I had a bolt come loose last week while buggying on the beach. I didnt realize this happened, and the tire rubbed against the threads and flattened them out a little bit. The last two lines of threads are pretty much done for at this point. I went to Lowes last night to try to replace the bolt, but they didnt carry anything that big. :puzzled:

Any ideas where I can get a replacement axle bolt for my buggy? I was also wondering what people do to keep their axle bolts from coming loose. I was thinking of putting a lock-washer on there, but Lowes didnt carry any of those in that size either. Gonna make a few calls today and see if the local car dealership has any... Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

You can either get them from a PL dealer or a local bolt and nut specialty company. Take one with you because they will have them in various levels of hardness/strength. Too strong and they break instead of bend. Too weak and they bend too easily. You want "just right". The markings on the head tell them what they need to know. An SAE bolt might look the same but those have metric threads I'm sure. Car dealer is going to give you a blank stare. Their first question will be make and model. I remove my wheels for transport so mine get torqued before every outing. I'd check with a wrench either before or after every outing. My front wheel has never been taken off and the Flexi locknut hasn't budged. When I got the PL bigfoot parts, I never installed the supplied nut. I got an M12 locknut, or stopnut as Ace hardware calls them. I don't want wheels falling off either.

It's not clear what PL buggy you have. The old PL 's running on barrows typically used the M12 Bolts. Much too skinny in my book.
They introduced a wierd metric size to fit the 15mm i/dia. bearing for the PL's running on BF's. This is a real oddball thread even in the metric world. It's 15mm fine metric thread.

Realizing after a long time that these bolts break bend, fall off etc., they caught up with serious buggy builders by introducing a 20 mmm standard thread for the rear wheels.

Some years back, we ran the PL's with the 15mm fine metric therad. PL give no instructions with their product and it is left up to the hapless owner to torque up the bolt without knowing how much he should tighten it. Overtighten it & it would squeeze the thin spacer between the bearing making it looka bit like a concertina.
Pic shows squeezed spacer versus improved home made one


Undertorque it and it would loosen when buggying.
Because it's such an oddball thread, we couldn't find a locknut to fit betwen the wheel & axle in our part of the world.
I tried using a liquid threadlock but only succeeded tearing up the thread in the stainless rear axle.
We finally found that plumber's tape (white nylon tape to prevent leaks on pipe joints) worked very well. We had to use this stuff every time (cheap enough) but at least we didn't have wheels falling off.

The PL bolts would still bend & break though.


Finally, we gave it up as a bad job and made stub axles welded to the main rear axle.
pic

I got into communication with a local individual who does lots of work with odd bolts and nuts. I sent her my messed up bolt, and she sent me back replacement that seems to be working just fine. She also included some lock washers. I have only ridden once since I put that stuff in, but it was on a very bumpy field. Bolts didnt slip at all. I'll check after my next beach run day to see if I get any slippage... Thanks for the information though.

I get mine locally, but try http://www.mcmaster.com
You will need to determine the sizes you want and decide if you want stainless or grade 8 for strength.

Quote:

Originally posted by ragden I had a bolt come loose last week while buggying on the beach. I didnt realize this happened, and the tire rubbed against the threads and flattened them out a little bit. The last two lines of threads are pretty much done for at this point. I went to Lowes last night to try to replace the bolt, but they didnt carry anything that big. :puzzled:

Always check your bolts for tightness at the start of every session, especially the rear left wheel- the counter clockwise rotation of the wheel can help to loosen it.

One day, a stranger on the beach was asking me questions about the buggy after watching me ride for a while. He said something like "How do you get those wheels to articulate like that in the turns? Must be some suspension!" I gave him a puzzled look but thought nothing more of it. Then when I went out again I heard a strange sound over my shoulder. To my dismay, the left axle bolt had backed out enough that the outer bearing had popped out of the race and the wheel was flopping about with the bolt grinding away at the bearing race.

I felt pretty foolish. I check the bolts a lot more often now. I also stock wheel assemblies for the hapless folks who suffer the same fate or worse.

Bobby has it right- every decent sized town has an industrial hardware / fastener supply place with expert knowledge that will be able to take one look at your mangled bolt and know what to replace it with. It will cost you less than I would charge you. Fuhhgedabout your average hardware store or Ho' Depot. I stock them too, for those without the time or such a resource.