Author Topic: Every time I work on this bike.....something HAS to go wrong (Read 5296 times)

GooseMan · « **on:** July 11, 2007, 01:32:07 PM »

So I removed my wheels the other day to paint them...I'm not a huge fan of the white. I'm getting new tires this week anyway, so I figured I'd do it now.

I removed the wheels from the bike, and removed all the accessories (brake discs, sprockets etc), sandblasted them and painted them.

I was told to put all the stuff back on the wheels when bringing them to the shop for mounting/balancing, so I started with the front wheel, by putting back the plastic ring and the brake disc...easy enough eh?

Well, I mounted the plastic part, and put the disc on with all 5 bolts....for some reason, the bolts were REALLY hard to screw in and most of them only went in half way. I figured there must be a problem, so I decided to remove the bolts before anything got worse. After a lot of cursing and sweating and beating with a hammer, I managed to get 3 of the 5 out OK. One of them is almost out, but just keeps turning and wont go in or out

and of course, one of them SNAPPED while I tried to unscew it.

YAAAAAAY!!! This bike is REALLY starting to piss me off (well, its probably my fault...but I'm gonna blame the bike!).

I really dont understand how those bolts could've gone in wrong...the ones I took out look all stripped and screwed up. Maybe there was some sand in there from the sandblasting....I dont know :(

BTW--are the brake disc bolts pretty standard among other bikes? Cause now I have to find 5 new bolts (not to mention a machine shop to get out these stuck bolts!!)

siiiiiiiiiiiiighhhhhhhhhh

GooseMan · « **Reply #1 on:** July 11, 2007, 01:53:07 PM »

Oh and...I might need a new front wheel.....so whoever has one lying around....lemme know. I might be PM'ing you

gsxr400 racer · « **Reply #2 on:** July 11, 2007, 02:09:14 PM »

not cleaning the sand could have been a bad idea i always use a hand held torch to heat the bolts up first before i remove them due to the thread locker crap good for street but i hardly use it on my race bike my rotors have to come off in a hurry during a rainy situation. But i do hear you on the why things have to go wrong part last year was almost the last year for my bike racing was miserable mostly due to my part and being in a hurry wrenching on the whore!!

Yes i called here a whore, she has mellowed out a bit since she got some new cloths and has been sitting in pieces all winter so i will resume to just call her a slut. But last year i may have traded here for a good running moped.

Red01 · « **Reply #3 on:** July 11, 2007, 03:00:24 PM »

Sounds like it would be a good idea to chase all the threaded holes with a bottoming tap - one that'll reach the bottom of the holes, instead of the typical pointy kind. The folks at the machine shop that removes the stripped bolt should be able to help you out if you can't drill the spinner out. Sometimes helps if you can apply some outward pressure on the spinning bolt as you try to remove it.

GooseMan · « **Reply #4 on:** July 11, 2007, 03:15:09 PM »

Yeah, I'm totally going to re-tap all the holes...I really dont understand what went wrong in the first place. Must've been a bit of sand from the sandblasting, although, I did clean the wheels pretty good. :(

Do you think those bolts are pretty standard among other bikes?

GooseMan · « **Reply #5 on:** July 11, 2007, 03:20:06 PM »

OK just got off the phone with a Suzuki dealer...they said they can remove the bolt, re-tap and get me some new bolts...they may have some lying around....phew!

GooseMan · « **Reply #6 on:** July 11, 2007, 04:25:11 PM »

just outta curiousity...is a GS500E front wheel the same? it looks pretty similar....

gsxr400 racer · « **Reply #7 on:** July 11, 2007, 04:56:14 PM »

i would say so but i have been known to be wrong

Red01 · « **Reply #8 on:** July 11, 2007, 04:59:30 PM »

IIRC, the GS500 puts the single disc on the other side from the B4.

GooseMan · « **Reply #9 on:** July 11, 2007, 05:09:02 PM »

doh!

well..then you can just flip the wheel around!

zelig · « **Reply #10 on:** July 11, 2007, 05:17:24 PM »

Which side is the speedo drive?

gsxr400 racer · « **Reply #11 on:** July 11, 2007, 05:47:02 PM »

lol i put my gsxr 750 front wheel on backwards once and raced with it came in yelled at my friend for putting my rotors on backwards started to go through that process and realized i had installed the wheel(rim) backwards

Herr Tod · « **Reply #12 on:** July 11, 2007, 06:18:46 PM »

A friend of mine has a GS 500, he once told me if he took the cap off on the opposite side of the rotor it showed holes for the other rotor, tapped and everything. In that case it would be the same wheel as my stock B4 wheel, with dual rotors.

meehacker · « **Reply #13 on:** July 11, 2007, 06:21:13 PM »

That sucks! The same thing happened to me with my rear wheel after sandblasting and powdercoating - thankfully it was only one bolt on the rear wheel, but unfortunately the threads in the rim were pretty mangled after removing the bolt. Now that bolt is just on the verge of completely stripping if i really torque it down.

I ran a tap through the others to avoid a total disaster, and used some anti-seize lube on the bolts upon re-installing for safe measure. I have a spare front rim and bolts if you are interested. Send me a PM if you need them.

magicGoose · « **Reply #14 on:** July 11, 2007, 06:35:43 PM »

Good story Jay.

Gooseman, The story with the rims is that some B4s have tapped holes for rotors on both sides, some only one side. IF GS500s are tapped both sides, you could probably do a swap, but I would check the fische to compare the bearing sizes, and check which side the speedo drive is on, like Zelig suggested.
When you're sand blasting, it's a good idea to put sacrificial bolts in all threaded holes to stop stuff like this from happening, because as you have found out, the blast media is REALLY hard to get out of a tapped hole.
BTW, your title for this thread reminded me of a line I read recently:

Triumph - Turning ordinary men into mechanics.