Top End Noob

[gearhead13]

I have never used vice grips on the cams except to turn them, for degreeing purposes. I just slowly evenly torque the caps down.

[MisterCinders]

Pulled the head and removed all the valves. Holy crap! They all look straight and sexy. Slide right in and out of the guides and spin nice and even.

So I put them back into the head (LOVE THOSE COTTER HALVES). Sprayed the chambers full of acetone/brake cleaner. Checked them several minutes later. No seepage that I can see.

So I think I am out of the woods . . . so far. Put the head back on and will time the chain properly tomorrow night. With vice grips, natch.

[Nessism]

Tell us about your head gasket. They are typically one use only, but some will say as long as they are not heat cycled they should be okay to reuse/retorque. To be honest with you I'm not clear on this detail. Did you buy a new OE gasket set to use with this rebuild?

[MisterCinders]

I used the Athena gasket set but not the base. That is OEM as are the rubber bits.

I'm going to take my chances with the head gasket for now. It looked solid.

[MisterCinders]

Quick question on the compression test.

Instead of doing it with the throttle wide open, can you run the test before installing the carbs, and leaving the intake boots open instead?

Figured it might save the step of installing the carbs, since I will just pull them back off if the compression numbers come back crappy.

[MisterCinders]

Set the timing perfectly.

Tightened down the bearing caps evenly. Then went to torque them down to 8 ft/lbs per Clymer.

Snapped a bearing cap bolt. Went immediately from easy turn to pop. Never got close to 8 ft/lb on the torque wrench.

Of course, those bolts are made of specially hardened steel, so nothing drills into the hole to extract that bolt.

Hurray!

[Nessism]

Your luck continues.

I have spare bolts it you need. Drop me PM with your address as necessary.

Edit: don't start drilling until you try to turn the bolt out with a small punch - try to knock it on a tangent so it turns. Many times broken bolts like that spin right out.

[MisterCinders]

Your luck continues.

I have spare bolts it you need. Drop me PM with your address as necessary.

Thanks, but there is no getting that broken one out of there. It's in the pegged corner, so it's too deep to try and cut a slot for flat head. Cannot get a pilot into it for a lefty bit, not even with a titanium bit.

I already ordered a used head from eBay that I was looking at before. It might get here in 2 weeks.

Might even ride the bike by Christmas.

[Nessism]

You need to slow down. Worst case is take the head back off again and drill out the bolt. Use a small drill bit first and try to hit center. Work the bit sideways to center up the hole and then step up the drill bit size. If you use LH bits the screw nub will spin out at some point during the process. I've done two of those exact bolts before and it took some time but was easily doable.

[MisterCinders]

That bolt nub is hateful. I laughs at my drill bits. Left it soaking in penetrating oil until I take another stab at it tonight.

Will continue to work at it while I wait for that other head to arrive. Given my luck, the bolt will come out on the same day that the other head gets here.

Some small consolation in that the replacement head was not terribly expensive. With any any luck (heh), I'll break even on the spare valves, shims, etc. between the two heads.

[MisterCinders]

I looked over other threads about bolt extraction. Things look bleak.

Consider this fiche:



The left-hand circle is where the bolt snapped. It is one of the pinned holes, and the pins shown in the right-hand circle.

The broken end is most of the threaded part of the bolt, maybe 3/8 - 1/2".

It is not level at the break, so centering a bit is . . . difficult. Tried the smallest bit/shift to center approach, but it's hard to see how that is working because the bit tends to dance about. It also is slow going into that hardened steel bolt.

The dancing may have tagged the exposed aluminum threads as well.

I cannot get a Dremel grinder in there to level off the break, because of that pin.

I fear using any heat on this will be a disaster, since there are three different metals (aluminum head, steel pin, and hardened steel bolt tip) to navigate.

Is there any way to remove that pin? I might have better luck and visibility if I did not have to work though that extra tunnel.

[gearhead13]

A good set of pliers will take out the locate dowel or pin. Pull, turn wiggle and it should come out

[Nessism]

Yes, grab the dowel pin and pull it out. Hopefully you will have enough sticking up to turn using a punch and hammer.

[MisterCinders]

Never could get that drill to center.

But with two dimples in the bolt piece, I could grip the middle with some needle-nose pliers and twist that bastard out. WOOT!!

I gingerly twisted another bolt in there to check the threads. I think they are good, though the top thread got a little ravaged.

Now I just need another bolt.

Stay tuned for the next f**k up in this saga.

[MisterCinders]

Bumping for question about compression test. Can I do that with the carbs off the bike?