I’m in the middle of doing the belts on my 2011 Monster 696 and I’ve hit an annoying issue with the plastic timing belt covers. The horizontal cover is held on by two hex bolts (Part No. 3 in the diagram) that screw into those brass threaded inserts melted into the plastic housing. Front bolt (right hand yellow arrow) came out fine Rear bolt (just forwards of the exhaust) had seized into the brass insert and just spun In the end, the only way I could remove the seized one was to spin it in a driver for a while to generate heat, which softened the plastic around the insert and let the insert pull out. I replaced the insert and reassembled — all sorted. Now I’m trying to remove the vertical cover and I’ve got the same problem… but worse. The troublesome bolt: sits directly behind the upper trellis frame tube (just behind where the upper left yellow arrow points) only allows a short Allen key in there no room for a driver/ratchet can’t put it in a drill to spin it fast enough to heat the insert and even if I did melt it out, there’s no space to get a soldering iron or insert tool in to fit a replacement So I’m basically stuck with a spinning insert and zero access. Has anyone dealt with this before and found a smart way to do it. Thanks!
If you can get a driver bit in there, try an offset driver https://www.sealey.co.uk/premier-stainless-steel-micro-bit-driver-ratchet-1-4-hex-ak6962/ to spin it.
You could price up the cost of a second-hand cover... if you know you can destroy the cover to get at the offending bolt/insert you will maybe have more options for removal?
If it's anything like my S4RS I could only get in with a shortened allen key and before refitting the screw I cut it down a few mm to make it easier to get back in. "Small" chance that if you get all the other screws out you may be able to flex the cover far enough out to get a long pair of needle nose pliers or similar down the back and squeeze the moulding round the insert. Very long shot but short of breaking off the existing cover you have very few choices available that I can see.
It could be possible to cut the head off the offending bolt with a hacksaw blade, although this might butcher the belt cover, once the bolt head is removed, and the belt cover has a bit of movement use the hacksaw blade to cut the remaining shaft of the bolt by putting the blade between the belt cover and the engine. It really does sound like a nightmare situation, but there's always an engineering solution. Good luck, keep us posted
If the only thing holding it is the one screw that goes into the inner cover just below the camshaft and the insert is spinning it must be worth trying to just lever the outer cover off and pull the brass insert out of the inner cover wirh the screw still in place, it won't need to come very far to come completely away. Use something like a good size wide flat tyre lever to spread the load def not a screwdriver or similar.
Thanks for the helpful reply, what I don't know is the detail, perhaps what I should have said clearly is there are all sorts of options for offset driver tools that will allow you to spin the bolt using a type of driver extension and a drill of this type or similar? Perhaps it was implied?
I know this is a couple of months old, and you've probably done it by now, but if you haven't this may help. Had the same problem with my hypermotard. To stop the bolt spinning so I could drill the head off, I got a piece of 14 mm hex , turned the end down so it would fit in the recess, and then drill a hole in the end which was a very tight fit on the cap head bolt head, if I remember right it was just under 10mm, put an 8 mil hole all the way through, so it gave me something to drill through, then tapped it onto the bolt head using some retainer and I let that set for an hour. You can then drill the bolt head off while holding the Hex with a spanner. The stub of the bolts came out easy after, think it may have been the Heat and the vibration from the drilling I know it's not going to be much help if you've not got access to a lathe, but this worked for me
Sorry mate, just realise that's not much help as it's the vertical belt cover, and you can't get at it with a driver
Another “late to the party” idea. This is a pretty common problem. The brass inserts into the plastic tend to tighten up for some reason and then spin in the casing. If you can get a lever or something behind the outer casing to apply some pulling pressure, spinning the bolt will sometimes pop the insert out of the back casing which allows you to get the cover off. It’s then a case of getting some vice grips on the insert so you can remove the bolt. You can usually pop the insert back into the inner casing using some epoxy glue to secure it. You’ll need to re-tap all the insert threads to make them the correct size again and use some copper slip when putting it all back together. You don’t have to but it can be worth sending a tap through all the inserts every time you take the covers off, even if they seem fine, just to avoid this problem in the future.
As said by QubitDoc. Long nose Mole grips on the bolt if possible , turn and pull towards you. However if the captive nut is spinning in the plastic housing the damage is done. New part n05 in your second diagram will be needed, or if you like to bodge araldite it in!
