Side stand

On my side stand; the "street side" eyelet (un-threaded) the bolt passes through is bent (toward the street vs the curb) so much that the bolt won't pass through to the threads. Does anyone know if I can heat up the eyelet and move it back into it's proper plane without messing up the strength of the steel??

Probably. You could probably cold work it too, ie lay it on your anvil and just hammer it back into shape.

Of course you could damage the threads like that too.

Put it in a vise and tighten the vise enough to bring the sides back into parallel?

May need a piece of scrap steel as thick as the frame dropout to form to either way.

I doubt if it has any sort of hardening anyway (untempered mild steel) but of course I could be wrong.

I tried moving it back in my vise, (a different side stand) and the ear broke off....so I think heating would be the best answer but I don't know if it's tempered or forged...I know guys at my work would probably know, heck I used to know... something about a spark test maybe....with forged or heat treated steel there is a real fine spark where as with steel or cast iron it's a coarser spark????

Probably. You could probably cold work it too, ie lay it on your anvil and just hammer it back into shape.

Of course you could damage the threads like that too.

Put it in a vise and tighten the vise enough to bring the sides back into parallel?

May need a piece of scrap steel as thick as the frame dropout to form to either way.

I doubt if it has any sort of hardening anyway (untempered mild steel) but of course I could be wrong.

Be careful Doug,Last year my side stand broke at the mount,don`t know why the part with the pass through hole in it snapped off along with the bolt,very heavy bike,took 2 people to pick up,bought new kickstand from bike salvage yard,seems ok.

Wow, well I'm happy that your instincts are better than mine on that.

It seems like my stand is allowing a greater and greater tilt to the left due to bending.

I thought that probably meant it was simple mild steel.

With 20 years messing with these bikes, the biggest problem I have seen with these side stands having problems is letting the bolt get too loose. I also had the problem many years ago and from that time on, I have tried to check mine routinely to make sure it is OK. I also try to occasionally post a warning to check your side stand.

Randy

just give it a belt with the hamer have dun it several times to lots of different bikes with positive results . then tighten the bolt and keep it that way

The material is cast and the outer tab cracked and the threads snapped off of the shoulder bolt and the bike and I both went over on our sides last night as I was trying to mount her.

I'm beefing up the tab and got a larger (1/2") shoulder bolt with 3/8" thread. The thread is pretty similar to the 10mm of the original but I'm told that this is very hard steel. I also welded a length of 1/2" rod to the back of the stand from the foot to around where the spring attaches. It just looked thin to me and I thought it may be bending in that area. I'll post some pics of the final version later. Obviously I don't want this particular problem to occur ever again.

I use to have a lot of play in my side stand and my bike was leaning so far over that lifting it straight was an effort. Tightening the bolt didn't help. In fact, over tightening the original bolt could weaken it and cause it to break.

Then I did the fix described by Dingy and no more play and the bike leans just right. No welding required, just drilling. Best to do it before the bolt breaks and damages the mounting tabs. Here's the link to the fix:

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?48342-Side-stand-bolt-solution&highlight=kickstand+drill+bolt

Yeah I KNOW all about the weight of our bikes... trust me. One guy CAN pick it up using standard methods BUT there have been times when I couldn't muster the strength...Once when coming around a corner in a parking lot I got cut off and had to steer very tightly around a curb, I got hung up on the curve with the bike leaning too close to the ground to pick it up and couldn't get it off the curb. I was stuck, it was cold, raining, and in a busy place. Of course i was right in the middle of everything. The guy that cut me off? Well they just kept going (what else is new?) oblivious to my issues. A couple of guys driving by took pity on me and helped me out...thank goodness for good Samaritans!!!

Be careful Doug,Last year my side stand broke at the mount,don`t know why the part with the pass through hole in it snapped off along with the bolt,very heavy bike,took 2 people to pick up,bought new kickstand from bike salvage yard,seems ok.

I sawed 1.0" from the thick part of my broken stand and had it welded in place just below the "ears" on the stand by the fabricators in my neighborhood (pros) thinking that the bike wouldn't be leaning over so far, well 1.0" doesn't make much difference. I was using a 2" X 4" and that worked ok but was a LITTLE TOO upright, so I went with the 1.0: extension. I also had to extend the spring as well, I did that with a chain link used to connect chains to anchor points or to other chains. Well I got it powder coated and now have the issue with the "ears". How the bolt went through and threaded in place before (and will not now) is somethng that makes no sense. So I have some MAP gas and a torch, even some propane,,,,it's rainy today too....

I use to have a lot of play in my side stand and my bike was leaning so far over that lifting it straight was an effort. Tightening the bolt didn't help. In fact, over tightening the original bolt could weaken it and cause it to break.

 

Then I did the fix described by Dingy and no more play and the bike leans just right. No welding required, just drilling. Best to do it before the bolt breaks and damages the mounting tabs. Here's the link to the fix:

 

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?48342-Side-stand-bolt-solution&highlight=kickstand+drill+bolt

The link Donvito provided is a good one. When I welded mine with a wire welder I finished off either side by grinding all of the galvanizing off of two washers for the 1/2" bolt I used and then welding one to each side of the stand to give it a nice flatness and to hold excessive filler material. I then had to grind away a lot of material to fit it into the machined channel, so probably get the smallest 1/2" washers you can find. Maybe 7/16 would be a better choice since you'll drill it out later anyway. I had a nice 1/2" shoulder bolt with 3/8" thread that I used to locate the broken tab first when welding, after grinding away the bent and rough material that prevented a good fit and running a 3/8 nc tap through the threads of the stand. When welding on the washers later I used my shoulder bolt on the thread side to center the washer and welded it and then through the tabs and back in the threads to weld the face washer on. I didn't drill through the threads until I was all done fitting it but you could probably use a bolt of the size you want and skip the intermediate stuff.

Pics and more info here:

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?48342-Side-stand-bolt-solution&p=933178#post933178

Some of the fixes that people on this forum find amaze me!. When we were kids most of us had no idea of what was possible, for me some of that thinking remains but you folks amaze me with the all the fixes and knowledge of how to adjust this or that, machine this part to do such and such; it's very cool.

I think we should all move to some centrally located town and be neighbors... we could help each other out, have BBQs and picnics... what good times....

With 20 years messing with these bikes, the biggest problem I have seen with these side stands having problems is letting the bolt get too loose. I also had the problem many years ago and from that time on, I have tried to check mine routinely to make sure it is OK. I also try to occasionally post a warning to check your side stand.

Randy

After reading one of warnings awhile back I went to see if mine was tight and it snapped with very little force. I check mine now at oil changes.