GL1000 - head removal

[kenai]

Hi all - about to pull the left side head; all bolts are out including the 10mm on bottom; any easy off tips for the head? thxs kenai

[pidjones]

Soft mallet and patiently pop it on all sides many times - leave a couple bolts on loosely.

[ericheath]

Gravity has been pulling down on them their whole life. I have good luck with a wooden broom handle sized board in the exhaust ports and leveraging upward force along with taps with a soft mallet.

Has worked quickly every time for me. I have also placed a jack stand under the head and lowered the motorcycle jack to put pressure on them. Obviously not enough to push the bike off the jack.

[desertrefugee]

I am a rubber mallet user. Never had a head that didn't respond to it.

[Sidecar Bob]

BTW: The one on the bottom is an M6, not a "10mm". Bolts are sized by the diameter of the shank, not the wrench that fits the head. This becomes really, really important when you start putting things back together and read the table of standard torque values in the FSM because the torque specified for a 10mm bolt will shear off a 6mm one so easily your head will spin.

[OCR]

I usually leave the long bolts in place (2 to 4 turns in) and apply a rubber mallet to the heads from 4 directions. Never not had one come loose this way and it prevents the head from simply dropping right off.
For really difficult ones, some rope inside the cylinder and compressed against the head for more force can get the very stubborn head to come off.

[robin1731]

Scroll down to "similar topics".

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[dbtroudy]

I gave mine a couple of hits with a soft rubber mallet and the head broke loose from the gasket. If the heads have never been off before, you dealing with 40 years of the head bonding to the head gasket.

Don