Go away sprocket!

I recently bought a 3rd hand 5" wheel a while ago and ordered a new hub a couple of weeks ago to replace the (possibly) 10 year old hub that came with it, I believe it's off an 01-04 Husky, hence the need for the spacer. Pity the new hub didn't turn up last week.

Mid ride yesterday carving up a twisty mountain road I heard a strange noise, no where to pull over until I reached the top off the mountain I continued on at a lower pace until a mates yelling got too much and a area appeared where I could pull over. The bike didn't seem to handle adversly, still had drive so I wasn't sure what it was. Fearing it was the Suter clutch I installed the day before coming loose and going boom, I checked over the engine when my mates told me to look at the rear wheel...

The initial damage;


Worse still the collateral damage a 5mm deep groove in the swingarm



Time to find a skilled welder! Unless someone has a swingarm they can donate :P

So, the nut came off and the bolt backed out, nicking the swingarm, right?

Too bad here but a welder should be able to fix that I'd guess ...

You do see that the bolt shown here is not seated correctly in the sprocket, right? The shoulders of the bolt must go flush against the sprocket hole or something is mis-aligned ... If it is mis-aligned, something is gonna come apart maybe ...

Anytime you are tightening almost anything that has more than one bolt or nut holding it in place, you need to tighten up the bolts (or nuts) in a circular or a back-and-forth fashion ... Meaning first, you tighten up the bolts (or nuts) up till they are seated correctly on the sprocket as in this case AND do not over tighten them at this point ... Next go around each bolt or nut and tighten it slightly again ... This seats the sprocket up firmly and correctly against the hub ... As each bolt is tighten, it pulls the sprocket slightly on the hub and will actually loosen (or tighten) the other bolts opposite where you are working ...

Continue to go around the hub slightly tightening one bolt at a time till all the bolts are very tight... You'll end up maybe moving each nut 1/4 turn or less on your last pass around all the bolts ... After this, it will not come loose unless you don't have the strength to tighten up the bolt. Those nuts have a lock on them already but locite is good also here ..

Any instruction on how to tie my shoes? I'm not daft. The photos were taken after loading the bike on the trailer and getting it home. None of the bolts are tight at this point as they'd been removed to check the hub then just done up finger tight so I can wheel the bike around.

Interesting ...

Just trying to help ... You're the one posting a totally screwed up, perfecting good bike, that poor workman ship probably caused ... I'm sure you will figure it out ...

You probably know this already also but your SA suggests differently: "Check your work down the road shortly to ensure nothing comes loose".

What year hub is that?..... I just ordered a Ironman sprocket for my 2012 TE 511 and they warned me the sprocket bolts they are including with the package might not be long enouph and told me one of his customers had informed him husky must have thickend that part of the hub..... There is a groove that is supose to keep the sprocket somewhat aligned if the bolts were to allow sprocket movement I thought , atleast on mine there is....

Edit; 01-04 hub gotchya, Hope you got the 2012 hub

I feel your pain; pretty much had the same thing happen to me this Dominion Day long weekend on my 630, mine barely got into the swingarm though (~0.030"). I borrowed 4 sprocket bolts out of my 449 to effect a repair and did the old paint marker trick on the front and back so it is quick and easy to double check:

I hadn't heard about the paint marker trick. Glad you mentioned it!

Can I please ask you caiman where abouts in Australia you got your sprocket from, looks neat.

Any husky dealer can get 'em, they're in the special parts catalogue ~$100-110ish.

THE SPROCKET BOLTS FROM A 2ST AND 4ST HUBS ARE NOT INTERCHAGEABLE!

If you swap a 2st style narrow hub on a new 4st and use the 4st bolts they will be too long and the hub will come apart no matter how tight you make the bolts.

There are three bolt lengths: Short for the 250-300s, med for pre 11 4sts and 125, and long for 11+ (Ithink) 4 st. The only place I have found the long 28mm bolts is from Husky.

After seeing these pics I will never run spacers !

Will do, already off the bike and sent off to a friend of a friend who's fixed the swinger off a 'berg that did the same thing.

Still awaiting the new OEM 2011 SMr hub and ancillaries to come. In the mean time if I get really bored I have my 4.25" stock rim to mess around with assuming my ghetto tubeless conversion works

Happened to my Honda.

this is a common problem with any bike that sees blacktop mileage, and don't have rubber dampeners in the hub for the sprockets.

there is a company working on making a sprocket with dampeners built in, some here were trying them.

you need to look at the sprocket bolts often. I like the idea of the paint marks.