Hello, first post.

I'm on the home stretch getting a 1998 VTR1000F Superhawk back on the road. I bought it from someone who swapped most of the parts from a totaled frame onto a solid one. There has been a lot of found jank as I've gone through everything. Forks rebuilt with Racetech springs plus a fork brace. New steering bearings, wheel bearings, swingarm bearings, and seals. Cam Tension set with manual adjusters and shimmed to spec. Going through everything.

Today, I finished getting the carburetors rebuilt and reinstalled on the bike. The plan was to get the bike run up to temp with distilled water to check if the fan worked before I ran Blue Devil Cooling System Cleaner through the system. As it turns out my temp switch for the fan doesn't work as well as the temp gauge on the dash. That's alright. Going to order a new switch and figure out the gauge.

Unfortunately, after I let the system cool down, I went to pull the coolant drain bolt to get the plain water out. The bolt turned an eighth of a turn out and then snapped off a sixteenth to an eighth of an inch recessed below the surface. This surprised me because I had this bolt out less than a month ago to drain the system and reinstalled it with a new crush washer and a bit of graphite spray to work as antiseize. I tried welding a nut onto it but I'm having a hard time getting any penetration onto the stud with it that far in. I thought about getting to it with a drill and an extractor but the column for the exhaust stud is exactly in the way.

I suppose my main concern is how much coolant is left in the system if you can't use the drain bolt? Can I live without it if it's not leaking?

Thanks, Ta

 

I'd not leave it like that. Threads aren't responsible for the sealing, it's the bolt head and washer.

 

Part of my daily at work is extracting broken fasteners in aluminum.
I can't recal what the coolant drain bolt looks like, but i bet a Grabit style extractor would work on it.


Use a power drill for step 1, but use a 1/4" drive hex screwdriver for step 3.
You can also use a regular drill bit for step 1 that is slightly undersized from the grabit drill end diameter.

 

Looks like I need to get a head gasket and pull that front head to get to the leftover bolt. I already knew this was the correct answer, would rather it was something else though.

I'll look into getting one of those Grabit extractors.

Thank you

 

Well, I got the head off, got the grabbit extractor in there. The bolt is seized pretty good in there because it snapped off the extractor.

I wish I had just drilled it out.

Edit: All good, I ground the extractor piece out with my Dremmel, then drilled and tapped it for an M8 bolt. Should be good to go.