Loose Nuts and Bolts...

[johnny-canuck]

It's my day for posting. Nothing else to do when it is snowing and raining...

 

Has anyone had a problem with stuff falling off their bikes? I bought my bike (07 Midnight Venture) last April. At 4,000 Kms (2400 miles) I came back from an 8 hour cruise and was washing the bike when I noticed the chrome do-dad on the front fender was loose. Turns out one of the bolts had fallen out. After further checking, I found that one of the bolts had come out of the trunk support and another was almost out on the same side. That would have been interesting as my wife was with me all day.

 

It was Sunday evening by now and I was taking off on a 4 hour ride to work in the morning. I spent the next hour tightening bolts. Found a lot that were loose. Got to another dealer on Monday and they replaced the missing bolts.

 

Later on in the summer I opened my side bag and the cover almost fell off. Both bolts had come out. (I had missed these in the previous tightening). More time tightening bolts.

 

I talked to a VP from Yamaha at the bike show here and he pretty much told me to go bother someone else. Not impressed.

 

Anyone else have this problem? None of the riders here seem to have had this happen.

 

Thanks,

 

John

[Marcarl]

AHHch you should have bought a first gen, the second gen is just trying very hard to be a better lookalike and it seems yours is doing very well at it. Honestly I can't answer your question, but some 2nd gen riders may have enough gumption to help out with an answer.

[awsmsrv]

Yes, I've also got a few screws loose. My bike has had them, too. (LOL) I lost 1 on a trunk support, almost lost them on a saddlebag lid. Didn't notice the saddlebag till I pulled into my driveway. It was wide open & all scratched up. I tightened every nut & bolt I found that was loose. No problems since then. BTW, Yamaha replaced my saddlebag, no charge, no problem.

[BuddyRich]

Lost one of those screw also. Use loctite on them. Also check your rear fender on both sides and the grab bars area. Lost several of those.

[Gary N.]

Add to the list the screws that hold the radio controller to the bracket. You have to remove the LH mirror to get at those two screws. Blue loctite is the answer. Use it on every screw or bolt you take apart. Don't use Red loctite as you will need heat to get it apart if you do.

P.S. pay no attention to Carl, he's an antique like his bike.

[KeithR]

Also put a dab of Loctite on your helmet holder bolts. They aren't cheap if you lose one of those. I also lost the left bolt on the front fender chrome piece. Since then I make it a habit of checking all the bolts from time to time and Loctite most of them. Someone mentioned awhile ago he lost one of the screws on the inside of the gas cap down into the tank.

 

Keith

[McBrush]

I had the same problem with the saddlebag bolts. The reason we found it was because Yamaha was giving me a replacement bolt for the shifter, which fell off while I was riding! We decided to take a look around the bike and found 4 or 5 that were in dire need of tightening.

[M61A1MECH]

I had a front fender trim bolt fall out in the first 600 miles. Found one of the bolts on the trunck strut had fallen out and the other was only in by 1 thread. I will be checking the saddle bag bolts in the morning.

[AZSpyder]

Watch the button on the passenger CB radio push to talk switch. Mine fell off while washing the bike. Tried one more time to fall off soon after. Loctite works on that too.

Jerry

[Midrsv]

I lost a fender tirm screw on both my '04 and '07 RSV. While at the hardware store getting a new screw I just bought nylock nuts for all of the fender trim screw.

 

DT

[Pilot]

Not only did the same bolts on the front fender trim come off my 07 the entire trim piece fell off on my first ride. The dealer replced it. I went thru the bike with a fine tooth comb after that and found dozens of loose bolts. But I missed a few because a few days ago while washing the ride I found both bolts missing off the rear trim piece on the front fender. I don't know how the trim stayed on, lucky I think.

[johnny-canuck]

None of the Venture riders I've talked to around here have had the problem. At least now I know I'm not alone. I don't know whether to feel good or bad about that.

 

My intention was to go over the bike and put loctite on all the bolts as soon as I get it out of the shed. The dealer here said they would do it but don't trust 'em.

 

I did get the snowblower out today and cleared a path to the shed so hopefully I will have it out next weekend.

 

Thanks for all the replies. I like this site.

 

John

[V7Goose]

Sadly, this is not an uncommon problem. All evidence seems to point to the bikes being delivered this way, as once they are properly checked and tightened, this is not an on-going problem. The front fender trim, shifter, and trunk or passenger grab rail support bolts seem to be very common. When my brother bought an 07 RSV I warned him about this; he went over it front to back and found a bunch of loose things before he lost any of them. Wish I had known to do that on my 05!

Goose

[Mordalo]

Every bike I've ever owned or worked on has had this problem. Bikes vibrate in ways that cars just don't. Every time I unbolt something on my bike, I locktite it back on. Screws I usually secure with a dab of RTV blue on the end of the scew (especially if it's going in to ABS plastic. If it's going into metal, I'll locktite it) just to be safe. The first 5000 miles is usually when things start to shake off. At each 1k mi. interval, for that first 5k miles I usually check every bolt I can get to easily and if it's loose, pull it out, locktite it and put it back in. I've tried the cheaper Thread Locker Blue and it doesn't work as well as locktite does. It does OK in a pinch, but it makes a mess of the bolt-hole when it's time to take the bolt out on purpose. Just my $0.02.