Fecking chain adjuster bolt stuck fast......

[Olig7475]

Any advice, it goes in and out a couple of threds and then sticks fast, tried soaking it with WD40, no joy, I'm very worried bout it shearing off!

Oli

[D-Rider]

Other than substituting a good penetrating oil for the WD40 and gently working it back and forth over a period of time I don't think there are any easy solutions.
Sorry.

[mangocrazy]

I'd always use Plus-Gas in preference to WD40. I've also heard good reports about Wurth's Rost-Off Ice, which locally freezes the area and (allegedly) causes minute cracks in the corrosion which penetrating oil can seep into.

The only other thing I can think of is locally applied heat with a gas axe; but that's getting many times more serious and is best left to grown-ups...

[wavey]

+1 for PlusGas and lots of time, failing that get your local bike shop to heat it up.

Dave

[HisNibbs]

Hi Oli not advice as such but I had the same on one of my adjusters.

I tried with the various penetrating oils over a long period but in the end it sheared off. To replace it until I get around to picking up a replacement swing arm,
I've bodged an old speado cable end with a lock nut and bolt.

I thought that possibly the bolt was slightly bent or threads damaged, due to the wheel nut being looser than it ought at some time? Any way I hope you get on better than I did.

[D-Rider]

Two cases in one thread ..... we'll all be whiping them out, cleaning them up and bathing them in copper grease to prevent similar.



Cue a rash of posts on "how do I sort out my wheel alignment problem" when nobody can remember how their adjusters were set .....

[scorpio24v]

Heat and plus gas is the only way. The swing arm is made of ally so has a greater expansion rate than the steel bolt. Use a heat gun, the type used by decorators these get hot without the annealing problems which you may get on ally if it gets a bit too hot. Also using a gas axe will set fire to the plus gas

When you have left the plus gas to soak in overnight by making a cup out of blutac around the thread and filling it up with the plus gas forming a resevoir, remove the blutac and apply the heat to the ally surrounding the bolt. its that you want to heat not the bolt. Then gently with a good fitting spanner rotate the bolt to and fro a little bit more each time, it will come loose. apply copaslip when re assembling. Jobs a good un.

[HisNibbs]

Hi guys,

I think with the heat and lube you are on the wrong track. He can turn it a a bit so it is not chemicaly siezed as such. More like its jammed which is why I suspected the bend or thread damage..........

[D-Rider]

Hi guys,

I think with the heat and lube you are on the wrong track. He can turn it a a bit so it is not chemicaly siezed as such. More like its jammed which is why I suspected the bend or thread damage..........

You could well be right - on the other hand it could be corroded just beyond the bit it screws into - if so some rust bashing penetrating oil may do the trick - if worked carefully.

.... it's worth trying as if it is bent, this isn't going to be easy.

On the other hand, I can see how it could get bent on the section that has not been screwed into the swinger but hard to see how the bit inside the swinger would be bent. If it was the section that had not entered the swingarm, then it shouldn't be so hard to remove ....
Don't think it can have bent in the bit it screws in to as that would have nipped the threads - but the first turns seem ok.

[Falco9]

Heat and plus gas is the only way. The swing arm is made of ally so has a greater expansion rate than the steel bolt. Use a heat gun, the type used by decorators these get hot without the annealing problems which you may get on ally if it gets a bit too hot. Also using a gas axe will set fire to the plus gas

When you have left the plus gas to soak in overnight by making a cup out of blutac around the thread and filling it up with the plus gas forming a resevoir, remove the blutac and apply the heat to the ally surrounding the bolt. its that you want to heat not the bolt. Then gently with a good fitting spanner rotate the bolt to and fro a little bit more each time, it will come loose. apply copaslip when re assembling. Jobs a good un.

+1 to the above method. This is definately the way I would try to remove it. If you can heat the alloy whilst a mate gently tries the forward & backward rotations (I'd use a "T" bar socket) you should be able to crack off the corrosion I reckon is on the inside and remove the bolt without shearing it off

F9

[Olig7475]

Cheers all, I might give the heat trick a go, I think DR is right though the thread inside the swingarm has corroded rather than a bent bolt or stripped thread. I'll report back with my success or failure!

It's not easy this motorbiking lark is it.........I seam to spend more time fixing and fettling than riding!!!! But when I do get out on it!!!!! wow, I just love it

[Samray]

It's not easy this motorbiking lark is it.........I seam to spend more time fixing and fettling than riding!!!!

You should have been around in the 50's/60's !!

... or try riding a bike of that vintage.

[redfalco]

Just checked out the price of a new adjuster bolt with postage from Yorkshire Aprilia £10.97, I reckon that a set of M8 taps and "T" bar will be less.

The tap will only be cutting the corrosion away.

A couple of turns at a time then blow it out with any lube, get one with a straw as its a blind hole.

I have a spare standard swing arm if all else fails,

don't we all.

[Firestarter]

I have a spare standard swing arm if all else fails,

don't we all.

Sorry to derail, but wtf does that mean? That's the first time I've ever seen someone use that smiley, still don't know what it's for!

[redfalco]

Its a smiley, it doesn't have to mean anything.