coil-Thread...?hash=item439bfdaccb