Lately my bike hasn't been handling too hot. I've been getting speed wobbles just driving straight at the 90mph and above mark...the faster over 90, the worse it gets. It seems speed related, not RPM related (switching between 5th and 6th doesn't change it)

I'm also getting a metal on metal "clank" sound from the rear and poor handling in twisties. These symptoms seem to add up to rear motor mount issues right?

The curveball here is: Tuesday I was riding and a car pulled up to me at a stop light and told me something fell off my bike. I turned around and it was a rear axle nut cover from the left side. I got home and the right side was dangling too.

I don't know the actual technical term, but the large nut on the axle on the outside of the swingarm was spinning freely (luckily there's that giant C clip on the end of the axle). I fastened it way down with loctite, but I still don't think this was the issue.

So what are your thoughts? Could bad motor mounts be causing excessive vibrations in the rear axle making the axle nut covers fall off and axle nut to come loose? Do you think it's a wheel issue? Could the wheel be sliding side to side, thus causing the speed wobbles? Could the wheel center diameter be too big for the axle and be shifting up and down, causing the clank?

I've got 13 spoke mags on the rear that were drilled out by a reputable shop, and this procedure has been done many times to other high-profile Dynas so I don't think it's an issue with the shop's work on the wheel.

It's either motor mount, shocks or wheel....but what sounds the most logical? I don't know how to get to the rear motor mounts to check them out.

 

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that large nut thingie was not properly fastened.........
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This may sound weird but I had the same issue even the loose axle nut, it turned out to be the bearing spacer was missing when I had new bearings installed, this wore out the bearing to the point the axle nut became loose.

could also be just a loose axle nut and everything will be fine once tightened, mine could be just an isolated case.

 

Yeah, but the weird vibes, handling and wobble have been going on for a while. Maybe I'll take the rear wheel off tomorrow and make sure it looks up to par...

 

I've never had it happen personally on motorcycle, but I did learn one of the symptoms of bad wheel bearings in a 1965 VW is vibration/wobble. Definitely worth checking.

 

Yeah it's ****ed...not just a little weeble wobble but full on WHAW WHAW WHAW back and forth. Squid, you going to the event at Pala tomorrow?

 

Sounds like the bearing are fvcked, pull the wheel and check em out along with the axle sleeve

 

I was going to take my youngest. He loves the Redlight King video, but his soccer team made the finals...double header tomorrow. Hopefully someone will post some youtube of it.

 

Take it back to the shop that did the work and let them check it out, before you kill yourself.

 

BTW, the spec for that nut is 104ft lbs. It's pretty hard to hit 104 without a hefty, long handled torque wrench. If you don't already have one, Sears has a nice one for under $70. I bought mine just for that nut. When I had an axle mounted side plate, the little c-clip wouldn't fit with the supplied nut, so I got a habit of checking it every time I checked tire pressure. Now I just do it with the other critical fasteners when I change the oil.