Frame Slider Bolt Length

[blitzcraig]

Hey all! So I got my motovation frame sliders in the mail yesterday and had a go and putting these suckers on. When I took the original bolt out of the bike, I noticed that it seemed shorter than the bolt motovation sent me. So I screwed in the slider with its longer bolt and it didn't want to screw in anymore than about half way. Then it got a little stuck in unscrewing it and when it finally came back out one of the threads in the middle was a little screwed up. It is a 100mm bolt (so the specs say, I will measure it when I get back to my place). Is that too long? Was I doing something wrong? Any advise would be most appreciated.

[oldtimer]

The original bolt should be shorter than your new bolt because the new one doesn't sit flush against the engine. HOWEVER, the number of threads on the new bolt should be the same if not more than the original bolt.

I also got the motovation sliders and did not have a problem putting them on my 2008. I screwed the bolt in by hand to make sure I wasn't going to cross-thread anything.

Did you hand-thread the bolt initially or just stick it in and start cranking away with a socket? I really hope you didn't mess up the threads in the engine mount...

I took pictures of the bolt length against a regular ruler. I'll post them up tonight to help you compare against your new bolt....

[blitzcraig]

Well I thought I was pretty careful with screwing it in. Perhaps I was too rough with it, though the original bolt went back in just fine. It went in a good inch or so before running into trouble, and I definitely didn't force it any further when it began to show resistance. It just got a little stuck coming out, which required a bit of force unfortunately to get out. Sigh. So you were able to hand spin it in there?

[Tailgate]

Good that you're being cautious! You can easily strip your engine mount threads even more if the new slider bolts don't "bite" as many threads as the stock engine mount bolts and you torque to 40ft lbs per specs. I have a 2007 FZ6 and my T-rex slider bolts are supposed to be 100mm in length (this is longer than the stock engine mount bolts due to the slider design). The threads should be M10x1.25. If you want to be sure you have the same threads I recommend buying a M10x1.25 nut at a hardware and see if matches your Motovation slider bolts. Then make sure your Motovation slider bolt threads extend (after insertion into slider) into the engine mount threads just as much (or a little more). Other Motovation slider owners will probably do a better post than I can on this since I have a different brand.

[blitzcraig]

Thanks very much for the info. I am going to try and run home for lunch and try again (carefully) on the other side. Hope I didn't strip anything, though I would think if I did the original bolt would have trouble going back in, but it was fine. I don't think I was even able to go further in the threads than what the stock bolt could reach before it ran into trouble, from where I unscrewed it out of there.

[oldtimer]

Is it possible the motovation bolt that you used already had bad threads prior to you trying to get it in?

Yeah - I was able to hand spin it all the way in (using a socket extension). After I got it hand-tight, I used a torque wrench to tighten it up.

[blitzcraig]

I don't think so, they were brand new right out ofthe bag. It's just very strange because I was pretty careful. Now that one of the bolts has a slightly damaged thread, would it be bad to try and screw it in again? Or is that a dumb question?

[oldtimer]

I really wouldn't try to screw it in with damaged threads. Email or Call motovation and ask them to send you another bolt. If they charge you for it, curse them over the phone and remind them they charged you $98 shipped for the frame sliders - they can afford to ship a replacement bolt to you for free.

[blitzcraig]

yep, think i kinda screwed the pooch on this one. i took the stock bolt out and looked in there and saw a few metal flakes. what is interesting though is that while the motovation bolt wont go in all the way, the stock bolts go in fine. oh well, no sliders for me. i'm just not going to mess with it any further. guess i just won't drop the bike . i'm going to drop in a k&n filter this afternoon so i'm going to shift my focus to screwing the bike up that way. so i have two questions please:

1. how would you fix broken threads, just for my information? can you have it re-threaded or would you have to replace parts? cost?

2. what has been people's experience with insurance? say you wipe out and the bike is a total loss... then you get a new bike. has anyone seen their rates jump astronomically?

[oldtimer]

Here are the pictures I promised.

You can retap (re-thread) the engine mount hole or I think someone on this forum just used a longer bolt and put a nut on the other side to secure it.

Hopefully someone can chime in on the wrecked my bike, survived and managed to get a new one using insurance money.