900/755 RMK: Recoil housing removal Warning

mountainhorse said:

My first 900 was a 2005... I was not able to get to the bolt it... and I have every hex driver known to man, regular, long, ball type etc...

I was unable to get to it without removing the motor mount bolts and lifting her up.

Are you shue that you did not wedge the motor up slightly?

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There is a tight 6 millimeter space under the recoil housing to get at the bolt in question. Being that the bolt is positioned too low to go straight at it with a hex wrench, I had to modify my 5mm ball end by putting a slight bend toward end of it to be able to get it to reach the bolt. I also had to use the grinder to make the width of the wrench a little narrower so I had a little extra room to be able to turn the wrench. I only used the bent 5mm hex wrench to get the bolt broken loose. I used a tiny flat head screwdriver to (little by little) turn the bolt (as it turned fairly freely) until it was backed out as far as it would go until it butted up against the plate below the housing, but it was far enough that the threads were free. The hardest part once all of the bolts were loose, was getting the housing wiggled out of there with that 1 bolt still in the housing. This required removing the brace and the 5 bolts holding it in place directly above the recoil housing(there is an idler pulley that the rope rides on connected to it) I left that bottom bolt out of the housing when I put it back together. It also went back together much easier than it came apart. It took a little cussing and a lot of time but nowhere near as long as it would take to remove the motor and I only sacrificed 1 5mm hex wrench to do it.

I hope this is helpful as the information that you and many others on this forum have posted, has been extremely helpful to me.:beer;

make sure you guys do this, this summer...

And a fuel filter !!!!!!!!!

On 05's my local dealer will take a dremel and grind just a little section of the frame just enough to get the bolt out. Not that I'm condoning this but its better than prying upon the engine.

BTW, on 06's I believe you want to leave out the 2 or 4 o'clock bolt out and one on the bottom. It's self explanatory as to which ones to leave out.

diamonddave said:

On 05's my local dealer will take a dremel and grind just a little section of the frame just enough to get the bolt out. Not that I'm condoning this but its better than prying upon the engine.

BTW, on 06's I believe you want to leave out the 2 or 4 o'clock bolt out and one on the bottom. It's self explanatory as to which ones to leave out.

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When I did mine, I took a 90 degree drill and about a 7/16" bit and drilled a hole just below the lip of of the frame instead of grinding to retain strength. Then removed the bottom bolt and tossed it. This was in preparation for a long trip where it would have been a PITA to remove on the mountain. Pulled it apart this spring for a stator...no engine removal necessary.

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