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I’ve got a screw loose

runnerb0y

runnerb0y

Member
Member
The post title won’t be a surprise to anyone that knows me, but in addition to having a philosophical screw loose, I’ve found a physical one on the garage floor.

Quick backstory to hopefully answer the most likely questions.

The last wrenching I did on the bike was last weekend (Saturday) for the heated gear permanent controller install. The areas worked on are as follows.
  • Removed the seat
  • Removed the large black plastic ’plate’ forward of the gas tank
  • Removed the windshield
  • Removed the right hand panel directly below the throttle
  • Loosened and slightly lifted the tank (to route wires).
The screw (see images) looks like nothing I removed or affected during the installation, and I had no ‘leftover’ parts at the conclusion of the install.

I do remember hearing something that could resemble the sound of a small bolt/screw hitting the floor when I was jostling the steering head. I looked at the time, but I didn’t find anything. Now that I’ve found the screw several days later, I’m putting two + two together and deduce (guess) that it is most likely from the front half of the bike??

I taken apart everything I touched during the heated controller install and don’t see any ‘holes’ in need of a bolt/screw. I’ve gone over as much of the front half of the bike that I can without taking off all the bodywork.

Looking at the bolt/screw images, and seeing it has some blue thread-locker, can anyone hazard a guess where this damn thing came from? The bolt/screw uses a 3mm bit.

Thanks for any help provided!!

Edit: The bike is a 2022, purchased May of 2023, and I’m the only owner.
 

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My initial guess, is that the screw is from some installed accessory in the head stock area (GPS holder? Phone Holder?) that was dropped at an earlier date and got hung up in the cables and just happened to fall down when you were working on the bike. It doesn't appear to be a regular Mama Kaw' fastener. Good luck with the detective work. (y)
 
fartymarty said:
My initial guess, is that the screw is from some installed accessory in the head stock area (GPS holder? Phone Holder?) that was dropped at an earlier date and got hung up in the cables and just happened to fall down when you were working on the bike. It doesn't appear to be a regular Mama Kaw' fastener. Good luck with the detective work. (y)
Click to expand...
Thanks Marty. That’s my hope. I do have a GPS mount, but that isn’t the culprit.

I have also installed a McCruise cruise control, so I’ll have to pull more body parts off to examine that ‘accessory’.
 
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Maybe it's just the pictures, but the threadlocker on that fastener looks factory-applied and too even to have been installed before. You can probably tell us better by looking at it, does it seem like it's been installed? It appears to be 25mm long. I do agree with Marty that it does not appear to be a stock fastener...

If it has been installed, and you've got calipers, measure the diameter of the threads - is it an M5 or M6 fastener? I ask because the McCruise kit does come with a single M5 x 30mm bolt used to mount the cable interface unit - perhaps you removed a 25mm fastener (button head cap screw in your picture) to install the longer 30mm bolt? I installed the same kit but do not recall what type of fastener was used but it looks like a normal hex bolt. See their guide below:

1711644015377.png

Has anyone else worked on the bike besides you? It's also possible that a shop that had the fairings off lost the OE flanged fastener and replaced with a non-flanged version.

Aaron
 
fastenova said:
Maybe it's just the pictures, but the threadlocker on that fastener looks factory-applied and too even to have been installed before. You can probably tell us better by looking at it, does it seem like it's been installed? It appears to be 25mm long. I do agree with Marty that it does not appear to be a stock fastener...

If it has been installed, and you've got calipers, measure the diameter of the threads - is it an M5 or M6 fastener? I ask because the McCruise kit does come with a single M5 x 30mm bolt used to mount the cable interface unit - perhaps you removed a 25mm fastener (button head cap screw in your picture) to install the longer 30mm bolt? I installed the same kit but do not recall what type of fastener was used but it looks like a normal hex bolt. See their guide below:

View attachment 38293

Has anyone else worked on the bike besides you? It's also possible that a shop that had the fairings off lost the OE flanged fastener and replaced with a non-flanged version.

Aaron
Click to expand...
Aaron,

Wow, thanks for the amazingly thorough reply!

No one else has done work on the bike, so it’s all on me.

I don’t own a set of calipers so I can’t tell whether I’m looking at an M5 or M6 bolt.

Since I did install the McCruise unit, I fear I’m going to have to pull nearly all the plastics off the bike to ensure something hasn’t worked itself loose. Pain in the butt for sure, but I don’t want to have something lock open on the throttle or cause a breakdown when I’m 400 miles from home.

Hopefully it is something that’s obvious or that it ends up that I didn’t clean up during a previous install, and it just now happened to find a way to the ground.
 
