| Author | Message | ||
     Etennuly |
I've seen several bike lifts over the past 12 years. Hadn't seen one that you all use that would not be in the way when not in use. I've used a lot of portable units, but they were not for sale. I finally broke down and bought one.   Excellent position for changing broken side stand bolts. Variable height from ground to 4 feet Easily stores outside. Very portable,and has a multitude of other uses. | ||
| Ratbuell |
Hey honey...hold my beer while I do this....  | ||
| Hughlysses |
And it's electric! Hey- paint that muffler while you've got it up there! | ||
| Etennuly |
Paint your own muffler! Mine is a Buell original. It has 12 years of patina worked into it. If it were supposed to look better the manufacturer should have done it. I'm making a front tire clamp affair like the one on your lift Joe. This side stand design amazes me that it hasn't ripped the bottom of the engine case apart. The abuse mine has taken over the years to have this be the first failure is a miracle I guess. What were the specs on the warranty up grade replacement bolts ? Anyone recall? | ||
| Pwnzor |
I had to replace my pivot bolt after about 3 weeks of ownership... it snapped off while the bike was warming up in my driveway. I heard the engine cut off, walked out and found the XBR laying on it's side. I was less than happy at having to wait 10 days to get the damn thing, so I ordered 3 of them in case it happened again, or if anybody else needed one. I didn't know about BadWeB at the time this happened. | ||
| Willmrx |
 This was made from a dental chair. | ||
| Etennuly |
That is neat! I like looking at and into home made tools. Can it still work out for a dental repair? Ha! Removing my broken bolts has sucked so far. They must have put some powerful thread locker on these bolts. The ugly side broke off most of one thread into the hole. I like to do the worst one first, so I picked at that one for a couple of hours. Even heating with a torch flame and careful picking, then drilling, then easy out, it hasn't budged yet. I'm out of nice sharp fresh easy outs. That is a 50 mile round trip for me so I tried something else to apply twisting torque. I found that my slightly used drilled hole had become a slightly tapered, perfect size hole in which I could drive a high quality new 25 Torx bit. What the hell right? Well it worked. I put so much twisting force on this broken bolt that it twisted the Torx bit! That is a well locked thread! I can tell you I had at least double the force I could get on that size easy out. Oh.....it was successful in now knowing a Torx bit can substitute for an easy out. But the broken bolt did not budge. So this morning I drilled a little more with a left twist bit still getting nothing. So I drove in a new high quality Torx 30 bit made into a 3/8 socket drive. I put heat to it again, drove in the 30 bit, put on a long ratchet, applied twisting torque holding it on to let it work the glue. It seemed to be going well, thought for sure it was slowly releasing. All it did was twist this Torx bit an eighth of a turn. Sure the Torx bit wedges into the bolt exerting force outward against the threads, but so does an easy out this far into the bolt. I drove the Torx bit in cold, wiggled it back out, then heated the bolt. The bit then fit back in as if it were a Torx bolt head. It did not damage the flutes it made in the bolt. I going to try plug welding a nut onto what is left of the bolt. Sombich-pile-of-monkey-nuts! | ||
| Ratbuell |
I had to dril mine till the hole was so big, there wasn't anything left but basically a threaded tube...not a bolt. Just make sure you're centered, and drill larger and larger holes till the remains of the bolt get thinner and thinner and you can start to pick/bend/twist them out. The heat from the repeated drilling should help break the loctite, too. | ||
| Etennuly |
Aha! So it is not just mine then. The lock tite they used really was over kill. I have done this operation many many times over the years. I have always succeeded in getting the thread locker loose with heat. Maybe I just don't like heating the bolt in the aluminum engine case. This is becoming a Three Stooges repair....." If at first you don't succeed- keep on sucking 'till ya do suck seed!!" | ||
| Ratbuell |
Think about how hot that case gets when you ride.... | ||
| Etennuly |
Oh I know. Knowing the importance of the bottom of the case staying intact, the bolt being broken off up in the hole, it is not comforting attempting to get the bolt to near red hot for a minute. Which is what will happen when I weld a nut to it. I can almost believe with this thread locker as it is, if one attempted to remove non broken bolts, the heads would twist off, but then, if the heads were there it would be easy to heat them. Oh well, I will get back to it as soon as the mood strikes. Working on lots of other projects too. PITA ! | ||
| Etennuly |
Oh I know. Knowing the importance of the bottom of the case staying intact, the bolt being broken off up in the hole, it is not comforting attempting to get the bolt to near red hot for a minute. Which is what will happen when I weld a nut to it. I can almost believe with this thread locker as it is, if one attempted to remove non broken bolts, the heads would twist off, but then, if the heads were there it would be easy to heat them. Oh well, I will get back to it as soon as the mood strikes. Working on lots of other projects too. PITA ! | ||
| Malott442 |
Hate to sound boring, but I just use my harbor freight lifts. I have 2, they are great. | ||
| Aesquire |
Left handed drill bits. Work up to the root diameter of the bolt threads, usually the reverse torque & heat gets the job done. Usually. Sometimes it's down to dental pics and cursing. | ||
