having problem with a motortrike i can't seem to track down.

when I back the trike out of the shed and start to go forward and turn left at the same time. I feel something shifting in the rear.

when traveling down the road my trike starts to wiggle bad above 70 mph.

I know iv'e solved others problems like this by telling them to install all new bolts in the heim joints on the rear end housing.

heres what iv'e done so far.

brand new rear shocks

brand new heim joints and bolts.

new style drive shaft

the bolts I used have special lock washers that are paired up, once locked down they can't move or back off by themselves

iv'e re-checked the bolts after 1000 miles and all are tight.

now the shifting part I feel almost feels like the ladder bar moving slightly.

or maybe its an axle shaft slightly moving in and out.

iv'e tried tracking this problem down for over a year and have yet to find anything.

anybody else have this problem and come up with a solution.

look at the ladder bars real close. the joint at the end of the bar maybe moving in and out of the ladder bar.

Gorilla said:

look at the ladder bars real close. the joint at the end of the bar maybe moving in and out of the ladder bar.

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good suggestion. but iv'e had that happen before and it would wiggle with every bump I hit. I will check that and the jamb nuts.

but if you can think of anything that would be out of the ordinary I sure would appreciate it. if the axle had like an 1/8 inch of play in and out, could it start osolating side to side once a certain speed is reached.. also now that I think of it I left out a good point. if the wife is on the back, providing more weight on the rear, it will not do this.

I'm running 24 psi in the rear tires. could it be the tires doing this ?

Back it up onto wide ramps on a solid floor, crawl under from rear, look up at bars and have wife or someone place hands on fenders and push to side to rock trike, you watch bars (& joints). Below is from MT's manual.

The ladder bars will be positioned on the INSIDE of attachment bracket on the right rear side. The ladder bars will go on the OUTSIDE of the attachment bracket on the left rear side. The rear end is secured with four, ½ inch nylock nuts--2 per side.

CHECKPOINT: Measure from the center of the axle tube on the rear end housing to the center of your carriage bolt in the pivot pin. This measurement should be 24 to 23 3/4 inches. This will tell you how you are aligned at this point in your installation. Make sure that both sides are either even or within 1/8 inch of each other..

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CrystalPistol said:

Back it up onto wide ramps on a solid floor, crawl under from rear, look up at bars and have wife or someone place hands on fenders and push to side to rock trike, you watch bars (& joints). Below is from MT's manual.

Click to expand...

thank you for the info.. I will deffinatly take that measurement. by the sound of it. if the rear is offset slightly forward or back from one side to the other. that would deffinatly cause it to walk at higher speeds.

3W-lonerider said:

good suggestion. but iv'e had that happen before and it would wiggle with every bump I hit. I will check that and the jamb nuts.

but if you can think of anything that would be out of the ordinary I sure would appreciate it. if the axle had like an 1/8 inch of play in and out, could it start osolating side to side once a certain speed is reached.. also now that I think of it I left out a good point. if the wife is on the back, providing more weight on the rear, it will not do this.

I'm running 24 psi in the rear tires. could it be the tires doing this ?

Click to expand...

Your trike should also have a panhard that keeps the rear axle positioned in the middle.

It is attached to the body frame and to the rear axle housing.

A loose bolt or worn heim joint there would cause what you describe.

Yeah, that "diagonal" is what I would look at first. Many a dragster has used the setup with great success.

ok,, I found a couple of issues

first issue is the right side pivot heim joint jamb nut was loose. which seems strange because it was tight 2 weeks ago.

second issue, I measured the distance between the rear and the pivot heim. it's 1/4 inch off.

this trike has always had a wiggle when it gets above 80. but would subside some once I would replace the bolts.

when I installed all new heims I counted the threads and re-installed the new ones accordingly. won't be able to test it tonight but i'll let everyone know how it works out later this week.

thanks again for everyone's responses.

CrystalPistol said:

Yeah, that "diagonal" is what I would look at first. Many a dragster has used the setup with great success.

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yep.. know exactly which one your referring to. but when I replaced all the heim joints those were included.

I had a thread awhile back about having to replace the heims after 100,000 miles on the trike kit..

but still had a high speed wiggle even after that.

but before replacing all the heims. this thing was like riding a trike with 2 bent rear rims. if that describes it well.

no expert here, but if your noise and vibration are when a sharp turn is made, I would think axle shafts...maybe a joint catching and releasing.

the statement that, with my wife on the trike, it doesn't make the noise , makes me think that with her added weight the joints are loaded more and do not catch and snap.

The only other thought I have is that maybe, spider gear problems in the differential, I really doubt this.

Are there any rear end alignment specs that need to be checked?

