BEHOLD! The power of HOT and COLD!!

This story, starts like I am sure many others, with stuck carb boot bolts. Tricky little ba$t@rds for some... and smooth sailing for others. Mine were the former, not the latter.

So, I was extremely pleased with myself when I "discovered" this technique. I say discovered knowing full well that there is rarely anything new under the sun, and some old timer is probably chuckling at my late coming to this knowledge.

So it is now mystery, metals get hot they expand, they get cold, they contract. This fact has unstuck many a bolt. However, the concept is not at all complicated, it is more a logistical problem. How do you heat something up or cool it down when it is attached to a 500 lb motorcycle.

The heat, is usually easy. You can direct fairly good amounts of high heat to a local area with a small Butane/Propane/MAPP Gas torch. (making sure to remove the cards and fuel tank first for safety sake). But cold is a different story.

My answer. Diflouroethane. It has a boiling point of around -13F or -25C. Other excellent choices would be liquid CO2 (boiling point -70F or -57C) or liquid nitrogen if you are nuts (boiling point -320F or -195C)

However, for the Average Joe, Diflouroethane will work just fine. Commonly used, in compressed air cans for dusting electronics and such.

So, I used a small Butane torch to heat the block around where the bolts enter. One should be careful not to burn the boots and anything else for that matter.

Then, while applying loosing pressure to the bolt, I turned the canned of air duster upside down (which it clearly states on the label not to do) and SLOWLY depressed the button so I got a slow, smooth flow of the liquid onto the bold head... it should frost up. I would also mention, wear gloves with both hands, as this is a frostbite hazard and you will inevitably end up dragging your knuckles across the heated block... oh yea... and makes sure you aren't torching and frosting at the same time... You might wind up w/ a compressed air grenade.

By using hot and cold locally, I was able to achieve expansion and contraction of opposite parts at relatively the same time, and this temperature differential is what makes the difference in breaking them loose.

Anyway, I know there are probably ten people that have thought of this already, but I thought I would share what worked for me.

 

that is awesome!
never thought of using the canned air before. we usually use it to remove warts

 

Now that is totally cool. (No pun intended.)