Triumphrat

tridentt150v · 04-04-2004

'98 Thunderbird Sport.

Has anybody had this happen.

I left my driveway, and accelerated [not too hard], went 500m and backed off for a 'T' intersection, as I backed off and went down gears and braked, all hell broke loose.

After nursing the bike home and having a look at it, my adjuster bolt on the back wheel was very bent, the large spacer [that slips over the axle and slots into the swingarm] with the crown that the adjuster bolt rests on was shattered in about 4 pieces [on the drive side], and my axle was bent.

When I undid the axle nut, it was still very, very tight, so it wasn't as a result of a loose axle etc.

The wheel had kicked hard to the right, the chain had pulled it over.

I'm up for a new axle, two adjuster blocks, and one adjuster bolt and locknut.

The adjuster bolt is not normally designed to take any load [a tight axle should do this], BUT it looks like it is only a mild steel item. This is not good enough.

The wheel has not been off or adjusted for approx. 3,000km, and that was for a new rear tyre.

I'm only glad this didn't happen when I was keeled over in a corner, or on the freeway etc, things could have been much worse.

My first advice is for everyone to replace their adjuster bolts with HT ones. My second advice is to get a flat spot machined on the adjuster blocks for the bolt to sit on.

ClassiclyMobile · 04-04-2004

Glad you weren't hurt Trident. Could it be that the spacer has been cracked for a while, perhaps since the tire change? I haven't been torqueing my rear axle to specs but I think I will from now on. Thanks for the heads up.

Ballacraine · 04-05-2004

Count that one as a lucky escape!

I agree it sounds likely the spacer may have been fractured some little time ago.

I'll che ck it out......

Thanks for the tip off & pleased you managed to survive the incident pretty much unscathed!

Nige.

MickMaguire · 04-05-2004

Hey tridentt150v, thank God you are OK! You are so lucky the bike didnt throw you by the sound of it too!

I do not understand why you are saying that this bolt should be replaced with an HT equivalent. It bears no load and is simply there to provide a way of setting the spacing between the swinging arm and the slider/spacer. Similarly I see no need to make a flat on the slider/spacer item either.

The damage you describe seems to indicate that for some reason the spacer failed. Using a HT bolt would mean that you would have a harder than stock bolt pressing on the soft spacer/slider. You would also run a higher risk of stripping the threads in the swing arms.

If this failure were due to some interaction between the bolt and the spacer I speculate that you could be increasing the risk of this happening again by performing these modifcations.

However, at the end of the day my money is on this being a faulty spacer/slider casting.

[ This message was edited by: MickMaguire on 2004-04-05 21:58 ]

tridentt150v · 04-08-2004

Sorry didn't get back sooner, I go away with work a bit.

The axle is bent, the spacer is broken, and the bolt is a pretzel.

The problem is the flat mild steel bolt head resting on a curved
surface. In a perfect world, there should be no force on the bolt
once the axle is tightened. However, mine was f@#*king tight and the
axle still moved forward. This in itself would be no problem if the
bolt was a 12 grade hardened one, and there was a locator on the bolt
to stop it skewing up or down on the curved surface of the spacer.

I'm going to modify mine by welding a small cone onto the bolt head,
and matching this to a small drilled recess/dimple on the spacer.
This will effectively lock the bolt in place on the one plane.

For those of you that think that this bolt bears no load, remove them and then go for a ride, see how far you get...........scary thought isn't it????

On another note [big whinge], I've been told that Triumph cannot
supply the parts for about 2-3 weeks, this is the weakest, most
stupid thing I've ever heard. I can order parts for my T150V Trident
from several shops in England and they arrive at my doorstep within 5-
7 days. Yet a 'new' bike's parts are 2-3 weeks, Triumph have to be
joking if they think that is adequate.

And they wonder what ever happened to the great English motorcycle
industry????????????? and they still haven't learnt.