Hello Everyone! Been a long time since I’ve been on the forum; new family and house moves and forgetting my password have contrived against me. However, now I really need some help.
I have (well, just removed, so had) crash bars fitted to my lil Breva. This type of bar fixes at the top to an unused tab behind the grille next to the fuel tank, but at the bottom it re-uses one of the chassis bolts (comes with a longer one). Having laid the bike down in London traffic once or twice, the bolt on the offside (rhs) has sheared (albeit not at the time of the last incident, but I guess it fractured and vibration did the rest).
So, ‘simple’ enough to get a replacement bolt (or just remove the bars and put the original bolt back in) but because it’s sheared, I can’t get the remains of the bolt and the nut out! This is because the chassis rail is too tight onto the engine block.
Hopefully the pictures below will make it obvious?
So, question is, how can I get the remains of the bolt out? Ideally whilst also salvaging the nut.
Thoughts are:
Drill out the bolt - I can get a spanner onto the nut to stop that turning. Concerned though that it’ll be a high tensile bolt, so won’t be drilled very easily, and I could end up damaging the chassis bolt hole in the process.
Undo the other bolt and ‘bend’ the chassis rails away from the engine, just enough for the bolt to drop out. I only need a few more mm of space. Obviously would bend by hand, not with tools, so that I don’t actually bend the chassis rails just flex them enough. Concerned though that if I under the other bolt, I’ll never get the chassis rails together again!
Yeah, that’s my intention (to replace both bolts - well, all four if I’m honest).
So, if I take the bottom rail off on that side, the engine won’t fall out? I’ll be able to get the rail back on without too much trouble too?
To be honest, the nut and remains of bolt are loose, just captive. Only needs a bit more wriggle room to drop out.
But I have history of attempting jobs on vehicles that should be simple (undo this, move that, replace, do it up again) turning into much more complex jobs (undo it? how do I get at it, why won’t it move, oh yeah, done up by a gorilla with multi-jointed fingers and then rusted into place, that’s why!). So I am now a bit more cautious with anything that looks ‘simple’…
Has made me think that using one of chassis bolts to secure the crash bar might look nice, but might not be a good idea in the long run…
its cheaper than wrecking the barrels !!
on the other side the side stand is supported by the lower rail I think ( cant check my bike its not here)
so if you remove it you will need to disconnet the wiring connector
the engine is supported by those lower frame rails, there is a big long bolt going from side to side
best to put a jack under the sump or some solid blocks to support it, also place it on the centre stand if you have one
if you dont when you remove or loose the left hadn one the rail will twist, so you need to get some one to hold the bike
dont forget a drop of locvtite on the threads and use a torque wrench to niip them up once they are all loosely in place
also check the lower engine bolt for security
sometimes they come loose
I had exactly this problem on my Nevada. The bolt sheared spontaneously and the end of the bolt and the nut was captive but loose just like yours. I did drill the bolt keeping the nut fast with a modified open spanner It drilled easily (the bolt code later confirmed mild steel) and then used an Easy Out bolt extractor without any problem. I replaced all the bolts with new ones but shied away from stainless as it’s often not good quality. No problems since. A good quality metal cutting drill of appropriate size and some care and patience was all it needed.