Broken stud

[raz]

I broke one exhaust stud on my LH head while doing winter maintenance. I should just have left it alone as all was well but stupid a-hole had to remove the studs to anti-seize them as a pro-active measure. This particular stud was moving allright, well past one turn, then it stuck. I had so much confidence since it wasn't stuck from the beginning, I just applied more force. Off it went, level with the surface.

 

In a rare event of knowing my limits I gave it to a friend working at a car shop. I had some other small jobs for him and he as well as I thought this stud was the easiest job of them all. It wasn't. After welding numerous nuts to the stud which just broke when he tried to unscrew them, he left it to some mechanical shop he's confident with, to drill it out. They failed. They eventually gave up before worsening the problem. So he took the piece of sh*t to the fixes-all-the-rest shop he's confident with, but even they seem to have given up.

 

Crap. So I thought, OK this will cost me bigtime, but the sun is shining and I've GOT to ride RSN so I just won't ask about prices, I'll just buy a new head and sign the bill without looking at it. Well, that doesn't help because the mmm piece of nnn doesn't seem to be buyable. It's not listed anywhere at the ususal places.

 

I sent Reboot Guzzi Spares a mail. Anyone got any other idea? Except for parting this excellent dream bike out in molecules and buy a Norge? How the fokk can it be so hard to remove a broken stud? I reckoned it would be easy to just drill it out as a last resort but apparently it's made out of super-hardened cryptonite.

 

I hate myself right now. Stupid idiot ruining a perfectly running bike and calling that maintenance. Dilettant.

[richard100t]

I suppose you could google Mike Rich guzzi heads & see what comes up. There was a set of them on ebay less than amonth ago for about $700. If you're willing to shell out the money I'm sure someone will have one.

[Paul Minnaert]

ask here:

http://www.hmb-guzzi.de/

he has 2 new v11 heads for 799euro.

But just ask him.

[Alex-Corsa]

I broke one exhaust stud on my LH head while doing winter maintenance.

 

LOL , any pics , I don't know what this part is you talk about.

 

ask here:

http://www.hmb-guzzi.de/

he has 2 new v11 heads for 799euro.

But just ask him.

 

Each or both?

[Guest Nogbad]

 

I hate myself right now. Stupid idiot ruining a perfectly running bike and calling that maintenance. Dilettant.

 

 

[todd haven]

Google EDM.

May cost $100 to have it laser drilled out.

If you have an extractor broken off, it will get that out, as well.

 

Head gasket and some o-rings, and your mom has a brother named something er other.

 

No need for a new head.

[rossoandy]

And the moral of this sad tale........

 

IF IT AINT BROKE.....

DONT FIX IT!!!

[raz]

 

LOL , any pics , I don't know what this part is you talk about.

 

 

 

Each or both?

The bolt for mounting the downpipes. M8x42. Broke it level with the head surface. I should have broken my own neck instead.

 

That HMB price is for a pair, but without valves, springs etc. Since my Sporti valves won't fit, I guess that will be very expensive in the end. I sent them a mail though, thanks Paul.

[Admin Jaap]

You could also try TLM Used: +31.24371111-4

[luhbo]

Hi Raz,

 

this should be not so much a problem. Give he head to an engine repair shop. They have the equipement to clamp the head properly and then drill out the rest of the bolt. If you try to drill it out by hand you'll need a very good portion of good luck. Actually you don't really look like a winner, so go searching for such a shop. Over here you'd find one every 50 km, Sweden shoud be not very different.

After the bolt is out let them build in a Heli-Coil insert. This will last forever.

 

And hey, spring has only just begun. Don't buy used equipement now. Normaly these parts need also repairment, so I see no gain.

 

Hubert

[Alex-Corsa]

The bolt for mounting the downpipes. M8x42. Broke it level with the head surface. I should have broken my own neck instead.

 

Well , I can understand how it is to you, but don't worry about metals , they can be fixed.Health i much more importand in any case.

So the problem is to get that screw that's left in out of there?

If so then just think of this part as something to be rotated to the direction to unscrew it.

I have dealat with sitution like this before (though not in cylinder head) and solved t with the below principle diagramm (actually the no 1)

 

There are three basic options as I see it. You need bore machine and screw driver (and WD40)

Diagram

1 1 as in diagram , drill the smallest hole you can in the center of the leftover screw 1-1.5 mm diameter(to 3-4mm deep depends on how deep the leftover screw is you must not go deeper ), then drill the next bigger one gradually increasing (be carefull to estimate the size of the threads of the head though so you don't hit them)

As you increase the bore, most times if not all, the leftover piece will get unscrewed with at least enough to catch it with a plier and remove it. If it doesnt you can try tight-fitting a screw driver that's just abot as wide as the hole drilled and unscrew from that.

I have done this and worked all times.

Well of course you have flooded the place before you start (all occasions) with some WD40 or any anti rust fluid.

2

Drill 2 or three holes (with small bore prefferably 1mm)and then with any way you can *drill over in the midle spots or hittling lightly at an angle with a screwdriver from a hole(or whatever approriate you think of) towards the other holes to scrap of some material and create a line so that it is converted to a flat screwdriver groove and then you know what you will do. *tight fit any flat tool that will help you rotate the thing)

Then again caution on the outside holes not hitting threads perhaps you'll need only 2 or so,

3

 

The 3rd on is to drill 2 small holes and fit into them 2 steel nails , then catch them with a plier and try to unscrew dunno how much is better but that's the principle

to make this thing move around

Hope that helped, but be very carefull when driling and working on it if you go one of these ways, best is if you know a bit about then try it or else with someone that knows about , or better get it to a shop

tip is if you do no3. and don't work then you can do no2 If you di the 2 first then you can do the no1.

[pete roper]

Studs can be a pain to get out and if they have been farted about with it usually makes it worse but they are never *impossible* to remove. If all else fails you can get the remains spark erroded, it'll be a lot cheaper to repair than replace the head.

 

Pete

[guzzi jon]

I've had a broken stud EDM'd out (Roper talk for spark eroded I presume, $40 total) go for it

[Guest Nigelstephens]

I had the occasion to use method 1, only last week. Works well. I did have to re-tap the thread though.

[raz]

Thanks everyone. The problem is I've already left it to people that really are supposed to know the tricks. The scary thing is they seem not to be too sure it can be done at all. Apparently the stud is too hard to drill (though I find that really strange) and its stuck enough to break the welding of nuts and stuff. The last resort now is the shop will try to mill it out (milling the aluminum around it), if it's thick enough so we don't end up in the exhaust port. From there I don't know, hopefully the hole will be small enough for some kind of helicoil or something but I'll leave all that to the shop if at all possible

Spark eroding might be something they can't do. I'll see to it they give up before ruining the thing.