Broken Engine Stud!

[Asz]

Hi guys. I just received a new bike from Spooky Tooth (some great pics here) I rode it around for quite a while last night (staying within the "breaking in" rules of course) and generally had lots of fun on it after I got the hang of starting her up. As noted all over these forums, on the Spooky Tooth website, and from Roland the man himself its best to check and tighten the main bolts around the engine before riding. So I went out on Sunday morning and did my first check of everything: tightened the nuts on the carb, exhaust, ect. Then came the bolts on top of the cylinder head. I tightened up one bolt but then the second one broke on me! The piece that came off is the top inch, almost an inch exactly. After taking the cylinder head off to check if I could simply get a jam nut going to unscrew the remainder out I found that there is only about 1/8" of the stud sticking out, not really enough to work with.

Is there any particularly easy solution to this? I'm not the most mechanically minded and cringe at having to dissemble the entire engine just to get to the one bolt. I'm a bit peeved that my bike is already breaking down on me and what makes matters worse is that Spooky Tooth's Tucson mechanic is on vacation, which leaves me to either wait for him to get back (don't know when that is) or do something to fix it myself. Help!

As a quick side question: Is it safe to ride without all four studs complete and in place? I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this but I figured I would test the water anyway

 

[gone_fishin]

the quick answer is "no"...search for "heli-coil" to find other existing topics about this.

 

[Asz]

I managed to extract the remainder of the stud from the engine with just a pair of pliers and a little more effort than i'm used to. Problem solved! Just need to get a replacement now.

 

[Patch]

If the 8th inch is above the cyclinder... get a dremel with a cut off wheel and grind a slit or groove in to the exposed piece...then use a flat skrewdriver to back it out-tell me if that helps or will work

 

[Asz]

If the 8th inch is above the cyclinder... get a dremel with a cut off wheel and grind a slit or groove in to the exposed piece...then use a flat skrewdriver to back it out-tell me if that helps or will work

This was my initial plan as I do own a dremel, I backed away however from fear of sparks flying everywhere and everything exploding in my face.

Roland from Spooky Tooth advised me to simply use a vice-grip or pliers to latch onto the remaining chunk inside the engine and slowly turn it out. To my surprise this actually did work just fine, I extracted the larger part of the broken stud. I went down to Ace and picked up a large 4ft. threaded rod of the same measurement, cut a piece out of the same size as the original stud, jam nutted it, and fixed it in. I just got back from a test drive using the new stud and everything seems to work just fine! No studs popping out, no giant Hollywoodesque explosions.

Another quick question: Is it OK to be using an all-threaded stud like this? The studs that came in the engine are only threaded 1-2" on each side, not down the whole stud.

 

[japat100]

the think to watch for is the grade of steel in the rod ,,i know that at the local hardware store they have 4 ft rods and it is the worst grade of steel you can buy ,, hopefully the rod you used is better then local hardware quality
japat