Replacing damaged engine casing

[Dom]

Guys,

following my little mishap last night, I'm now the proud owner of a damaged engine casing which is leaking oil.

My first question is what have I damaged? It's a 2005 ZX10 and it's the engine cover directly in front of the clutch cover: slightly square with five bolts. Looking around I've seen it called the starter clutch cover, ignition cover, crankshaft sensor cover and finally the pulse cover!?

I've found this picture:

It's the cover on the right.

Think I'm going to get an NRC one as I'm truly alarmed at how easily this one has broken. I know I need a gasket - anything else? Sealant of some kind? Is there anything important in here? i.e. on the back of the cover? Or just a straight swap? Also assuming I need to drop the oil out...

I've never done more than replace bits of plastic or bleed brakes - all advice appreciated.

Ta.

Dom

[fran9r]

If you find anything on changing the clutch this is the first step. On my 9 it's simply the bolts -keep tem in order there may be longer threads on some, the clutch arm removal/refit and some silicon sealant. You can probably reuse the gasket to be honest, but new for peace of mind.

If you leave the bike on the sidestand no need to do the oil.

[Mr.Pigdog]

As fran says-leave it on the sidestand-new gasket with just a little blob of silicone where the crankcase split is-its easy peasy-i've done looooads when you do a full service to rotate the crankshaft.no gubbins on the inside either

[Taqman]

Funnily enough I have to do the same for mine.....

Pulse cover or Timing rotor cover - £57 ish from Cradley Kwack - NRC Covers are cheaper.....!

The gasket is actually a big 'O' ring and is about £7 but can probably be reused - I'm getting a new one and keeping the old as a spare if OK.

You'll need a bit of instant gasket for the two points where cables enter.

and like said if the bike's on the side stand, the engine should be leaning over enough that there should only be a tiny bit or no oil leakage.

Also check the bolt heads as they have a tendency to be ground down if the bike has slid much.

Taq

[Dom]

Yep - just ordered an NRC one for £45. O-ring from Kwak still costs about £8 though, the gits.

I'll pick up some gasket stuff from Halfrauds this weekend and then hopefully it will be plain sailing!

[landy63]

pulse cover, its a ten min job mate, once its off just check for damage inside. make sure when it cracked none of the inner side of the case was chipped/splintered off in the coil. besides that as already said just stick your new gasket on with some sealer and jobs a good un.

[Dom]

Reet - now that it's stopped snowing/raining/being generally shit, I have gotten around to looking at the damage more closely and the bottom right bolt has sheared off. How the feck do I get it out?

[Dom]

Somebody else has suggested (assuming molegrips are a no-go) that drilling then hammering a torx bit into it might be a less risky option as apparently easy-outs frequently snap.

What do we think?

[speedy sie]

only the cheep easy out,break,iv had mine years and had plenty of use at work.did see a slined hammer in bolt remover,was very impresed,as we had adjutables on it and hitting it with a copper hammer,never broke.

[Mr.Pigdog]

I reckon an ezi out should do the job-dont think the bolt will be in there too tight--just watch out that you drill it nice and central and the bolt isnt bent-if it is i would grind it down slightly to give a nice flat for the drillbit.Hopefully the molegrips will get it ok-i'm always quite reluctant to do the ezi out thing-they can be quite brittle(no mine aren't cheap)but as i say i reckon it'll come out no worries

[Gary]

I would grind the head off, then remove all the other bolts holding on the casing, then remove the casing and then get some mole grips onto whats left of the bolt and unscrew it. Trying to drill the head or get an easy out in there will be a mess as the surface will not be flat. Once the head is ground off, the casing will simply slide off over the bolt and then you will have plenty of the bolt exposed for the molegrips..

[MonkeyJim]

Reet - now that it's stopped snowing/raining/being generally shit, I have gotten around to looking at the damage more closely and the bottom right bolt has sheared off. How the feck do I get it out?

someone at kawasaki probably took a lot of time & effort to design that bolt to be in the exact place where it would be ground off in the event of a spill

hope you can get it sorted, fella

[Dom]

Well,

all has not gone well this weekend. The bolt was bent into the smashed case and when I bent it back it simply snapped - ballcocks.

The remaining bolt is flush with the engine and I've tried in vain to get it out. Next stage is getting the bike to the dealers and I have a question:

Will the new cover and o-ring be okay held on with four out of five bolts? The dealer is about 25 miles away and riding the bike there would be considerably cheaper then having it recovered or hiring a van.

Pic:

[Dom]

I've always believed - and it's a view shared by quite a few race bike technicians - that the best way to build up/secure the engine covers is to fit heavy duty covers and then use light alloy bolts to secure them.

The vast majority of covers have dowels locating them and preventing any lateral movement in an impact. The o-rings or gaskets behind the covers don't need much clamping force to be oil tight. The majority of damage and buggeration in repairing the damage from a bike sliding on the engine covers comes from the steel bolts that normally hold the covers on.

So the heavy duty cover will protect the engine internals and the dowels keep the cover in place.

The alloy bolts make it easy to remove any damaged bolts and alloy bolts will give way before any damage can occur to the cases.

If this is true then I should be able to ride it to the dealers with 4/5 bolts in place?

I currently have both an NRC and OE pulse cover and the difference is frightening - the OE cover almost feels like it's made from plastic or a thin ceramic (I think it's actually magnesium!?).

[gsxr renegade]

You should be ok, but i wouldn't ride it any further than is absolutley necessary. I had an engine casing bolt vibrate loose once and had to ride around for a week with a bolt missing.

It didn't do the engine any harm, but there was a very slight oil leak coming from the hole where the bolt was, but i had one of the top bolts come out so you may well get more oil leaking.

If you ride it to the dealers, make sure the oil level is topped up and be prepared for a little bit of leakage. Might even be worth taking a few hundred mls of oil with you incase the level drops too much.

[Harry Muff]

What about using the old trick of gently chiselling a line in the remains of the bolt and then using a flatblade screwdriver?

[MonkeyJim]

What about using the old trick of gently chiselling a hole in the crankcases?

[buster]

Or using a punch and hammer to unscrew it?

[Dom]

I tried a couple of things such as hammering in a small screwdriver, torx bit etc. No luck with the ez-outs either.

I don't have the best toolkit and will just have it removed by a professional rather than persevere and possibly do some serious damage to the crank cases. I know when to give up! :-D