Oh Dang it, broken bolt.

[jad]

I was trying to take the Alternator cover off.  It was really tight so I sprayed some penetrating lube and tapped a little bit on the bolt heads.  I then loosened a little on both bolts, sprayed a little more and turned a little more.... snap!!   ... Uh Oh!! The outside bolt broke leaving me with about four threads and the bolt head.  Oh now, what to do?

I'm not sure if there is room to get a drill motor in there with an easyout to get that thing out.  I'm wondering if the motor was too cold when I started this and that was the cause of the break.  Should I have warmed up the motor a bit first?  Should I warm it up before I try to use the easyout?

My original problem was that my battery seems to not be strong after I've ridden some.  I can have it on a Battery Tender and it starts up just great, but after a ride, it acts like the battery is weak.  I clean the starter switch regularly and I was thinking that this sounds like I may have a loose wire on the alternator since the BT seems to get the battery to a full charge.   I was thinking that there could be loose/not tight wires on the alternator that supply the battery charge.

I'm wondering if I'm going to have to do an Alternator brush rebuild, but I just wanted to eliminate loose wires first.  I'm really not sure what I need to do but I'm reasonably sure that I can get some info from the knowledge base here.  The battery is two years old Yausa(for Valk)

Soo, Does any one here have a suggestion  or comment for either of my two problems...
1.  Broken bold removal.
2. Battery not holding charge after ride.

I appreceiate any info I can get.

Thanks,
John

[MP]

The bolt is a problem.  But, before you do all the things you list with alternator, etc.  Put in a new battery.  Just sounds to me like it is getting weak.  Cheaper and easier than that other stuff.

MP

[Joe Hummer]

I believe once you take the Alternator out, you will be able to grab the bolt with a pair of channel locks and get the bolt out.  It sounds like there is enough above the flange to grab.  Spray Liquid Wrench on back of bolt before trying to remove and make sure to use anti-seize once you do get it out. 

Joe

[Baloo]

Exactly the same sad story happened to me a while ago... If there are some threads out of the hole, you could try what got me out of trouble: Have a good welder put a nut around the remaining threads and weld it in place by putting welding inside the nut hole. Then, get you bolt out and voila!

[woefman]

May not work for you but many many times I was Replacing Head gaskets on fords in a Ford Dealer

for broken head bolts.

Well I used a Dental Pick or ( Snapon or Mac tools version ) and you be surprised how many times
I could hand spin them out with the pick.

Another Trick is to weld a nut on the broken off end, even if it is flush or deeper.

[Skinhead]

The broken bolt is one problem.  Before replacing batteries or removing alternators, get a volt meter, check your battery voltage with the  engine off, should be >12 volts, then check it with the engine running (alt charging) if it's not greater than with the engine off, your alternator isn't charging.

[Patrick]

1. Check the charge rate.. Battery should be appr 12 volts at rest and above 13.5 when run at about 2000 RPMs..
2. If you think you'll have some threads sticking out once the alternator is removed then heat the remaining part of the bolt and add some penetrating oil a couple times.. Take a pair of vise-grips and turn the stud back in and then back out.. Keep repeating until the bolt is removed.. Anytime a stubborn bolt won't come loose just keep turning it in as well as out, wiggle it in and out and usually they will come out eventually..

[jad]

Thanks for the help!  I checked with my local Goldwing/Valkyrie shop and he confirmed my hope that the broken bolt wasn't a critical element for holding the alternator.  The two remaining bolts are sufficiant to retain the Alternator position without a problem.

One of the bolts I got out was very galled up and I'm going to chase the threads with a Tap hoping to clean them up inside the case and I'm going to use a new bolt.  I'll be using anti seize to keep this from happening again.

There were some "Dowel Pins" missing from the alternator that wre supposed to be there, it makes me wonder what's up with this thing and why the bolts were so dang tight.

I've had this bike for 3 years and this is the first time that I've had an issue with the the Alt., I wonder if it's the original alternator or if it's been swapped out since the Dowel Pins I picked up don't seem to fit the proper locations, they're too big.

Anyway, I'm going to  put everything back together and not worry about the missing bolt for now.

Thanks again for the info,
John

[Earl in Pensacola]

I was just wondering::  I've used JB Weld on some pretty tough jobs, some of which everyone thought was a lost cause, unless you knew how to weld.  What if you threaded a "clean" nut say half the thickness of the nut onto the end of the "cleaned" broken bolt, then filled it with JB Weld??
I'd almost be willing to bet that it would hold long enough to bring out the bolt.

Wha' Cha" think??

[jad]

Hmm, JB Weld sounds like a good idea but unfortunately the broken bolt is flush with the engine case.  I think that getting th broken bolt out will have to wait until some time I pull the engine.  Today I'm going to see if I'm going to see if the Alt. had a charging problem and decide if I should change the brushes just because I have 80K on the guage.  It's not quite warm enough for some nice days of cruisin'  yet so I have time to work on the brushes.

My biggest problem is that I was layed off last June and haven't found anything yet, so this makes it hard to keep excited about fixing something that I may have to sell if I don't find a job soon.  I wasn't ever going to sell her but it's just really hard to find something, even though I'm not even looking for the exact same field,  I'm just looking for something  that will carry me for the next decade or so. 

Oh well, I'm just going to enjoy the time I have...

Thanks for the help all.

John.

[Jess from VA]

I still bet it might be a weak battery (too).  Note that a battery can charge sufficient to get a steady green light on your BatteryTender, make the lights come on,  and still lack the juice to push the starter solenoid. 

Another way the bolt might come out is to notch it in the center with a dremmel wheel to get a good purchase with a flathead screwdriver (as big a screwdriver/notch as you can get to the bolt with). 

What I do with a bike that's been sitting in the cold is put one of those small ceramic heaters close to the engine (or where I'm going to work) to warm it up (45 min). Even in a freezing shed the bike is easier to work on (to start, I heat the oil pan).  Obviously you don't set it on the tank, but they are very safe little heaters.