Swing arm bolt failure!

[Turbojoe]

I've never seen anything like this happen! An internet search came up empty too. I had just come off the freeway running 70 mph. Coming down a street with stop and go 25- speeds in a construction zone. Sitting still and heard and felt a *pop* on the bike. Because of all the construction vehicles I thought something was shot out from a tire and hit the bike. Didn't think anything of it until I started to slowly inch forward with traffic. That's when something felt wrong in the rear end. Being trapped with no place to pull over I had to nurse it along the remaining 1/4 mile to work. Later I got a chance to look the bike over to see what happened. That's when I noticed the chrome swingarm cap missing from the left side. Upon closer inspection I noticed the entire threaded area and nut were missing from the shaft!

I got the bike with 7,400 miles on it two years ago. Since then I've put just over 20,000 miles on it. I haven't crashed it. It does have a small dent in the right side of the tank and a slightly bent front brake lever consistent with a dump over by the previous owner. No evidence of a real crash anywhere. Pegs, frame, engine etc are all scrape free. I haven't touched the swingarm and I doubt the previous owner did either. Not sure why the shaft failed like this. I'm just thankful it didn't happen a few minutes earlier at 70 mph on the freeway! Of course nobody in town has the parts so I ordered from Ron Ayers. I just hope they get here before next weekend. Even with the Ron Ayers discount price the shaft was $30.73. If this same exact part was for a car it would only be $8.00 or so. Put motorcycle in front of it and the price goes to the stratosphere! Oh well, the price we pay for fun........ Hopefully this was just one of those isolated incidents and I got the one bad shaft that came off the line.

Joe

[Triangles]

HOLY S#!T. That could have been a VERY bad day. Glad you are ok. I would think there would have had to been a defect in the metal. Metal just doesn't fail like that without reason. I've never looked at how the swing axle goes together but the only other reason I could see for that happening is if some jack wagon had way over tightened it but I would think that would cause other problems before the thread would shear like that.

[Turbojoe]

As you said if it was over torqued before I got it surely there would have been swingarm binding to indicate something was wrong. No problems though and nobody has touched the bike since I got it 20,000 miles ago. Of course I've hit some small pot holes here and there but nothing major. For the last two weeks I have even been avoiding surface streets to work because they seem to be doing construction on every freaking one of them! All mileage has been on the super smooth freeway. In short I can't think of anything that happened since I got the bike that would stress the bolt in any way. I blew up the picture 250% for a better look. I'm no metallurgist but that doesn't look like a normal twisting failure. I've been a mechanic all my life and have twisted off enough rusted in bolts. They always show obvious signs of twist where they break. If you look very close at the top and bottom there is a little curl but I think that is just where it finally let loose. My guess is that the part somehow escaped heat treating. I'll be able to get a closer look when I pull it out when the new parts get here. Hopefully before next weekend.

I'm going to be going through withdrawals. This next week will be the first time I've driven the car to work since I got the bike in May of 2011. I guess it's OK in the end as I start my new job tomorrow. It's supposed to be raining hard in the morning and I'd hate to show up in rain gear.

Joe

[Turbojoe]

I got bored today and decided to pull the swing arm bolt out for a closer look see. (Ron Ayers royally SUCKS and my new parts won't be here until Tuesday!!!) It was clear that the bolt failed in the thread area. There was about 1/4" of thread left. It looks like the monsoon season is finally over and we'll have a long while without rain or dust storms. That's good news because the old girl is covered with dirt and road crud. A bath is long overdue. I pulled the swing arm shaft and drilled it out to tap for a 1/4-20 bolt and washer to hold everything together enough for the 1/2 mile ride to the $.25 car wash. As I was drilling it was quite obvious that there were alternating hard and very soft areas in the bolt. The same held true when tapping the hole. This was a garbage bolt that should NEVER have made it to the assembly line! I hope nobody else has this time bomb on their bike.

On the plus side everything held together well for the sort ride to the car wash. I hosed her down and gave her a coat of wax. Now she sparkles like a diamond in a goats ass. I just really miss riding to work every day. The car is nice and it has A/C but it still isn't as fun as riding.........

Joe

[Triangles]

I feel your pain! When I had my old job and traveled overseas for extended periods of time. I'd go thru withdrawal. lucky for you you only have to wait till Tuesday. Imagine having to wait 2-3 months!

[Turbojoe]

Well the parts from Ron Ayers finally got here Tuesday night. The 14mm swingarm bolt was right. Unfortunately they sent me a miss packaged 10mm nut for it! ARGH!!! UPS didn't show up with the package until 7:00 pm so yesterday (Wednesday) I went to Ace Hardware and got a Nyloc nut and washer for $2.00 including tax. Ayers charged me almost $5.00 for the WRONG freaking nut! I sent them an e-mail about what happened and they basically just blew me off. That's the last order they ever get from me. Motorcycle superstore just got my order for a new rear tire. ....... Whatever....I'm up and running again and so happy not to be stuck driving the car even if it does have cold A/C on these 100+ degree days.

Joe

[Triangles]

Assuming you paid by credit card, call up your ccard company and dispute the charges. sometimes that's what it takes with deadbeat retailers.

[Turbojoe]

It's not so much the few bucks but the fact that it took 11 days to get parts that showed no indication they weren't in stock for immediate shipment. (I could have bought used on ebay and been on the road in 3 days.) Then on top of that they sent wrong parts. Then again on top of THAT they just didn't care. I could have ordered my new rear tire from them but didn't because of this episode. I'll see how it goes with Motorcycle Superstore. Communication so far has been excellent. Maybe my new parts source......

Joe

[Triangles]

I've had excellent experiences with motorcyclesuperstore. I've never found any place selling OEM parts that actually stocks anything. They all just order direct from Kawasaki so you have to wait for the parts to get from Kawasaki's warehouse to them and then they reship it off to you. Fortunately I have a local dealer who has decent prices if you order from their web site. It gets annoying that they charge 20% more if you simply walk in the store to order something.