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When I service my 'King up on the dolly, I put a wrench or socket on EVERY fastener I see from all angles.
Thanks for alerting all to this often overlooked fastener, and critical it is!
When I service my 'King up on the dolly, I put a wrench or socket on EVERY fastener I see from all angles.
Thanks for alerting all to this often overlooked fastener, and critical it is!
I think a lot of us that grew up with shovelheads and panheads,learned to maintain bikes a lot better than the newbies have. It's kinda like that first year of owning an old bike,it was hard to find something that wasn't ready to fall off!
Good reminder. I did a maintenance on this recently with an engine oil change. I try to check the stand every time I check tire pressure, since it's on the jack.
I carry an extra jiffy spring in the tour pack. You never know when yours is gonna either drop off or break....or if your riding buddy might need a spring. Maintenance of the jiffy stand spring and mounts is important. I also carry cable ties, but I hope I never need them to hold up the jiffy leg.
I got home from a grocery run on the RKC, and decided to park it outside the garage. I've got a ritual few steps to park it on the jiffy stand; I use a quick flick of my heel to fling the stand with enough speed that it carries out to the stop, and I simultaneously start leaning the bike over onto the stand.
This time, when I heel-kicked it, it sounded different, and I noticed the tip of the stand swinging back-'n-forth, instead of resting at the stop. I had already starting to lean over onto the stand, but I could see/feel that the bike was leaning too far. I caught the weight just in time to keep it from going over...barely! I backed the bike up, and pulled the right side up to the garage door opening, with just enough right-side lean over-center. Leaving it in 1st gear, the crash bar rested solidly against the garage opening.
I laid a pad on the concrete, and got horizontal to investigate. The spring had come unclipped from the jiffy, but was still hanging on the frame. The bolt and the clocking tab under it were obviously WAY loose, only a few threads holding it in. I re-oriented everything, then tightened the bolt securely. With the jiffy in the "stowed" position, it was easy enough to stretch the spring enough to hook it onto the hole, by putting a long small diameter screwdriver thru the hook on the end of the spring and pulling on the screwdriver shaft with both hands.
This bolt will become an additional maintenance check whenever I have the bike on the lift for oil change, tires, or just washing. Please check yours.
*edit* - dammit, I really can spell "close". Can't seem to edit the thread title, though.
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Nice Catch!
Another case for " Blue Loctite! "
Any bolt and or nut i remove or thats come loose over time on my bike requiring tightening/trqing gets blue loctite unless its in a sever duty app requiring Red loctite thats very hard to remove/break loose.
If i am not mistaken applying heat can help removal of red loctited fastners that dont want to break loose.
I carry an extra jiffy spring in the tour pack. You never know when yours is gonna either drop off or break....or if your riding buddy might need a spring. Maintenance of the jiffy stand spring and mounts is important. I also carry cable ties, but I hope I never need them to hold up the jiffy leg.
I had my last Road king lowered in the front and rear. I was forever stretching a spring it seemed. I found some aftermarket piece that clamped on the frame rail underneath the bike. If the kickstand was inop, the kickstand would press fit into that piece. Didn't have to use it but once, but it came in handy.
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