Anyone had components rattle loose?

mwakey wrote:

I understand you train of thought, but I would say about 99% of the stuff I have taken off my WR already had loctite on it and was plenty tight. I haven't had anything rattle loose yet in over 6k miles. I have not disassembled the entire bike like you did, but I have had a majority of it apart at one time or another. Not many things I've found that weren't loctited or had locking nuts on them. I am very pleased with the quality of the build, even if you do say it only takes an hour to assemble at the factory.

+1 ...this has been the best assembled new bike i've ever bought....even the spokes were tight.
my only gripe would be that they don't grease the linkage bearings or provide grease fittings.
my old xt500 had fittings everywhere,but that has been the only bike i've ever came accross that did have them on all the pivot points....of any brand.

There was, indeed loc-tite on most all the major parts I disassembled. The grease on the linkages and axles was slim and not up to my standards though. I like to reassemble with antisieze mostly because this keeps the bolts from rusting or corroding inside their resspective nuts or cavities. I even do this on all the case bolts, especially the water pump areas...

+1 on the Never-Seize. Use it religiously on all the motorized things here. Just a PITA when you get it on your clothes. Then again, WD40 works well for getting it out. So far to date, NOTHING has rattled loose and I've gone through some pretty rough crap with it....like yesterday.

NMBIII wrote:

I went on my first offroad ride with my WRR this past weekend and on the second day my front brake went out. I looked down and had brake fluid all over my knee. The hose/tube connected to the master cylinder simply rattled loose and was leaking. After 20 minutes of roadside repair (bleeding the system took a long time) it was working, but it was frustrating that a dualsport had an essential component rattle free on it's first time on the dirt. Anyone else have a similar experience?

I don't know for sure, but maybe it's a bolt that is SUPPOSED to get tightened during dealer set-up. I worked at one dealership where most of the new unit assembly was done by a 14 year old kid with a bad case of ADD. Had a few serious problems as a result. Bad thing about banjo bolts is that you do not want to use loctite on them - might contaminate the fluid.

Thanks for the heads-up. I will be checking all the banjo bolts on both of my bikes tomorrow.

rokka wrote:

I found this screw under my bike today Where does it come from ? Is it really from my bike ? 2 letters on the head "A K "

It happen again :( Now i am sure. Its from the bike but where ?

You mean that is a second screw? Trying to think...maybe for the seat strap?

It's basically a wood screw....it's gotta go into the seat somewhere

Yes it is the second screw that comes lose

Someones got to be messing with you....if you figure it out, make sure you tell us.

I think your bike is screwing around on you!

i've seen bolts like that on my kTM and WR. i just forget where. not engine for sure. holding on something plastic i think.

I had my brake light rattle loose at about 4800 miles. I noticed it when I was riding in Maine. The tool kit did not have the correct size allen wrench to fix it.

I have yet to see a screw like that come off my R². All of the screws I have seen, or bolts, do not have a point like that, and are mostly fine thread. That almost looks like a body bolt off a car or truck or something. The seat bolts are fine threaded and longer, with a flat bottom. Side panels, same thing and have a hex head. All the others I have seen are either Phillips head, flat head but all with flat bottom shafts with no point, and not as coarse a thread pattern. To this day, nothing has rattled loose on mine.

As a hard and fast rule I have always checked and torqued all fasteners on every bike I have ever bought, whether it be new or used, This is definitely one way of preventing such issues. SpaGuru is also correct, using a little bit of loctite on every major fastener is a great idea, and is simple enough to remove with the application of light heat to the bolt, as iterated on the bottle.You can also mark the head of the fastener against a mark on the frame with a 'Sharpie' marker, a good way of visually inspecting if the fastener has moved during rides. When doing this, it is also a good idea to grease headstem bearings, swingarm bearing, wheel bearing, etc. and also apply some waterproof grease to prevent water ingress. After all, you want your pride and joy to be in the best possible condition for as long as you can - these things are worth a pretty penny! 

I've only had one so far - the bolt holding in the left side of the headlight plastic bracket came loose. I noticed it when I was parking my bike in the garage and I could only turn my wheel half way to the left. I looked down and the bolt had fallen down where the tangs are that lock the steering column. This was after some pretty harsh riding on trails and a few dirt bike tracks with jumps. I took a look at most of the other bolts and didn't find any others that were loose. The only other part that has fallen off is the clear plastic lens on the license plate light. I lost that and ended up modding the bracket anyway.

Hp

I never checked this before I had a problem, but I lost the housing for the license plate light on a rocky hill climb. It was just hanging off at the top of the hill. I'm chalking it up to "rattled loose" but it was also too broken to go back on.

To the OP. Last summer the same thing happened to me. Fortunately i caught it minutes after it started leaking so all i had to do was give it a good tighten. It was at approximately 2000 miles.

WRRSam wrote:

The bracket that holds the side cover on rattled loose but I didn't lose it as it was still attached to the side cover and the bolt (the one that came loose) that holds it on the subframe couldn't fall out as it hit the airbox.

After my 6 day 900 mile trip, that was the only issue that I had. I did not even notice it until after I got home and went to inspect my air filter.

so far I've had the two bolts that hold the exhaust fall out (the rear ones, not the ones that bolt to the engine) and a bolt that holds the kickstand bracket. I use lots of Blue loctite now.

On the WR the left headlight bolt went missing, along with the metal spacer.

On my KLR..... well lets just say that even with blue Loctite stuff rattles loose. I keep an assortment of bolts in my tool pouch along with a small bottle of blue. All bolts get treated each time they are removed/replaced.

I found the source from where the loos screws came from. They did not come from the WR. My electric garage door was the source. Every time that i open the garage the door hide the holes from witch the screws came from. Every time one screw came loos it fell on my bike .

Hahha. Glad you found the source!

I put on about 80 miles today and noticed that my right arerbis rally pro handgaurd was loose. the bottom bolt on the part that clamps to the bars was missing and the top bolt was very loose. l was lucky to find a bolt in my box of bolts that was almost an exact match...

Half way through my last ride I noticed a rattling in the front end. I had lost three of the four bolts that hold the fender to the fork and the fourth was loose. Darn washboard roads. At home I took out the one remaining bolt- no locktite on it, but there is now.