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Upper A-Arm Bolts

Easy Rider

Easy Rider

Pro
Joined
Apr 16, 2008
Messages
136
Location
Roseville, Ontario, Canada
Just something people may want to check.

I was out for a little rip on wed. night, came up to a road crossing and the right suspension dropped about 6 inches. I got off to see what had happened and the back of the upper A-arm was dropped down and was resting on the lower A-arm. Left the sled, went home got the trailer and loaded it up. Took the sled to the dealer in the morning and they pulled it in right away, which really impressed me and found the through bolt on the upper arm had just backed inself out and dropped the arm down. Checked the other upper a-arm and it was loose as well. Applied red locktite, torqued everything to spec and I was good to go in about 45 minutes. The service manager was amazed that there was no thread locker on the bolt from the factory. Couldn't see any damage to the subframe, a-arms or shock. It's just a good thing it happened at 20mph and not 90mph like I was going about 15 seconds earlier!

My point is, you might want to check the a-arm bolts on your new sled to make sure they are tight. I had just over 2000km (1200 miles) on my new XTX when it happened.
 

same thing happened to me except I didn't realize it right away and kept riding ended up bending both a-arms and sub frame. luckily when the dealer called Yamaha they told him that they had heard of a few cases and told the dealer to do whatever it took to make it right.
 
I had the same problem a couple of weeks ago! I did notice it right away, thankfully!!!! One bolt had backed out completely causing one side to drop down and the other side was loose. Even when I went through my sled this fall, those top a-arm bolts were not very tight. I would say barely snug!!!
 
Looked at my 09 SE with only 300 miles on it after riding this sat and the top right a-arm bolt was loose so i put lock tight on all a-arm bolts and re-torqued them this is something all should look at.
 
SAT in MN, my right upper bolt came out and I noticed it riding around to do maintenance on it. After going through the front end I noticed the left was almost out as well. There was no locktite on any of the bolts. I was glad I had my tools with me at the cabin. The only thing that sucked was it ruined my shock cover when it came loose. calling the dealer tomorrow see what they say
 
To me part of the root cause of this issue is the clearance of the shaft that the A-arm rides on and the A-Arm itself. I know that when I changed out my bushings to oilite the A-Arms were so tight that you had to really push on them to get them to move. This tells me that the rod on the inside was just a bit short. Makes for a nice tight fit but can also cause the issues of backing out. The bolt is designed to tighten until the shaft bottoms out; the nut that is welded on the other side has the metal locking tabs, the same as the ones found on all the other nuts within the sled. As the bushings wear, the bolt loosens; once it is slightly loose, the locking tabs are ineffective and the bolt continues to back out. If you want to rid yourself of the possibility of this happening again make sure you have at least a 32nd or 1.00mm of clearance between the sub-frame and the A-Arm. In this case to have a small amount of play is actually not a bad thing. Also if you powder coated you’re A-Arms and didn’t remove either the coating or some of the metal on the A-Arm before coating you likely made matters worse.
 
I called the shop and there is no shop notice from Yamaha. He told me to put loctite on the bolt before I put it back together. Another summer project for me I need to add. They put in a warranty request on the shock covers. I will add this to my list of checks before a ride. :o|
 
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