Hello All

I am suffering from what we call in the UK 'the Corona virus effect'. We are in lock down and I have run out of jobs. Really I have done all the jobs I have wanted to do and am now doing the jobs I have been putting off.

One of my engine mounting bolts has broken off. It is the one that sits through the left hand foot rest plate, just behind the main drive sprocket. The end 10mm of the bolt has broken off and I need to drill and tap the hole. I have started to strip the bike and have two questions:

1. Do I really have to take the engine out? It looks like it. I could use a long drill to remove most of the broken off bolt but I don't have a tap long enough to go through the engine casing.

2. What thread is this bolt? It is a M10 bolt but the thread is finer than a standard 10mm bolt. I have a set of metric taps and the 10mm tap I have is a courser pitch than the bolt. I hope that makes sense?

If anyone knows an easy way to do this please advise.

Thank you
Kevin

I once removed the broken off tip of the bolt by putting a piece of 10mm tube into the hole and then drilling with a long 8mm drill through the tube into the bolt-tip. As i hoped the drill got stuck within the tip and screwed it through so that it fell off under the engine. The thread was still good and i just had to mount a new bolt. A friend made it for me at work.

Hi Kevin,
i know some people ride witout that bolt a long time.
I would fix it. Especially when the Bike is on the Mainstand, with some luggage, and when the Rider sits on it to start, (i often saw that),
the lower swingarm frame / the bolts are really stressed.
I took off the lower (swingarm-bearing) frame piece, and put some heli-coil repair threads (10x1,25) into all 3 bores.
Engine - with some piece of wood underneath- and mainframe /rearframe don´t have to be removed, only the Swingarm and the lower frame
Hope to see you this year,
Ali

It's all done. Thank you for your help.

Kevin

Hello

That fits. Prior to the bolt breaking I had to replace the chain. The symptoms were that when  the rear wheel was rotated it tightened and went slack as it went around. Brian New, a friend of mine, said that's a sure sign of the chain being stretched. I replaced the chain and the problem went away. Thank you Brian.

He didn't tell me the bolt was likely to break!!

Regards
Kevin