LAME!!!
How many times do I have to tell you guys that repairing bikes the same way I do isn't the most productive way to do things?!
Just Kidding
But totally sounds like something that would have happened to me.
As for me, given the current circumstances and weather, I decided rather than dropping a bunch of money to Hitchcock's for a few random parts I'd try tearing apart the primary,
AGAIN, to see what I could do. First problem I ran into, when trying to remove the alternator adapter ring, the upper left screw that holds the ring on didn't want to come out, and for whatever reason, that one screw head the "straight head" sheared off with the impact. YAY!
So then I decide that it would be best to remove the rotor before I start drilling on the alternator bracket, for obvious reasons. Upon whacking the rotor with a mallet while prying from behind, the adapter ring just breaks. No, I didn't hit it with the mallet, apparently it is cast with lovely pot metal. (Pot - Pretty Awesome. Metal - Hell Yeah! POT METAL = BULLSHIT!) Soooooooo, I get the screw head mostly drilled out, said eff the bracket and broke it the rest of the way off of the screw so I could get at it, grab it with a Vice Grips and it come right.
OK, so I get the rotor off, get the crank nut off and pull the crank sprocket and the 3 Allen screws that have been a beeotch and killed 3 different alternators for me. Hold a screw up to my 5/16 - 24 tap that I used on other parts of the bike and threads are damn close. Make a run down to Ace Hardware (The Helpful Place
) and find 3 screws that are black oxide coated (SS screws they only had in coarse thread) and head back home. Greased up the tap and started running it in the holes and they chased right through, hardly removing any metal at all. Spent about 10 minutes spraying brake cleaner and compressed air through the holes to make sure they were good clean. And for the moment of truth? 2 of the bolts torqued right in with intermittent bumps of the cordless impact. But the one screw that was giving me most trouble, and showed signs of a thread or 2 being sheared off, just spun right thru the threads.
OK, no biggie, we can fix this. Back to Ace for a helicoil..... Only have 5/16 - 18
After several minutes of debate I decided I'll get the coarse thread helicoil and put in an odd ball screw in that hole. As I'm at the checkout getting ready to spend $35 + dollars to fix 1 stupid thread I have an epiphany "Dude! Just fill the threads with JB Weld and retap it!" So I abort the helicoil plan and go for some JB Stik, they don't have it. So I go across the street to Advance, they are out. So I go to the other Advance 5 miles away (where I used to work). Get there and my old co-worker pointed out to me that JB Stik is only rated at 900psi and that it usually crumbles when you cut threads into it. So I got the JB Marine Weld, which is chemical and oil resistant, water proof, safe up to 550*F and has a tensile strength of like 3200psi.
So what was supposed to be a couple hour job, turned into an entire afternoon of running around from store to store. Hopefully later this morning or early afternoon the JB Weld should be cured enough for me to go out there and cut some new threads and button up the job for now. I'll just leave the alternator off for now I guess until I feel like spending some actual money on the bike.
Scottie J