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I have a 1985 Hondel Rebel 250. It's in great shape and even though I have decided to move to a larger bike in the Spring, I want to hang onto this bike. I'm hoping that there will be a Mrs Slowair someday.

Anyway, I have a problem. I want to keep the bike original. So far everything is stock and works fine.

However, as I was enjoying one of the last days of the season, something very odd happened. One of the studs holding the exhaust flange sheered off about an eigth of an inch inside the hole. I sounded like an old WWI biplane going down the Interstate.

My brother (the mechanic) told me to try using an EZ Out. Went to NAPA, got advice, a drill bit and the EZ Out. First, the tip of the drill bit broke off inside the hole. I was pretty sure I had gone far enough in that the tip would not prevent me from using the EZ Out. On the second tap of the EZ Out, it broke off inside the hole.

Now I've got two pieces of tool hardened steel inside the hole.

So brother comes out, grabs a drill and a bit and starts trying to drill through the mess. I not the mechanic, but even I knew he wasn't going to drill through that mess. It would be like cutting butter with butter. After breaking three bits, he ended up drilling a hole all right...right along side the other one. Not good!

So here's where I need opinions.
I want to keep this bike and I want to keep it original.

He wants to take it and either drill out the hole and put in a larger stud, or weld the nut and exhaust flange onto the old bolt . Either way, it's gonna be ugly and not very orinial.

The only other thing I can think of is to replace the cylinder head. Honda wants $367 for one. I got the bike last year for a grand. And I have no idea what else is involved in replacing the cylinder head.

Can I put in a used one?

How much work is involved in the project?

Will I need to get other parts as well, besides the new stud?

Or should I just forget about it and start selling used parts on eBay?

Thanks for taking the time to read all this and for any advice you can offer.

Mike

Seems like a lot of work and trouble to go through on a bike that might just sit in the garage indefinitely. Me personally, id put it up on ebay as a parts bike. The rebel is a popular enough bike that you should probably get at least a few hundred for it.

But if you are absolutely gung-ho on keeping the bike, id fix it the right way with a new head instead of trying to jury rig something. But you have to ask yourself, is it going to be more trouble than its worth?

Good luck with it.

I had the same problem on a car engine block once. I ended up drilling out the whole thing out to a larger size, rethreading it, and throwing in a larger bolt.

I say keep it and get a new head. It least it's an outside engine piece and you don't have to take apart the whole engine to fix it. If you want a mechanic to fix it, it'll probably be another $100-150. Since your getting a new bike, you could just slowly save up the money and fix it later.

Since you want to keep the back for a good reason, I would prepare the bike for storage as it is and put it away. I'd focus on bringing home the planned replacement.

Later, I'd pick up a service and repair manual off eBay, tools, and a top end gasket set, and piddle around with getting the head off in some spare time, like a rainy day with nothing to do except stare at the tube. Then I'd take the head to a machine shop and see if they can salvage it. It shouldn't cost more than $25-30 to get it fixed, if your brother hasn't wasted it. If the head is wasted, I'd then start looking around for a replacement, maybe even a parts bike (always good to have with a 20 year old motorcycle), and put it back together. Whichever head goes back on, lap the valves before installing so you won't have to worry about it later. If your bike has lots of miles, might want to touch the cylinders with a hone and put in a new set of rings, too.

I am an expert on many things and im a master using a cutting torch. I can use a small tip heating up only the broken stud and at the right time hit the O2 and I can cut that bolt out clean, all you need to do is re-tap the threads. Don't try this yourself only an expert like myself can do it, or maybe you can find somebody almost as good as me, good luck.

You might be able to use a dremel with a small grinding stone tip. Keep on dressing the stone it will glaze easily. It might take 5 grinding tips but they are cheap. It will take a while to clean it out but I've done it. Then either carefully run a tap in the hole or open the hole with the dremel for a larger stud.

With enough patients and perserverance you can do it.

MotoF150 wrote:I am an expert on many things and im a master using a cutting torch. I can use a small tip heating up only the broken stud and at the right time hit the O2 and I can cut that bolt out clean, all you need to do is re-tap the threads. Don't try this yourself only an expert like myself can do it, or maybe you can find somebody almost as good as me, good luck.

MotoF150 wrote:I am an expert on many things and im a master using a cutting torch. I can use a small tip heating up only the broken stud and at the right time hit the O2 and I can cut that bolt out clean, all you need to do is re-tap the threads. Don't try this yourself only an expert like myself can do it, or maybe you can find somebody almost as good as me, good luck.

Wow... finally got the same number of posts as your sign! Devils should stop posting in the forums and get back to trying to subvert their local riders instead...

MotoF150 wrote:I am an expert on many things and im a master using a cutting torch. I can use a small tip heating up only the broken stud and at the right time hit the O2 and I can cut that bolt out clean, all you need to do is re-tap the threads. Don't try this yourself only an expert like myself can do it, or maybe you can find somebody almost as good as me, good luck.

The million dollar question, is how you intended to cut a stainless steel drillbit or bolt (cannot be cut by traditional oxyacetalyne cutting torch as it doesn't oxidize quickly enough to cut) out of an aluminum head without transferring enough heat to the aluminum to not melt it. Remember aluminum melts at a much lower temperature then steel, and steel is really good about transferring heat to the substances around it. Considering you need to get it red hot to cut it out.

And THEN, we get into the problem of the fact that you're blowing chunks of liquid metal into your cylinder above the piston. You did just blow the bolt clean through right?? So should we go through the problems you've just created in the bike with your "expert torch cutting" techniques? Or are we just going to pretend this post didn't happen.