[rbabos]

Has anyone ever had the bolt come loose on the top gear of this photo

When i brought it the the shop they told me the bolt was down in the oil pan.

in the photo attached it's the small gear - the bolt is out.

any comments ? is it possible to drive this bike without the bolt ?

yes this is a repost - looking for some help/advise

No you can't drive it with bolt out as I've already explained in the other post. Which is stripped, the bolt or the shaft hole. Seldom both strip at the same time. If bolt only, get a new one and chase the shaft threads. This requires some skill because you don't want shavings entering the shaft hole. If the threads in the shaft are stripped, and insert or helicoil can be installed for new thread. Again best left for a machinist bud if you have one. Don't even think of the dealer for either tasks as most are too stooopid for machine shop related tasks that require knowledge for the best method of the above tasks.
I would not buy a new shaft in my case but then again I spent most of my life in fab and machine tasks.
Ron

 

[rbabos]

Ron,

i wasn't thinking about riding it. The shop order the new parts and now it's going to cost me 1100.00 for them to fix it. I just wanted to know if this ever happen to anyone else, if your statement is true then I would not have been able to ride it around and drive it to the shop to get the stator cable leak fix. Thanks again

Correct, in that condition you would not have made it to the dealer, as in bolt completely out of the hole. This needs to be pointed out to HD customer service because that dealer if fkg you over big time. That bolt cannot strip on it's own either. Nature direction of the engine tends to loosen it , not tighten it, which is why we have a recommendation on this forum to loctite that bolt. It's also fairly long and as mentioned, I don't think it can come completely out of the hole with the cover in place. Not 100% but I've never heard of one ending up in the pan before. Way before that the owner is bitching about the oil light coming on at idle or it runs hotter then it should for no obvious reason. Both clear symptoms of a loose bolt. Hope it all works out in the end.
Ron