Take a very close look at the threadlocking compound.
That stuff is nothing more than little hollow balls filled with a Loctite equivalent. When you assemble the screw, the female threads burst the little balls to let the liquid/gell out to do its magic.
From the photo it looks like the stuff is unfisturbed. If it was assembled, you'd see the female threads squshed the stuff.
Maybe a long shot, but it the screw is unused, maybe less to worry about.
 
Speedy Coop said:
Does Kawasaki even use blue Loctite on fasteners? If I remember correctly when I worked on my 2008 it had reddish orange thread locker that held really tight. Good luck with your search.
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Speedy,

I agree with you that this part is more likely to be from an accessory I’ve added and not a stock bolt. This weekend will be spent in search of where that damn thing goes.
 
Jorge said:
Take a very close look at the threadlocking compound.
That stuff is nothing more than little hollow balls filled with a Loctite equivalent. When you assemble the screw, the female threads burst the little balls to let the liquid/gell out to do its magic.
From the photo it looks like the stuff is unfisturbed. If it was assembled, you'd see the female threads squshed the stuff.
Maybe a long shot, but it the screw is unused, maybe less to worry about.
Click to expand...
A very detailed observation Jorge! But I’m still going to have to look underneath the body panels to fully put my mind at ease.
 
fastenova said:
Any luck finding a hole missing a screw, or otherwise locating the source of this rogue fastener?
Click to expand...
Aaron,

Thanks for the follow up question!

After a thorough visual inspection yielded nothing, I took to removing a majority of the plastics; Windshield, nose cone area to reveal windscreen motor area, both upper black panels, both side panels, lower panels, battery cover and the panel above the battery panel. I did a thorough inspection of anything I could get eyes on, paying special attention to any Farkles I installed, including …
  • McCruise servo
  • McCruise tie into the throttle mechanism
  • McCruise CPU mounting
  • Windshield actuator hardware
  • Thoroughly inspected the entire handlebar area
  • The areas I disturbed during my Fuze Block install
  • The areas and wiring paths I disturbed for my Gerbing heated gear permanent controller install
  • All areas in and around my Top Block tip-over bar install
  • Underneath the entire Moto
No location could be found for the mystery bolt, and everything I put a wrench on was snug. So… I put it all back together and went out on an increasingly vigorous shake down ride. I don’t hear anything buzzing or rattling and don’t perceive of anything being amiss.

I have tossed the mystery bold into the glovebox on the bike in the off chance I ever happen to discover where it may belong. At this point I’m not convinced it came off my bike, but had to take some effort to settle my anxiety.
 
By any chance connie rider (aka Mr Ted adcock) wasn't in the area recently. U didn't invite him over and into ur house did you? He has a habit (practical jokerish) of dropping oil or coolant under friends bikes, some say he dribbles a little beer under there, but knowing ted, he wouldn't waste good beer! Leaving a screw under a bike wouldn't surprise me.....

Ted anything you wanna confess to???
 
Konehead34 said:
By any chance connie rider (aka Mr Ted adcock) wasn't in the area recently. U didn't invite him over and into ur house did you? He has a habit (practical jokerish) of dropping oil or coolant under friends bikes, some say he dribbles a little beer under there, but knowing ted, he wouldn't waste good beer! Leaving a screw under a bike wouldn't surprise me.....

Ted anything you wanna confess to???
Click to expand...
You might be on to something.😉
 
A friend of mine growing up spent several weeks working on one of his cars in our workshop back in the farm where we had a 2-post auto lift. He did a manual transmission swap into a Pontiac Grand Prix McLaren (early 1990s). It was a pretty cool project, and I think finding a donor car with the manual, pedal box, etc was probably harder than the McLaren turbo car. Anyway, late one night when he finally had the car dropped over the motor and cradle, and had gotten it bolted back together and (at least all the important) wires connected, he took it down the road for a test. He took off on a hard launch, followed by the sound of clanking and banging parts on the road. Turns out nothing had broken, but he had jostled several forgotten wrenches laying around the engine bay.
 
Konehead34 said:
By any chance connie rider (aka Mr Ted adcock) wasn't in the area recently. U didn't invite him over and into ur house did you? He has a habit (practical jokerish) of dropping oil or coolant under friends bikes, some say he dribbles a little beer under there, but knowing ted, he wouldn't waste good beer! Leaving a screw under a bike wouldn't surprise me.....

Ted anything you wanna confess to???
Click to expand...
I know better than to let Ted anywhere near my motorcycle. I’ve always used aliases and fake addresses whenever dealing with that guy! ;)
 
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