Carb Boot Bolts Advice

Hey all, advice needed.

So I got my new Seca that I am working on - but I am trying to limit breakage ;-)

The carb boots that are on her have some major cracks going on, and I am pretty sure that some of them are all the way through. I have a set of boots that i've treated w/ a few layers of liquid electical tape that are in good condition.

So the problem is, I don't want to break the bolts off in the head when I am removing the boots. I had that happen on my old bike (which is now my parts bike) and that's a pain I don't want to deal with. I'm actively riding this bike, so I don't want to have to strip down the engine to bring it to a machine shop to extract these bolts.

So, what is the best way or best treatment plan to set the stage for not breaking these bolts? I've been spraying them every few days for the past few days with PB Blaster, and planned on doing so until I finished rebuilding the rack of carbs I am working on, which will be in the next 2-3 weeks. Should I keep doing this for a while, or should I do something else in addition to, or instead of, this?

Any and all advice always appreciated! ;-)

thanks!

 

i got 7 of 8 of mine out just by twisting them, some were rather easy but that next to last one ain't coming out. i even drilled a hole in the head behind the threads of the bolt to get Kroil on it then used a impact driver, it's stuck and it's staying in
give them a little twist, if they go good, if they don't, quit while your ahead
oil won't help as their setting on rubber and sealed, but try it anyway

 

Hmm ok. That was the problem when I pulled 'em off my parts bike, some come off - some didn't and the head just snapped right off.

Isn't kroil supposed to flow in there? (down the metal and all that).

I reallly don't want to pull the head if I break something, lol

I was hoping that hitting it with the spray before/after a ride would help. I mean, if the metal is changing temp, its contracting and expanding right?

 

I've been planning on using an impact wrench on mine.. it seemed to work well on the exhaust bolts, and i'd assume those are baked on as bad, if not worse than the ones on the intake.. I was thinking that the constant impacts would help break loose the mechanical bonds that form over time.. All the exhaust nuts came right off, so it worked fine for me there, just using a little Hitachi cordless one with about 77 ftlbs of torque. I'm going to use it on the rest of the engine, so hopefully they'll come off as easy as the others'

 

About those cracks: I've seen some pretty horrible looking ones (#2 on my '81 550) that still don't go all the way through. Pull the rack (you're going to anyway) and flex the cracked manifolds, SEE if the cracks go all the way through. You might be amazed, I know I was.

If the cracks DON"T go all the way through, apply the treatment of your choice and leave well enough alone. I like to "flex" them open and pack with black adhesive RTV silicone gasket maker.

If you're going to try to break them loose, I would start Kroil treatments a week in advance, before and after every ride.

 

Don't chuck the old "cracked" carb holders.

Ditto on liquid electrical tape and RTV silicone, but you can also cover that with a neatly trimmed piece of bicycle innertube. It will last until the next ice age.