Shearing pulley bolts
#1
Shearing pulley bolts
Well it happened to me last night.
Going down the road and hear this jack hammer like noise, so I slow down and glance down in time to see something chrome go flying off my bike.
Stop on the side of the road and find the pulley bolts all coming out and 1 bent, along with a big gouge in my pulley.
Glad my AAA covers motorcycle towing.
I take her home and put her in the garage and cry myself to sleep, suppose to be leaving for the Dragon on Wednesday.
Anyways, I go out this morning and tear her down and I believe I now know why this happens.
The pulley bolts are only 1-1/2" long, this may have barely grabbed the minimum 6 threads required. These were specifically pulley bolts from a local shop, new when installed. Now mind you I had torqued, loctited, and re-torqued those bolts and lock washers, when installed over 2000 miles ago, I checked them last week and all was good.
The top 4-5 threads in the wheel were damaged, but the holes DO NOT bottom out, at least not in my particular wheel. I ran a tap through all holes as deep as the tap would go, cleaned the threads out thoroughly and bought some grade 8, 7/16" - 14 x 2-1/2" bolts and new lock washers, prior to installing with fresh loctite.
Since loctite takes 24 hours to fully cure I am going to let it sit overnight before mounting the wheel.
Will take her out for some short rides tomorrow and check them after each ride to see if all is well.
Just glad this did not happen flying down 81 Wednesday night on the way to the Dragon.
Going down the road and hear this jack hammer like noise, so I slow down and glance down in time to see something chrome go flying off my bike.
Stop on the side of the road and find the pulley bolts all coming out and 1 bent, along with a big gouge in my pulley.
Glad my AAA covers motorcycle towing.
I take her home and put her in the garage and cry myself to sleep, suppose to be leaving for the Dragon on Wednesday.
Anyways, I go out this morning and tear her down and I believe I now know why this happens.
The pulley bolts are only 1-1/2" long, this may have barely grabbed the minimum 6 threads required. These were specifically pulley bolts from a local shop, new when installed. Now mind you I had torqued, loctited, and re-torqued those bolts and lock washers, when installed over 2000 miles ago, I checked them last week and all was good.
The top 4-5 threads in the wheel were damaged, but the holes DO NOT bottom out, at least not in my particular wheel. I ran a tap through all holes as deep as the tap would go, cleaned the threads out thoroughly and bought some grade 8, 7/16" - 14 x 2-1/2" bolts and new lock washers, prior to installing with fresh loctite.
Since loctite takes 24 hours to fully cure I am going to let it sit overnight before mounting the wheel.
Will take her out for some short rides tomorrow and check them after each ride to see if all is well.
Just glad this did not happen flying down 81 Wednesday night on the way to the Dragon.
Last edited by 8541hog; 08-07-2010 at 04:42 PM.
#4
It will continue to happen so long as you use a bolt that barely hits 6 threads, from what I can tell the pulley bolts they sell that are 1-1/2" long are too DAMN short.
Of course if you have no significant spacer between the pulley and wheel you will contact more threads, I have a 3/8" spacer so my belt clears the tire.
#5
Well the only good part about the whole adventure last night was you trying to make me see the bright side....LOL
#7
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#10
As mentioned in my original post, there is no bottom, the holes go all the way into the cavity, so no need for a bottoming tap. I ran the tap as deep as it would go, which gave me over 1.5" of thread.