Removing carb boots

[Guest]

Im replaceing the carb boots on my 80 GS 550 , just looking at those phillips head screws made me cringe. I came up with a little trick that worked for me. I took the top screws out with a new pair of needle nose vice grips. Then I tapped the boots very lightly in the direction to loosen the bottom screws , and it worked ! # 3 was a little more of a challenge because the boot hits the timing chain housing,on that one i cut the rubber off the boot which gave me enough to get the vise grips on the last screw. Now of course I might have been very lucky,just thought id share this.

[Steve]

Do you have a hand impact tool? The kind that you smack with a hammer to loosen screws or bolts? Many are not aware that the nose that holds the driver bit comes off, revealing a 3/8" square drive. I use a couple of LONG extensions to put the tool back over the battery box, that allows you to remove the screws rather easily.

Hopefully you are not going to re-use those stock screws. Stainless socket-head screws are available from cycleorings.com for a very reasonable price.

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[Denman2112]

Yes i have an impact driver ( the kind you hit with a hammer) i have a set of JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard) bits to go with it,they fit the phillips screws perfectly. As you know with any impact driver it has to be at a straight angel to the screw and have enough room to give it a good wack.Even if you took out air box and battery bracket you wouldn't have enough room to get a good wack.So angling it over the battery box on this bike wouldn't work.This method though unconventional and crude to some worked for me for two reasons, a new pair of vise grips with sharp teeth and screws that weren't overly tight. When i did remove all the screws naturally they went right in the trash i wouldn't put screws i just removed with a vice grips back in ! lol.Actually im looking a some TORX head socket screws that might be better,with a little never sieze of course !!

[hillsy]

These are a better option than TORX:

[roeme]

These are a better option than TORX:

Huh? My understanding is the other way around, Torx is better than Hex. At least regarding to the forces etc (wikipedia has a nice illustration).

[Denman2112]

I think your right,i always had much less of a problem getting TORX head screws out.

[geol]

Problem with the torx fasteners in a place where they may need be removed by using a hand impact driver is that impact torx bits will be a little hard to find where you can find socket/allen head. Remember that the impact driver (on an SAE tool) is a 1/2" square I think. This is why finding JIS impact bits is a bit harder as they come needing to use a metric size driver (don't recall). A #3 SAE works fine on M6 JIS screws.

[Denman2112]

The way i see it,installing the screws with never seize and at the correct torque you'll never need a impact driver again anyway.The company i bought the bits from (Vessel) does sell a metric driver though.And if you cant buy the right tool, make one.

[upb4dawn]

I used the very same method (narrow nosed vice grips on the top screws, and rotating the boots to loosen the lowers) with success. I replaced the Phillips screws with hex heads, and used anti-seize.