Carb bowl screws

[Ken Talbot]

Imagine that, same thing happened to me last night. My post wasn't nearly that long, and it didn't take me nearly an hour and a half to type, but I was offering a clarification on the kind of impact driver I suggested. Do you think anybody could possibly have thought I was suggesting a big-a$$ed air-powered impact wrench?

[yamarider]

I recently replaced those inadequate screws with a set of pan-head screws that I aquired from NAPA. Much better now.

[Geezer]

Originally posted by Hired_Goon
M5x0.8. Thanks Ken.

I will go the 10mm length as I'm ordering a box of 100 for around $30 bucks.
HG

That's a bit steep. I get M6 stainless allen head screws 12mm long for $10 a hundred from Oregon Bolt. Even better yet they are just down the road a couple miles from here.

Geezer

[Hired_Goon]

Sorry, Geezer, shoulda converted. I was guessing about 30 Aussie bucks.

Box of 100 is actually 15 AUD for M5x8. Roughly $11 US.

Thanks for the warning on strength Gnepig. I'm well aware of the dangers of two different metals, but I'm a firm believer that bowl and cover screws don't need to be done up as tight as some people think. Half the time they will tighten themselves over time.

HG

[Geezer]

Sorry HG, I didn't realize that you were down under. That's an OK price. Until I found my current supplier, I would have been tickled to get them for that price.

The float bowl screws are made from pretty soft steel, I think the stainless allen head screws are going to be more than strong enough. I've seen some guys using stainless bolts to hold on the disk rotors and not had a problem. I don't think there's squat worry about here.

Geezer

[skids]

You will strip the threads out of the carb body, not from the screw/bolt. If you are getting the cap bolts so that you can use an electric driver, be careful about the applied torque! I am picking up a helicoil kit today to fix a couple of mistakes. Thats right, I didn't learn from the first mistake! }8-O

[andnew]

From spending many years professional wrenching on bikes, here's what I found best for removing stubborn screws and fixing horked up carb screws.

On most of the stuck screws you will find a white chalky corrosion between the carbs and screws. This is simply dissimilar metals and plating corroding in ways you don't see on many other metals. The low-quality castings and plated screws with their base metal scratched into from assembly will cause this.

Rather than using an impact driver, I bought myself a Snap-On #2 phillips that has a 2 foot shaft on it. The long steel of the screwdriver builds torque in the driver and will break even the most stubborn screw loose in over 90% of the cases. If the top of the screw is buggered up from someone's previous removal attempts, you may get a second chance. You can take a flat steel punch and tap the camed-out edges of the screw back to level. Then try again with the long screwdriver.

This works in most carbs, brake MC covers, side covers....I can't tell you how much money I made on flat-rate doing these removals.

[andnew]

I need to give credit for the listed techniques.

Cecil, the 25 year employee of Bellevue Kawasaki, and 25 years as a Boeing final delivery troubleshooter/technician. it was his job to fix the screw-ups that the customers buying a 707-747 found on their final inspections.

He taught me more about being a tech, and really fixing things than anyone in my life.

He was a rare, wise genius and the world is a worse place without him. (Lost to Parkinsons, though he shared his talents to the very end).

[xschop]

dremel

dremel a good flat head screw-driver slot into the old screw....presto.,another trick is put the whole set-up in the freezer. then remove and break the screws loose....JAT

[GNEPIG]

ok, lets try this again
.. i have a very small set of chanellocks[the smallest they make] that i use on the stuborn screws. just grab the outside and twist, real easy.. the same thing that Prometheus does with the needle nose visegrips.

..Mikuni makes a high quality product, so much so that three Japanese motorcycle manufacturers have Mikuni carbs on most of there bikes. alot of people have removed the carbs that came on there English and American bikes to replace then with Mikuni carbs. the parts they use to build there carbs are made specifically for them and are of good quality.. the problems that we are having with the screws that hold the bowls and caps on, stem mostly from misuse and neglect. there is nothing we can do about that except to change them.

..Ok, the stainless option: stainless steel bolts are super massproduced and are not made for any particular reason other than proffit. almost nothing comes stock with stainless bolts on it[except marine equipment]. so the quality of the manufacture of most of these bolts are very poor. i am sure there is a company out there that makes stainless bolts and nuts that are of grade 5 or even grade 8 quality, but you wont be able to buy them for 20 bucks a set. hell, most of the stainless bolts that i have had to use didnt feel like they were even as good as a grade 3!. the part that your tool fits strips out easy, the heads break off at the first sign of the bolt siezing and if you manage to get your siezing bolt out, the threads have been galded out of your alumunim hole!.. but hey, they look good! and if used right they will work just fine on your carbs since the float bowls and caps are not stressed parts.

..to get the best results when using the stainless bolts, before use, run a tap over them. then take them over to the wire wheel on your bench grinder and clean the threads again[its like a polishing prosses]. then coat the threads with a little Anti-sieze lube. and last but most certainly not least the torque spec for the stainless bolts, the size of the ones in our carbs is 20 inch lbs.
..i have to deal with this kind of crap every day, i just thought i would share.

[xschop]

stainless

These are the stainless rotor bolts I installed 3 years ago, and many hard breaks ago,with no problems.......chop

[GNEPIG]

These are the stainless rotor bolts I installed 3 years ago

.. ahhh yes, and they look beautiful, i wish you luck when it comes time to remove them to service the wheel/ replace a warped rotor or what ever.
..by the way, your rotors look good, i like your hole pattern.

[xschop]

bolt removal

Hey GNE, i have removed them a couple of times already, 2 weeks ago as a matter of fact to chech a rotor fitment (vfr). The grey colored antisieze from napa is the best for stainless-to-aluminum contact. I have it in every bolt including the exhaust flange bolts. I have removed those once and they came out smoothly...chop