Yamaha/Hannigan trike problem

[alwrmcusn]

(This is also posted on another forum)

Saturday May 25th on a STAR chapter 424 ride to Little River Canyon near Fort Payne, AL I had a potential major problem with my trike. We stopped for soft drinks and comfort calls at a small mini-mart near Dogtown (that's what the lady behind the counter said). As we left my wife and I hear a clunk clunk sound. As we decelerated to turn onto the roadway we hear it again. I thought it might be a fender strut that was loose. About a 100 yds later we decelerated to turn onto another highway and we again heard it and I could feel an accompanying bump (very minor). I told a fellow rider we needed to stop and check it out. Fortunately there was an old unused service station almost directly across from the stop. We pulled in, I checked the fender struts and they were solid. I lay down and started looking under the bike and found the problem. The U-joint! Of the four bolts making the connection only one remained! It was about a turn and a half from being completely gone also. A fellow chapter rider came back and shortly afterward the rest of our chapter missed us and came back. Mr Bill, our chapter VP, took a look at the problem, said he could get us home. He rode to a nearby Lowes, got replacement bolts and shortly we had the trike ready for a test ride. The rest of the ride home was uneventful.
I periodically check the bike as we all should, but I never even considered checking for that possibility! Hopefully the Hannigan warranty will replace the temporary bolts and we'll be ready for our next ride!
Addendum: I had just the day before given a test ride of the trike to "papatop49". Sure glad we got him and Cathy back to our house safely.

[bongobobny]

Very interesting!! Must have missed your post in VR. As long as the hardness of the bolts is strong enough there should be no need for Hannigan to replace them but they should be made aware of their shortcoming! I'm thinking of running out and putting a dab of blue loctite on mine now...

[alwrmcusn]

I'm going to have it checked and the bolts replaced because I want to know for sure if there is any other damage. I'm guessing those bolts did not all fall out at the same time. The thing is, even with only one bolt left to make the connection and it being all but out itself, the trike was pulling strongly just like it always has!!

[Cougar]

I did tell Jim and John about these threads on both sites as well.

[Carbon_One]

I checked the bolts on my ride this evening . No problems found as all were good and tight. It looked like the bolts were paint marked after being either torqued or tightened at the factory. I did give the u-joint itself 3-4 pumps of grease.
Today while we were working on Ragtops trike he found one bolt completely missing so he purchased a set of 4 bolts at the Ford dealership. His is a 2010 conversion so no idea as to mileage or whatever.
Larry

[Ragtop69gs]

I picked up 4 new bolts from the Ford dealer today.
If anyone's interested, the flange bolt part number is N800594.S100 Some ford dealers may stock them, some will need to order them. They fit the mid 80's 8.8" Ford T-Bird rear end.

Our trike has somewhere in the neighborhood of 7000 miles since the conversion. I know that bolt was there before we left on our fall leaf lookers ride.