Rack bolt loose

[bonne]

Away in Germany. I noticed that the rack for the top box was not sitting tight enough. Maybe it had become loose on the Autobahn. The top box is mounted on a top box adapter which again is mounted on a rack adapter that then sits on the Suzuki rack. In order to mount the rack adapter on the Suzuki rack, the two existing bolts needs to be replaced with two different bolts (as well as two additional new bolts) that comes with the rack adapter. These two bolt became loose.

Do you follow this far?  (:

The problem now is that I can only tighten one of these the other one does not get a grip as if there is nothing to get on to.

I was thinking that the thread (is this the correct English word?) was firmly attached to the Suzuki rack, but I guess not.

It was too dark for me to see clearly enough, but two questions:

How do I manage to get the last bolt to grip decently, and will three bolts be enough to hold the top box until I get it fixed? At least when I am aware of it now

[bonne]

This is actually the mounting instructions

http://www.shad.es/descargas/shad3861.pdf

In these instructions "A" in pic 1 is removed and replaced with "5" on pic 2.

[Methusela]

When you have a chance check carefully. I had a similar problem with the Givi mounting rack on my 2015 1,000. I was away touring when I noticed the whole rack seemed to be moving & I couldn't tighten it down. Investigation at home showed that two had sheered off completely half way down the thread. I managed to get the broken halves out by turning them through the secured nuts in the tail fairing, working from inside the fairing. Replaced them with stainless. On reflection I may have overloaded the top box which caused the problem. Hope this helps.

[bonne]

This could actually be the problem, yes. Still seems fastened OK after today's ride with only 3 bolts. I don't hope more of them will crack.

I will keep an eye and check when I come home.

Sad if they are not dimensioned correctly

[bonne]

Back home, and that is exactly the problem in my case also. The screws (now two out of four) went loose. The second screw broke in Lübeck right before I had to take the ferry from Travemünde. I drove carefully to the ferry, and I will have to fix the problem soon. Do you remember exactly what you change the screws to?

Regards, Lars.

[Mark Shelley]

If you intend to continue overloading the box and rack I would add additional fixing points to beef it all up.
When I go touring I carry a couple of good quality 2m long cam-lock straps which can be used in all sorts of ways to restrain things.

[Methusela]

What I did was look up the mounting instructions for my Givi rack on the Givi web site. Luckily it gave clear specifications for the bolts which had broken. I then bought stainless versions from e bay very cheaply.  Incidentally I now remember that two bolts were missing from the supporting arms for the rack where they mounted to a bracket under the seat as well ! I got these at the same time. All this was for a 2015 1000.

[Mr Nick]

If your problem is over stressing the bolts, then standard stainless isn't the way to go. I've looked at a couple of the Givi fasteners from my old DL top box rack, and the ones on the 990, and they're a mixture of 8.8 and 10.9 grade alloy steel. The tensile strength of even 8.8 grade is far greater than the normal A2-70 grade stainless, and even the rarer A4-80 isn't quite there (most A4 I've come across is only 70 grade as well, but better resistance for marine use). They come up far short of the 10.9 grade. You don't swap to stainless for strength, it's for corrosion resistance.
Check the existing bolt heads to see what they say: if it's down at Suzuki cheese levels then it is an upgrade, but Givi don't appear to share the same dairy.

[Fritz]

I had the givi plate (currently off) but have a home-made timber (temp...) rails bolted through.

Stainless Steel bolts and enough thread through frame cross brace that a dome nut will fit on inside of that area to rear of seat area where access to rear bulbs etc is.

09 wee

Although tricky (gynecological) there is room to get hand in to put dome nuts on exposed threads to secure anything (and dome nuts prevent any significant wiring / thread interface)

Don't know if that helps your particular problem. 

[Rusty Nuts]

We were just discussing on Sunday whether Kwackboy's Z1000sx might have had its boring factory subframe bolts replaced with nice shiny stainless ones.

[mr_diver]

Shad aren't the strongest boxes or mounts out there.

I've had a few problems reported while at the dealers.
Shad's weight limit seems to be the absolute limit they can take, where other makes will have far more leeway over their limit.

But I've also seem quite a few Givi mono rack arms snap on tour where gross overload cracks the arms around the rear most mount hole.
Mainly VFR800f and Bandits

[bonne]

But it is the screw that breaks. Not the frame or any other metal parts.

[mr_diver]

Givi are known for frames snapping, Shad for low grade mild steel bolts and crap lock barrels.

[bonne]

Yup. The lock on my Shads (two different types) are both annoying.

Think maybe they also provided to short screws, as one seems to have cracked exactly where the thread starts (leaving the rest of the screws still in the tread) while the other does not have any remains of the screw left in the thread, but the beginning of the thread seems to be ruined. As it has been violating the thread.

[bonne]

Just got some new bolts. Which torque would be the correct one to fasten them with?

Regards, Lars.