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Axle pinch bolt sheared…

920 views 11 replies 3 participants last post by  JasperB 
#1 ·
Greetings all.

2015 RS that does up to 1000 miles a week delivering pathology and blood for the NHS.

I’ll endeavour to keep this brief.

Had a slight steering bearing knock so thought I’d nip them up a little over the weekend.
(I’m also rebuilding the calipers with new seals and pistons, a bit epic, some are very sticky, but I’ve done 6 so far)

Anyway. Undoing the front axle pinch bolts this morning, (super-tight 😳 thanks quick-fit tyre mechanic) whilst removing the front wheel, I made the error of not loosening them each a little, bit by bit. One sheared. Lesson painflearned.

All but 2mm of the threaded part of the bolt remains in the fork bottom axle holder.

Am I looking at:

asking local dealer to attempt removal?

or fitting a new stansion plus fork bottom?

would riding on with three pinch bolts till the next service at 80k be tempting suicide?

All the options on eBay currently have nasty scars, so not for me.

Warming up the credit card…

I’m not seeing an option to buy a new fork bottom, which I see that the stansion screws into… I’m assuming that’s an epic possibly best avoided…

Hay ho.

Happy to hear your opinions and/or advice.
 
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#3 ·
It’s so annoying when a combination of circumstances leads to something so awkward, and avoidable - feeling your pain.
From my experience, once those bolts are loosened (i.e. have no tension on them) they can be readily spun out by hand. While the over tightening may have caused some binding, it isn’t as if the thread is rusted in. So some gentle persuasion should loosen it sufficiently to remove it.
I’d suggest some tapping with a centre punch to relieve any binding then a small (very small …) chisel towards the edge to try to tap it anti-clockwise. Eventually you’ll hopefully expose enough to be able to grab it with needle nosed pliers.
On another note, are you certain it was the steering bearings that were loose? I say this as that was my initial thought when I detected a small amount of fore-aft play in the steering/suspension. Turns out the play is within the forks, so I am awaiting a new set of sliding bearings (bushes) from the Fatherland.
 
#4 ·
Aloha Panzermann!

Thank you. My problem with the left over bolt is that it’s snapped deep in the fork bottom and I can’t get at it. Harumph.

I argued with myself a lot re forks/brakes/steering bearings…

What sealed it for me was coming to a halt with engine off at Public Health England in Colindale on Friday evening as I pulled up to the Security guys there… I thought I heard the clunk clearly from the headstock… anyway, once I get the wheel back on and the brakes finished tomorrow I’ll give her a spin, and as our ex poet Laureate Larkin once wrote, “we shall find out”…

I did every amount of pulling/pushing the forks sans wheel, during the adjusting process but you may well be correct about the forks being the culprit. It just finally felt very “bearings” to me… I’d thought it might be due to the (really nasty) pistons messing with the semi floating discs which are (as you well know) “loose”… I can pull/push them forward and back and they clunk back and forth as (I suppose) they oughta…

It was a long old winter here with a lot of salt on the roads…

The (ahem) funny part is that the dealer did a “caliper clean” at the last service… after I’d asked them not to and told them I’d do it myself… They took it off the bill when I collected the bike.

I can see absolutely no evidence of a “caliper clean”… 1200 miles later. Hay ho. At least I didn’t end up paying for it!

In other news, there’s another medical courier on a Lupin RS in London… I see him now and again, bumped into him (not literally) a few weeks ago on his son’s Kawasaki 1000…

He said he’d gone over a speed bump at 20mph in town and his swing arm had snapped due to a seized UJ on the driveshaft… Thankfully he’s ok. “I thought the rear shock had broken” he said. Rear wheel locked up…

I think about that on the motorways I daily run up and down…

Panzermann what’s your feeling about running on three pinch bolts till I find a fix…?
 
#5 ·
I didn’t realise it was that deep, @JasperB. If it were me, I’d give it a tap as described, then get a long flat blade screwdriver tip, sharpen it, put a plastic sleeve over the shaft so you don’t chew out the fork leg, then put it into an electric screwdriver running anti- clockwise. Even a hammer drill.
The R has the advantage that the bolt hole goes all the way through, so attempting to drill it from the bottom would likely run it out.
As far as running on one pinch bolt and keeping speeds down, I’m an optimist so would probably do so, remembering the bike is built for high speed performance. The end cap is already holding the axle in place to a large extent, and plenty of lower performance bikes have less sturdy fork legs and only a single pinch bolt, with no end cap. But only you can do the risk assessment for your own situation (add legal disclaimers here … 😄).
 
#6 ·
See if you can start a drill hole and bore out with a drill bit smaller than the bolt itself. This should compromise the structural integrity of the bolt and provide many ways to remove the rest. I’ve done this in other applications when I couldn’t get a grip on the remnant of the bolt otherwise.
 
#9 ·
When those caliper grooves are clean and the new seals and pistons go in… that’s very satisfying. The old pistons were really horrible. Corrosion city. Getting the air out is another matter, of course… work in progress. I’m leaning towards your diagnosis of tired fork bushes, Panzermann… Hay ho. Thank you for all your input.
 
#12 ·
Turned out to be steering bearings… replaced. Left fork chrome was going/gone, and replaced with the only available stansion in the UK at £360… both forks got new seals. Bushes apparently ok… Sheared pinch bolt removed and replaced with new. Don’t ask me about the bill or I’ll cry. I’m at least happy that the Tech that did it all possessed the correct tools and knowledge to make it SO. Thanks all for the advice, so forth. Annie lives on at 76k miles to fight another day or two.
 
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