Well, my saddlebag brackets arrived in the mail yesterday so off I go to the garage to bolt them on. I remove the acorn nut from the muffler side, remove the bolt from inside the fender (just over the tire) and all goes as planned.... well.... except for the bolt that comes with the package is much too long. But that's easy to solve with a trip to Lowes Home Improvement store. So basically, I'm half way there. Cool beans.
After I remove the acorn nut from the petcock side of the bike, I remembered that it is pretty darn difficult to reach over the rear tire to access that bolt that's smack in the middle. I had lots of fun with that bolt while installing my sissy bar a few weeks ago. But after fiddlin' with it for 5-10 minutes, the good ol' Craftsman socket wrench does its job and off it goes. So I try to put the shiny new bolt into place with the saddlebag support in the correct position. No go. Hmmm, I try again. No go.
I just can't get the bolt threads started at all. I twist it one way and the other. I slightly pry the support up and down, I tap the bolt slightly on the end to try to "set it", no go. And when I say tap, I mean a very slight tap, not with a hammer or anything really solid, just a few love taps with the end of the socket wrench.
Then I get a bright idea, I try to get the old bolt that I just removed back into the hole, no go. I try three or four more times, still no go. At this point, I'm thinking to myself, "Am I going crazy? I KNOW I just removed this bolt from the same hole half an hour ago and now it won't go back in again."
After messing with the stupid thing for nearly two hours, I decide that I'm not going to get either bolt started in that hole (with the support lined up correctly) until one of two things happen. Either I'm going to have to remove the rear tire and gain a much larger access to the area in question OR I'm just going to have to recruit my three-year-old granddaughter to get her little hands in there and start those bolt threads.
Thoughts?
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