So, with about 25 minutes left in my last endurance race, the bike quit running. Thankfully, I was able to coast to pit in and get off the track. As soon as I got off the bike, I looked at the ignition rotor, and sho' nuff, the bolt was gone. Odd, I thought. I had replaced the clutch that morning necessitating the removal of the ignotion rotor to get the right side case cover off. The iginition rotor bolt loosened up on me in the first race of the season, so I made sure to locktite the bolt in place on reassembly. I figured I used the wrong flavor of locktite (blue) and lost the bolt again.

So I grab my spare parts this a.m. and go to put a new bolt in. Upon closer inspection, I see some metal shavings on the igniton pickup. I popped the ignition rotor off and found that it had grounded against the pickup! Well that's not good. Not good at all. The impact sheared the rotor bolt off leaving half the screw still in the end of the crank.

Looks like the blue locktite worked after all. :x

I have all the spares I need to replace what broke, but now I get to mess around with trying to get that f'in bolt out. No fun.

Anyone else have this happen? What was your method of removing the bolt?

I did it, not in the same manner, but the same result.  I found the smallest easy out I could find.  I think it was 1/8", maybe smaller,  I then got a super small drill bit. I drilled a small hole in the peice that was sheared off and used the easy-out with a small adjustable wrench and gently screwed out the remaining part of the screw.  Other option is to try and drill out the screw and re-tap the shaft.  Good Luck.

Thanks for the advice. I'm taking the bike to my sponsoring shop. He has an easyout and some experience with it. I was just worried that the bolt would be too hard to drill out.

Easy out first.

Drill out second.

Better heat that bolt before taking it out to break up the threadlocker otherwise an easyout isnt going to do anything but break, and trying to drill through a broken off easy out is not fun at all!

I crashed in the bowl(turn6-7) at RRR in 96? and that problem didn't appear til mid 97(the next yr)


then I got case guards!!!!

What did you all torque the bolt to?  I ran it to 14 ftlbs and used blue loctite on it.  I had the same thing happen, had a leaking clutch cover gasket and I know I tightened that bolt last nite.  Well the wife got about 5 miles down the road and it died.  I pulled up alongside and saw where the bolt worked its way out against the ingition cover and it dinged the suzuki logo.  I am now really leary on the bikes reliability.  Any thoughts before we get back on the road?

Manual calls for 12.5 to 16.5lb-ft so you are bang on with 14lb. What condition are the male/female threads in and are you sure the bolt didnt bottom out?

THings to check for:

corrosion (it will seize the bolt)
bottoming (it will make a big headache)
thread condition, bolt and tapped shaft (more headaches)

If you have problems with bolts on a regular basis, buy a set of LEFT hand drills. They'll do a couple of things:

1) Warm up the bolt/screw while drilling out some room for an easy out, if it's even needed.
2) Quite possibly warm the bolt/screw enough and torque the bolt right out, the vibrations from the drilling process do alot also.
3) Sometimes, when the planets align and your karma is decent, the bolt/screw will spin right out directly after the drill bit grabs.

It's a little bit expensive for decent LH drill bits, but after the first time it works smoothly, you'll feel it's worth it.

BE CAREFUL WITH EASYOUTS. As stated above, once an easy out is broken in a shaft/bolt/screw the extraction alot more difficult.

Well the bolt looked like it was intact and the threads looked good as well.  Have you all used loctite on this bolt.  I am wanting to ride to Big Sur with the little woman (her GS) today.  It has been almost 24 hours since I re-assembled it.  Thanks for the replies.

Jer