Broken bolt - SOMEBODY CALL 911

[Danman]

I noticed last week when riding that whenever you shifted down it (94 DR350) would act like it was in neutral. I have heard of serval people with this problem (on DR's). The bolt that is broken is a special order part and takes a week or so to get so I ordered one along time ago knowing that when I took my clutch off I would replace it.

I just took it apart and the bolt was loose enought to turn with my fingers. I took the clutch off and unscrewed with my fingers thinking that I would just replace the bolt (as I already had it in my garge). It was worse than I thought, the bolt is broken. The end of the bolt is left down inside my shift drum.

Not sure what is needed to get it out. I was thinking of going with the lefthanded drill. The Drum is still in the cases. I would need to split them to get it out. I would like to do it with them in there.

Any suggestions for getting this broken bit out without getting metal savings all over everything and not messing up the treads on the inside of the drum?

Also, The new bolt has a yellow sustance on the threads with I assume is some kind of thread lock. Not sure if the old one has it on it or not (I assume it does)? Is yellow lock perminate? Not sure If I should apply heat or not. Sure would not want to warp anything.

For your viewing pleasure.

The red arrow points to the broken end of the bolt.

Thanks

 

[biglou]

Dan-I think you could do this, or a reasonably good mechanic could do it for you. Here is my input: Take a center punch and tap it on the face of the broken bolt shank near the perimeter. Tap straight in on it to make a divot. Then, angle the punch and see if you can tap it counterclockwise. If it won't move after a few forceful taps, stop right there. Next thing to do is to take the center punch and tap a recess into the center of the face of the shank. Then, obtain a quality EZ-Out and the proper sized drill bit for it. Looks like you have about 1/4-5/16" of threaded shank broken off in there. Drill a hole in the dead center of the shank to a depth of about 1/4" and try the EZ-Out. Hold the EZ-Out with a pair of needle nosed vice grips (clamp them as tight as you can) and tap it firmly into the hole. Then, tap and apply a ccw twist to the vice grips at the same time. Tap and turn, tap and turn. Be very, very careful not to break the EZ-Out off. These things are harder than a Caddilac axle and getting a broken chunk of one removed is not fun. Using the divot mark you made near the perimeter before as a reference, see if it is turning. Usually, once it breaks free and starts to turn, it's very easy to walk it out the rest of the way. If it isn't turning, time to break out the propane torch. Use some contact cleaner to remove as much oil residue from the area as you can, and then heat the area immediately around the bolt for about 10-15 seconds. This will release any loctite hold that is still in place on the original bolt threads. Then, very quickly, reinsert the EZ-Out and do the tap and turn thing. This should get it. If you feel comfortable with doing this, give it a shot. If you start to get into trouble and it looks like you are going to "waller out" the bolt or the threads, stop and take it to a shop. Better to stop before you do irrepairable damage. If you do get it out, once things cool off, clean the threads with some contact cleaner before installing your new bolt. This will help the loctite on the new bolt do its thing better than if there is any oil residue left over in the threads. Good luck.

If you wanna drive that thing up to KC next weekend, I'll take it out for ya, and then we can go ride! :)

 

[Danman]

Thanks Lou, I give it a try :) I would love to take you up on the riding, but it will have to wait for dirtweek :(