Work smarter not harder.
Everyone says it. But not everyone practices what they preach. So in the interest of changing that, here’s a brick for the inspiration wall.
I had to remove the air box on a 2002 Suzuki SV650. It's secured by two hose clamps that tighten around the carburetor intake ports. Two hose clamps, two screws to loosen. A few counter-clockwise turns and move on, right? Wrong.
The clamp to the rear carb was very accessible. No-brainer. The front clamp, however, could only be seen with a flashlight. And once I had eyes on it, I saw how gouged the screw head was. Ugh. To top it off, it was nearly impossible to get a screwdriver to meet the screw straight-on. The only attack was at an angle. Eventually, with careful and gentle force, the clamp was loosened. The air box was off! But the front clamp, with its stripped screw, left a bad taste behind.
Removing the air box was one of many steps in a larger effort, so it would have been easy to just move on. Obviously this airbox had been removed and replaced a few times - that screw's wear told a story! It could certainly be installed and removed a few more times.
No. The right fastener for this was an allen bolt, and the right tool was a ball-end allen wrench. Allen fasteners are always more reliable than a phillips screw. And ball-end allen wrenches allow you to turn fasteners at an angle.
The result rocks. All risk in pulling the air box is now removed, and it’s super-easy to do.