removing intake boot screws

[luc8421]

I've heard a lot of people complain about not being able to get the screws out, but I think I found an easy out. I tried almost everything, dremel, impact driver, heat, screw extracter, but what I found worked within seconds, were vice grips, hooking them on to the tops of the screws real tight, I could just twist the vice grips and they'd come right out.

has anyone tried this method before?

P.S. I did find my intake leak, all four o-rings were completely flat, and crumbled when I bent them

[Anonymous]

Yes, I did. I could get most of the screws out with an impact screwdriver, but some of them had to be removed with vice grips.

I threw the old screws away and replaced them by allen head bolts.

[luc8421]

where did you get the allen bolts? I know the thread, 6x20, but what grade should I get to withstand the heat of the engine and such? and would it be possible to get them from bike bandit? I'm about to make an order there for new o-rings

[Anonymous]

where did you get the allen bolts? I know the thread, 6x20, but what grade should I get to withstand the heat of the engine and such? and would it be possible to get them from bike bandit? I'm about to make an order there for new o-rings

Nothing special; just bought them at the hardware store.

Just don't overtighten them.

[Anonymous]

Heh, I thought I was special...

I did something similar on my stator screws the other day. Gripped the VG on them real hard, then clamped a smaller VG to the first to get torque. Worked like a charm!

[Anonymous]

As far as the grade of the bolt: most Allen head metric screws are grade 12.9 so they are far stronger than any other bolt out there. The engine heat is not significant as far as the bolt strength, it's well below any temperature that could affect the temper of the steel. The heat does accelerate corrosion, so some people use an anti-seize to keep the bolt threads from galling.

[gspaul]

OK , here's another way of geting those intake screw's out.
I used one of the old type torque wrench( because it's long) with a 1/4 socket and a screw driver bit in it.
Got a piece of timber about 3 feet long and useing different part's of the frame as pivot points,put pressure on the head of the torque wrench.
Should hear those little buggers crack loose, work's every time.

[Anonymous]

I simply put the screw driver in place on the screw and tap it with a rubber mallit. That works most of the time. When it dose not work I put a monkey wrench on the screw driver and push in as hard as I can on the driver and slowly turn the wrench untill I hear it crack loose. VG are indeed the best way to break them free. I would however not do this on my show bike as it leaves teeth marks in the screws. Some day I to plan to convert to allen head screws.

[luc8421]

thanks for the reply about the grade, I guess I won't worry too much about it. My room mate has been talking about stronger grade bolts for his four wheeling hobby, but I guess it's the stronger the better for him, all his talk just got me thinking
the torque wrench idea doesn't sound too bad, although you're esentially making a constant pressure impact driver, which didn't work for my screws

[Anonymous]

i didn't have enough room to use an impact on mine, so i ended up getting the two i could with the impact, and grinding the heads off the rest with a dremel + cutoff wheels. mind you, you do kinda need a steady hand to dremel things around rubber boots... luckily, mine came out ok. replaced them with allen-heads, stainless