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8V SS Valve Cover Bolts.

Guzzipih63 said:
Hi, I am about to order a set, how do I specify the hand polished set?
That is something you would need to do, or contact me direct email for a price additional; Todd at GuzziTech.com
 
I installed the bolts months ago and now notice a very tiny amount of oil weeping out around the bolt flanges. Is this to be expected? I was careful not to torque very hard and wonder if that is the cause. By the way, the bolts will buff up to a mirror/chrome look with a buffer wheel and the green compound from Harbor Freight. Thanks for any guidance on this!
 
Folks, the drama I endure too often these days. The buyer below is posting this elsewhere online he threatened, so I am posting here as a rebuttal. We are a reseller of these custom made stainless bolts. They have been solid performers for almost 9 years I’ve been using and selling them. YMMV. Don’t like them, don’t buy them. ;)

On May 18, 2019, at 4:07 PM, Lenny Trapp <lennytrapp@hotmail.com> wrote:

Customer Service,

I received the valve cover bolts for my '15 Moto Guzzi Norge 8V and they look great. I decided to use my T-Allen for the installation, just in case, as I figured the stainless steel bolts would not be as strong as the OEM bolts that it was replacing. Everything went fine with the installation except for the 8th bolt that broke upon my first turn when tightening it, snapping off in the middle of the threaded portion of the shaft of all places - most bizarre. Completely disappointed as I was also ready to go on a multi-day ride which is now canceled. I now have zero confidence in the strength of the remaining bolts and dare not tighten them. Most importantly, how am I going to get the threaded shaft out of the mounting hole as my bike is unusable until then!? I still can't believe it broke especially since I was being extra careful with its installation in the first place ;-(

Please advise
LT

On May 18, 2019, at 7:16 PM, Sales at GTM <sales@gtmotocycles.com> wrote:

The stainless bolts are about 10x stronger than the stock bolts. Either the thread was galling going in, or it was over tightened once it bottomed out. We’ve never heard of anyone breaking one. You will have to use a reverse drill bit, and an easy out if it doesn’t come out. These are very costly and made to order, so we can’t break a set, so we will see if our machinist happens to have any extra. Cost is set divided by 8.

On May 18, 2019, at 10:33 PM, Lenny Trapp <lennytrapp@hotmail.com> wrote:

Picture of the threads after I reverse out the broke part should tell you if there was any galling or not. Will send you pics as I chronicle this whole transaction. Seriously, I overtightened your ‘10x stronger bolt’ with my t-wrench which has mediocre leverage at best? Did you not read what I emailed you on what actually transpired or are you re-scriptning what happened In defense of the cost of one bolt? Seriously.

Sent from my iPad

On May 19, 2019, at 12:25 PM, Sales at GTM <sales@gtmotocycles.com> wrote:

No time to argue or debate. We’ve sold 100+ of these over the last 8 years. Never had this issue, and we install and do dozens of services a year in our shop on 8Vs.

So you broke one. What would you like for us to do here?


On May 20, 2019, at 12:33 AM, Lenny Trapp <lennytrapp@hotmail.com> wrote:

No need to respond, as you can do whatever you want with this email (delete it upon receipt or spin it however you see fit) – makes no difference to me in the end.

  • Drilled out the broken end with very little effort; I must have lucked very lucky as my non-carbide drill bit had no issues drilling into the SS metal
  • Confirmed, beginning signs of galling were present at the top of all SS threads. I’m glad the first one broke when it did, as the others were going to be hand-tightened snug with my T-bar in the exact same way. For your information, followed the SS installation instructions that were posted by warnings/instructions about SS bolt installations, as the folks at Bolt Depot must be wrong too after having followed their advise
  • Since you mentioned your SS bolts are 10x stronger than Moto Guzzi’s OEM, then I forwarded you claim/email print screen verbatim to the folks at Piaggio Group Americas
  • As suspected, very little to no signs of galling on the OEM bolts that were removed (which were on much tighter than my attempt with your own), despite Moto Guzzi Portland + Cascade Moto of Hillsboro having separately reinstalled them after ech of their valve/service jobs in the past
  • Seems to be a crack in the threaded area just below the break line (see pic). Must be pure coincidence, possibly cracked when the bolt broke, right?
  • Depth of the hole is 17mm compared to the threaded shaft of 13.25mm, so no “bottoming out” was possible. The upper bolt flange sits behind the rubber gasket (doesn’t seat through it), so it couldn’t have bottomed out either through the rubber, especially since there was zero deformation of the same gasket. I guess I could force deformation to occur by overtightening it, but prefer not to.
  • Since you never had this issue in your shop, then I must be making all of this up, LOL. As promised, will post the whole experience online, as I am glad that you guys can refute everything immediately with such accusatory confidence and assurance. I’m just glad I could extract the broken bolt and feel at ease now know the OEMs are back in place.
  • Probably no shock to you, but this will be the first and last time that I do business with you guys, and most likely the same with my fellow Guzzi riders – bummer, as your company has an inviting website.
  • Just so you know, the issue isn’t the bolts, which I still think are beautiful, well made, and fairly inexpensive for a custom-job, but what the issue was what you word-crafted/laced within your initial and follow-up response
Regardless, stay safe on the road

Cheers

LT
ps. As promised, pictures attached.
B2E3DAEC 6C93 4A3B BE02 B19E5D0286E8
33605138 E65E 4A0F A1BB C2410BAE2948 F436AC26 4214 44C6 904F D1E36F6B3407 E2DDBFE2 12D9 4502 9850 3CFFB802896C A760C757 300B 4205 83CF 205F11AD261E B457F07F 57CE 42F1 9677 51C4522DD73E B81B9397 CAC0 4B33 B3C0 958A2A299994 304C67DC 46BF 402F A2E8 8FA858B4B90E A3FC0B22 7BB0 405F B066 3B4FBA5E7FF8 F53F1530 7B05 454B 84D9 1EDD04EEA449 33F9624A C14F 4F96 B6B6 31B1BE92250A 258BE5A5 B2B5 469C 8D32 001678326D08 32E9F529 A22E 490C AFE5 A93B28B2C1A4 C5714591 75D9 4FF7 8D0D F666453E044E 7CFC4B4A 31A1 467E 9D8C 49AFAF666390
 
That's a nifty centering guide for the drill bit. I gotta look into getting some of those.

I just use a ball-end L shaped Allen wrench for the valve cover bolts. The long end goes in the fastener and I tighten/loosen with the short end, which means I can only get one finger's worth of leverage on it. On my first valve adjustment (after having bought the bike used from a MG dealer), one of the original bolt heads was stripped and the heads of two other bolts were starting to strip. I was forced to reuse those bolts (before I could get the GTM SS bolts) so I was very gentle in tightening them. In 5k miles, not a drop of oil leaked out. I don't think these valve cover bolts need much torque to do their job.
 
How the hell does one over tighten the cover bolts???? Just snug them up to fully threaded then a quarter turn done....Love my new stainless steel beauty's. Buttered some anti seize on the threads cause that's a different metal to metal surface. (Per the pros advice)....... like little round metal mirrors is what I'm saying.
 
I have had these SS bolts for a year now, yet they still instill a sense of pride every time I walk up to my bike. The cylinder heads on these bikes are such a prominent feature that I would not stand for the stock bolts being back on the bike. Even if several of the stock bolts had not stripped, I would still not want them because most or all of them showed minor corrosion on the bolt head. Their mottled appearance stood out like a sore thumb, even to other people.
 
Cool! As soon as I get my stimulus check - Ill buy a set:) Can't wait to tell people how some idiot managed to break one...
 
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