[Chasfield]

I never did like that forest of spindly studs that hold down the highly stressed rocker bearing blocks. They always looked as though one of them might uproot and make a break for it with 10 little alloy hoops around its ankles. Yeah, I just stripped one at about 8.5 ft lb. Maybe the published torque value of 9 ft lb is good for bone dry threads and a brand new head but not for my old nail. After I have done the thread repair I am setting the nuts to 7 ft lb with a dash of Loctite for security.

I was a bit surprised to find that the cylinder head end of the stud is 1/4 BSF, just like the hard steel nut end. I had expected to find some gross farmyard Whitworth thread where it goes into the soft stuff. Better if it had been so.

[Yamahawk]

Well, you will have that, Chasfield... 10 little ankle bracelets on the stud, I have a good visual of that lol.
I am going to replace the stock rockers with the Samrat alloy rocker set that I have, and I am going to take your sage advice about using Loctite and low torque values. My bike is a 1996, and has about 3300 miles on it total. The alloy used in these bikes is pretty soft, I do know that, but 8.5 ft.lb is really low... I am amazed that it stripped. But, your teaching me about what to look for, so I will use great caution when I approach that task. Thanks!
Charlie

[ace.cafe]

5 ft-lbs on the rocker block nuts is all that is necessary, even with high lift cams and strong springs. We have this on all the Fireballs.