this post was submitted on 29 May 2026
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Motorcycles

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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!

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[–] seathru@quokk.au 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Take a 3/16ths drill bit to the screw heads until they come off. Then you can remove the cover, and there will be a little bit of the screw sticking up. You can grab that with pliers and spin the rest of it out. It's not as bad as it looks, I work on older powersports equipment and have to do this about once a week.

[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

An upvote here for the other cat who knows where it's at.