[redrad50]

Some of the bolts holding the exhaust manifold have loosened causing a leak. The outside bolt is easy to access, the ones in-between the pipes are not, so how do I tighten those.

 

[Jungleman]

Red, you need allen wrenches that have a BALL END on them .. Stick the ball end in the head at an angle and lock on a small pair of vise grips and work em a little bit at a time ... Always start with the inner bolts first of course. Amazon.Ebay.Harbor Freight have inexpensive double ended sets.

 

[redrad50]

Red, you need allen wrenches that have a BALL END on them .. Stick the ball end in the head at an angle and lock on a small pair of vise grips and work em a little bit at a time ... Always start with the inner bolts first of course. Amazon.Ebay.Harbor Freight have inexpensive double ended sets.

View attachment 143107

Thanks for the tip I will give it a try.

 

[redrad50]

Well I discovered my exhaust manifold bolts are torx head, T40 to be exact, I just so happened to have an Allen 13 piece Short Arm Torx Key set in my tool box, I was able to fully insert the torx key in the manifold bolt and tighten all four securely per Jungleman’s process starting from the inside out. Worked perfectly, no more leak. Hope this helps someone else.

 

[BPS]

That's odd. I've never seen a Torx head bolt on there. Even looking at a picture of the bolt on the Polaris parts breakdown it also shows it to be an Allen.

 

[pyromedic]

Well I discovered my exhaust manifold bolts are torx head, T40 to be exact, I just so happened to have an Allen 13 piece Short Arm Torx Key set in my tool box, I was able to fully insert the torx key in the manifold bolt and tighten all four securely per Jungleman’s process starting from the inside out. Worked perfectly, no more leak. Hope this helps someone else.
View attachment 143124

Occasionally I make a tool for a specific job and the problem here reminded me of one I made for hex head cap screws that had to be torqued on the valve cover of a Harley Evo Engine in a FXR Chassis. I used a piece of 7/16 hex stock center drilled for a diameter that I could press a short piece of hex key into it. This could also be done with smaller hex stock, say 3/8" or 10mm and a Torx bit. The thickness of the hex stock could be made shorter in order to get into tighter places. In the pictured tool the hex key portion protrudes only enough to fill the hex hole in the socket head cap screw but the hex stock is about 3/8" thick. I see no reason the hex stock couldn't be made about 3/16" thick and the Torx bit cut off appropriately.

In my case I wanted to me able to torque the bolts with a torque adapter but if one were simply tightening the bolts by "feel" something like one of the two following photos could be done:

I've used variations of the latter two photos many times to get into tight places using short Phillips, hex, keystone and Torx bits.

 

[redrad50]

That's odd. I've never seen a Torx head bolt on there. Even looking at a picture of the bolt on the Polaris parts breakdown it also shows it to be an Allen.

 

[redrad50]

You are correct BPS it is an Allen Head Bolt, I went back with an inspection mirror and took a pic just to verify. I guess the torx was a lucky fit, thanks for all the other replies and suggestions.

 

[Jungleman]

No worries , a few times I have had to beat ( apply with great calculated force) a torx into a allen head that had been rounded out a bit. Works like a charm . The access POCO left to secure those exhaust manifold bolts borders on ridiculous .

 

[Ol' Fart]

If you take off the belly pan, access od much easier. You can at least see what you are doing.