So my K75S is back on the road and running sweetly after a simple replacement of the inlet manifolds turned into a 5 day effort with the engine mostly apart.
What did I learn?
1. The difference between 6 mm bolts about to break free and about to break their heads off is too subtle for me
2. When trying to drill out broken bolts you need to line up the centre punch VERY accurately on the centre of the bolt if you are to stand ANY chance of drilling it out and the only way of doing that is to file the stump flat first
3. If two of six have broken, assume the rest will too if you don't change strategy, in which case you may as well drill the rest out before breaking the heads off as the allen socket forms a convenient centring hole
4. When you decide you have made enough of a mess of it, cut the losses and get the piece into a machine shop for a proper job, the less you mess it up, the quicker they will be able to do it right and the less it will cost
5. Taking the head off and putting it back on a K bike is A LOT OF WORK (especially if all you have is a gravel driveway as a workspace)
6. Follow the manual. Haynes helped me not to ruin the whole motor when it said turn the crank slowly by hand to make sure the valve timing is correct. Mine was not (180 degrees out) because I had misunderstood the orientation of the photo of the timing marks on the camshaft sprockets
7. It is the bounciness of the rubber grommets on the valve casing bolts that gives you the oil-tight seal on the gasket - new ones are well worth it
8. It is a very sweet thing to have an engine start first time after you have done major surgery
9. Spannering is fun up to point but riding is soooo much better, I got up early on Sunday morning, drove 90 miles to the coast, took a quick dip in the North Sea and rode home again by 10 am, all in glorious sunshine on quite roads - bliss!
May all your bolts come free first time (I'm replacing everything I can get to with A4-80 stainless + copperslip)
Ed
