SuzukiSavage.com - Soft Screws

sidny4

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Soft Screws
07/24/08 at 20:14:23

So tonight I decided my project was to rejet my carb and while I'm at it, do the white spacer mod. I got the carb out without TOO much hassle. I then started to take out the phillips screws but they are so ridiculously soft that the heads stripped on all of them. I grabbed my channel-locks and got them all off that way. Then when I tried taking the screws off of the cap on top to do the white spacer mod, those ones stripped too. Again, used the channel-locks and got them off. Then I tried to take the two screws that hold the plate which keeps the white spacer in place. Those stripped too. Now I'm pretty sure that I can get the other 8 screws replaced fairly easily. But how am I supposed to get those two little buggers out?

I would like to think that I know how to handle a screwdriver (grew up on a farm after all) but I have never had this much trouble with phillips head bolts. It's aggravating! Angry

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justin_o_guy2 Serious Thumper Offline What happened? Posts: 55279 East Texas, 1/2 dallas/la.	Re: Soft Screws Reply #1 - 07/24/08 at 20:25:43 How badly have you boogered the little ones? If you can get a pin punch to it, maybe you can drive the meat back to where it goes & get them loosened up a bit too. What tip did you use? A proper fit is essential. Theres more than 1 Phillips head.
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sidny4 YaBB Newbies Offline Thumping since May 2008 Posts: 35 Fargo, ND Gender:	Re: Soft Screws Reply #2 - 07/24/08 at 20:31:34 well, they're not completely smooth yet, I can still get a little bit of a grip. I'm not sure what size phillips I used, it was a bigger one but it didn't slip as much as my next size smaller one so I went with it.
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Paladin. Serious Thumper Offline Hamster Posts: 4929 Sunny Southern California Gender:	Re: Soft Screws Reply #3 - 07/24/08 at 20:36:03 An impact driver will loosen screws without messing up the heads.
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Brandon

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Re: Soft Screws
Reply #4 - 07/24/08 at 20:45:09

Look up a drawing of the carb(can't find a link very quick right now sorry!) find these screw on it and get the size. I can't remember off hand what size they are. Then go to any industrial supply store and get that size in stainless socket head cap screws. That will save the trouble, as they will be far superior to the stock crap metal ones.

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justin_o_guy2

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What happened?

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Re: Soft Screws
Reply #5 - 07/24/08 at 21:00:45

A small pin punch & a LIGHT hammer,( maybe an endwrench) using a quick, light tap, directing the raised edge back toward the slot, reshaping the slot, on all 4 edges that get pressure from the screwdriver tip during removal, then, as was stated, an impact driver with the right bit #, may just save yer bacon.

It's okay to stick a screw in a piece of junk & booger it up & practice first.

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sidny4

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Re: Soft Screws
Reply #6 - 07/25/08 at 22:18:54

Ok, so I bought a few screw extracters (#1 and #2, just in case) Neither one of them worked so I decided to just skip the white spacer mod. I rinsed that piece out a few times in gas (to get any metal shards from trying to get those little buggers) and put it back together. Now, I'm all the way in on the brass idler screw with no change, I get out to about 1 and 3/4 and it starts dying. I put it back to 1 turn out and the backfire seems to have gone away. Is this setting ok or should I put a smaller jet in? I put the 152.5 one in.

I'll take it for a longer run to see if the backfire is completely gone yet or not.

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Sandy Koocanusa Serious Thumper Offline Don't blame me. I didn't vote for him. Posts: 1878 Bigfork, MT Gender:	Re: Soft Screws Reply #7 - 07/25/08 at 23:05:00 Unless I missed something, which is entirely possible, you are monkeying with the wrong jet to help tune out backfiring. You want to change your pilot jet if the screw isn't adjusting things enough to stop it.
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Jay Serious Thumper Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 1445 Fort Worth, Texas Gender:	Re: Soft Screws Reply #8 - 07/25/08 at 23:12:55 Sandy, I too buggered up the tiny screws. I wish I could tell you what size they were, but I can tell you I found the replacements only at ACE. I eventually, very carefully, drilled them out. Sweated bullets doing it too. Good luck.
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sidny4 YaBB Newbies Offline Thumping since May 2008 Posts: 35 Fargo, ND Gender:	Re: Soft Screws Reply #9 - 07/26/08 at 08:30:43 I bought lancer's jetset and put both the 55 pilot jet and the 152.5 main jet in.
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Ed L.

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Re: Soft Screws
Reply #10 - 07/26/08 at 08:41:45

The first time I tried t open my carb I really buggered up the screws, ended up taking a small file and flat sided the screw heads. Then I was able to get in there on the flats with a small pair of channel lock pliers and get enough bite to loosen them. A small pair of vice grips will work if you can get a grip. Couldn't find replacement cap screws in stainless so just got regular steel at Ace Hardware.

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Charon

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Re: Soft Screws
Reply #11 - 07/26/08 at 12:47:17

To make you fellers really happy, the Japanese do not use Phillips screws at all. They resemble Phillips screws, but are just different enough to evade the patents. That's why Phillips screwdrivers are not entirely satisfactory on Japanese machinery. I don't know what the Japanese call their version.

Edited to add: (I looked it up)
JIS
Commonly found in Japanese equipment. Looks like a Phillips screw, but is designed not to cam out and will, therefore, be damaged by a Phillips screwdriver if it is too tight. Heads are usually identifiable by a single dot to one side of the cross slot. The standard number is JIS B 1012:1985 (End edit)

Most of the time, I use a Phillips screwdriver one size too large. That is, on a screw which would seem to need a #1 Phillips, a #2 works better. That seems to avoid stripping most of them, if the bit will fit into the hole. It may, or may not, work for you.

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bill67 Serious Thumper Offline old tired Posts: 8517 genoa city wisconsin Gender:	Re: Soft Screws Reply #12 - 07/26/08 at 12:58:48 Jap bikes have always had soft screws thats so they stay tight and don't vibrate loose
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mo.goad YaBB Newbies Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 20	Re: Soft Screws Reply #13 - 07/26/08 at 14:03:44 Will this mean that the Philip Head Screwdriver with the Tool-Kit work with the Jap version of Philip heads?
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bill67 Serious Thumper Offline old tired Posts: 8517 genoa city wisconsin Gender:	Re: Soft Screws Reply #14 - 07/26/08 at 14:15:32 That screwdriver works but its hard to get much leverage with it.
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