Just bought this bike from a certain dealership near me.  And after 100 miles of riding notice an extremely slow oild leak coming from back right cylinder head bolt. Its the long one that goes maybe even down to the case.  Anyhow I checked it and indeed it was loose so I tightened it only to be panic stricken when upon turning the wrench there was little resistance and that the bolt was (actually the threads way down at the bottom) stripped.  It had obviously been cleaned up so as not to be noticed and since it was such a slow leak even the thorough check I gave it at the dealership couldn't have found it.  I took it back to the dealership and am waiting to hear the verdict but I am hoping to get some help.  What do yall think. I paid a higher end price for the used bike based on the fact that it had only 1600 miles and was in perfect cond. with no problems.  Well so I thought.  I don't know I just felt like the pulled one over on me and Im hoping that even if they didn't know about this that they are willing to help me out.  Im still willing to pay them some but I refuse to let them stick me with a full price bill, Id just as soon take it somewhere else.

Not to worry, you need a longer bolt.   You can order several increasingly longer ones on line with little trouble.

There is extra threaded hole depth left in the hole that had the top part strip out.  There are lots of references on line on how to turn a bolt into a one time tap, so do that to your longest bolt.

Once you tap down to find the bottom of the existing drilled hole and have tapped as deep as you can, count the turns of engagement.   If you have four turns or more you can use the hole "as is" without drilling for additional depth, just go with a very mild tightening of the bolt.

Spec on those things is 70 to 100 inch pounds (you can read that as 5 to 8 foot pounds, 5 pounds being moderate finger pressure) and YOU DON'T HAVE TO TIGHTEN THAT MUCH TO GET IT TO SEAL.  Your goal is to tighten it just enough to seal the oil leak, then quit.  Since it is a no loss proposition, you can sneak up on it from the bottom end gradually.

Notice this method requires no disassembly and no big labor charges, so of course the dealerships won't tell you about it.

But we will .....    


=====================


Next, read up on the head plug leak -- go to the index at the top of TECH SECTION to find it.   Odds are some of you leak may be coming from this, but since you stripped the threads on the long bolt you have to fix it anyway.

I had the very same bolt stripped out on a bike I bought to fix and sell. Tried the method above but it was too far gone...

pulled the engine and put it on the bench (it's heavy btw... ).
anyway i ended up fixing it with a helicoil kit and sold it to my friend's wife (she bought for his birthday)...still going strong and made a few bucks on the way...

if the dealer does that they will likely charge you plenty btw...

Gyrobob wrote on 04/08/13 at 07:30:55:

Can we have this framed?...   ...

I believe that only applies to new vehicles, not used ones.

Cavi Mike wrote on 04/08/13 at 15:08:41:


I was thinking about my state. Only 6 states have used vehicle lemon laws. Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico and New York . You just happen to live in one of those states.

And in this case the dealer may not have know about this problem if the person they got it from cleaned it up and did not say any thing about it so the dealer did not knowingly deceive the buyer. And many of the better dealers will offer some kind of remedy in this situation.

http://www.edmunds.com/auto-warranty/my-used-cars-a-lemon-am-i-stuck-with-it....

Hello I just got my bike a few months ago during winter to start my project it all done but I have a stripped cylinder head the long 10 bolt...I ordered what the guys in the post before me did is going to try that just wondering if it's should have oil coming out of the top on fire up I didn't have the bolt in at all and oil went everwhere

noah7324290 wrote on 02/17/15 at 06:45:04:


Yes oil will go everywhere with this bolt removed,  as this bolt goes through the passage that supplies the oil to the top of the cylinder head.  Don't run your bike until you get this fixed - as no oil will be going to the cam or valves until you have that bolt back in place.