front axle clamp bolts

[Jeff Khoury]

I had a motorcycle messenger friend of mine come by one day and I offered to help him change his front tire. The tire that was on it was mounted by a local shop and I don't know what they did to those pinch bolts, but they were TIGHT and completely frozen. They were also made of what we like to call Kawasaki Compressed Oatmeal. Three of us tried nearly everything we knew to get them out. Finally we drilled the stripped head a little larger, soaked the whole thing in penetrating oil, heated it with a propane torch, then we drove the next larger size allen socket into the head of the bolt, then with heat and a hammer we worked them loose. I sent him to the store on my KLR to get some nice new stainless bolts. I ran a tap through the threads to clean them out. There was definitely a lot of dissimilar metal corrosion buildup in the threads. I coated the new stainless bolts in anti-sieze and reinstalled them to a reasonable torque. So far he's had no further problems.

----- Original Message ----- From: "Tim Pruitt" To: "DSN KLR650" DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2011 2:01:06 PM Subject: [DSN_KLR650] Fw: Front Axle Clamp Bolts I sent this out last week. I was not looking for adviceon how to get the bolts out so much as wondering if anyone else has run into this type of over-torque or oxidation problem. I took the bike to the dealer where I bought it yesterday and they couldn't get them loose either. I believe they were severely over-torqued on set-up. They didn't deny (or agree) with me there, but kept trying to say it must be oxidation between the threads and the fork tube. Hmmmm.... What they don't know, and I didn't add, nor have I mentioned here probably, but I've been a mechanic for 35 years. I've worked on motorcycles and cars, and spent 20 years pofessionally working on Airplanes (everything from fabric covered bi-planes to modern jets). I've seen stuck bolts. I've seen oxidized (although here I would probably say dis-similar metal corrosion). I've seen my share of over torqued fasteners. These were hammered when put in. I say that because the inside bolt on the left side was nearly rounded out - towards the tighten position. There may be a slight bit of corrosion going on, but I don't see it. I'm honestly thinking I may be in for two new lower fork legs before this is over with. I've got a couple of things yet to try. I did bringit home yesterday because I was comopletely unimpressed with their Saturday mechanic. Oh well I'll keep you posted. ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Tim Pruitt < tenntimtwo@... > To: " DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com " < DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com > Sent: Saturday, August 20, 2011 3:22 PM Subject: Front Axle Clamp Bolts I'm in the process of doing my first tire change on my 2009 KLR and I've run up against something I don't think I've heard on here before (or I may have missed it), so I thought I'd ask if anyone else has had this problem. I changed the back tire first, no real issue there. I use a motorcycle floor jack to get the bike up in the air, and with the Happy Trails skid plate on there it sits nice and flat and feels very solid, but I digress. I started to remove the front tire and I loosen the axle nut, then went to loosen the axle clamp bolts. These are internal hex (Allen wrench) and 8 x 30 bolts, with a recommended torque of 15 ft-lbs (Kawasaki Manual). I can't get them loose. I say I can't, I did manage to get one to pop free (and it did "POP") and when we looked at my Craftsman 6mm Allen socket it was twisted nearly 90 degrees. The second o ne wouldn't accept the Allen wrench, it appears it was torqued so tight the internal flats are rounded. The other two are so tight we stopped trying to remove them until I have some spare parts to replace these bolts with. I don't know if these wheels are put on by the dealer or if the dealer un-crates them with the wheels already bolted up. But whoever does it someone absolutely torgued the sh*t out of those little bolts. I don't see h ow they got them in there with out stripping them. Having been a mechanic most of my life I've twisted off and see twisted off many a bolt head, so these are an anomaly. I looked at the one set of threads we got out and they don't appear to have loc-tits on them (or any other kind of thread locker). They're just damn-good'n-tite. Anyone else run into this before? [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]