Broken bolt by left crankcase

Greetings,

I recently purchased a 1999 VFR. The bike has ~80k miles, but I got it for $1400. Needs some work on the fairings, steering bearings need to be replace, small oil leak, fork rebiuilds, and some other maintenance. I planned to start done the work on the bike at the end of the summer, but an overheating issue forced my hand. The switch on the radiator must have failed, and at a stoplight a guy said, " do you know you have coolant leaking out of your bike?". Duh! No!. I was able to limp the bike home and inspect the damage. Of course I needed a new switch; ordered from China via Amazon for like $8 vs $50 at the Honda shop. Downside, three week delivery. Modded an manual switch for the interim. Overflow bottle had a small leak, replaced that from fleabay. Changed the fluids, and tested it out. Still a small leak somewhere, I think it was coming from the drain bolt. I pulled out my Clymer manual again, and noticed there is another drain bolt near the oil filter. I thought I would be sure to check each bolt and replace the washers. I started to take this bolt out.. and then.. snap! Bolt busted off, not at the head, but the end. The bolt is about 1.5 to 2" long, not a drain bolt! Duh! So my dilemma is how to replace this bolt. I have no idea of exactly what this bolt is securing, and how I would rethread what it is securing. The previous owner didn't take very good care of this bike, and it is a mess. I planned to tear it down a bit to clean it up, but this area is down around the oil pan and left crankcase. I am afraid that I might have to take the engine apart to replace one bolt. Ideas?

 

:welcome: to our little world :wave:

Easy out would be your solution, If it not leak I would leave it a lone until you are ready to tear her a part and over haul her.

 

That's doesn't look like a small oil leak!!! I would clean up all that oil first to see where that blood letting is coming from. I would try to get access to a motorcycle lift so you can see what you are doing if you are going to attempt to get the remnants of that bolt out. You might have to drill a small pilot hole to get an easy-out in there. Be-careful not to damage the aluminium. ASAIK there is only one drain bolt on the 5th Gen VFR.

 

Thanks for the input! I'll try to find the bolt on bikebandit.com, currently having a hard time finding this bolt in their diagrams. Any idea?

 

That oil is not coming from that hole, it came slowly from another area above. Just need to clean her up. Plan to look on craigslist for a lift.