Help - floorboard extender bolt broke

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♫canto♫Italian♬

New member
Be careful with the floor board extenders you get from Harley goodies or any vendor for that matter. while a good quality product, good fitment and great instructions i just twisted off one of the bolts on the rear right floorboard extension and for now can't even ride the bike. I had the bike leveled so i could get to both sides and when the bolt snapped off the bike came over on me. i held it up ok using my shoulders and back so it never hit the ground, but it broke the switch on the right side to the cruise control. Don't think it will pop back on or can be superglued. the switch was moved all the way to the left with the male portion sticking out. trying to piece them back together didn't work so good.

there was a disclamer about extra chrome possibly on the bolts and that it might bind up. Instructions said to try and put it through another similar or same size thread. i did and it went in ok so i started tightening up the rear as outlined in the instructions. all went good except for the last 1/4 inch when it bound up. it was almost like it was too long. i continued to bust a gut on it and "ratchet" on it one or two clicks at a time thinking it was still turning and going in. imagine my surprise then the damn thing broke off and the bike tumbled over on me. Now, i have to drill out the damn thing, but i don't have a clue how to do it and i have to get my cruise control fixed and that might have to replace the whole right control module...i just don't know yet.

Moral of the story......if it binds up, back it off and don't try and make it go because the quality of the bolts doesn't seem to be too good if i can twist it off. kinda makes me wonder about using them to stand on.

not slamming the vendor, more my incompitence at knowing when to say whoa and stop.

Anyway any advice how i can get the bolt out? I've never done that before.

cass
 
Moral of the story should be don't go ape tightening bolts. If it felt to long, that's when you should have stopped and checked everything out. First remove the whole floorboard so you can see the hole. If any of the bolt is sticking out, use a vice grip and try twisting it out. If the bolt broke off down in the hole, then you have to drill it and try an EZ out on it.
 
If you take the extension piece off is there enough bolt left to grab with a pair of vice grips? If so, I'd try that but make sure the vice grips are on tight.
If not, drill and use an extractor. If that doesn't work try a reverse direction drill bit and keep getting successively larger till you can pull the shell of the bolt out or it turns out itself with the drill.
 
yea, i know i shouldn't have kept turning except i thought it was still going in. only about 1/16th of an inch was left to go. it broke off flush with the frame so it looks like I'll have to drill.

cass
 
sounds like it gauled.

the bolts on my '03 RK are 1/2-13. you must have really got on them with a cheater pipe to snap one in half. no wonder you pulled the bike over. sorry about the damamge to it.

good advice given to get the broken piece out.

good luck with it.
 
only real damage was the snap of the cruise control lever. it broke off, leaving the male portion that goes into the switch sticking out. I might be able to glue it. bad thing is i have to try and get the bolt out in order to put another one in so i can ride. guess its a trip to the hardware store to get some drills and extractors.

cass
 
I had to run a die over a couple of the bolts supplied with the kit..........TOO much plating.

Good luck with the broken bolt remove. If you used that much torque, its going to be stuck good. You may have to drill almost to size and re-tap.

Been there ---done that
 
Hey Cass,
Tom here… I am really sorry for this trouble. Before I address the bolt breakage issue let me first say I will do as much as I can to fix this for you.

As for the bolt breaking. Considering that you did check the bolt before installing, there was a pretty good chance that the hole was not clear. I have notice that some of the frames do have an excess of thread lock still in them. I have seen a few guys chase the hole just to make sure that the threads are clear. Yes, never force a bolt. If it doesn’t thread then stop… something is wrong.

As for the breakage, combining friction and pressure will certainly snap any bolt. Yes, even a grade 8 bolt. I just talked to a guy who went to Sturgis, he says that he spent a lot of time standing on his boards and had no issues. I wouldn’t stand on any boards regardless of extended or not. Funny thing is that I never had a problem standing on foot pegs and they are held on with only 1 bolt.



As for the removal. I would use a high quality extractor. Use the biggest one that will fit. Before extracting the bolt, get a can of compressed air (available at an office supply store), turn it up side down and blast the hole in the bolt so that it contracts. This should help when backing out the bolt.

Now for your damage. It sounds let you really had a bad day on this. Just send me an e-mail or call me and I’ll take care of it.

Best regards,
Tom
HarleyGoodies
Tel: 626-253-2022
e-mail: [email protected]
 
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