Centerstand removal

OK, gang, I want to know if anybody else has run across this, and if there's an easy fix, before I cut the whole darn thing off.
The last thing to come off my frame before I paint it is the center stand. As you can see from the pics, the nuts are off. But the bolts won't come out.

I'm assuming that constant usage (I always used my centerstand) has worn the bolts into an offset eccentric shape. However, no amount of wiggling, prying, pounding, or cussing has gotten either to move more than 1/8". (Oops! Metric. "...more than 3mm.") Is there a trick to this? I'm looking at them, and even if I cut off the head, the shaft is too large to slip through the other side. Suggestions?

Post edited by: pstrbrc, at: 2007/02/24 16:22

Post edited by: pstrbrc, at: 2007/02/24 16:23

pstrbrc wrote:

. . .I'm assuming that constant usage (I always used my centerstand) has worn the bolts into an offset eccentric shape. However, no amount of wiggling, prying, pounding, or cussing has gotten either to move more than 1/8". Suggestions?

Can you rotate the bolts 180 degrees? I would try that if i were where you are, and then I would try pulling them out with a vise grip on their heads, while moving the centerstand slowly through its travel arc. Rocking the stand. . .as you move it. . .lifting the stand as you move it. . .I don't have any familiarity with your application . . .do they use a spring to place tension on the system? I would look at the direction of pull that the spring has created over time and now that you have the spring off. . .you do have the spring off, right? . . .I would reverse the pull to maybe reverse the wear it generated. My .02, fwiw.

:side:

I looked your picture again. . .is there a possiblility that the bolts are actually threaded into the nut side of the frame, and the nuts you removed are only placed to lock the bolts? Wait until you get the bill for all this advice. . .

:lol:

Post edited by: KaZooCruiser, at: 2007/02/24 17:11

pstrbrc wrote:

OK, gang, I want to know if anybody else has run across this, and if there's an easy fix, before I cut the whole darn thing off.
The last thing to come off my frame before I paint it is the center stand. As you can see from the pics, the nuts are off. But the bolts won't come out.

I'm assuming that constant usage (I always used my centerstand) has worn the bolts into an offset eccentric shape. However, no amount of wiggling, prying, pounding, or cussing has gotten either to move more than 1/8". (Oops! Metric. "...more than 3mm.") Is there a trick to this? I'm looking at them, and even if I cut off the head, the shaft is too large to slip through the other side. Suggestions?

Post edited by: pstrbrc, at: 2007/02/24
16:22<br><br>Post edited by: pstrbrc, at: 2007/02/24
16:23

If I remember right These are threaded into the frame. You still have to turn them out at this point in your pic. The nuts just keep the bolts locked so they don't turn out on their own. Try turning them out.

Yes I remembered, these are shoulder bolts and are threaded into the inside frame lugs. Just turn them out at this point

AHA!!!! OK, I got it. And y'all helped!

Can you rotate the bolts 180 degrees? I would try that if i were where you are, and then I would try pulling them out with a vise grip on their heads, while moving the centerstand slowly through its travel arc. Rocking the stand. . .as you move it. . .lifting the stand as you move it. . .I don't have any familiarity with your application . . .do they use a spring to place tension on the system? I would look at the direction of pull that the spring has created over time and now that you have the spring off. . .you do have the spring off, right? . . .I would reverse the pull to maybe reverse the wear it generated. My .02, fwiw.

Yep, they rotated. So I tried the visegrips. Hadn't thought of that. Still didn't pull the one out any further than the 1/8" I had before, but I got to watch. Hmmmm.

If I remember right These are threaded into the frame. You still have to turn them out at this point in your pic. The nuts just keep the bolts locked so they don't turn out on their own. Try turning them out.

Nope. I used an impact wrench on the bolt head to loosen them, with a box wrench on the nut, so I had overspun both bolts, and no backing out. Hmmm.
So I slipped a couple of prybars in between the nut ends, and while getting some outward pressure, went ahead and used the impact wrench again. Started backing out! But slowly. And hard. Hmmmm. This is what I found when I got the first one out.

See the unthreaded shoulder? The bracket had filled with about a hunnert years of road grime and everthing else, and the threads strongly resisted cutting through it. Look at the damage those threads got cutting through it! This was the easy one. The other side took some real grunt, but I got it too! Thanks for talking me through it!

Likely already done, but would clean up all threads with tap and die before re-assembly.

Man, looking at what I did to these bolts, they're trash! Probably do the bolt-and-sleeve trick, 'cause the exACTly right bolt is probably ten bucks each.

At least drop them into your electrolysis bucket :laugh: