has anyone heard of the bolts shearing off of the drive sprocket on the rear wheel. my friend had it happen to him today on his 06 street glide with 1500 miles on it. it broke all the bolts and cracked the rear sprocket causing it to lock up. luckily he didnt lay it down.

 

Only seen that once, and it had to do with the other shop not Loctiting the bolts and torquing to spec into the wheel when the customer did a wheel swap on a custom.....

Really screwed up a beautiful set of PM's with matching Sprocket and Rotor.....

 

over torquing could stress the pulley causing it to crack, beating the crap out of the bike could shear the bolts, or poor quality hardware could have failed.

I have never heard of a HD shearing hardware before though

 

Thats a shame. Seems like there is very seldom a smooth ride without some sort of problem or wrenching!!

 

yep...seen it mostly when using a Sprotor on choppers, for some reason chrome bolts dont stay in as well

 

The same thing happened to a buddy I work with! Strange................

 

It seems I have read several posts asking the same question about the sprocket bolts. With the proper clamp load they should not shear off. When bolts do shear off it typically is from loss of the clamp load (bolt loosens up). That allows the pulley to rotate slightly every time you get on or off the throttle until it shears them off.

Check the threads for lock-tite, it would be my guess there isn't any.

 

Seen several posts about this in the past year. All had the HD chrome bolts. Bolts just shear off for apparaently no reason. I think one post even had requests for people to contact the moco to try and see if there was a batch of bad bolts.

 

well there is an issue when plating things and the free hydrogen atom from the plating process getting in the middle of things and causing brittleness. the hydrogen atom, being the smallest one on the periodic table of the elements, finds its way in between the grain and causes a weak spot that fractures easily. think of it like a fault line.

the technical term is hydrogen embritlement as I remember my kollege metalurgy classes.

in structural applications it is more common to see bolts that have been treated with a zinc phosphate wash than with any sort of plating process for just that reason.

 

Let me share a little story about this topic. My girlfriend took her bike to Whitt's HD in Manassas, VA to have a rear tire installed. She phoned ahead to make sure that they had the correct tire in stock (a wide whitewall) and she paid for it over the phone. I dropped her bike off at the dealer for her and made sure they wrote on the repair ticket to match the tire that was on the bike, the service writer wrote it in big words on the ticket. Memorial weekend the bike was ready and we went to pick it up and sure enough it had THE WRONG FRIGGIN TIRE INSTALLED!!! We looked at the service ticket and the part number for the correct tire was crossed out and replaced with the wrong tires part number. She insisted that the tire be removed and that the correct tire be installed. They said that there were four bikes ahead of hers, but they would get it done. We waited for the bike to have the correct tire installed and when it was done we got some serious attitude from their service staff and no one could explain how they had the wrong tire on there when the service ticket plainly said to "match the existing tire". No apology or anything. Then they had to refund the difference for the more expensive wrong tire.

We were going for a ride two weeks ago. Running 75 on 95 South in VA. We got separated and when I finally got to where we were meeting up with some friends, I had a voicemail on my phone. She was 15 miles behind on another exit with a broken bike. This is what we found:



It makes me shudder to see how close those bolt heads are to the shock mount.




Two of the 5 bolts holding the belt sprocket had sheared off and the remaining 3 had backed out approximately 1/2". The sprocket and belt were totally loose and the sprocket had rubbed against the inside of the swingarm and the rubber shock boot. This bike was fine for over 13,000 miles before having the tire replaced at Whitt's HD.

$175.00 for a tow to Waugh HD in Orange, VA , 2 weeks in the shop and $360+ for the repair has turned us very sour towards Whitt's HD. I will tell everyone I can at every opportunity about our experience with these effin' morons.
IF YOU LIKE YOUR BIKE, DON'T TAKE IT TO WHITT'S HD FOR SERVICE!!!

Of course, YMMV.