Before adjusting Valves the first time...

[doonze]

Or any other time you may need to manually turn the engine over, look at timing marks, move the crank, or such...

Now you may have gotten home from a 12 hour day at work, and maybe you work nights, and you may or may not have had a couple of beers, when you decide it's a grand time to adjust your valves. And you may be a little out of it. Then you might remove the left side cover by removing the three screws, then you may see a nice big bolt head right in the center of that cover. Around that bolt head might be a nice big arrow looping around said bolt head pointing clockwise. You might then find the correct size socket, attach your 1/2 ratchet to the socket and then place your socket on nice big bolt head. Then you might look through the little window to watch for timing marks, then maybe start turning bold head in direction of the arrow, and be amazed the timing marks don't move. Next you might decided maybe there is some slack of some sort and turn harder, imaging in your head that maybe the bolt needs to hit a tab or something to start turning the crank. Then you might be amazed when the resistance from the nut let's up, without any crank movement, then vanishes completely.

After the amazement and confusion passes, you just might notice that you now see a nice big hole in before mentioned side cover. Through this hole you will see another nice bigger recessed bolt head. In the end of your socket you may notice the before lamented, non-recessed bolt head, and in the hole you will notice the threaded part that used to be attached to bolt head that now resided in the end of your socket.

You then might realize that the first bolt head was indeed not a bolt, but a smallish gasket holding "plug". And no matter what the arrow may tell you, it's threaded COUNTER-CLOCKWISE for removal. Following the arrow may result in a broken plug, if you have more determination then brains.

Then you might find the bolt head you turn to move the crank is INSIDE the hole, recessed a inch or two....maybe. And indeed it's best to possibly turn IT the direction the arrow around the OTHER bolt shows. Of course you might realize it's really around the hole for BOTH bolts, it's that that the second is hidden by the first.

The moral of the story is: There is a PLUG covering the bolt you place the socket on to turn the crank, and it's threaded like any normal bolt. Turning it clockwise results in a broken plug. It all makes perfect sense....ONCE YOU HAVE IT APART....it's not so obvious before.

I know this because a .......friend did this.

A dumb friend....

Don't be a dumb friend.

This has been a public service announcement from the dufus tool owning association. I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

[Jake]

Hmmmmmm.... did the ummmm......."friend" do this to your ride ?

BTW, I'm moving the thread to Wrenchin' Secrets, & Tips. Seems like a good location for it.

[doonze]

Thanks Jake, I thought about that myself, but I wasn't sure what Virago's might be similar, so posted it in the section for my bike. Figured if it would be better somewhere else someone would know better then I.


*edit* Oh, and yeah... the.....friend....did it to my bike......

[mark75]

p/n 1L9-11186-00-00 about $7.50 from MRCycles

uhhh,,, my friend had that happen too.

[JasonWW]

I admit it. I broke one just the other day.
I'm siliconing the cover back on until I get a replacement.
Hey, now I know.

[totallyredvirago]

righty tighty.. lefty loosie.. unless its not the only thing that i can think of that has righty loosie.. lefty tighty is the right mirror base...
the arrow is for the direction of the way yamaha wants us to turn the rotor to do our timing.... guess i am a little late for this little bit of info..
the word for today is force... if it breaks it needed replaced anyway.....dan

[Bobster]

that's what friends are for

[billyd123]

I was lucky enough to do this myself. Got a new one at a bike salvage yard for a $1. Bad thing was it was 40 mile round trip in the car.

[Hogback1]

I should have read this an hour ago............. I may be the "stupid friend" in this situation.

[cas.vanderwoude]

Try owning a BSA. Some bolts are normal thread, some are reverse thread - this appears to be random and none of the service manuals think to mention which is which. Then try breaking off the head of a whitworth bolt, drilling it out (do I have a whitworth tap and die set?) and finding a replacement bolt...

[mototom]

funniest thread ever unintentionally revived.
TRV lol: if it breaks it needed replaced anyway

-Phillip

[tr0327]

This is funny and very helpful.. lol thanks a lot dude.

[Kayak699]

I should have read this an hour ago............. I may be the "stupid friend" in this situation.

Hi Guy...

I know you broke your Cap a year ago this month.... BUT I broke mine no more than an hour ago !! SO the title of "Worlds Dummest Bunny" goes to me now !

Hope your bike is running fine....// Ernie in NH ( aka Kayak699 )

[rantingsmith]

One of my bike's POs must've done the same thing as I found the cover bolt was held by the by part of one line of tread only thus popping off relatively easy and preventing me from making the same mistake..

Might just engrave the new ordered one with the correct arrow for it..

[IamTheMarcus]

Broke half the threads off doing this to mine when i first got the bike. It still screws in though so I don't need a new one for now. ;)

[iamunique127]

Luckily my friend did it to his parts bike first, before he actually broke the nice one.
Engraving an arrow with the proper direction on it is a good idea.

[Downsouth]

Ouch, in my early days on the tools we would just take the plugs out and rocker covers off, bike on mainstand or paddock stand, put it in gear and turn the back wheel which turns the engine over, screwdriver down the plug hole to confirm tdc and set valves that way. Was not the `proper way` but worked well.