| Figorvonbuellingham |
I bought a Harbor freight lift after 25 years of crawling around on concret and gravel. I had one of those coupons out of some bike mag. I think it was $239. Best m9ney I ever spent. If I had done it 25 years ago my knees probably wouldn't be shot. | ||
| Fast1075 |
10 years ago, I bought a lift from a tool company that was going out of business. Caught my eye as I was driving by. $200.00 for a 1,000 pound lift that works by air or foot power. I use it a lot. | ||
| Ourdee |
Pictures? | ||
| Ouchbri |
built this about 10 years ago  | ||
| Etennuly |
I've been working on box trucks for 26 years. As such I nearly always had a lift gate truck in the shop to use momentarily for a bike oil change or what ever. The trucks with a ramp were actually better. I have a set of steel saw horses that were the right height. Just roll the bike out on the ramp and everything was at the right height. Never had room in the shop for a hoist. So I bought this truck that has a nice big heavy duty lift gate, so I continue. No in shop hoist needed. | ||
| Etennuly |
Hugh, I got it back together and I painted the left side of the muffler. It's kind of a half assed deal painting half of it. But I need to get back to other stuff. | ||
| Ourdee |
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| Etennuly |
What a puss! Have the engine out to do it? I only got 1 hour flat rate book time to do one in a cutaway van body truck. Not only work it in the truck, but with the iron exh manifold still in place. For a long time we did about four or five of them every month. I had three employees, the four of us would flip for who had to do the job. I'd pay a $10 bonus if they could beat the flat rate hour. I did one one time in under ten minutes welding a nut on the broken bolt, spun it out with an air wrench, screwed in a new stud and nut with thread locker.....we done! My foolish game on mine was to avoid removing the muffler. It has not been off in 65,000+ miles, had no leaks or problems. I did not want to make it into new problems. Broken clamps, head exh studs, actuator cable or motor, or just make it leak. The weld trick failed a few times leaving me to think the replacement warranty bolts were stainless ? Weld no stick. I am out of argon, nobody open to sell me some when I was doing it, so as to try stainless wire. Oh well, sombich pile of monkey nuts is done. | ||
| Etennuly |
Well what I couldn't see came back to bite me. My side stand broke off due to an unusual circumstance. It was in the back of a box truck for a long ride. The bike had to be loaded at the back of the truck, the worst possible place. Leverage of road bump forces are probably double at the back of the truck vs the front. This truck box had only e track down the sides to tie to. It was in strips at the 30 inch level from the floor. Tied the bike with new good ratchet straps side to side in the box. It could not be pulled down at enough vertical angle to stop vertical jounce. Nothing else to tie to. With the side stand up, standing vertically, I did not take into account that downward force of the bounce would make the side stand flip down. Now with the stand down it was bouncing vertically hitting itself violently on the floor. That is what broke the bolts off. After the repair, which went ugly due to some stupid strong thread remover.....yeah.....remover, I had to upsize the holes and bolts. Which went well. However, due to my feeling the need to not remove the muffler, I missed the cracks the incident of breaking the bolts has caused. As I used the bike lately it leaned too far on the stand.I re torqued the bolts. All felt good. But the cast bosses where the bolts go had cracked and they broke out yesterday as I moved the bike into position to change the rear tire. It did not break into the primary oil galley. No cracks or leaks there. Just no boss for bolt holes. I think what happened was as I re torqued them the bolts just touched bottom jacking the cracked bosses loose. Shit! | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
JEEZE! What can be done now? | ||
| Etennuly |
I'm guessing smart money would change left side case. Being short on money for this, and way short on smarts, I have a TIG and a guy who is really good at stacking dimes. Otherwise an under carriage of steel attached to muffler mounts? | ||
| Ratbuell |
If you're gonna fab something, I'd leave the case alone and fab something that attached either to the footpeg subframe, or to the lower primary cover bolts that are on either side of the shoe adjuster bolt. If it was a *cover*, I'd say go for it, but splitting cases....sucks. I don't know the inside of the case, but could you - maybe? - re-drill the stand bolt holes further inboard, closer to the case seam? Or is there less material there. Again - I don't know the internals and would hate to punch through into the fluid cavity... | ||
| Bandm |
My Lift with wheel loader attachment   Drill the holes all the way through and thread it, seal it with Loctite. Maybe HeliCoil it for a little extra strength. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
Hmmm centerstand connected to the muffler? | ||
| Etennuly |
Would not bother me a bit to plate the muffler and bracket to it. Be some discussions this weekend for sure. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Hmmm centerstand connected to the muffler? I seriously thought about that for a couple of years. I think you could do it. Weld a small pivot bracket on either side of the muffler. Use a junkyard centerstand off of a Japanese bike. Modify it so the brace between the two legs is curved to clear the muffler when the stand is folded up. In the folded position, the legs would be parallel to the muffler on either side. |
