Dodged a bullet

[mirage1988]

Changed the oil today in the chaincase today. When I pulled the derby cover off one of the clutch bolts was about 2 turns from falling out and another one was about halfway out! Glad I decided to change it BEFORE I went for a ride! That would have made a mess if it fell out with the engine running. Does anyone know if those are supposed to be loc-tited in?

[deernhog]

Know the feeling. I took off this morning when it was 50 degrees and rode to breakfast. I pulled into the house and out of gas I ran. I fueled the thing up and gave the once over and found the magneto on the old sporty was just setting there and the screws had backed out. It never missed a lick but was leaking oil like a sieve.  A couple of turns on the screws and she was back to the road good as new. That old rattler has to be checked every 100 miles or more to see what has fell off.

[mirage1988]

Thank you for the reply, I was just sitting down to send you a pm since you and dirtbag sound like you work on your own bikes. Do you use loc-tite on critical bolts? I am tempted to take the primary back off and safety-wire the clutch bolts. Im a little freaked out about the loose bolts, if one had fell out, that could have been a bad case of road rash.

[deernhog]

I use the loc titite sparingly so as to not let any excess get into the innards any where. Make sure the  stuff is all on the bolt and in the hole and not where it can get in the works. I have never wired any bolts but a Bud of mine had a old shovel that he swore had every bolt piano wired on to it. I check the outside every tank of gas but the innards are not that easy. Try it sparingly and the next change hold the breath and look again.     Riding was great on mine yesterday but it is raining a hard and is set in for the day now

[Dirt Bag]

For sure on the "sparingly". We like the BLUE gel stuff - stays put. Clean out the holes with a shot of starting fluid and a Q tip - bolt threads too. We probably don't use the tourque wrench as much as we should either, I quess.  They will stay put. We try to stay away from the red threadlocker for the small stuff on bikes, although we use it on everything on the trucks.
   Don't see much saftey wiring nowdays. Used to be plenty of it though - Cummins flywheels, main drive hubs in Fuller trannys etc. Understand that aviation mechanics still do a lot of it.
 D&H, that ol' ironhead sure has your number - keepin' you on your toes - But working on them is half the fun of having one.  Right??
 Mamacita and me took a ride out for breakfast early - back about a half hour now, and fingers still numb and slow to type. Love it.
                                                                          D.B.

[deernhog]

Saturday afternoon I was airing the ol bird out and took it out on the road for a blow out. I turned down a cut off onto the old hwy to turn around at our local strip club. The girls were unloading sound equip in the parking lot and while they were not impressed by the old dude they luvd the old bike. I was beaming on the way back to the house.

P.S. Breakfast runs on a brisk morning rock the world.