hi I need to remove my exhaust but the alan key spins around in the hole in the bolts. can any body help???

  if its stripped then get the bolt extractor.

Quote from: boggy on August 17, 2010, 03:34:53 PM
hi I need to remove my exhaust but the alan key spins around in the hole in the bolts. can any body help???

1st vice grips - you can get the outside bolts off with vgrips.
2nd heat n beat - put some heat on it (ride ?) and use a punch n hammer to start tapping the bolt in the LEFT HAND direction.
3rth take it to a machine shop. pay someone $30-40 to do it for you, and not kill your engine. (easiest, but no one does this until they've turned a $40 job into a $150 job, then they whine because it costs $150 to fix a screw up)

some people like easy-outs. i like them to go away. my prefered method for broken screws/bolts/whatever is a left hand drill bit that is the tap-drill size for whatever you're extracting. it does a very nice job of drilling/heating the remaining bits of the bolt, and also once the bolt begins to free itself, it will unscrew itself. awesomeness !

don't forget to KROIL the bolts before you attempt to remove them. penetrating oil is amazing stuff !

Quote from: reload on August 17, 2010, 03:39:52 PM
if its stripped then get the bolt extractor.

not gonna work on an allen bolt will they?

why do i not remember when removing my exhaust their being any allen key bolts?  I remember using a regular socket maybe 12 or 14mm.

Quote from: bassmechanicsz on August 17, 2010, 07:03:04 PM
why do i not remember when removing my exhaust their being any allen key bolts?  I remember using a regular socket maybe 12 or 14mm.

Did you buy your bike new? If not, the original owner most likely removed the original allen key bolts and replaced them with regulars. Not a bad idea to do.

i did buy it used so i guess the po had the same problem you are having and thought this was a better idea. 

Sure beats his idea or leaving an ice pick jammed in the end of the gas tank vent tube jammed in behind the fairings.  That was a very interesting find.

Quote from: jeremy_nash on August 17, 2010, 06:26:53 PM

Quote from: reload on August 17, 2010, 03:39:52 PM
if its stripped then get the bolt extractor.

not gonna work on an allen bolt will they?

Those will definitely work with allen key bolts, as long as you find the right size.

hi just ordered the bolt extractor looks like the tool to do the job

I always put a little anti seize on the bolts before I put them back in.  Same stuff you put on spark plugs to keep them from seizing.

Quote from: bassmechanicsz on August 17, 2010, 07:03:04 PM
why do i not remember when removing my exhaust their being any allen key bolts?  I remember using a regular socket maybe 12 or 14mm.

My bike still has the stock exhaust bolts.  They are 6mm hex.  If one of mine got stuck I would spray it with PB Blaster or some other good penetrating oil, ride it to heat it, spray it again, try to remove it, (but be careful not to wreck it) and repeat until it comes loose.  As long as you have the whole bolt there you're not in trouble yet.  It's when it breaks-off that things get interesting, so try not to allow that to happen.  Best of luck to you.

Does anyone know what size the bolts are?  Doing some work on my bike last night I noticed that mine had started to rust (tropical storm + uncovered bike sitting for 2 weeks = rust starting to pop up) and I want to either remove and clean the heads or replace them.  Any idea?

Quote from: hokierower on September 09, 2010, 08:23:24 AM
Does anyone know what size the bolts are?  Doing some work on my bike last night I noticed that mine had started to rust (tropical storm + uncovered bike sitting for 2 weeks = rust starting to pop up) and I want to either remove and clean the heads or replace them.  Any idea?

the heads are aluminum, they dont rust. do you mean the exhaust headers? those are mild steel and will rust.
removing the headers is easy, one bolt holding the muffler up and 2 bolts on each header tube. just make sure you loosen each header bolt a little at a time otherwise they may break off. then remove the muffler bolt last. during reassembly put anti-sieze on each header bolt so they wont seize (hence the name) or gall the threads in the future.

Can you define gall, as in "gall the threads" ?  Does this mean strip or misthread? 

Thanks

Quote from: bassmechanicsz on August 18, 2010, 05:12:55 AM
i did buy it used so i guess the po had the same problem you are having and thought this was a better idea. 

Sure beats his idea or leaving an ice pick jammed in the end of the gas tank vent tube jammed in behind the fairings.  That was a very interesting find.

I guess he wasn't very smart afterall then

Quote from: BeerGarage on September 09, 2010, 09:53:24 AM
Can you define gall, as in "gall the threads" ?  Does this mean strip or misthread? 

Thanks

Galling is cold welding, its when there is sufficient pressure between two pieces of metal to cause them to actually weld together without heat. seizure can be fixed (sometimes) with penetrating oil; galling is pretty much guaranteed to either break the bolt or rip the threads out. Do not confuse stripping with galling or cross-threading. crossthreading is caused by improper installation (read: installer error) and stripping is caused by improper torque (read: installer error)

"If it aint broke dont try to fix it"

Unless the bolts are relatively free I would leave them in until such time as they have to come out, you could be opening up a huge can of worms for no good reason here.

The header bolts sieze in the head due to galvanic corrosion, a magnesium-alluminium alloy head and high-tensile steel bolts. You can clean them, cover them in coppa-slip as much as you want or replace them but at the end of the day they are disimilar metals and there is no easy way of making it go away. You might reduce the effect but you will never prevent it happening where they contact each other. As soon as you refit them the process will start again so do the sensible thing. If the bolts do come out freely without damaging the threads in the head junk them and use manifold studs and nuts instead. I will never understand why Suzuki didnt go down this road when the bike was designed.The GS5 is infamous for siezed header bolts 

Its not been mentioned yet but if you are a fan of the torque wrench you need to reduce the specified figure by about 25% if you choose to lubricate the threads before fitting the bolts. The coefficient of friction between the male and female thread plays a big part in determining the correct amount of torque and if you reduce it by lubricating the thread and then stay with the figures for dry threads you will overload the bolt, its likely to stretch and weaken or strip the thread out of the softer head.