Rear Drive pulley bolts loosened up!

L

love my kids

New member
SkyGlaze.

06 Electra Glide. I was Traveling at 70MPH when I Heard a Noise in the Back, Like a Loose Chain rattle. (?) Well, I Don't have a Chain...So I Started Pulling over to the side from Middle lane, when at roughly 50 MPH, The Rear Wheel LOCK UP LIKE NOW..... I Kept the Bike up-right, and Thank GOD, There was No Car next to me...Left a streak of Rubber 25 Feet long... Went to the side of Hwy, and One bolt was locked to the frame...Did not Shear. There was one Other Bolt Already Sheared off, and One Bolt Loose... Three Came undone.
The Bike was hauled to a Dealer. Harley Replaced the rear wheel, the threads were stripped, and sprocket (Bent) and of course the bolts and such.
It Could Have been very Serious if I had gone Down. Anyway, All OK, and the Motor Co paid the dealership the $1100.00 Repair Bill.
I think They are trying to butter over this problem and I think it's happening more often than should....
Safe Travels, and God Bless.

TJ Country Fried
 
Glad to hear you are ok- tough to avoid a highside in that situation!


After a similar experience I marked the position of the new bolts using white out typing correction paint... checked the position each day at first until confidence returned. Now check during washes or when checking air pressure.

No problems for many months now.

Good luck!

twg
 
Funny, I did the same thing after this happened. A quick glance tells the story, once you go through this ya get a little bit gun shy.
 
I had this happen yesterday on my bike. Stay tuned for when I tear it down and find out the problem. I have aftermarket wheels and sprocket and the bolts are fully threaded. I just had a wheel put on within a 1000mi ago. I suspect this is where the problem lies in not loc-titing on improper torque.
 
I went to dealer that sold me my custom wheels last year and also just put a tire on for me and showed him the bolts had no loc-tite on them. He double checked w his mechanic to make sure he did not remove the pulley when changing the tire and he did not. These bolts were put in form the factory with no loc-tite and also they are not a shoulder bolts...so there is the answer. 14k mi later they back out and I actually checked these bolts 3 weeks prior to this happening. I am going to have to chase the threads w a tap, find shoulder bolts and may try to get another 1/8" of thread on bolt and blue loc-tite them in.
 
I safety wire all my bolts on the rear pulley. There is no way for them to loosen up. I don't trust loctite that much. They always stay tight and I've never had a problem this way.
 
The same thing happened to me, and in fact has happened before. The first time I happened to hear the washer vibrating so it got my attention and I tightened up. This time I happend to be inspecting the bike, all around, and saw three were loose. Backed out just far enough for the washers to spin. NOTE!! this time one was broken on the inside, and I noticed because I decided to pull out and put some loctite on it. And was wondering why one bolt was a little shorter than the rest. I started calling different people because as all of you well know everybody wants you to take the bike in. I was able to gather that theses bolts are tapered and meant to use just once, meaning if you've ever pulled one out, or it's fallen out, it should be replaced. Thats the most I could get from a sevice guy. Now I need to figure out how to to get the piece of broken bolt out of the hub, and hope the threads arent messed up, then I'll be buying a new rim. Any ideas?
 
I wouldn't think a tapered bolt would be used, as the tapped (internal threads) would get boogered up in your wheel. If the threads are screwed up, you can helicoil them, or we used to use in the service a threaded insert with locking pins called a keen-sert, this would of course affect the balance of the wheel, but not so much that it couldn't be counter weighted. I doubt a helicoil would make any noticable difference in balance. Saftey wire is an awesome idea, but loctite at the minimal
 
Back
Top