Nothing anyone can help with. Just thought I'd bitch...

'98 VTR1000 Firestorm (Canadian model). Bought it new. Few mods here and there like full Ti high rise Moriwaki exhaust and Dynojet kit. Always loved the bike. But it no longer loves me (though really, it's mostly my own doing).

It all started when I went to Australia for 2 years. Prepped the bike for long term storage. But it's just been trouble ever since I got back. First the cooling system. Then noises from cam chains. And then the real trouble began. Thinking "I've put manual CCTs on inline 4s a couple times now and that was easy" I didn't read the very well laid out postings here about replacing CCTs on the VTR. Two front cylinder bent exhaust valves later...

Got that fixed. Put it all back together. Out for a test ride. Rear manual CCT comes loose a block from home. Coast in. Start pulling it apart to check for damage. Stuck alternator cover bolt. Ya know, the big one that folks seem to complain about getting stuck. Well, I got it out all right. But it took this (see picture) to do it.



Used my dremmel tool to cut the slot (at least I was smart enough to remove the cover to do it) so I could get a strong enough tool in to break it free. And that was after using another posting's suggestion of chisel and hammer.

Oh... and I dropped a bolt down the cam chain well. So now I have to pull the oil pan. And one of those crappy cheap plastic carb choke fittings broke. And I had to actually pull the exhaust cam on the rear cylinder and take it to a shop to get the sprocket bolts undone. Even with lots of heat to loosen the thread lock I couldn't do it. Stripped the head on one of the bolts.

Good God this thing has been a lot of work this summer. My friends think that my mechanic (uh - that would be me) is sh*t and that I should actually pay someone to fix it right...

 

Knowledge and experience have a price.....

 

Looking at the picture above,, you did not do the hammer and chisel as intended... or described... which is why it did not work.



Ya have to hit it at about a 45deg angle, on the farthest outer edge possible to get the most rotation torque to the plug.

I've been doing it this way for years now, since the day i was shown this method, on every brand of bike, aluminum and plastic plugs... and it takes no more then 1-3 smacks to loosen the plug... ..

 

question, why not use anti seize when it's off the first time? Same with spark plugs. It's cheap, a tube lasts years and this won't happen. I know, hind sight and all that.

https://www.superhawkforum.com/forum...-plug-3892.jpg

I bought these, made from titanium, so they won't strip if they get stuck but I use the anti seize to keep them from freezing, (besides, they weigh next to nothing so they make the bike a lost faster)!

 

where did you buy that at.i kind of like it.

 

Ya know, for as long as I have been riding and tinkering, you would think I would learn a few things. Most important, don't take short cuts.

Normally when I work on one of my bikes I have my shop manual open in front of me. Moved not too long ago and don't have a full garage. A lot of stuff went into storage, including my shop manuals. Didn't expect to be doing this much work on my bikes. Got lazy and didn't want to take a whole day to drive out to the storage place, empty contents out to find the one box I need... pack it all back in... etc, etc. So I tried the short cut... AND... didn't read all the great posts here before I started.

I now have an electronic copy of the shop manual for my bike. Damn that comes in handy.

BTW... bike is almost back together. Just need to:
- Fill the oil
- Install the tank
- Install the exhaust system
- Put some anti-sieze compound on a couple PITA bolts before I install the new ones

...and then hope to hell nothing leaks or goes bang when I hit the start button. I have manually rotated the engine around a good 6 or 7 times and that seems to work just fine. So my fingers are crossed.

 

Why were you trying to remove the can sprockets?

I too dropped a bolt down my rear head. It didnt make its way to the pan, it stopped on top of the gears up inside the crank case and I had to use some wire and a magnet to get it out.

 

Looked like the exhaust cam was out of position by one tooth. So I was going to remove the cam sprocket and realign the cam to the correct position. Once I realized the damn bolts were not going to come out (even with heat) I knew I had to pull the cam.

I couldn't find the bolt I had dropped anywhere. So I assumed it ended up in the oil pan. Sure enough, once I got the pan off, there was the bolt. With the way things have been going, I'm sure I'll end up with oil leaks or something...

 

Hahahah, I've had that one a couple of times... fixing one thing just to find another broken and friends giving me the hardest time for it. And there is absolutely NO way you can rationalize working on your bike with them. Cause sometimes you can't even explain it to yourself.

Once you get it running, though, man is it that much better!