Anyone else have an axys spindle bolt drop out? Had a friend of mine lose hers at some point and drop the spindle off the A-arm on the trail.

[jman94]

Went out for a short lived ride yesterday when a friend of mine's '18 Axys dropped a spindle on the trail after hitting a snow/ice ball on the trail in. The bolt that holds the spindle to the lower A-arm was nowhere to be found and we assume it was lost sometime in the last few rides. Somehow the Nylock nut must have backed off in the ~6-700 miles on the sled currently, which caused the bolt to drop out of the bottom. Fortunately she wasn't hurt as it was at relatively low speeds and it didn't dig into the snow causing a flip. We were able to limp it out with a shorter spare bolt we happened to have on one of the other sleds, already ordered a couple new nuts/bolts to keep on my sled in case something like this happens further in the back country. I definitely will be checking all of my Axys sleds every couple rides to make sure the nuts/bolts are still tight moving forward! Kinda seems like a design flaw to have the bolt come up from the bottom instead of top-down like on the Pro-ride chassis IMO.

Has anyone else seen/experienced this with an Axys sled before?

 

[mtncat1]

nope never seen it .i wouldn't bother with an extra bolt , the nyloc must have failed or had the wrong nut on it. even with the bolt loose i can't see it working loose

 

[HECKS]

Yup, lock tight and need 40 ft/lbs on them suckers. Steering tierods are 44 ft/lbs, and I would check those too.

 

[Snowman.PRO.]

Lock tite them, if those nuts are used, or have been off a few times, they'll continue to come loose.

 

[Ultrasauras]

i put blue lock tite on every bolt i take out and reinstall

 

[BeartoothBaron]

Nylock isn't as good as the crimped type of lock-nuts – those will usually hold pretty well even after several cycles, where nylock wears much more quickly. Even if it was never apart, I wouldn't be surprised if being under-torqued from the factory combined with the nut on top allowed it to work free over time. I'd agree with everyone else: blue locktite and proper torque should keep it from happening again.

 

[mtncat1]

Went out for a short lived ride yesterday when a friend of mine's '18 Axys dropped a spindle on the trail after hitting a snow/ice ball on the trail in. The bolt that holds the spindle to the lower A-arm was nowhere to be found and we assume it was lost sometime in the last few rides. Somehow the Nylock nut must have backed off in the ~6-700 miles on the sled currently, which caused the bolt to drop out of the bottom. Fortunately she wasn't hurt as it was at relatively low speeds and it didn't dig into the snow causing a flip. We were able to limp it out with a shorter spare bolt we happened to have on one of the other sleds, already ordered a couple new nuts/bolts to keep on my sled in case something like this happens further in the back country. I definitely will be checking all of my Axys sleds every couple rides to make sure the nuts/bolts are still tight moving forward! Kinda seems like a design flaw to have the bolt come up from the bottom instead of top-down like on the Pro-ride chassis IMO.

Has anyone else seen/experienced this with an Axys sled

can i ask which side the nut was on top or bottom ?

 

[jman94]

can i ask which side the nut was on top or bottom ?

All the Axys sleds I've seen have them on the top, the one Pro-ride I have to look at had it the other way.

Also, thanks for the tips everyone! Took the spindle nuts off of both Axys sleds I have, added locktite and made sure they were torqued correctly. Interestingly enough, my 2018 with ~600mi (not the one pictured) had much looser spindle nuts than the 2019 with ~75 miles. Neither has had any work done on them, but the 2019 is the react front suspension. I'm guessing either one was just torqued more from the factory, or the nylock started to do the same thing on my '18.

 

[MKULTRA]

can i ask which side the nut was on top or bottom ?

the bolt can only go one way

locktite/nylon lock/etc, it doesn't matter double check your suspension fasteners once in a while guys, rear skid too.

 

[NapaMatt]

Nut goes on TOP

 

[Reg2view]

We'll never know, but my bet is the bolt itself broke. Overtightened. Or just fatigued. Maybe a tree impact cracked/stretched it before it let go, it's a pivot point on the ski edge. Just a guess.

 

[mtncat1]

the reason i ask is you usually have to take the top bolt out to get the bottom bolt out

 

[jman94]

We'll never know, but my bet is the bolt itself broke. Overtightened. Or just fatigued. Maybe a tree impact cracked/stretched it before it let go, it's a pivot point on the ski edge. Just a guess.

We thought of that, but no shred of the bolt was anywhere to be found and the sled hasn't been ridden hard at all. She also mostly rides trails and hasn't hit anything hard enough to damage or even scuff any of the front suspension. Whatever happened it definitely reminded me to check everything on the sleds before heading out for the day.