When doing the front tire change, I noticed that when I went to loosen the axle clamp nuts(holds the axle in place on the fork), the upper right one was less than finger tight, and the lower left one was finger tight. I've had to tighten these nuts twice before. Anyway, when I put the wheel/axle back in place, and started tightening the forementioned nuts, the upper right stud snapped in two! I had barely tightened it-had put NO torque on it at all. I managed to get the rest of the stud out of the fork, and off to the Kawi dealer I went-Kawi does not have these studs..they want you to buy that whole lower piece on the fork! Apparently the parts guy had delt with this before as he went directly to the Honda studs and got what I needed(Honda part #92900-060250E, just in case anyone needs it). This is a little nerve racking to me as this clamp is the only thing keeping the axle in place-on the right side of the fork. I put blue(medium)lock tight on the studs/nuts when putting it back together. Just a word of warning!![sm=smiley4.gif]


Here's the clamp/nuts that i'm talking about..

 

Good thing to check every time you ride, just in case.

 

Those 4 bolts are only supposed to be torqued 8.8 Nm, according to the service manual. That's _very_ light. If you don't have a torque wrench, it's very easy to crank them down waaay too much. I'm not saying that's what happened, but the torque on those bolts is supposed to be very light. That's a good tip on the Honda part number though. I'd hate to see what the whole lower fork cap costs.

 

when i picked my bike up one of those studs were broke off, i took it back and they took out all the studs and replaced them with bolts, it looks better and functions the same, the dealer also noticed that u have to buy the whole fork tube. hence the 4 bolts instead of studs and nuts.

 

I think that bolts are the way to go. I was thinking the same thing when it happened. You can tell that the studs are flimsy junk..although the Honda stud that I got is much better. Considering how important that clamp is to your safety it seems like Kawi would have came up with something better than that-if those nuts came loose and allowed the axle to move in the slightest bit..while travelling 70mph down the highway, going off a jump, etc..it would be VERY ugly! I was also thinking about how there is all this stuff to protect you on the bike; cotter pin on the rear axle, chain guards, kickstand switch, etc..but nothing on the front axle? In my opinion there should at least be lock tight on the studs/nuts.[sm=WTFsgign.gif]