Rear Drive pulley bolts loosened up!

S

susy_04_u

New member
Ok, I have 21,000 miles on an 06 Ultra, and I am on a ride today and heard a slight click sound when I stopped. All the bolts on the rear sprocket were 2 to 3 turns loose. I was able to tighten them up and get on my way but all I can say is "WTF" am I lucky. This could have been a very different outcome. I will use red loc-tite and torque to spec but why would this happen after this time frame and mileage? The sprocket has never been touched.
So a heads up, you might want to touch these with a wrench next time you are going over your scoot. I know I will......more than once.
 
I had the same thing happen to me. I know that clicking sound. I figured it was my fault since I had changed the wheels and transfered the pulley to the new wheel. I Check the pulley bolts and other major fasteners every oil change now..;-)
 
at 21k you must have had the tire changed, and on some machines the pulley has to be removed to clamp the wheel. If you didn't do it yourself maybe it wasn't torqued? Mike
 
95 Road King 65K miles

This June while on a mountain ride with deep canyons on either side I experienced a drive line problem. It is what one might expect if a twig got caught in the belt. I stopped but found no problem and continued the ride without incident.

At home, on further inspection, I found the drive pulley to be loose, one bolt missing and the swing arm scratched and gouged. Clearly, one of the bolts had become loose, or broken, and had gotten caught in the swing arm. I was lucky!!!!!!

On disassembly, I found the bolt holes in the hub and pulley to be worn oval Both were unuseable.

My bike is quite customized - no saddlebags - and I had used a chrome, conical trim piece on the pulley which is supplied with fully-threaded ss cap screws. The threads of this cap screw had cut into the aluminum pulley and the hub causing the oval holes.

These parts were beyond repair so I obtained a new hub (reused the SS spokes and orig rim) and a new pulley. [$ouch]. I had a new conical trim piece but rather than use the supplied fully threaded cap screws, I used SS partly threaded screws. I did have to cut an additional turn of threads but now the bearing surface is smooth rather than the sharp threads.

My suggestion. Check the hub bolts at at least every tire change. If you change these bolts, do not use fully-threaded bolts.

Eric
 
Had it happen twice on my 03 Just had it happen 3 weeks ago for second time as I was coming down from a trip to the Sequoias I use red Loctite and proper torque. Have spoke rims and I'm goung to pull them off to make sure they are properly trued and that it is not somehow a contributing factor to this problem.
 
This is very true! The bolt should have a shoulder going through the pulley and no threads should be in the pulley hole, the threaded portion of the bolt is a smaller diameter than the shoulder. There is a rule for bolt shoulder length, I cant remember for sure but its like twice the diameter plus some (1/4"?).
Is MOCO using full length threaded bolts on these pulleys? That will surely explain why they are breaking.
 
Wow fascinating and very important topic - I've never had this happen but I plan to check mine in the morning!

Thanks for bringing this to our attention...
 
I just want to state my observations on this. It does happen more often than you think, and 90% of the time its on a laced wheel....and the other 10% of the time its shortly after a tire change, where the flunky had to remove the pulley from the wheel to fit it on the tire machine better. Then when he put the pulley back on he just didnt bother to torque or loc-tite the fastener. Just my .02$
 
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