2009 Subframe Mounting bolts

Greetings all,

I just finished pulling off and putting back on the tank and upper sub frame truss on my 09 570. This to adjust throttle cables and check nuts and bolts etc...

The center bolts go into an Aluminum tube that is embedded into the top of the gas tank. When I was torquing these bolts I found that once I torqued one side the other came a little loose, and then the other side came loose when I retorqued the loose side. The problem si that this aluminum piece moves in the tank plastic.

The solution........ You will need another T45 torx bit in addition to the one supplied in the tool kit to back up the other side when you are torquing the center bolts on the upper truss to keep it from spinning.

Hope this helps,

Dale

Both of the center bolts on my bike came right out. I can see that the embedded block is turning a little when I'm trying to tighten the bolts.

All of the subframe bolts had loctite on them, but, I think till a fix comes out I'll just anti seize those two center bolts and keep an eye on them.

Seems to me that a simple fix to this problem would be to drill down into this hollow aluminum block ( you can see straight through it when the bolts are out) in two places from the top, in the center, and tap those holes. Then use a thin strip of aluminum with counter sunk pan head screws, (similar to the main mounting bolts) to secure it and this would keep the embedded aluminum block from spinning. Of course, this is dependent on that portion of the tank being solid.

The embedded block has two flats on the end, seems like the sub holes should have had corresponding flats in the sub frame truss to capture the embedded block and keep it from spinning.

Berger and Piggd, what has your dealer said about this?

UPDATE:

Okay, the two screws and plate idea will NOT work as this tube that houses this aluminum bar in the center bolts is independent in the mold, IE the gas flows around it.

There are only a couple of fixes that I can see to take care of this problem. Since the ends of the bar in the center mount has two male flats, the sub frame truss pan head adapter washers will need to have corresponding female flats that this bar will fit into and will thus be secured in the truss to keep the bar from spinning.

The other is to have a more secure mount in the tank for the bar, but, that is a lot of rotational torque to be placed on plastic, especially in light of the fact that loctite is used on these bolts, at least from the factory. I think the easiest fix for the factory would be to make the change to adapter washers in the center truss bolt holes as I mentioned above.

For now, as I seem to have been lucky to have gotten my two center bolts out, I used a tap and die to clean the threads of all loctite, and liberally coated the bolts and pan head adapter seats with anti seize, and with the additional T45 torx bit was able to re torque these bolts to the specified 22ft lbs without having the bar spin.

Fryguy's advice is a good idea provided you do not have the fan kit installed as I do. If you do, you will, as I found, have to loosen the sub frame and lay it back to get the tank off, this even if you were able to get all the sub frame truss bolts out and remove the truss.

Oh well, if this is the only problem with the new bike it seems kind of minor.

My advice is to be sure and use another T45 bit to back up the center piece when removing or installing the bolts to lessen the rotational torque on the embedded bar.

Hope this helps,

Dale

fryguy said:

Hi Dale

To remove your tank with the fan mounted, loosen the rad mounts and shift it foward, then swing the tank out. Nizzo has mounted the fan from his 08 directly to the rad for a more secure mounting, and to allow more room to the tank. The rad still has to be shifted to remove the tank, but it should allow an easier tank removal. just some more food for thought.

Click to expand...

Thanks Lee,

I'll check that out for next time I pull the tank off. I kind of looked at that half heartedly and couldn't readily see how the radiators were mounted. I saw the cross over rad line at the top and didn't think it would move very far so I appreciate knowing this is possible.

After my ride tomorrow I'll need to take the rad's off anyway to check the valve clearances, so I'll have a good look then!!

Really looking forward to my ride in my usual sand box tomorrow and will post a ride report soon there after.