Ok, guys . . . you got me. Everytime I think about this I'm on my phone and I want to get to a real keyboard so I can type a lot. And boy do I have an addition to my story. Anyway here goes.
I had a good friend call in favor with one of his friends that knows a lot more about welding than me. I took my machine to his shop and left it for the week. Abracadabra - he removed them both! I think his knowledge of welding and better tools did the trick. He said one thing that I didn't try was to be sure that the material is very clean before welding. I never bothered cleaning it. He also said that he needed to weld the nut on, then wait overnight for it to cool off before trying to unscrew it. He had more trouble with the one that was more resecessed than the other. And he said he had to try several times too.
He used this trick to hold the nut when he started welding. I tried needle nose pliers. This would have helpd me.
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Here it is right after he hit it. I wasn't getting the whole nut red hot like he did. I'm sure that makes a difference too.
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So, once he got the broken bolts out, I didn't want to put soft ones back in.
I found these bolts in the "speciality" section at home depot. They only had 30mm and 40mm. The Honda part number I show measured below was 25mm. However, they were 8.8 grade. The Honda part does not show what grade it is. I didn't to use these. I managed to find some grade 12.9 at Autozone. I bought 6 of them to share 4 with my two friends that also have P1000's. <<MORE ON THIS LATER>> So, try auto parts stores. I bet they will have what you need.
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That got my machine back in excellent working order. I had new, 12.9 grade bolts and life is good. I gave the stronger bolts to my buddys and told them to be sure to replace their soft honda bolts with the 12.9. But did, they do it? No . . .
And now... my buddy had the same problem! His factory bolts broke just like mine did. His machine is in my shop right now. And we are fighting the same problem again. His front bolt was not recessed and we were able to cut a slot and use a flathead screwdriver to get it out. But it wasn't without a lot of cussing. It was stuck in there good. We finally got it to budge with some heat from a propane torch, but it still took several hours of working it back and forth with lots of penetrating oil to get it out that way. Now, on to the recessed one.
That's a lot harder. He tried drilling, and then drilling slightly larger, then slightly larger using left handed bits. That got a good hole drilled in it. Then he used a good sized extractor. Of course it was seized in there and didn't budge. Unfortunately, he kept trying and then heard a SNAP. And now the story get's worse. Now his case around that bolt has two cracks in it and the bolt is still seized in it. Major bummer.
So, he's on to trying the Hess mount with only one 12.9 bolt in the front. However, just a few minutes ago, he told me that Hess informed him that it is is on back order and an undetermined delivery date. We don't know what to do now.
If your bolts are not broken and you sometimes hit rocks with the bottom of your machine, my suggestion is to take your bolts out NOW and replace it with 12.9 grade bolts and a good coating of anti-seize lubricant!
Good luck!
