P1000 Rig Down!!!!!

[Donnie]

Went on a night ride tonight and broke the front left upper A-Arm bolt! Climbing a loose gravel hill in 4-Low and heard a bang, the A-Arm dropped and ripped off the CV boot, bent and almost broke the front shock, cut the brake line, and the CV axle came out of the diff housing.

I used a ratchet strap and some ingenuity and drove it out 6 miles back to the truck. I'm inclined to think it was just a bad bolt and not a design flaw. I've bent and broke lots of arms and ball joints but always been lower and never an upper. They just aren't under that much stress. Anyone else had upper problems on a bike?

I'll get some pics in the morning.

 

[Admin]

 

[Hondasxs]

I'll get some pics in the morning.

Please do.

Glad no one got hurt. Was you being overly aggressive or anything? There should been no reason for this to happen. Get in contact with your dealer as soon as you can. They most likely want believe it until they see it.
Are you still on factory tires?
Defiantly a bad bolt.

 

[Donnie]

Yes, factory tires. Only mod has been Trail Armor skids.

I wasn't babying it, but I wasn't in abuse mode either. It was a moderate hill climb with 4 pax ( a 60 year old man and a 13 year old girl in the back). I wasn't trying to set a hill climb record by any stretch.

Here are a few pictures.

 

[sporttrac4x4]

Can you post some pictures or is it in the shop

 

[Hondasxs]

Can you post some pictures or is it in the shop

I added them to the post above.

@Donnie, did you inspect the actual bolt? There is the potability the nut just came off and the bolt worked out. Think you can snap a picture of that before you take it to the dealer.
Thanks.

 

[scott]

looks like you hit a tree going 50. that's really bad looking. good luck with it all

 

[Donnie]

Yeah, best I can tell the bolt is about 3/4" shorter than the pass side (by my calibrated twig shoved in the a arm tube).

No, didn't hit anything, it's the torque of being in 4WD and the bolt breaking, it tried to wrap that a arm up like a twist tie.

 

[Hondasxs]

Thanks. Keep us informed what Honda says.

 

[joeymt33]

Yeah, best I can tell the bolt is about 3/4" shorter than the pass side (by my calibrated twig shoved in the a arm tube).

No, didn't hit anything, it's the torque of being in 4WD and the bolt breaking, it tried to wrap that a arm up like a twist tie.

This is why I'm worried about the portal boxes. They WILL increase the twisting force on the A-arms. Will it be enough to break something? We will find out....

 

[hondabob]

Let us know what Honda finds. I expect they will fix it under warranty and a broken bolt may be from the nut coming off first.

 

[ghost]

Hey Donnie - how many miles/ hours on the unit before this happened ?

 

[CashMoney]

I'm wondering if they might have over tightened it from the factory and stretched the bolt at the threads.

 

[JACKAL]

Man o man this is a heck of a predicament to be in. Glad no one was hurt and you was able to limp it back to the trailer. Sorry for your troubles, that is definitely an unexpected failure. Like others have indicated from the looks of the front bolt in the pic it appears awful loose itself, leading me to think someone on the assembly line either missed tightening it and it fell out in the back or over tightened it weakening the bolt so it snapped.

Was part of that top a-arm rear bolt recoverable or is the whole thing missing? (As if it did fall out)

 

[Donnie]

Hey Donnie - how many miles/ hours on the unit before this happened ?

163 miles

 

[Donnie]

I'm wondering if they might have over tightened it from the factory and stretched the bolt at the threads.

THAT is very possible. I wondered the same thing myself.

 

[Donnie]

Man o man this is a heck of a predicament to be in. Glad no one was hurt and you was able to limp it back to the trailer. Sorry for your troubles, that is definitely an unexpected failure. Like others have indicated from the looks of the front bolt in the pic it appears awful loose itself, leading me to think someone on the assembly line either missed tightening it and it fell out in the back or over tightened it weakening the bolt so it snapped.

Was part of that top a-arm rear bolt recoverable or is the whole thing missing? (As if it did fall out)

Well, when I stopped, the a-arm was nearly off the bolt. I jacked the rig up and used a winch to pull it forward. Then I used a ratchet strap to keep it from sliding backwards on the bolt while I drove it out.

I did not get a chance to look too much for the bolt. It was dark when it happened and I was focused on redneck engineering it enough to drive or tow it back to the trailer.

 

[Donnie]

Well, when I stopped, the a-arm was nearly off the bolt. I jacked the rig up and used a winch to pull it forward. Then I used a ratchet strap to keep it from sliding backwards on the bolt while I drove it out.

I did not get a chance to look too much for the bolt. It was dark when it happened and I was focused on redneck engineering it enough to drive or tow it back to the trailer.

Or I should say the nut and threads of the bolt .

 

[HondaTech]

Man, I've never seen A-arm bolts break ever. We had a 680 once that was run over with a bulldozer(don't ask, longs story) and the arms broke in half and the bolts weren't touched. I know Honda will be all over this thing. We had one this past week that broke a rear drivers side sway bar mount (frame mount) and they sent our dsm to us the next day. Hope they get it back to you fast as quick as possible. As far as over torqueing It, anything's possible with the goons that they hire to put these things together. We had a P500 that came off the truck with the lower shock bolt torque and inspected(twice) but they failed to put the bolt through the lower mount. Shock was just sitting on the a-arm.

 

[joeymt33]

Man, I've never seen A-arm bolts break ever. We had a 680 once that was run over with a bulldozer(don't ask, longs story) and the arms broke in half and the bolts weren't touched. I know Honda will be all over this thing. We had one this past week that broke a rear drivers side sway bar mount (frame mount) and they sent our dsm to us the next day. Hope they get it back to you fast as quick as possible. As far as over torqueing It, anything's possible with the goons that they hire to put these things together. We had a P500 that came off the truck with the lower shock bolt torque and inspected(twice) but they failed to put the bolt through the lower mount. Shock was just sitting on the a-arm.

My P1000 was missing two brake line bolts that hold the line to the A-arm. It also had a very loose bolt that holds the passenger seat belt. I checked everything else and it was all good. The dealer sent the replacement bolts immediately.

My P700 had ROPS bolts loose everywhere but that was a dealer problem.

 

[HondaTech]

I consider any loose bolts @ this point a dealer problem, seeing as how these things have been sketchy at best since the first 700's hit the road. I still can't get every unit to come in with the right number of bolts in the bag. We fortunately haven't had many loose bolts but several other stupid obvious stuff. The seat belt bolts are a dealer installed item, I find that no one taps these holes out before installing the bolts. Also those are the only standard size bolt on the entire machine. Took us awhile to find a tap since we kept trying to jam a metric one in it.