On fwd cars there are sideways alignment specs....to keep axle shafts in the middle of their operating range, when at correct ride height. Anyhow my .02.....good luck on this problem.

took the trike out for a ride, everything was great. got up to 95 on the interstate and no wiggle at all.

still have a slight wiggle on the back roads after hitting bumps, but nothing like it used to be.

it was a great suggestion about doing the measurement..i still think this winter since that right side ladder bar keeps working loose at the pivot end I'm going to replace both ladder bars. with new heims.

anybody have a downloadable service manual for motortrike. I'd like to have it handy in my shop.

3W-lonerider said:

took the trike out for a ride, everything was great. got up to 95 on the interstate and no wiggle at all.

still have a slight wiggle on the back roads after hitting bumps, but nothing like it used to be.

it was a great suggestion about doing the measurement..i still think this winter since that right side ladder bar keeps working loose at the pivot end I'm going to replace both ladder bars. with new heims.

anybody have a downloadable service manual for motortrike. I'd like to have it handy in my shop.

Click to expand...

Motortrike never supplied a service manual.

3W-lonerider said:

anybody have a downloadable service manual for motortrike. I'd like to have it handy in my shop.

Click to expand...

Maybe!



http://www.junkmaster.com/kj5ix/MTServiceManual.pdf

Thank you. I will save it to my shop pc.

The wife and i took a 150 mile ride today. No wiggle at all and the ride even felt much better. I can even tell a difference in the steering. So thanks everyone for the help. If the right side front heim comes loose again. I've priced out new ladder bars and heim joints.

Sorry I didn't see your post quicker, I have a goldwing/motortrike with your same setup and i had the same wiggle for over 2 yrs. and done everything i could think of to fix it with no results. I decided to remove the panhard bar to check the 2 hiems and they were like new so i started to measure the axle housing side to side to see if it was centered and it was off center really bad.

I had checked it before but i was using the fender to tire measurement and i found that the body on one side was not the same as the other. I used a level on the face of the axle with the trike on stands and the rear axle completely level and measured from the level to the top mounting bolt on the airbag and used that measure point and adjusted the panard or centering bar until both sides measured the same.

And praise the lord wiggle was gone. I couldn't believe i had struggled so long and overlooked that. Sorry about the long post but i hope this makes sense to you.

yep. makes sense to me.

when i first got my trike from the installer, it was messed up so bad i had to remove the body to straighten everything out.

this was after he refused to fix the issues i was having.

i found the same thing

the rear side to side was 1 inch off center and the right side was leaning really bad.

the adjustment rods on the ladder bars should have no pressure on them but to my surprise they were so much in a bind i had to beat the bolts out with a hammer.

the boddy was shimmed on the right side to give the illusion that the trike was level.

another thing i found out last winter when i wanted to install a new set of shock, was that the shocks the installer put on mine were the wrong ones, the ones he installed were 1 inch shorter than what was called for.

years ago i was on a road that was frost heaved really bad a ended breaking a top shock mount right off the frame.

this was because, the shocks were going to their full travel extend before the trike frame was, and it was pulling on the mounts with every extension of the shock.

theres alot more issues i found but this post would turn into a 10 page letter.

i just never thought of measuring from the front heim to the axle. i was assuming they woulda got something right, well guess not.

as far as the installer i used, i would'nt let them install anything anymore.

Well my wiggle is back and worse than ever. Checked all bolts and heim jamb nuts. Everything is tight. Checked the distance between the rear and front heim and both measure 23 and 3/4. I'm getting real fed up with this thing. To the point I'm ready to jerk this motor trike kit off and install a roadsmith. I'm at a loss.

3W-lonerider said:

Well my wiggle is back and worse than ever. Checked all bolts and heim jamb nuts. Everything is tight. Checked the distance between the rear and front heim and both measure 23 and 3/4. I'm getting real fed up with this thing. To the point I'm ready to jerk this motor trike kit off and install a roadsmith. I'm at a loss.

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How is the air pressure (20psi) in the rear tires and air bags ??:Shrug:

3W-lonerider said:

took the trike out for a ride, everything was great. got up to 95 on the interstate and no wiggle at all.

still have a slight wiggle on the back roads after hitting bumps, but nothing like it used to be.

it was a great suggestion about doing the measurement..i still think this winter since that right side ladder bar keeps working loose at the pivot end I'm going to replace both ladder bars. with new heims.

anybody have a downloadable service manual for motortrike. I'd like to have it handy in my shop.

Click to expand...

Been a crazy few days (who am I kidding, few weeks!)...

I have a VERY specific question on this... Did you replace the heim joints or the ladder bars? Also, when you locked the jam nuts against the ladder bar did you use loc-tite or just tighten them down? Also as Lee mentioned, how much air pressure in your air bags?