750 cafe project

[Mike_H]

Amen to that. Why go to the local hardware, when you can drive your Great Big American Truck 15 miles away to a Big Box and pay 5 cents less on a generally inferior product. Oh yeah, hope you know what your looking for, Cuz the Big Box sure won't. Never mind that John, who has run the business for the last 20 years, and knows his store inside and out, probably knows what you need better than you do. Its a shame, really. There are still a couple of holdouts left in my area, but they are being mismanaged so I don't think they are long for this life.

[beergood]

alrighty, now I am mad

The previous owner had sheared of an exhaust bolt on the number 2 cylinder. I wasn't too concerned, I have dealt with problems like this before and it usually isn't too hard to fix.

Well, now that I am mounting a new exhaust, it was time to tackle this bolt issue. There was about a quarter inch of bolt sticking out, so I tried the old vice grips. No love there.

I have been spraying it with PB Blaster for the last week. Still won't budge.

Today I borrowed a MIG welder from a buddy and tried welding a nut onto the end of the bolt. 5 attempts and each sheared off without budging the bolt.

This bolt and my motor are experiencing a kind of deep love and affection that I can only hope to one day find with a woman.

I guess I am going to have to drill it out and put a threaded insert in there, which I was really hoping not to have to do.

I am switching over to studs and using anti-seize when this nightmare is over.

[80GS1000]

Have you tried using a bolt extractor yet?

[beergood]

Good suggestion, I will probably try that before I drill it out.

I was looking at some extractors at the store and they didn't really look that promising, but what have I got to lose. The thought of drilling into my engine just makes me sad.

[80GS1000]

Good suggestion, I will probably try that before I drill it out.

I was looking at some extractors at the store and they didn't really look that promising, but what have I got to lose. The thought of drilling into my engine just makes me sad.

I have a set of Kobalt and B&D screw/bolt extractors. Great effectiveness and durability from both kits. Kobalt is at Lowe's and B&D is at Home Depot.

I've probably had to extract at LEAST a dozen seized bolts on the GS1000. It's frustrating, but it builds character, right?

Just remember to not drill too deep into the seized bolt, just deep enough so that the extractor can get some bite. And be careful not to break the extractor once it's bit into the bolt, as then you would enter the seventh level of hell.

Good article on the topic here: http://www.asashop.org/autoinc/may2003/techtotech.cfm

[Mike_H]

Is there enough screw sticking out of the motor to cut a slot in it? Most of the seized screws I have run across have been treated to the dremel tool. I put a cutting wheel in, and make a screwdriver slot in the bastard. I use really big screwdriver, and pop them out. I've had pretty good luck with this, I've only had to drill a couple screws out. I got really lucky with my exhaust...no broken screws.

[Bopi]

Bolt extractors hmmm, are we talking easy-outs. Be careful to center the drill.

I skimmed your best buys post but I would have to disagree.

I went looking for a lawnmower not too long ago. A smaller M&P shop tried to tell me that their prices were marked up on a Husquavarna because Briggs and Stratton made special engines for them (the husquavarna).I explained that Sears had a craftsman tractor with the exact same engine as his and that there was no difference. I then explained that i had been to the B&S web site that morning and could quote the various engines that B&S makes. I then proceded to tell him he was full of it ( well actually i stopped short )
he wasn't to happy and showed me the door.

Perhaps there's too much emphasis on customer service. Personally , i hate to be sold. I'd rather do my own research and get a deal instead.

Best buys employees are way underpaid.... besides I've got a wal-mart 2 miles away

Now i don't know about you but I've always found "john" down at the local hard ware store to mark up his prices and its not by 15 cents.

The only thing i found interesting about " johns" was his individual drawers of nuts, washers, grommets and other assorted odds and ends. Lowes now carries that kind of thing and much more.

[Mike_H]

WALMART SUX!!!! That is all.

[beergood]

I did try slotting the bolt, all that ended up doing was shredding half of what was exposed. A noble effort none the less.

As for local stores, there is definitely a possibility that the owner can be an a-hole. Most likely a good possibility, since the world has no shortage of them. However, when you find a business owner (any business) that is reputable and you take the time to develope a relationship, I think that is far more rewarding.

I spent my college years working in a deli/meat market. You could definitely find a better price on meats at a chain store. Some of them even do some decent cutting, however, most of the time you get middle grade product. Can anyone feel remotely good about grilling a steak that is less than an inch thick?

We had mostly repeat local customers (when I graduated, some of them gave me gifts). I can assure you that we went to great lengths to make sure that they were well taken care of and satisfied.

I also prefer to do as much research as possible before making a purchase, and I would submit that most of the people on this forum are the same way. There is a reason that we are all here, sharing knowledge and advice. Most likely we are all do-it-yourselfers to some extant. My point about a good small local business is that they aren't selling you product, but service. If you don't need something, a good store owner should tell you, because they want you to return when you do need something.

And I would also agree that most of those employees aren't paid much, but then again, most of those employees view what they do as a 'job'. I would doubt that very many of them honestly give a second thought to the advice they give the moment you walk away. They probably aren't bad people. Hell, I had my share of crap jobs, and customers can be a huge pain. But I doubt the kid at Best Buy pushing surround sound actually cares about how I am going to use my product as he does what his sales numbers are going to look like.

I think part of it is the chain of command. The farther you are away from the person that is going to end up with your money, the less the person you are going to deal with is going to care about you.

I have a friend that is a VP at Ford. He started out as an engineer, and got his MBA. He once told me about a corporate seminar he attended when he was a junior level exec. It was the kind of thing with a hired motivational speaker, an overhead projector and a conference room full of employees forced to be there.

The first question he threw out to the audience was:

"What do we do here at Ford?"

