chopplebrains
XS650 New Member
Hi folks - I'm new here and just got my first xs650 about a month ago. Pretty new to working on motorcycles, but having fun learning - I'm hoping this is a simple problem that people can advise me on.
I'm adding a TCBros tail light/license plate kit, mounting it to the rear wheel axle. I removed the castle nut (it was barely on there, I was surprised at how loose it was), got the mount on, and tightened up castle nut. I looked up the torque values and started tightening with my torque wrench - during this process the chain adjuster rotated down due to the rotation of the castle nut and bent the chain adjust bolt (see pic). Bummer. So I sheared that bolt off, and drilled + pounded it out (i.e. I got the bolt off without removing the axle/chain adjuster - no small task to cut the bolt on the inside of the chain adjuster). Got a new bolt from Mike's XS, and back to it.
This time I decided not to have the chain adjust bolt tightened in and to also use less torque (was shooting for 70ft lbs this time thinking that might be tight enough based on some threads online, or maybe a little less with some locktite).
As I'm tightening the castle nut though, I have the same problem of the chain adjuster moving (and license plate mount) as I go. It isn't super tight even and nowhere near 70lb of torque. I've tried putting a jack under the license plate mount/chain adjuster to hold those from moving while I tighten, but that's pretty hard to do (the bottom edges aren't aligned on those pieces).
I feel like I'm missing something. How do you tighten the castle nut without the chain adjuster moving once you start to really tighten the castle nut? How tight should it be? I read just make it "real tight" and then rotate a bit more to get the cotter pin in - but even trying to get it "real tight" the bracket/chain adjuster rotates on this sucker.
If I do this with the chain adjuster bolt tightened up, then the bolt will likely bend again (that was a nightmare to fix the first time around). I haven't been able to find anything online really except for a thread on this forum on a similar topic but the answer diverged into grinding the frame, getting stronger bolts, and the guy ended up just selling the bike it sounded like. I'm hoping I'm missing some mechanic's trick or technique which someone might be kind enough to explain.
Thanks for the help!
(image of the bent chain adjuster bolt from the first time I tightened the castle nut - don't want this to happen again)
I'm adding a TCBros tail light/license plate kit, mounting it to the rear wheel axle. I removed the castle nut (it was barely on there, I was surprised at how loose it was), got the mount on, and tightened up castle nut. I looked up the torque values and started tightening with my torque wrench - during this process the chain adjuster rotated down due to the rotation of the castle nut and bent the chain adjust bolt (see pic). Bummer. So I sheared that bolt off, and drilled + pounded it out (i.e. I got the bolt off without removing the axle/chain adjuster - no small task to cut the bolt on the inside of the chain adjuster). Got a new bolt from Mike's XS, and back to it.
This time I decided not to have the chain adjust bolt tightened in and to also use less torque (was shooting for 70ft lbs this time thinking that might be tight enough based on some threads online, or maybe a little less with some locktite).
As I'm tightening the castle nut though, I have the same problem of the chain adjuster moving (and license plate mount) as I go. It isn't super tight even and nowhere near 70lb of torque. I've tried putting a jack under the license plate mount/chain adjuster to hold those from moving while I tighten, but that's pretty hard to do (the bottom edges aren't aligned on those pieces).
I feel like I'm missing something. How do you tighten the castle nut without the chain adjuster moving once you start to really tighten the castle nut? How tight should it be? I read just make it "real tight" and then rotate a bit more to get the cotter pin in - but even trying to get it "real tight" the bracket/chain adjuster rotates on this sucker.
If I do this with the chain adjuster bolt tightened up, then the bolt will likely bend again (that was a nightmare to fix the first time around). I haven't been able to find anything online really except for a thread on this forum on a similar topic but the answer diverged into grinding the frame, getting stronger bolts, and the guy ended up just selling the bike it sounded like. I'm hoping I'm missing some mechanic's trick or technique which someone might be kind enough to explain.
Thanks for the help!
(image of the bent chain adjuster bolt from the first time I tightened the castle nut - don't want this to happen again)