What a ballache of a weekend.
I'd not had any issues with the exup valve, although it has been starting to squeak the last couple of weeks when I switched the ignition on.
Strikes me that you either attack this exup valve and deal with the consequences of dismantling before it breaks, or do it when it breaks. Either way, it would appear that if bikes got more than 6k miles on it, chances are its gonna be a nightmare, so may as well do it sooner rather than later, IMO.
Anyway, not sure what has happened with this valve in the past, but the cover is fixed in a bit of a Heath Robinson fashion, spaced out from the valve by large nuts , with the cover securing bolts obviously passing through these.
That's the first oddity.
I have been soaking the exup bolts with penetrating oil the last week, so thought I'd give it a go yesterday. Had the blowtorch on the first one for a good while to heat things up. First bolt (bottom left) finally began to shift. Second bolt (top left) had the same treatment, and again came out with not too much trouble. The third bolt (the one on the right), no such luck. Blowtorch on it for ages, didn't feel like it was happening. More penetrating oil and then an hour later, more blowtorch action for ages. Then finally....snap.
Fuck it.
So, was able to get the exup valve out. Looked clean enough, although was definitely dry and squeaky.
Took the cable pulley off, and there's a big chunk snapped off it, doesn't affect operation, also the centre bolt has clearly been had a pop at previously, as the thread was fucked inside the bronze valve spindle end.
So yeah. I think someone has had a crack at getting this off, or has done something to the valve in the past bearing in mind the above. Perhaps the bolt that sheared was the one that they'd tried to undo already without the oil and blowtorch, maybe weakening it...I dunno.
Went and bought myself a tap and die set and rethreaded the valve end so the bolt will fit it properly.
A then I began the painstaking task of trying to drill out the old bolt. Fuck knows what is going on with this, as it simply was not happening. I've burnt through more drill bits than I can remember, and whilst I did manage to get a small hole forming (ie: nearly drilled through), it was just eating drill bits at an alarming rate. Nothing I've read suggests you'd need diamond tipped drills to do this!!??
Anyway, gave up with it, the reason being that once the valve is relocated in place, the circular bit of the end plate fits snugly into the exhaust, and doesn't seem to be going anywhere with the two left bolts holding it in place.
The concern I had is that the cable bracket is held in place by the top left bolt and the one on the right...which I don't have anymore, as its buggered. Again, whilst it seem to be held in place in a fairly secure fashion, I was concerned about the leverage exerted on the one bolt, and that the cable bracket would eventually creep round.
Took the cable bracket off again, and went delving round the shed for a bit of metal bar I could use. My plan was to fix the bar to the 'missing bolt' bolt hole on the cable bracket, which would then be fixed at the other end to the lower cover bolt hole. I should've taken a picture, but quite frankly , I just needed to get it all back together ASAP.
So, pop rivetted the new bar to the cable bracket, bolted everything up and it seems to work fine and the cable bracket is just as secure as it was originally before it all went to shit.
Everything is copper greased, and all new bolts are stainless.
Took the cover off and adjusted the cables and there's no squeaking anymore and everything seems to be working ok.
I can't decide if I should take the bike somewhere and see about having the buggered hole drilled out properly and re threaded, or just leave it and see how things work out?
Any thoughts please chaps?
Oh, I serviced the bike yesterday too before all this aggravation!