Everyone sat around looking at each other. After some cajoling a few people tried to answer.

"Make cars?"
"Provide jobs?"
"Automotive researchand development?"

Things like that. They were all wrong. The speaker revealed the correct answer: "We make money"

"The way we do that is we sell cars". Appearently this went on for over an hour, complete with a bunch of slides. One was of a meat grinder with a car going in the top and dollar bills coming out the bottom. My friend said the whole thing was pretty funny, but it did drive a point home.

Behind big corporate doors, the culture is about separating you from your money. How it is done isn't terribly important. Now no good parasite should kill its host, so your well being is thought about. It's just not the most important thing.

And I know how this might read, and let me say, I am not anti-business. I'm not even a democrat. But I also don't kid myself. Best buy and other stores don't care about me, they want my disposable income. And they know that they don't have to give me the best service in the world. It just has to be about as good as all the other big box electronic stores.

(I fell like I am picking on Best Buy, but I am just using them as an example)

When I was a kid, there was a corner market named Bob's. Bob was always there, and with every purchase Bob yould give you a hearty "God Bless Yah". He was often seen having a "Miller Time" with a couple neighborhood dads behind the counter. One particularly hot summer, I think I was about 10 or 11, Bob bought a soft serve ice cream machine. I think he sold the cones for a buck each. Often when we were playing around the area (street hockey was big) Bob would come out and give us free cones, saying that it was too hot not to have some ice cream.

Eventually he retired and closed his store. Thinking back to the days of going in there and getting an ice cream cone, or a bottle of pop (remember when they were in bottles?) I feel a little disappointed that I don't have a place like that that I go to now. I know that there are some still out there, it is my own laziness that stops me from looking too hard. And that is just one of the many ways that I disappoint myself.

[Bopi]

i'd have to agree 100% on your reasons for supporting the M$P's. no doubt that once upon a time they played a substantial role in the overall scheme of things. Then again back when , cruising on main street was the national past-time of young America and you could get a burger from a girl on rollerskates.

These days things are a little different.

NAFTA apparently has now opened the border to trucks from Mexico. While most people complain about jobs going south what they don't realize is that we get 30% of our oil from them. Another 30% from Canada. Free trade means the price of oil stays lower. Its unfortunate but true and necessary.

Wal-mart is just a symptom.

Funny but its easier for Craftsman to offer a better waranty than to actually make better tools. That goes for Cobalt and a number of other off brand tools. They realize that the returns on broken tools will not exceed the increase in sales from offering a better return policy.

Now perhaps its a pride in ownership issue or even a get what you pay for issue but the end result is that most consumers are willing to make the trade-off. I've actually rebuilt motors using one of those cheesy Taiwan tool kits with the only decent tool being a torque wrench. It worked fine and the job got done. Now If I did that professionally , I might have to invest in a better set of wrenches but that wasn't the case.

Ford ironically sold out when they bought controlling shares in mazda. If you can't beat the comp, you might as well own them. We live in a market driven economy that knows no national boundaries.

So i would suggest that rebuilding an old bike is just an attempt to recapture your soul. Simpler Days. i wonder how ritchie and potsie are doing.

By the way, if the broken screw proves to be too stubborn , and you haven't hacked at too much of it, and you can still get an easy-out(extractor) into a pre-drilled hole or a screw driver into a slot (run on sentence) you might try a propane torch. Since the aluminum block expands under heat at a much faster rate than the steel bolt, it may free it up . Careful how hot though and be aware of your gaskets and other less durable parts.

[beergood]

Hah! Should have followed my gut, which told me that an extractor wouldn't do it.

Of course everything I read about them warned me multiple times about them breaking off. And of course that was all that was going through my head, right up to and including the moment that I broke the extractor. On the plus side, it didn't break off too far into the bolt, so there isn't a whole lot of tool in there, but there is still enough to make this job do what it has continued to do since day one, which is get harder and harder.

It is killing me that all this is over an exhaust bolt. I cant even begin to tell you about the many times that I have boyscouted an exhaust on vehicles in the past, and this is happening now.

Considering the time that I have put into this, I could have bought a new head, or a whole new bike. And this is holding me up from making any progress elsewhere. So guess what, my number two header is being held on with one bolt. Am I happy with this? No. Can I live with this? Yes.

I am planning on doing some major engine overhauling in the future, and this will get handled then.

Damn!

Moving on, I think there is something wrong with my starter relay. I checked the wire coming from the starter button, and that is hot. And I was able to turn the starter by bypassing the relay, so on to the next problem.

I miss when I was just doing fabbing.

[beergood]

On the plus side, I wired up the LEDs in my dash, and they worked!

And it took some finagling to get the exhaust to fit, but it did and it's solid.

[mortation]

On the plus side, I wired up the LEDs in my dash, and they worked!

Got a picture?

[Bopi]

Now naturally your broken extractor is hardened tool steel as opposed to the bolt which is a mild carbon steel. you'll need a carbide drill unless you can pick out the extractor pieces. The problem with an exhaust manifold leak is that the valve could burn prematurely but check with the other forum guys on that one as I know it does apply with cars

[beergood]

The piece left in is pretty small, and I think if I grind around it with a dremel I might be able to get it out fairly easy, then again, I thought a lot of things centering around this bolt should be easy.

As for the exhaust leaking, it's in there pretty snug. And I don't think you need a ton of back pressure, these aren't high compression engines. I will definitely check to severity of he leak, if it is too unacceptable then I will find a way to fix it quickly. But if it isn't too bad, the I will accept it for the time being. There are other things that I am working on right now. My main worry with running one nut/stud is that nut working it's way out. I put locktite on it, so I should be okay.

I just hate leaving a job half done, but sometimes you need to pick your battles. I shall live to fight this one again.