Hello. I'm a new rider who recently purchased a ten year old bike. I have ZERO mechanical know how, but decided that I wanted to learn.
So far I managed to take both the front and rear wheels off to get the tires changed and I managed to change the oil. Since I am unskilled, it took a LOT of fumbling through these to get things going...including breaking some nuts (rear axle nut was stuck and I originally only had a 12 point socket) and bolts (overtorqued an oil filter cover bolt despite using a torque wrench) and buying replacement ones.
Since the bike is 10 years old, I know that all of the fluids need to be changed. I feel comfortable attempting the actual change for the brake fluid from my research EXCEPT I don't want to irreparably damage this area. The front brake works fine, but the sight glass is totally clouded and opaque, so I cannot visually check the condition or level of the fluid.
These are JIS screws and I have purchased replacement screws. Any advice here? Please consider my novice skill level lol.
I bought some screw extractor bits but do not have an impact driver. I have some JIS screwdrivers, a hammer, a regular drill, penetrating oil, and replacement JIS screws.
Thanks!
Those are shitty screws on bikes, often soft pot metal or aluminum.
If you don't know how to do this already, those aren't the place to learn.
It's easy enough to fix, the problem is they love to seize into the aluminum master cylinder.
You could get lucky using an impact driver (type you use with a hammer), but you gotta go gently since the master cylinder is aluminum. I've had some luck doing this.
The full solution is to drill out the head so the cover will slide up, then using vice grips, unscrew the old screw hoping it doesn't take the master cylinder threads with it. Maybe/maybe not. An experienced person can feel it before it happens... Sometimes.
If it does strip the threads, you simply heli-coil it. Fortunately this is only a cover that needs to seal, not mounting anything to the bike.
Take it to a shop. Once they fix it, take it home, replace the screws with stainless versions, and add either blue loctite or never seize. (If you can find stainless versions that are Torx, even better).
Bikes have notoriously shitty screws and bolts. I've replaced many with stainless versions over the years. Fortunately structural bolts tend to be made from better steels, so I don't have to find specialty versions of those (stainless isn't good for structural stuff - it lacts ductility).
Everything gets either never seize or (blue) loctite - the dissimilar metals (aluminum and steel) love to gall.
As others have said, you may get lucky just tapping a screwdriver in. I've had that work too.
Either way, replace the screws with stainless afterwards. It's harder, so the head doesn't strip out as easily
So what you're saying is that even if I drill the heads off, it is possible that the shank may be seized within the cylinder? Or am I misinterpreting? If this is possible, then I guess I might just be more comfortable letting a shop do it idk.
Every maintenance thing so far has sounded super easy but there is always some complication when a noob like me tries in practice lol. A lot of what people are telling me here sounds very easy, but yeah I've never done it before lol.
Exactly.
Though I've been lucky they haven't seized that bad, it's just the worst-case.
Usually once the tension is released by drilling the heads off, you can get vice grips on them and a little tap with a little hammer on the vice grips will jar it loose (or they may just be loose already and it was just the head that got beat up by the previous dingus using a Phillips screwdriver instead of a japanese driver). You can use Phillips on Japanese screws, you just gotta really pay attention, and be nice to the screw, since the Philips doesn't fit perfectly.
This is what impact drivers (of all kinds) do - high torque loads but for only an instant. This has the benefit of not overloading the screw metal while being enough torque to generate a little twist against the seizing parts.
Also, if you drill the screws clean it all off very well before removing the lid, then tape over the reservoir once the lid is off.