Crashed! How do I ensure this never happens again?

[DenialDave]

So yesterday I was doing about 35mph with my dog, when suddenly the bike veered towards a ditch, somehow I came out of the ditch and ended up on the road as the motorcycle leaned into the sidecar, and pinned my leg.

Clearly it was securely mounted to both the bike and the Sidecar, and the only way it could have come apart was that it just stripped. So now I'm a week away from going to Sturgis (I've already covered 3,350 miles in mt toy hauler) and if I can't fix it, I'm essentially going to have to crate it back home, and obviously won't be going to Sturgis.

This is one of two identical mounts, so obviously I don't trust the bike at all at this point. Both mounts are going to have to be rebuilt. What was wrong here? How do I fix it so I never have to worry about this happening again. Between running into a ditch, and then coming out into traffic on the roadway, being pinned, and then having my right side tank start to purge gasoline down my leg, this is something I never want to go through again- which obviously could have been fatal if we had been going faster. Thanks for any advice!

 

[TexasBulldogger]

Sorry to hear about the incident. Hope both of you are okay.

Are you saying the eye bolt (heim joint) threads stripped out?

Haven't heard about your hack rebuild in a while. Other test rides worked out?

 

[DenialDave]

Yes, the heim joint came out, ruining the tube it threads into. So I'm having both heim joints replaced, and both tubes on the sidecar mounts replaced- with a higher grade steel.

What I am surmising (and I'm definitely not a machinist or engineer), is that there was not enough of the heim threads in the tube to really hold it securely, you can't seem to find heim joints that are more than an inch and 5/8 or something on the threads. So I will replace all of this and then ensure that it's threaded in as far as it can be before the bike is adjusted. Does that sound right to you?

 

[TexasBulldogger]

From my limited structure knowledge, thread engagement length show be at least 1 1/2 times bolt diameter. The heim bolt could never unscrew when mounted, but if the lock nut was loose threads could bang around destroying threads.

I have original early '80s Vetter hardware on both car and bike with new heims front and rear. 10,000 miles so far in 5 years. 100% checked hardware for a couple months and then once more on start of second ride season. Haven't touched a bolt in couple years. Will do that when she goes to bed this winter.

 

[TexasBulldogger]

One other comment about bike side hardware. Don't like that the front and turnbucket mounts hang off the bracket end. Wouldn't take much stress to bend.

 

[DenialDave]

Well when I look at the front mount, it appears solid with the paint mark on it from when it was installed (I did not install it). But it seems to me that there is a lot of thread behind the nut, so I'm questioning why more of the thread isn't in the tube on the sidecar mount.

And obviously now I have to put this thing back together and this front mount is being rebuilt as well. But then I will want to be getting as much of the thread into that tube and still have the bike aligned properly.

So somewhere there's supposed to be an article that talks about that but otherwise it seems to me that I'm joint should be buried inside that sidecar mount, right?

 

[TexasBulldogger]

Dot of paint is to show nut is still tight.

Since TP has adjustable lean out. We only have toe in and wheel width for alignment set up. Pretty easy stuff but it's a mix of geometry and trial and error.

Join https://sidecar.com/

They have a digital library with all you need for reference. And plenty of friendly hackers.