Nuts and Bolts

Hi all

I am stripping my bike down to the frame as it's suffered several bad winters without cleaning (in the hands of its previous owner) and most of the bolts are badly rotted. Anyway, I need to source a bunch of new ones and have found InoxBolt which looks great.

The snag is that I don't know my M6s from by Whitworths. Although I'm a fairly experienced DIY mechanic, I usually just go by what size spanner I need to undo things. I've not generally had to buy replacement bolts.

What is system is generally used on modern Jap bikes and what is the best way of establishing what bolts I need (e.g. what gauge tool to buy and how to measure them and then specify them etc?).

Many thanks

Mat

You need Chewy my friend.

www.chewys-stuff.co.uk

[Rich]

Originally Posted by danf1234

You need Chewy my friend.

www.chewys-stuff.co.uk

Chewys the man, all the stuff i've brought from him i've had within a two days , just buy the kit and away you go!!!

ive had stuff from chewy too with no probs.

Indeed Chewy is very good and I've had great stuff from him. But (shock horror) the bike I'm stripping is not the SV. It's my commuter bike which is a CB500 so Chewy's kits won't help.

Anyone know how to measure bolt threads and heads?

Thanks

Mat

[Rich]

I've done a search and found this site, it seems to sell a few kits for the CB500, hope that helps.

http://www.tastynuts.com/acatalog/in...ml&CatalogBody

Rich!!!

[Sid Squid]

Threads on Japanese bikes are, unsurprisingly, metric. An example of a Metric fastener size is M8x1.25, this means the nominal diameter of the male thread, the bolt or screw, is 8mm, and the distance between the peaks of each thread is 1.25 mm.
To estimate what you need, remove a bolt and measure it's thread diameter, that will give you the basic figure - the 8 in the above example. The next bit isn't so easy and is usually measured with a gauge called a screw pitch gauge, but the good news is that the vast majority of the bolts you'll find on your bike will be standard metric coarse threads, as is the above example, so you can be confident that what you're going to need won't be tough to find. In the case of a nut, it's not so easy to measure directly, so find a screw or bolt that fits the nut in question and measure that.

The standard metric coarse threads that you're likley to find on your Japanese Motor-Bicycle are:

M4x0.7, M5x0.8, M6x1.0, M8x1.25, M10x1.5, M12x1.75.

There are some places where you might find a different thread, once you've seen a few standard threads anything else will likely stand out. If you need to cut a bolt to a specific length, put a couple of nuts onto it first and then cut it, tidy up the end of the thread with a file and then unscrew the nuts, if the thread is a little distorted at the cut point the nuts will tidy it up a bit as you remove them.

Ebay's the place for nuts and bolts, cheap, quick delivery and got all the sizes you'll need

I used this guy (and chewy) to deck my SV in all stainless fastenings and he has free post on most of his mini packs

Originally Posted by Sid Squid

To estimate what you need, remove a bolt and measure it's thread diameter

If you haven't got one already, buy a caliper for measuring. A cheap digital caliper can be had for not a lot of wedge these days. Sure, you get what you pay for, but for jobs like measuring bolt diameter, taking bearing dimensions, a cheapy will do. An ever-so useful tool, I really do wonder how I managed without one for so many years!

Brilliant - thanks everyone (especially Sid - just the description I was looking for). I have a caliper gauge so I'll go out and get a thread gauge.

All I have to do now is go through the multitude of sandwich bags that my bike is living in and measure everything! Joy!

Cheers

Mat