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!
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.