What would cause the Brake linkage bolt to fall out?! Any insights?

[ElleSal]

Question. Recently, I was out in the boonies riding my '23 F3T (with only 13000 miles) and went to exit the main road and discovered I had no brakes. Fortunately, I was able to slow it down by downshifting and rolled to a stop. I discovered that the 10mm bolt that holds the brake linkage had fallen out.

My question: what would cause that to happen? Is that normal? I am beginning to lose faith in Can Am. I had a warranty replacement of the alternator assembly recently as well. Should I periodically be tightening external bolts like that, given the vibration? I wonder if the repair shop that replaced the alternator might have not fastened it, but they insist they didn’t remove it, which makes sense. Any insight would be appreciated.

 

[Gwolf]

No, not normal. The brake linkage bolt should have been drilled and had a safety clip in it to stop the nut from backing off.
What caused it is that somebody didn't put the safety clip back in it.

 

[Cobranut]

What Gwolf said...

 

[Gwolf]

I have read on this forum that the brake linkage bolt is put in backwards on some Spyders and the nut & threads blocks access to one of the oil drain plugs. If the bolt was in backward and the person that did the oil change took it out and turned it around the correct way, the pin could have been left out then.

 

[Mikey]

BRP puts Loctite on everything, so I would say it was taken out and not replaced right.

 

[BamaJohn]

My 2020 RT has "flange elastic nut" (locknut) on the brake linkage. I'm one of those who turned the bolt around to gain more-direct access to the drain plug, but replaced the locknut with new.

 

[Gwolf]

Even if a nylock nut was on it, I would still drill the bolt and put safety clip on it too. If there is no room, then put a castle nut on it and drill for the pin hole.

Having brakes is kind of important.

 

[ElleSal]

Thanks for answers. It definitely made me wonder.

 

[ElleSal]

I have read on this forum that the brake linkage bolt is put in backwards on some Spyders and the nut & threads blocks access to one of the oil drain plugs. If the bolt was in backward and the person that did the oil change took it out and turned it around the correct way, the pin could have been left out then.

I bet that’s what happened. No one else has gotten near that spot. Thanks.

 

[pauly1]

Presumably, it was the bolt for the linkage rod onto the master cylinder; otherwise , the brake linkage rod would have doubled up under the Spyder. The bolt is a shoulder bolt that has a flange head coupled with a nylon lock nut. By design, the brake rod exerts no lateral tension on the bolt: it is merely a pivot for the joint. At this point, unless you found the bolt, it's not possible to determine if said locking nut was installed or tightened (over- or under-torqued) correctly on your Spyder. By personal experience, we've had Spyders since 2008 and have had the vibrating monsters from H-D since 2004: never have we had a nylon lock nut come loose.