Please help diagnose this wheel/drive problem

To check the front bolt you have to remove the left cover of the engine, held by 4 bolts. Of course first you need to remove the 2 bolts that hold your chrome starter cover on, the left footpeg and the shift lever before the cover can come off. After this stuff is removed the cover slides right off with no oil leakage. There is basically (2) possibilitys on the bolt, either it is finger tight (or less), held from falling off by the lockwasher or it's tightened to 600 ft/lb. Always one or the other it seems. The reason the bolt can come loose is the lockwasher is flimsey metal that can crush over time losing the bolts initial torque. Loose bolt really doesn't hurt as long as the washer keeps it from falling off. I can't see a loose bolt causing a clunk problem, but stranger things have happened I suppose. Use only sprockets that have the extra hole to let you use the lockwasher. Not using the washer can result in the sprocket coming off then you've got no drive and time to walk or worse :blink:

RonKZ650 wrote:

Use only sprockets that have the extra hole to let you use the lockwasher.

Ron, would you please elaborate on this a bit. I know that my front sproket has the "extra hole", but I don't know what it's for, and I don't see what this has to do with the lock washer.

From what I can see, the lock washer has the spline teeth to hold it steady on the shaft. This goes on over the sproket, then the nut, then the washer is folded over to keep the nut from turning. Where does the little hole on the sprocket come into play?

Thanks.

Okay, I think I've got it figured out. I looked at a picture of a "fresh" lockwasher on Z1E. I see that it has a little "barb" cut out of it. I'm guessing that this barb is supposed to go in the sproket hole, and that is what you were referring to, Ron.

I'll have to look again at my lockwasher when I get home, but I don't remember seeing this "barb". However, I also noticed that the one on Z1E has a smooth inside ring, whereas mine has the spline teeth. So maybe they're just different ways to make the washer stay put.

Yea, 2 ways to do the same thing. All mine are just the single tab that go in the hole, but a splined would be better yet.