Riders Of Vision

Anyone see the necessity to replace the bolts when they have 16,000 miles on them and they are perfect looking?     BDC

Do it now, or do it later...after bump starting it the whole way back to the house.

Hmm - funny you should ask I just came in from the garage after deciding to do it on a bike I picked up with only 11,000 miles on it.  Good thing I tore it apart because all 3 bolts were backed out and rounded out the threaded holes.  I didn't even need a wrench to get it apart.  Yamaha wasn't thinking on that design detail.

I did mine with the second stator replacement - around 5500 miles - as preventive maintenance.  Nice to have one less thing to worry about.  If you have the left side cover off for any other reason, go ahead & do the bolts.  Mine still felt tight & were difficult to loosen so they hadn't begun to come loose at that point.  That was 12,000 miles ago.

H₂O

If you do the replacement USE 12.9 grade screws clean is all up and use red loctite. Otherwise they will loosen up.....FASTER that the originals. Some on this site have used 8.8 screws...they ended up loose in no time.

 :) I suppose I'm lucky that I sell, among other things, hardware and storage units to the automotive/trucking/industrial trades and therefore have a 'pro' set up in my home garage, as you would see in any of these business locations.

When you tighten any bolt...and it doesn't matter which, standard/metric grade i.e. 8.8, 10.9 &12.9 (all metric grades)...you stretch that fastener, which, if you over tighten it, can result in failure some where down the road!!! (another good reason to have/use a torque wrench!!!).

My rule of thumb is this...every time I remove a nut, bolt, washer, screw, cotter pin, etc, etc,... it/they go in the recycle bin!!!!! Ask any of the guys who have come and had work done on their Visions in my shop :o ;)
       
The cost difference between three good quality, M8 socket head cap screws for the starter clutch and three cheaper quality ones is pennies....PENNIES!!!

Wash them (and the fly wheel) with something like brake & parts cleaner to make sure they are clean and free of any oil, use RED thread locker, torque up, turn over the flywheel and peen the ends of the screws...VOILA!!! A job done right....