Schmeriously!! I have it reversed, as that's what the instructions for the hardbag brackets said to do, for clearance. Although it looks like there would be plenty either way.

Left the heat shields off the exhaust in case I have to drop it again. With that nut torqued down, nothing moves (no bearing/axle issues, no missing spacers). So it was just that.

 

I'm glad you found your problem, and corrected it. Now get out and ride safe man.

 

Glad you found the problem. Shouldn't need Locktite with the proper torque and the retainer clip in place.

Did you check belt tension while sitting on the bike? That's the proper method with some Softails, check your service manual.

 

I wouldn't think, but I torqued it down once, and it worked loose, and I have to drop the exhaust to access the nut. So I'd rather it not work loose again.

I checked it on the lift, with the gauge. As long as it is in the ballpark, that's all I care about.

 

Not sure what year your bike is, but you may not even be in the ballpark if you checked belt tension with rear wheel off the ground.

 

Service manual has numbers for both off the ground and on the ground (with no one sitting on it).

 

I finally got everything put back together last night.

When I took that axle nut off, the threads had quite a bit of old grease on them. I took a rag to it, and a lot of black came off. So I got a wire brush and some rubbing alcohol and cleaned the threads off on both the nut and bolt real good. Got them good and clean, applied blue loctite and re-torqued.

Hopefully that is the end of it.

On the older models, they had a castle nut and lock pin, but on the newer ones like mine, they've gone to an e-clip. So that nut is free to loosen. The e-clip would only prevent the nut from working itself completely off.

I wonder why they did that. Seems like the old way of securing it would have been more, well, secure.

 

Glad ya found the problem, Funny how sometimes it's the most simple thing....

 

Well, I'll feel more confident about it after another 200 miles, if everything is still tight.