I knew I'd be dealing with some frozen screws on the clutch cover, and the bike didn't disappointed. Turns out all nine of them were frozen solid.
Starting with the one at the 12 o'clock position, I just went around and tried the Lisle impact driver on each one. I'm starting to get my technique down. I usually start with a sharp hit to sort of set the bit in the metal. But I try to make the next two as hard as possible, figuring that that's the point where you'll have the most grip. If it doesn't work in the first three hard blows, it probably won't work at all, since by that point you're almost surely stripping the screw.
So as I made the circuit, I was able to free five of them just with the Lisle, stripping the other four in the process. After the first stripped screw, I already knew the Dremel would have to come out to play.
I'd already been through a very tricky Dremel re-slotting when doing the rocker cover screws, and luckily all the stripped screws on the clutch cover were relatively accessible, though I did have to take off the muffler, foot pegs, and loosen the brake pedal so it hung free.
I used the same re-slotting approach I had before: cut a little, check the progress, adjust depth or angle as needed. It really pays to make sure you're re-slot is wide and deep enough to give the impact driver plenty of grip. If not, you'll just end up stripping it again, and by that point you'll have lost a lot of material.
Happy to report that the Dremel re-slotting followed by the Lisle's flat head bit freed the other four. I was a bit nervous on the last screw, which was at the 7 o'clock spot. Without taking off the brake pedal completely, I could only reach half the screw head with the Dremel cutting wheel. So I just cut a slot on one side and that seemed to be enough to let the impact driver do its job.
So I couldn't have been more thrilled to gaze upon the fruit of hours worth of work...
A look at the oil screen...
A look at the screws that had to be Dremel'd...
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