Back to the future (or: buying back the same 1100GS I sold 3 years ago)

ajd

Member
UKGSer Subscriber
Joined
Jan 22, 2010
Messages
67
Reaction score
0
Location
Banchory, Scotland
So nice to be back. 3 years ago I bought a Tiger 800 and decided to sell my 1996 1100GS of 13 years ownership to a pal. It hurt... but I thought I knew what I was doing. Anyway, 3 years elapsed and Big Pete wasn't getting on with the GS so I bought it back (still have the Tiger). Must be fate.

So it's time to smarten the old GS up and address the things I know need sorting. Hoping for some help from the collective GS brain here.

Two general queries to get me started.

1) The exhaust mounting bolts are original, i.e. just brown blobs now. There's no problem with the exhaust but part of me wants to get the studs out and replace them. How bad/good an idea is this?
2) The bolt holding the side stand bracket against the crank case (bolt 7 here: https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sh...9E-BMW-R_1100_GS_94_0404,0409_&diagId=46_0371) head snapped off some years ago and I got the end of an easy out snapped off. That tungsten carbide really is tough but I'd really like to get it and the shank of the old bolt out. Any advice? Spark erosion? Who can do that in Aberdeenshire???

Thanks all.
 
My preferred method for removing damaged bolts is to weld a nut onto it. That does two things: it gives you a new head to put a spanner on and it heats the bolt, making it easier to remove.
 
I’ll be very surprised if the easy out is tungsten carbide, it’s going to be high speed drill and as long as you can get at it and grind the end flat you’ll be able to drill it out with a solid carbide twist drill. I’ve used them on broken taps and easy outs numerous times at work but you need to be very careful, run the drill as fast as you can and keep it straight because they’re very brittle and snap if you bend them when they’re in the hole you’re drilling.

Drill it smaller than the easy out to start with then go up in stages so that it starts to break out of her flutes 3/4 of the way down and you should then be able to smash out the rest with a punch.

That doesn’t solve the original seized bolt problem but once you’ve got a clear hole in it and the easy out cleared away use a left hand twist drill and try to get it to snatch so it undoes the screw :D
 
From my experience of exhaust studs it’s best to leave them if you can.

In the end I couldn’t so took the heads off and had them done by a local engineer, and at the same time got them vapour blasted and repainted.

That’s a slippery slope ending in boxes full of bits and nothing that looks like a bike, for months.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 


Back
Top Bottom