We had a 66 degree day today, so I took the new scooter to work with me. What a difference from Friday night's 22 degree ride home.
After soaking up some of the ohhs & ahhs from my coworkers that were checking out the new bike today, I slipped out early to take the long way home.
About half way home I noticed some vibrating from down below. I took it right home and found I lost a bolt that holds my pipes in place and found 3 more loose. I thought to myself "Harley's haven’t really changed that much" then proceeded to break out the red Lock Tight and remove every bolt holding my pipes in place and retighten all of them. Anyways I guess the bike was trying to tell me something when it started to vibrate, good thing though, one more bolt and I would have lost the whole bracket that holds the pipes in place. Well I guess I'll be stocking up on Locktight with this bike.

 

your more lucky than me,
I heard this bang,bang,bang coming from some where in the rear wheel area.
Stopped to find that the bolts holding the drive pulley had worked loose and 1 of them was missing and others were hitting the swing arm frame.
had to screw the remaining bolts in by hand , to slowy get it home about 4 miles.
so new bolts & washers w/lock-tite
all good to go.
Just glad I wasn't a long ways from home.
Now go figure the last owner never used any lock-tite on them.
this was last year, long time before the snow even gets close to being gone here, before this years riding adventures.

 

lamonster....from you other thread about your new bike, you mentioned you have V&H big radius pipes on it right ? I assume that the dealer installed these right ?.....sounds like a dealer tech that don't give a **** put your pipes on....as a rule, parts don't usually fall off of new Harleys these days. But if I were you I would go over anything the dumb **** at the dealer touched and make sure it's right. Also it's good to go over "critical" fastners on a new bike no matter what...and also check them at regular intervals. And yes locktight is a good thing...

This is why I do all my own wrenching, I "know for certain" it's done right. It's my *** on that bike not some tech that doesn't give a ****.....

Do your self a favor, get a service manual, and parts manual for your new bike, work on it yourself, save money, and get to know your bike.....it's a great sense of satisfaction knowing you did it yourself. And like I always tell people...don't be afraid to tear into one....it's not "rocket science".....lol

FBR

 

I could't agree with you more about working on my own bike, and I normally work on most things myself, cars or bikes. They wont be getting the bike back unless it's something I can't handle. And yes, I went over it yesterday to see if anything else was loose.
Thanks!

 

Actually the head pipe on the forward Jug was almost finger loose too.

 

I'm sure you can do the work yourself but be careful. You never know when you might be voiding your waranty.

 

Pull the football off your breather and use blue locktite on the internal bracket. I ended up holding the breather on with my leg going home one day, the next time I was at the dealership, a cop had his city cruiser in with the same problem.

 

I agree...they changed out the backing plate when they put the Screaming Eagle intake kit on your bike.

As for the exhaust manifold nuts...those tend to back off a bit due to expansion and contraction from the heat after first installing pipes. They sometimes need to be retightened no matter who installed them...

FBR

 

Yep, That was the first bolt to get the locktight.
I dont know how much longer I can stand to look at the football, it's almost as bad as the late 70's early 80's rectangle air cleaner.
I may go with and S&S cleaner or HD nostalgic. we'll see..