Thursday, March 27, 2008

Finally Got The Motorcycle Fixed!!!!
I had a bolt shear off on the "BigBluePlasticKawasaki" awhile back. No good reason I can figure out, but break it did.

So I had to get the thing out of the engine case. My riding buddy, Mr-T, came over a couple of weeks ago and we (He) attempted to extract it with a nifty Craftsman Extractor tool. "Cept it wouldn't grab it like it was supposed to. Just dug in and ate the bolt somewhat.

He bailed on the project at that point in fear of causing major problems to the engine case. I don't blame him. The potential for catastrophe was going up with every attempt we made.

I had been putting off the inevitable for the last two weeks and praying that it would decide to come out on it's own, but darn it, that didn't happen.

So yesterday I just "Nutted Up" and went for it. I'd purchased several different extractors and armed with a good, sharp drill bit, bored a pilot hole in the stud and hooked up the Handy Dandy left handed extractor and......... Pop! Out it came.

I had been spraying penetrating oil on it, Warming the bike and rapping on the stud with a punch and hammer almost daily in order to loosen things up. Don't know if that helped, but it came right out as soon as the extractor bit in.

The treads in the case weren't even damaged. This is a minor miracle given my notable "Garage Kung Foo" skills. Which are about the same level as Curious George the Monkey.

But all is well and the bike is ready to ride. Whenever it stops raining and snowing.