I am positive the bolt was broken before I ever touched it. There was zero resistance when I started to loosen it, it just spun in place. By "sideway English" I meant that in order to get the borken bolt out, I sort of angled the Allen wrench and then was able to pull the broekn bolt out. It does help, thanks. I looked at removing the swingarm. I've done it on 1100 and 1200GS's, but this just didn't look like fun. Fortunately, a buddy of mine own a fabrication shop. He's going to come down Tuesday after work and get the thing out for me. If I don't do like Handler did and cut it out first.
GOT IT!!!! Decided to go all Handler on it. Used a Dremel cutting wheel to get most of the way through and then finished with a miter saw. Success!! Just like Handler, I had enough bolt sticking out to grab it with Vise-Grips. A little heat, a little twist and VOILA!! Threads are good in the swing arm and the shocks are on their way to Ohlins USA.
Well done Yeti, this could easily have gone wrong, i'd reckon you have earned yourself a cold beer or two.
Yup way to persevere. Can I ask what sort of bolt do you plan to put back in there? I will likely bust mine when I try to remove it as it is very reluctant to turn. More heat I suppose.
My plan is to replace it with a stock bolt. I'm thinking Blue Locktite with a paint mark to make sure it isn't backing out. The other option is a harder bolt. However, as I learned with my 800GS, that creates a whole new set of issues. Definitely use heat when extracting your bolt. Mine was already broken, so it wouldn't have made a difference. But if yours is not already broken, definitely ease the process with heat.
Glad you were successful. Make sure you clean the threads in the hole, and don't use a bunch of locktite on the new bolt... just some. then mark the bolt so you can tell if it ever turns from the torqued position.
Glad it worked out for you. Been awhile but as I recall, the replacement bolt from BMW has a lock patch applied to the new bolt. Cheers, -RIck
Last summer we had one of the captains on a fire truck call in and said, "I have just sheared my nuts off"... To which the dispatcher taking the call responded in quite the deadpan voice, "Well, will you be needing a tow truck or an ambulance?" ba da bump! heehaw, heehaw... Great job fixing your nuts and thanks for sharing the story and the pics.
Good job fixing the bolt! I had the same issue a couple years ago on my R1200GS and it was a mess. To stop the problem from happening again, give special attention to steps 8 and 9 in this blog post. There is a floating spacer in the GS swing-arm that becomes seized in place. When the spacer doesn't tighten properly against the shock bushings, the bolt bends or breaks. http://www.touratech-usa.com/Adventure/Blog/jaBhoa/How-To-BMW-R1200GS-Adventure-Shock-Installation
Interesting. Although the blog post you've linked referes to the 1200GS, it does look like my 1150GSA also has a bushing there. I looked to see if it could be removed easily and it didn't seem to want to come out. Anyone know if that is a removable (and greasable) bushing on the 1150 like it is on the 1200??
I've got to wait 'til I get home to check but I've had that bolt in and out many times and don't remember the bushing being removable. However a quick look at max's parts fische shows the bushing as a separate part on the 1150.
