Taking apart my faring on an I/S

[alph]

I just bought some Air Wings for my I/S and I found out that I need to take off the factory Air Deflectors that came with my cycle.  Problem is the screws all seem to be stripped out!  Why Honda put steel screws on instead of stainless steel I don’t know, but they’re all rusted and spin without loosening.  Does anyone have any ideas on how to get my fairing apart?

Al.

[Thunderbolt]

and are pressed in and glued.  Carefully put some thin needle nosed pliers between the fairing and inside plastic and hold the insert.  You should be able to hold them well enough to remove the screws.  When you re-install them, either replace them or I just epoxy glued them in.  Just be sure none of the epoxy gets in the threads.  You may be able to take a thin screwdriver or knife and push sideways and cause the insert to bind and let you remove the screw.

[Larry]

but I just pulled the offensive screws with brass inserts, held the insert with a pliers and took the screw out then epoxyed the inserts back in. Put a bit of grease on the screw and screw it into the brass boss and set the boss in the fairing when epoxying. Had to do most of mine and they are holding well. I used good old JB weld.

[alph]

Hey, good idea's.  I’ve got a long needle nose pliers at work, I’ll give it a try.  I’ll definitely be replacing them with stainless.

[Bagger John - #3785]

Hey, good idea's.  I’ve got a long needle nose pliers at work, I’ll give it a try.  I’ll definitely be replacing them with stainless.

Will stainless steel and a corroded OEM fairing screw exhibit galling when exposed to moisture? If so - you may have a bigger mess than with the brass inserts.

A sure-fire way to cure this problem is to JB Weld the loose OEM brass inserts back into place, then use a dab of anti-seize on the screws. Search the old Tech Archives and you'll find a good bit of info relating to this repair.

[MP]

There is a reason bath fixtures are brass.  Corrosion.  Use the brass, not ss.

[Steve K (IA)]

Also, when tightening the brass screws you can very easily over tighten.  They are shoulder screws.  As soon as the screw stops...stop tightening, they won't come loose.  If you over tighten, you can have the same problem the next time you take off the speaker panels and will be re-gluing the inserts.