bad mechanic: cylinder head cover bolt torque?

[mixelpix]

grr.

so, the PO had a valve job done by a local mechanic in Cupertino, CA.

1980 LG w/close to 40k. 1 other PO only - this bike was baby'd. Original owner used to trailer the bike behind his motor home and ride around with his wife...

Anyways, back to modern day. I dunno if the bike /needed/ a valve job or not, but, it got one. Then I bought it.

After finally getting a chance to put some real miles on her I noticed some oil leaking and smoking. thought it was the CCtensioner. Nope.

The m@th3rf*kker HAND tightened the cylinder head cover allen bolts. 4 of the 12 were standing up - almost ready to fall out f their sockets. Awesome. Remind me to look a little closer at my bike when things don't seem perfect...

Anyways, I assume there is the typical pattern for tightening them down, but any idea what I should torque them to?

Thanks!

[Ken Talbot]

Yamaha says 7.2 ft-lb for the cylinder head cover. Not a whole lot more than finger-tight unless you've got fingers like a gorilla. There's quite a few fasteners that only need this much, and a few recommended for only 6.5 and 4.3 Consider this a good excuse to spend a few buck$ for a decent, low-torque torque wrench.

[prometheus578]

Better still... get a torque wrench in Inch Pounds. More accurate for the smaller stuff. 7.2 foot pounds is pretty loopy to try to get with a foot pound wrench. But with an inch pounder, it converts to 86.4 inch pounds. Some foot pound wrenches don't even register as low as 7.2, while on an inch pounder, it's about mid scale. Most manuals have a chart of conversion data to help you do the math.
Multiply Ft lbs X 12 to get In lbs (7.2ft lbs X 12 = 86.4 In lbs)
Multiply In lbs X .083 to get Ft lbs (86.4 In lbs X .083 = 7.17 Ft lbs
As for the Mech... he didn't hand tighten them. He was putting the cover back on and got interupted by a phone call or having to deal with a customer. When he got back to the bike, he had forgotten where he left off and went on to the next step.
Happens all the time. Number one reason to not let customers bother the mechs by waltzing about the shop area like zombies in a Dawn of the Dead movie!
Mechs work systematically and hate to be interupted and thrown out of sequence.

[xssiveone]

This wasn't necessarily the fault of the mechanic. I had the same thing happen to me, and I was the mechanic in this case. I KNOW I tightened the cover bolts down, but they worked loose and I had the obligatory oil everywhere.

I retightened mine and then rechecked after a few weeks. So far, a year later, they have stayed tight this time.

[mixelpix]

okay, I've calmed down

good point. I think I WILL take this as an excuse to get a low range torque wrench.

Thanks!

-pdk