Frozen - Siezed Oil Filter Bolt

[Wayne]

I thought I would pop some new oil into my machine, do a compression test and take some pictures of the oil filter housing while I'm at it. Problem, the oil filter bolt is frozen / seized solid! I'm afraid of twisting the threads out of the case. Has anyone experienced this? I have soaked around the bolt head with penetrating fluid however that doesn't do much good down deeper in the threaded area.

[Steve Swan]

Nasty situation.

An over tightened bolt shoulder against the cover face with likely oxidation of steel and aluminum threads under tension.

I have had a couple cases where with a tight fitting 6 point socket wrench on a solid bar and a sharp deliberate rap with a 16oz plumbing hammer, the bolt came loose with a bit of a snap, along with heating the bolt as best as can with a MAP gas torch. Scary, i know. (Once had an over tightened drain screw on oil tank as well.)

I don't think you'll twist out the threads in the crank case, but if you cannot find a tight fitting wrench, you may have to resort to potentially brutal but careful and deliberate measures.

I had one like that a few years back. The hex head was already trashed prior to my aquisiton, use of wrench out of question.

Could not grip rounded off head with a Vise-Grip.

Drilled a hole in bolt and attempted using a large Easy Out. Tried heating the bolt, the heat was rapidly absorbed by the alum.oil filter cover and crank case. Because the bolt is hollow, the Easy Out just expanded and broke the bolt, the Easy Out could not hold.

Had to resort to hack sawing around circumference of cover, then taking a hammer and a large piece of steel, breaking apart the part of the cover closest to the crank cases. Then was able to slide the top remaining piece of cover towards crankcase. With the tension off the threads, using a small pipe wrench, was able to unscrew bolt without nay problem.

The good part is the finned filter covers are not scarce, the 14 mm bolt is another situation.

[donzie]

Slice / grind the head off the bolt to remove the complete cover & filter. You can then add heat to the threaded area & work bolt back & forth with vice grips

[Steve Swan]

Much better approach Donzie !

[imabass]

This is not easy to do without slipping the grinder into the housing. If its a sandcast housing, you want to especially careful. You can also use a drill and drill the head of the bolt off. If you get it centered and are carful, you are less likely to damage the housing cover. If you opt for the drill method, start with a smaller bit say 1/4 inch and work you way up. After you get the initial hole drilled thos step bits work well for something like this. I have done it this way and the grinding method mentioned above. If you use a grinder, i found that a dremel tool with a cutoff wheel worked well compared to a bulky 4.5" angle grinder. Both take effort and take time and caution to get them off.

There are also those bolt extraction tools that sears and other have. These were not available the last time i had to do it so that might be an option as well.

Keep up posted if you find an easier way. This is a common problem. When you replace your bolt, there is an aftermarket bolt that has a larger nut. Not advisiable for a 10 Pt sandcast restorer but a good option for a driver.

[hondasan]

If it is not a round oil bowl, I would not hesitate to cut the head off the bolt close up against the cover. Once head and cover are out of the way, the remnants of the bolt already have a number of holes through them that you can put a "tommy bar" through to get some leverage (or weld a piece of bar to the remains of the bolt. Then with some gentle heat to the crankcase, I would be surprised if it does not just wind out.
The only important item here is the crankcases - the rest of it is expendable (assuming as I said earlier, it is not a round oil bowl).

Good luck - Chris R.

[imabass]

Oh yes.. i forgot about the sands being the round housing... could you get a strap wrench and wrap around the housing and break it loose? Just take it all off then break the bolt loose from the housing when its off... Also assuming the bolt has the holes in it like the later years.. if you get the housing off and bolt is still in the engine, a screwdrive should fit through the holes of the bolt to get leverage. Or a pipe wrence.

If its a later model finned housing there is a notch cast into the housing that prevents it from rotating. So the strap wrench would not work for these. Also if its a later model finned housing, it can be replaced for $20 or so.

[Wayne]

Thanks Genlemen
If this is the biggest prioblem I run into on a 41 year old machine I'm in good shape. I was most worried about stripping out the caes. Tommorow I'm just going to try rapping it with my 3/8 drive impact. I'll just bring the pressure up slowly and see what happens. The bolt head is in perfect shape so I'm going to get a new HD impact socket for a good transition of the hammer effect to the bolt. If that doesn't work...off comes the head!

I started taking other items off the bike today to tag and store. After soaking all of the fasteners with penetrating fluid they are coming off with ease. I expected much worse.

The blinker lenses are all early original however I was disapointed to see one is scuffed. It looks like it probably happened when the last owner tried to put the bike close to the wall in his shed. 

[Wayne]

It's off! Let it soak with liquid wrench for a few days, gave it a good hard rap on the bolt head, thoroughly heated up the filter housing with my torch and spun it right out with my small impact gun. Not sure which freed it up but it's off with no damage.   

[cb7504]

Wayne:
Good to hear you were able to remove the bolt and filter housing with out any damage. Original items to the bike are always a plus when restoring. Marty K.

[Wayne]

Well Marty I don't know how "original" it is but I have a good piece to make my Finless Oild Filter Housing from.