Good morning!
Rookie motorcyclist here, reading/watching a TON of your content (thanks for that btw!) and ran into a snag that I thought I'd ask for help for.
My intake manifold has a leak, so I scooped up another stock one. Problem is, the previous owner appears to have stripped the allen bolts mounting the thing. It's already a pretty tricky thing to work at, but with the bolts as is I have no clue what to do to get them out and mount the new one.
Any tips/suggestions on how to get those out? I was going to scoop up some PB Blaster and a star torx drive socket and pray, but thought it might be smarter to ask the hive mind first.
With Allen heads, if I can get a hack saw onto the Allen head, without damaging anything else, I just saw a slit into it and use a flat head screwdriver. Using a larger Allen wrench has also worked. Youtube might help too. Good luck
@Tree All right man I'm gonna lay it on you. First thing you need to do is let all those bolts soak with either PB blaster or a 5050 mix of acetone and transmission fluid Soak a rag and set the rag over the bolts for a few days.
Next if you can get a small hammer and tap on the heads of each bolt.
Next you want to get it going to want to get a small tweaker torch one of those little butane numbers you can get them at Harbor Freight a lot of gas stations get some extra butane. You don't wanna use propane or map gas this area because there are seals that you could risk compromising with the amount of heat Get that butane torch going Heat up the bolts Heat them and then splash water on them quench them do that process 5 or six times Heat the bolt back up super super hot let it sit there for 5 minutes just torch the thing. After doing that five or six times go back to the hammer Hit those bolts I'm not talking swing the hammer just taps The shock is what you're looking for.
Heat them up again and now try to extract them with the Allen if the allen fits at all if it just rounds off you're going to try this next method only once. A needle nose by script on the bolt tight as hell. dont pull on the pliers. tap them with a hammer gently, if all this does is round the head. STOP
Now what you need to do is get yourself an extractor set You can find them all over Amazon But you're gonna want one With a good spread of sizes. Get the extractor size that barely fits into the head of that Allen get a socket on the back of the extractor an attempt to extract.
If all this does is shred the head of the bolt You only have two more options left.
The next option is welding a bolt to it, And attempting to use that bolt to back the seized bolt out of the head.
If this results in shearing the head of the bolt off then you will need to take the head to a broken tap and die shop They will be able to extract the bolts From the head without damaging the head.
For a VT600 you're probably looking at 200 bucks if you have to take it to a shop like that.
Tree New Member
TJ Admin Staff memberModeratorMember who has the rights to delete posts, and ban members form forum if they violate the rules.