I just went to change my oil and when I pull the drain plug out, there attached to the drain plug magnet was a 1 1/4" allen head bolt. I pulled the oil pan off and didn't see any oddvious place where a bolt could come from. I went to Twin Cities Harley here in Minnesota. They had 3 mechanics looking through the books to find a possible location for the missing bolt. It turns out it probley came from somwhere behind the stater. Well I'm pretty mechanical but I just can't bring myself to do surgery on my own baby, so I made an appointment to have my local dealer take it apart. Has anybody had a simular experence? and by the way the dealership didn't even say I told you so....(I didn't buy the extended warranty) damn!!!

Tom I have heard of two reports of the oil pump pickup bolts coming loose, that is the only thing I have heard of so make sure to check that.

Max

Please keep us informed on what you find.

That must be the one bolt on the entire bike thats not glued in with Loc-tite.

Max, That was the first thing I checked.... no such luck!

Could it just be a bolt that was left in the pan when the bike was being built? Stranger things have happaned. Just a thought.

Hey Mustanggt,
Thanks for the reply, That thought had crossed my mind but I ruled it out based on the fact that I have had previous oil changes and the bolt didn't decide to show up untill now. And I figure its too much to risk by ignoring it. As much as I would like to.

Have your stealer look at the bolt and find out the exact size and pitch(Metric) then e-mail me with the answer BEFORE they tear into the motor. Yes this may be a Build Process error. Later SKI.

Good thing it was attached to the magnet,and didn't get caught up in the crank.

Woah, this happened exactly to me. You need to take your bike to the dealer immediatly, don't ride it - make sure they pick it up. The bolt holds up the oil pickup tube and when the other one rattles out (and it will!!) your engine will nearly instantly sieze up. Mine felt like a loss of power for 2-3 seconds, then the engine sizing and locking the rear tire. Don't pull the clutch whatever you do else you will highside the bike. This is a serious issue - you may want to contact Harley customer service!

Vrodalex

Well, I couldn't stand seeing my bike sit in the garage in an injured state. After speaking to the mechanics at the dealership and locating a possible location of the missing bolt I decided to dig into the motor (just a little) I took off the stator cover and there it was bigger than life. The bolt went to the timming chain tensioning arm. I have clearly dodged a bullet, as the bolt came from the top of the rear tensioning arm. It had to fall through the timing chain, the cam chains and all the gears associated with them and fall straight into the oil pan. Needless to say I removed all the rest of the bolts in that area and added locktight to there threads.
I hope nobody else experiences this, but if you do, I hope your as lucky as I was.

Happy Rideing

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I hope nobody else experiences this, but if you do, I hope your as lucky as I was.

Happy Rideing


That is awesome. :thumb: You used up your share of luck for awhile.

Wow, that was lucky! :plause: Make sure you tell you dealer & v-rod tech so they can relay the info back to the MoCo.

V-Rodinator thanks for getting back with the problem resolution. Sounds like you were lucky on that one. My question is did any of those bolts have loctite on them?

Max

Hey Max,

None of the bolts I took out had any signs of locktite on them

Were any of the rest of them loose?

No, just the one that fell out.

In case it's a process error, what was the build date for your ride?

B

I'll check and get back to you

Hold On!! Let me look at this. Just hold on!!! Let's not make this a big issue. Later Ski.

I looked. This would be a build issue. Why it came out? I cannot give you a good answer. Like an old instructor of mine at MMI said, Check the internal components when you are in there. He was a so called METRIC guy. Now that the VR is , that is not acceptible. You get my point. His comment was " Mister LEE on a friday may have had too much SAKI at lunch" so you must understand that things can happen in the process of build. Thats why H-D has a PDI to check the basic things. But I will not go into a motor at set-up. I am sure that if you research other Manufactures, They will also experience build problems. Sorry!!! Later SKI.

Ski,

Either too much Saki after lunch on Friday, or the hangover on Monday from too much Asahi beer and Suntory whiskey des nei!! Oichi!!!

:rofl: That's Awsome!!!! You cool. :thumb: Later SKI.