Drive Shaft removal?

Ok so I'm not the only one here that has a backed out bolt on the u- joint...?

I'll just say, IMO you should not have the gap under the strap with bolt shank showing, their not designed to hold the torque like that. I would check into that. Mine will be back tomorrow night and I'm going to look at mine.

I called my dealer few minutes ago and talked to the sling tech, he told me some slings have had the bolt not tightened and was backed off like mine and apparently troopers but tight to tork spec, it still doesn't make much since to me but I'm not a mechanic by no means, but don't know why it would not be snugged as the other 3 bolts....he said quote, "drive the he'll out of it and if it breaks we will fix it.." he had been on the phone all week with Polaris on this and other issues...!!!!!! Now if I had a trailer running behind me while driving the sling I might do this, but I'm in no mood to walk when it's 100 degrees out side...just saying.......!

OK, I'll always tell you if I think I might be wrong on something. I was thinking that has to hold a good bit of torque, so thought that the stamped part likely was pretty hard steel. I just crawled under mine, and it looks similar to yours on the tight side, but the other side is actually bent down to touch the bolt in face. I don't think it would likely hurt to tighten it more, as it looks like mine is. This is not the best pic, but I was just reaching under it with the phone, not up on jacks or lift. I think you can see it well enough though.

I can see the difference but again why is it not tight.? Not sure how many miles or the year of your sling goat but do you think this is normal.??

The strap should always fit and look like the Yolk side, no gaps. To me it looks like a poor match of parts.

@larry, it's tight. I put the wrench on it. You can only pull a strap of steel like that so far. To be honest, as long as yours isn't loose, feels tight with the wrench, I personally wouldn't worry about it. I do not baby my Sling, I run it hard at times. I'm less than 200 miles from 20,000 on the ticker, and haven't had the first issue with it. And I've got 4th gear rubber more than a few times..,.

I just got done removing, inspecting and reinstalling the u-joint straps. Mine was also raised on one side (both straps). They appeared to be tightened equally when i removed them. Inspected the straps inside and one side looked to not be making as much contact to the cap as the other. I cleaned and packed the u-joint, cleaned the straps and reinstalled. I tightened equally so that there was an equal spacing on both sides of the strap.
Do I think everyone needs to rush out and check and fix.... nope. Really don't think it will effect anything unless the bolts are truly backing out and loose. Odds are yours are like mine. Tight just not 100% even.

Did inspect an checked the bearings better. They are fine. Noise (chirping) is or was still coming from the belt and pulleys even after the first good cleaning per @FunCycle suggestion. Just did it a second time and lets hope it does the trick.

That said, Like @JoeF. stated, I'd rather have the old cast iron part, a machined one if it were up to me. But Rab is running the same setup, and many others that are forced, and I haven't heard of failures with this.

Quote from Goats_Hogs

That said, Like @JoeF. stated, I'd rather have the old cast iron part, a machined one if it were up to me. But Rab is running the same setup, and many others that are forced, and I haven't heard of failures with this.

was looking at the yoke. 10 to 1 I can find a replacement at work that allows for the old U-bolt design. I'm going to look into that. It would be a good upgrade. In the off-road world the u-bolt straps are what you want. Another option would be to remove the yoke and drill the threaded holes out and then install the u-bolt straps. Is it really needed ???? with the HP people are running i don't think so. Just a preference thing.

These are good threads, I have not gone over every inch of my SS, not many have but together, we can all cover most of it and find stuff like this to check out.

Quote from Ruptured Duck

I just got done removing, inspecting and reinstalling the u-joint straps. Mine was also raised on one side (both straps). They appeared to be tightened equally when i removed them. Inspected the straps inside and one side looked to not be making as much contact to the cap as the other. I cleaned and packed the u-joint, cleaned the straps and reinstalled. I tightened equally so that there was an equal spacing on both sides of the strap.
Do I think everyone needs to rush out and check and fix.... nope. Really don't think it will effect anything unless the bolts are truly backing out and loose. Odds are yours are like mine. Tight just not 100% even.

Did inspect an checked the bearings better. They are fine. Noise (chirping) is or was still coming from the belt and pulleys even after the first good cleaning per @FunCycle suggestion. Just did it a second time and lets hope it does the trick.

Wire brush and soap and water

Just my two cents but when i was going to do my first greasing on the u-joint i didn't have the needle adapter for my grease gun so i was going to drop the shaft grease the joint and put it back up. All my saddles are even but the bolts are in so tight that even when i backed them out a turn and half they still felt like i was going to brake them. I ran them back down and got the adapter. Will fight that battle when the time comes.

@Ruptured Duck "I have a chirping sound I need to check and see if it's coming from the u-joint. I cleaned the belt and pull and still have it. Don't want it to be the rear bearings."

Sorry for doing it this way. I did a quote of another post of yours, and I got this into a loop it wouldn't let me out of. I kept clicking the quote button off, refreshing, but it still came back....

Two things here. You don't want to do rear bearings. You have chirping from the belt (possibly). I've ridden Harleys for most of 3 decades, and only had one that was chain drive. If the belt is too tight, it will chirp. It will also cause stress on the rear swing arm bearings, and that is enough to cause the weak bearings in it to fail. Might check the tension of the belt. Just a suggestion....

@Goats_Hogs I agree. The drive in this morning was noiseless. No chirping. I would recommend undoing the caps and reseating them. That might help. I also did clean the belt a second time so who knows what really stopped it.

I will be adjusting the belt Sunday. I just haven't gotten around to it like I should have.