I was putting my front wheel back on my Street Glide after some maintenance. I was not thinking and I over torqued one of the nuts on the studs off the right lower fork, near the axle. I was too excited to get back on the road and did not check my service manual. After the fact, I looked and those nuts are supposed to be torqued only to 11-15 lbs (give or take).

There was not enough threads on the snapped stud stuck in the lower fork to put two nuts on it and back it out. Instead, I heated it up for a few minutes with a propane torch then used vise grips to remove the remaining stud.

I got on the phone and called the local dealership and sure enough they did not have the stud in stock. By the way, the part # is 45998-73. I did not feel like waiting and having my bike out of service. I went to Home Depot and got a 5/16 - 18 bolt. They did not have studs. I took it home and hacked it down to the same size. I put a little blue loctite on it and used two nuts to drive it into the fork lower. Then I followed the torque specification for the nuts and did not snap them off this time.

I hope someone can learn from my mistake.



Broken on left



Use two nuts and some loctite to put the new stud in.



New guy on the right


Back together.

Update: 4/22/12 -- I got the new replacement studs in the mail. I put 250 miles on the set up above without issue.



New studs



Studs in



Done

 

Good job getting back on the road. However I would get the one from the factory asap. I'm sure the strength of the replacement isn't near what the OEM is.

 

Hope you got a hardened bolt.

 

Just make sure the bolt you bought is at least a grade 5 bolt. Your lucky your lowers are not chromed or they would be blue after heating with torch.

 

Agreed! I was going to put a grade 8 in there, but grabbed the wrong size, too short. I can swap it out quickly since its blue loctite and I have room to put two nuts on it to back it out.

 

This is a 5. I'll be putting the Harley stud in it soon. I rode it for about 50 miles and nothing fell off.

 

Thanks for the info it's always better to learn these things the easy way instead of how you learned. Thanks for sharing that's why I love this site.

 

BAH black fork cap would look better! I run one on my right fork, just sayin'

 

I have them. I did not put them on again yet. Will do after I get the OEM stud.

 

Good enough for government work.. Nice fix..