Cowl Setting Nuts 5mm

Okay so a simple task of putting on a new windscreen on the wife 2008 VFR turned into an hour plus project. It seems that these bike have a lot of these things called "Cowl Setting Nuts 5mm" and a corresponding 5x20 pan screw. The Cowl Setting Nuts are rubber with a threaded brass insert for the pan screw.

The two that I dealt with for the windscreen I had to destroy because the pan screw was seized in the brass insert that is inside the rubber. I had some extras from another project so I did get things back together. But I went and tried a few more where all of the cowling is bolted together and they are all seized with no access to the back side. The rubber insert just spins and the pan screw will not break free and come out.

How do you guys get these things off to do maintenance?

Now the option that I was thinking of is this bike is due for its 16k maintenance and I thought I might let Honda deal with it.

 

There's backside access to just about every single Well Nut maybe not enough to get a finger or tool on them but enough to get the tube off a can of PB Blaster onto it. The other thing you can do is pull them through the mount VERY carefully. not the best choice but it does work. Also when you put it back together with all new well nuts and bolts dab a small bit of anti sieze into the nut itself that way it coats the entire surface of the brass insert without rubbing off on your body panels when you push the bolt in.

You can buy replacement well nuts here considerably cheaper than Honda.

http://www.desmoparts.com/products/parts-catalog/ktm/m5-wellnuts

 

Thanks for the advise.

 

I went out to the link supplied above. The well nuts are cheap from these guys. They delivered in short order too. I took sometime yesterday and got all but 3 replaced. Unfortunately the last 3 are very difficult to get to. They are on the left side where the front and side cowls meet. Before I broke something I quit for the day.

What I am finding and it is what the mechanic I talked to said it would be is these are all over tightened. To the point where the rubber is destroyed so there is no friction to act as resistance allowing the screw to be turned out. There is also a bit of corrosion that makes the screw difficult to turn.

There was no good method to remove these old well nuts since each one presented a different strategy. Some I could hold with my fingers other I needed a small vise grip and yet others required that I peel the rubber off and then us the vise grips. The 3 that are left I do not have access to from the back side. They are blocked by the inner cowl, the black plastic that is on the inner front up under the front cowl and next to the gas tank. Not sure what then plan is for those at the moment. Time to ride for a bit and then work on it this winter.

Some thoughts would be good to hear.

 

You sir, are a saint!