Control Rod works itself loose?

M

MikeSr

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Joined
Jan 3, 2009
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Age
70
Location
Racine, Wisconsin
I posted two days ago, thinking I had broken a control rod (some call them a radius rod). When I got underneath it today, I found it was NOT broken. Somehow it had worked it's way loose, and all I had to do with screw it back together.

I put 400 miles on the sled since I owned it and this is pretty weird to me. I noticed on the Yamaha parts microfishe that they have an updated part listed for the nut that tightens up against the rod end.

Has anyone else had a rod loosed up on it's own and fall apart or am I the only one on the planet?

I see no possible way that this could have happened because the female and male threads both look fine and it screwed back together no problem.
 
I find that nearly impossible without the threads being torn out. There is no way it could unthread itself. It must not have been screwed in very far at all & had to screw up the ends of the threads. Just my thoughts anyway.
 
A buddy of mine on his maiden voyage on his AC had the same thing happen. His was complaining how fast we were going in the corners and that he could not keep up. We made some "kitty" jokes and said that he needed to get used to the machine. About 200 hundred miles into the trip he noticed that the skis were pointing in. One of the tie-rods had back off causing a bad toe-in. Did a quick for on the side of the trail and he was gtg.
 
Well, if it happened to your buddy, then I guess that I am not going crazy thinking about how it could possibly have happened. There is no logical explanation to it, bu it sure as hell happened.
 
did you have the lock nut tightened properly? Was it missing? If the lock nut is not tight, yes I could imagine the rod rotating and moving or even comming completely apart. Al
 
i dont see how that could happen even if the jam nut wasnt tight ...the radius rod cant turn once bolted to trailing arm and the heilm joint cant turn either .....i would agree the threads would have to be torn up for that to happen ....
 
Everything looks good on it.

There are no torn threads and everything looks good on it. It did screw back in VERY easy, so the only thing I can possibly imagine is that it wasn't screwed in very far, the nut wasn't tight and when I hit something hard it just pulled straight out.

I have a replacement rod on the way and I am going to be curious to see how easy that one is to screw on.
 
broken bolt

Mike, were you able to get the trailing arm bolt out? I was thinking that might be pretty tough
 
Correct the radious rods can not "unscrew themselves" Only one heim joint. I confused the tie rod with the radious rod in my mind. Best to replace asap. low cost, realighn afterwards also. Al
 
the steering tie rod could loosen, but not the radius/control rod, it is bolted to the trailing arm & it can not rotate nor can the heim joint rotate in the bulkhead.
 
Trailing Arm bolt

I haven't had the time to remove the trailing arm bolt just yet. I bought a couple of extractors and dug out the torch, but it will be tomorrow before I get to it.

The trailing arm has been replaced before by the previous owner, so maybe I will get lucky in that it isn't full of crap and he didn't lock-tight the hell out of it. Or....maybe not.
 
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