A "F***IT" moment!

[Dave48]

Am the proud owner of two "03" plate Foxeye 600s: Baby Blue came along in April followed by Rhondda Red in June when I swapped my FZS Thou Big Red,due to advancing age & diminishing stamina.
Now the blue one was a one previous owner bike showing 34000miles. Unfortunately it must have been ridden all year round with no attempt to clean/protect front of engine from road spray/salt etc. Have done all the jobs in the service/maintenance schedule then discovered collector box was corroded to the extent where it wouldn't pass another MOT next April. Decided to take the Bull by the Horns and purchased a set of stainless downpipes/collector box direct from Motad local to me in Walsall @ cost of £145 collected. Removed radiator to discover it was held together more by luck than metal & fan was "f****d. Never mind-sourced new rad on ebay & good second hand fan motor assy from D&K. Also collector box outlet   to silencer gasket-also ebay.
Spent ages chiselling off remains of 6 exhaust header nuts to avoid damaging/breaking studs. (the end two were intact & undid). My local friendly engineer made up 8 beautiful nuts in brass. Yesterday put everything back together BUT when doing the final tightening managed to snap one stud!!!! . Was so pissed off I didnt even swear but decided to sleep on it.. Am going to attempt to drill out the remains without removing cylinder head-its the nearside(LHS) one on number 3 cylinder. Anyone done this successfully?
On a brighter note have made the most of the wonderful summer weather on Rhondda Red  with trips to my beloved Wales & a great ride to Silverstone last Sunday-what a brilliant day that was with some great roads there & back.

[Chris]

Aw, gutted for you man! So close to the end of the job too!
 
Hope you manage to get it sorted without too much of a headache, good on you for just taking your time and sleeping on it first. Never a good idea to keep working on it when you're angry.
 
Chris

[unfazed]

Grind the stud flat and with a good centre punch punch it as close to dead centre as possible. Buy some left hand drill bits from 3 or 4mm up and using a variable speed drill set to reverse and drill slowly into the stud, it may come out while drilling, the problem with the standard drill bits is that they are more inclined to tighten it while drilling. Take care not to break the drill bit. Go up in 1mm increments of bit as you work. A slow tedious job for a home mechanic

[slimwilly]

Good luck with your tinkering, one of them jobs thats got to be attacked,,careful now, drill on very slow to save the bits/


I just done one of them jobs sucessfully,my Toyota heater was broke on screen,so lots of misting,just spent an hour under the dash with a dremmil,made a hole and opened the screen flap.jobs a good un.


Good luck..
oh and Silverstone last week,yes brilliant, nice weather, good ride home,,apart from the motorway,M40 to M42 ,M5 to Worcester, then a brilliant ride on the A44 back to Leominster,


Got some nice video of the A44,must upload it.

[cambo]

A similar thing happened to me but the stud didn't shear at the engine just the nut so my mate ground the outside of the nut to about halfway down so that it fitted through the collar and caught the thread. It happened with two of the nuts and worked perfectly and saved me a right headache, its worth trying if there is enough of the stud left.

[Dave48]

Update! Removed front wheel, handlebars & forks to get access to sheared stud. It had broken off flush with cylinder head so careful drilling eventually got it out with screw extractor. New stud made up and fitted, All back together using new exhaust gaskets-perfect end to the day!   Nice shiny Motad stainless system and posh brass nuts. Shes still not as fast as Rhondda Red though!