Got a break in the weather & needed to run to Walmart, figured I'd jump on the bike.
Got about a mile from the house & after stopping at a light, it wouldn't move.

In gear, neutral, clutch in or out, it would only move about 8 inches. Stuck about 3 carlengths back from the light.

Called my father in law, the owner & he came to assist. Luckily, they live about 10 min away.

He put the hammer down on it & a bolt popped out the back.

Turns out a rear sprocket bolt had backed out & was caught in the swingarm. Tweaked the end of the swingarm & broke the sprocket bolt off. Marred up the sprocket a but & one of the other sprocket bolts.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: P250UA5,

Dang. Good it didn’t fail at speed.

One summer we saw and/or helped 3 riders in the backcountry with rear sprocket issues. Hadn’t seen the issue before or since.

Yeah, we nearly took a longer ride this morning. Glad it was only a mile from home.

Was able to ride it home, but will be garaging it until it's fixed.

F-I-Ls CA mechanic recommended a new swingarm & said it's about a 4hr job.

The flathead allen head screw should be in a countersunk hole in the sprocket, not a square shouldered hole.
Basic engineering problem there. Right hardware, wrong machining of the sprocket.

I wonder if those bolts had been removed before if there is no locktite on them. I would think they had some from the factory.

It's supposedly an aftermarket swingarm, and the bike was belt drive when it was new.

One of the prior owners converted it to chain drive.

The sprocket bolts appear correct for the countersunk holes. One more thing to remember to check with some regularity once its fixed.

Glad you are Ok man. I’ve had the rear lock up at speed and it was no fun at all.

Getting started on teardown while looking for a new swingarm.
Got the seat, bags & brackets off. Looking at the course of attack once we're ready to start disassembly.

Looks like we just need to pull the wheel, remove the rear caliper from the arm, disconnect the rear shocks & pull the swingarm assembly. Then reverse when a new swingarm arrives.

Glad you're ok.

Something I do on occasion is grab a flashlight and go over the bike to see if anything catches my eye.

A plus of taking your time washing the bike and going over things with your hands is another way of coming across things that may need closer attention. Sadly, I don't do that as often as I used to.

I've caught things on friends' bikes this way by just hanging out and enjoying a close eyeball-over.

That's such a great-looking bike. Conversion to chain in order to run a wider rear tire?

quote:

Originally posted by AH.74:
Glad you're ok.

Something I do on occasion is grab a flashlight and go over the bike to see if anything catches my eye.

A plus of taking your time washing the bike and going over things with your hands is another way of coming across things that may need closer attention. Sadly, I don't do that as often as I used to.

I've caught things on friends' bikes this way by just hanging out and enjoying a close eyeball-over.

That's such a great-looking bike. Conversion to chain in order to run a wider rear tire?

Thanks.
My father-in-law is the 3rd or 4th owner. One of the prior owners did the chain conversion & removed the OE Indian head front fender for a smaller/generic chrome fender. I think ti's still running the OE size rear tire.

The more I put miles on it (My F-i-L has a Victory CC Tour in his garage) the more I get to know it. The sprocket & rear rotor bolts are going on the periodic checklist for sure.

Looking online, we've only found 2 swingarms for sale, both in black (which I don't mind, but he prefers the chrome).
Considering it's got saddlebags on it 99% of the time, it's pretty concealed, so maybe the black will be fine & we won't have to deal with waiting to have it chrome plated.

A) don't let your FIL diagnose problems, he's a 10 pound hammer driving a 1 pound nail LOL

b) a careful observation will reveal the problem..

I've see this before, buddy's fatboy in the NC mountains, said it made a noise when he turned left, three of the bolts were loose, the Indy shop that replaced his tire before he left didn't locktite the bolts back in.

That has no reason to be removed to service the rear tire/brakes so Red will save your life.

Sounds like the bike needs a good going over, those older softail style frames are ridged mounted and they vibrate quite a bit, blue and red loctite are required.

