Saturday 19 April 2014

Some Days You Eat the Bear...

...this was the other kind of day.

I bought my Buell brand new about eight years ago and it's been pretty reliable. It's gone through a couple of clutch cables and I think its on it its third (supposedly indestructible) drive-belt. 


The wheel bearings are very exposed, as are the bearings on the drive-belt pulley and I've had to replace them a couple of times. But essentially, it's been reliable and I haven't had to do very much work to it.

However, the build quality isn't so good and eight years in a damp climate has taken its toll. A lot of the powder-coating is flaking and the nickle fasteners are corroded so its well overdue a clean up. It's not a big job, just a respray on some of the flaky parts and a graphic wrap for the bodywork.


I've never had cause to remove the front mudguard and when I first attempted this a couple of months back I discovered that the 4 stainless bolts holding it on were stuck fast. Since then I've been soaking the bolts with penetrating oil hoping to loosen them up.


Today I tried to remove the bolts. And despite using a series of escalating tried and tested techniques I only managed to get one of the four bolts out successfully....


Firstly I heat-cycled the bolts a few times soaking them in penetrating oil each time. Then I tried to tap them loose. Then I tried an impact driver. And finally, I went at them with an impact gun, which torqued the heads off three of the bolts leaving the stainless shafts stuck in the aluminium fork-leg.


So the next step will be to try to drill the remainders of the bolts out with a titanium or cobalt drill bit. 


...some days the bear eats you.


#Buell #BuellXB #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage


Some Days You Eat the Bear...
Buell XB12S Lightning

Some Days You Eat the Bear...
Ancient and indestructible impact driver. This is like a lightsaber to Yamaha owners..

Some Days You Eat the Bear...
Impact gun.

Some Days You Eat the Bear...
Grinding paste helps the torx tool grip the head of the bolt.

Some Days You Eat the Bear...
Arse!


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