GS850 valve cover bolt specs

[Guest]

I'd like to replace the 18 valve cover bolts with stainless allen heads.
Anyone know the bolt specs off hand?
Have a supplier, 9 cents/bolt in 50 count pack minimum

[Steve]

First of all, your '81 should have 16 bolts, not 18.

I just looked at a parts fiche, it says 18. I also looked at my '80 850 (same basic bike), it only has 16 bolts.

Next, look at a parts fiche, you will see that the part number for those bolts is 01550-06407.
Look right after the hyphen, it is telling you that it is an M6x40 bolt.

That size reference works for virtually every piece of hardware on the bike.

.

[Gold01ca]

Thank you Steve for the info, appreciated!
I was going by the parts fiche in reference to the bolt count/number, hadn't actually looked at my bike.

[bwringer]

There are four M6X25 bolts for the breather cover as well, but it's best to leave these as normal bolt heads so you can reach them from the sides with a wrench -- if you replace them with allen heads, it's hard to reach them from the top.

Unless the engine or cylinder head has been transplanted from a late '82 or '83 model, there should be 16 bolts. Either way, you'll have plenty if you have a box of 50.