Red - don't want it to come loose
Blue - need to be able to take it loose

quote:

It's supposedly an aftermarket swingarm, and the bike was belt drive when it was new.

One of the prior owners converted it to chain drive.

Why would anyone convert from belt drive to chain, unless the bike had gobs of HP, which the Indian does not have.

Good you were close to home and nothing serious happened

I dropped a chain years back on my shovelhead doing about 75 going up a MT mountain pass. Chain guard worked and just spat it out on the interstate. Thankfully a friend lived in the town I was just past a few miles. Local VFD truck stopped and got in touch with him so he brought his truck out and we loaded it up and he took me home about 65 miles This was long before cell phones

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
A) don't let your FIL diagnose problems, he's a 10 pound hammer driving a 1 pound nail LOL

b) a careful observation will reveal the problem..

I've see this before, buddy's fatboy in the NC mountains, said it made a noise when he turned left, three of the bolts were loose, the Indy shop that replaced his tire before he left didn't locktite the bolts back in.

That has no reason to be removed to service the rear tire/brakes so Red will save your life.

Sounds like the bike needs a good going over, those older softail style frames are ridged mounted and they vibrate quite a bit, blue and red loctite are required.

Red - don't want it to come loose
Blue - need to be able to take it loose

He's the owner, so his call. I'm just enjoying it while it's parked in my garage.

quote:

Originally posted by GWbiker:

quote:

It's supposedly an aftermarket swingarm, and the bike was belt drive when it was new.

One of the prior owners converted it to chain drive.

Why would anyone convert from belt drive to chain, unless the bike had gobs of HP, which the Indian does not have.

No idea, belt would be a lot easier, I think.

Seemed to happen in a reasonable spot, no injuries, or police involvement required. That’s all good.

This Winter was up just East of Marquette, MI on a snowmobile trip, visiting family too. A buddy was with, we launched off to the ‘Eben Ice Caves’, near Eben Junction.

After 7 miles my buddy wasn’t in position, went looking. He blew a belt on his heavy Yamaha 4-stroke. Not normally a big deal, but it took out a coolant hose along with. The good thing it was near a road. I got the trailer, repaired with a hose from the auto parts store, next day we went to the ice caves.

Another funny that(next) day was two SUV’s of ladies stuck on the groomed snowmobile trail. They mistook it for a road, got stuck when they tried to turn around. They were about 50 & 100 yards down the trail. Had they backed up, their Blizzacks may of got them out. Us and the next group of riders saved them a high towing bill.

The Eben Ice Caves were only so-so at the time we were there. The setup is dependent on the water, thaw, freeze cycle off the rocks.

New [used] swingarm ordered. Should be here Tuesday.
Probably start teardown this weekend.

Screw belts, chains are user serviceable and repairable.

Many people convert belts to chains.

(glad OP is ok)

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
A) don't let your FIL diagnose problems, he's a 10 pound hammer driving a 1 pound nail LOL

He's the owner, so his call. I'm just enjoying it while it's parked in my garage.

I respect that, hence the LOL. Think you might want to take a tq wrench around the bike if you have the specs and make sure everything is tight since you don't know who did it, or when the last work was done.

Clearly they didn't understand locktite and vtwin vibrations.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
New [used] swingarm ordered. Should be here Tuesday.
Probably start teardown this weekend.

Do you have the service manual, if not check Ebay you might be able to find one, having the assembly sequence, torque values is a good thing.

That looks like the typical Evo SNS Engine/Trans Setup, the swing arm bolt will probably require a breaker bar to move it provided it was properly torqued when installed.

I do have the svc manual. Will have to look through it again for tqe values. It's a pretty basic manual, though & covers the Scout/Spirit & Chief for 99-01.

F-I-L is debating on having the new arm chromed before we install, that'll add a bit of time to the project.

Personally, I'm ok with the black.