GS1000 valve cover bolt broken

[superawesome]

Hi all,

after checking valve clearance and putting in new shims on my 1978 GS1000EC I put in a new OEM valve cover gasket and reassembled everything. When tightening the 16 valve cover bolts in - what I thought to be - the right order I must have mixed up something and put a 6x40 into a 6x35 hole (the one near the speedo cable). As they look pretty similar I overtightened and broke the bolt.
I sprayed the remains with WD40 and will try to remove it tomorrow (should be possible with some pliers as there are a few mm standing out). The thread seems ok at the first glance, and I hope I can get a new bolt at my Suzuki dealer tomorrow.

So now here's my question: According to schematics there is 10x 6x35 (01550-06357) and 6x 01550-06407 (which I think is 6x40). Where do the six longer bolts go? It is not clear on the schematics, and while I found similar threads here in the forum, I did not find a clear answer to that question.

Thanks for helping
Jürgen

[superawesome]

What seemed to be enough to get the remains of the bolt out yesterday does not look very promising in daylight.
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I cannot get straight to the hole with a drill since the frame is in the way. And it does not move with forceps. I also tried to cut a slit into it and tried the screwdriver, no success. Any hints what is the best way to get it out? I read here that EZ out is not recommended as one can easily make it worse. What is the preferred procedure?

Should I take the cylinder head off to work on it or can it be done without (obviously would like to avoid that )?

Thanks
Jürgen

[tom203]

You need to find/borrow/etc. a small genuine vicegrip. The very hard jaws should bite (and hold) onto the broken screw remnant . Look for a vicegrip length about 6 inch or shorter.

[Kiwi Canuck]

From looking at the picture that is possible to remove, if the vise grip doesn't work find a welder/machinist who can tig or mig weld a nut on and then it will undo as normal.

Removing the head is a very expensive and time consuming option as you will need new head and base gaskets.

As far as bolt lengths, I always drop all the bolts in and make sure there is a uniform amount of bolt sticking up on each one, usually about 15-18mm just over a 1/2" or there abouts.

On my GS1000ST there are only 2 longer 40mm bolts, outside at the front, but sounds like yours has more.

BTW I always lay all the screws or bolts out and sort them by size, mostly to see how many sizes there are and then I can see what I need as I drop them in.

The other option is map them out on cardboard as you take them out, but I never have the patience to do that.

Good luck

David.

[GregT]

Generally - unless someone has helicoiled one - the four outers on each side are the short ones. Two on each leg of the cover, each side.

Kiwi canuck has the right way, TIG or MIG a nut on to the visible bit of bolt. The heat will help expand the alloy too.

[superawesome]

Success!
A colleague who has been an aircraft mechanic helped me get it out. His vicegrip did not work as there was just no good enough angle to grab the bolt.

My colleague said in aircraft maintenance it is standard procedure to use EZ outs, so I assumed he knows what he was doing. We filed down the remains to get a flat spot, then punched a little hole with a peening tool before drilling with a very flexible, thin drill.
Then got to work with a small EZ out. It was quite a challenge because the bolt was not accessible in a straight angle, but with the flexible drill the hole was more or less centered. The thread got a tiny bit damaged but he had a thread cutter to renew it an get the last bits of the bolt out.
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From working on aircraft he had a decent set of tools which definitely pays out on tasks like this.

At the moment I am pretty relieved that this issue is solved without causing too much headache. Sometimes it is just better to ask a professional

Time permitting I will assemble the valve cover this week and give the bike a spin to check if there are any leaks (pretty cold now for a test drive in Switzerland tho ), final check on the repaired petcock is also still outstanding.
Next task is getting the carbs cleaned and changing springs/oil on the front fork.

Thanks for your help guys, this place is awesome!
Jürgen

[storm 64]

👍👍👍👍👍 Glad you got the bolt out! You must be living good. (Open doors for ladys, let others go first...) Hey, it all adds up. ☺

[superawesome]

Yes, I am a happy man at the moment

[azr]

you are one lucky bugger. go buy a homeless person a meal or something.

[superawesome]

Thanks Rob
Well, using a torque wrench I thought nothing can go wrong. It's gonna click, right? Well, definitely learned something...

Just for the record, the four threads at the back (in driving direction) are open at the bottom, so there go the long screws I guess. The front ones are open as well, except the one where the speedo cable is (which I missed). The eight in the middle are all short ones. Makes 9 short and 7 longer ones.
So why does the parts list say 10 short and 6 long? Still confused.

Anyway, I put everything back together in the meantime, without the torque wrench. Sound is good. unfortunately that incident made me miss the last few days without snow, so now there's salt on the street and I can't go for a test ride...

I had the bike on the sidestand for some time (which I usually don't) and found oil on the sidestand. So there's another oil leak, at first glance it seems the oil pan gasket needs to be replaced.

[jdvorchak]

Recheck your oil level before you replace the gasket. It could simply be overfilled. Also tighten all of the pan bolts. Not very common for those gaskets to leak but they do sometimes loosen over time.

[superawesome]

Thanks John, the oil pan bolts were pretty tight when I checked. As the PO only did basic maintenance the last 20 years, I hope it is the gasket (and not some hairline crack in the pan or something worse).
It seems only to drip on the side stand, so it might be unnoticed for a long time.

I will check when I do the oil change in spring.

Jürgen

[jdvorchak]

Check the shift shaft seal. More likely to leak from there and it's easy to change.

[superawesome]

Hi John,

you were right, it leaks where the neutral switch sits.
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I checked the O-ring and it seems to be good. Re-tightened the screws, hopefully they just loosened...

Thanks, you saved me some extra work!

[superawesome]

Just remembered, I cleaned that area a few months ago and was surprised how dirty it was...

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That leak explains it I guess...