Loose left hand controls

So this cager slams on his brakes yesterday, on the commute home, and decides to make a u-turn for no apparent reason. I was able to make an emergency braking and honking maneuver simultaneously to alert him he had in fact sat on his brain again. After the adrenaline was through processing I noticed that my left hand control cluster is loose on the bars now. It isn't flopping around but it never rotated around the tube like that before. I looked at it briefly this am before leaving for work and did not see anything obviously loose or broken. There is an open threaded hole underneath that looks like it might accept a 1/4" bolt, but it looks like something to mount an accessory or something to.
Anyone have any ideas what would cause the left hand control cluster ( housing: high / low beam, turn signals, and horn controls) to become loose like that?

 

Could be just regular road vibration... Or you had an Oh s*%t moment and jarred it loose because of the cager.

I had a bolt on the bike hanging by two threads that I had to tighten about three weeks ago. It was a bolt to hold the spark plug wire in place. There is another thread here about watching out for loose bolts on the kickstand assembly.

 

I believe that there is a locating pin that engages a hole in the clip-on to keep it from swiveling. I suspect that you may have sheared it off when you hit the horn button with all that adrenaline in your system.

It isn't really a pin, more of a tab.

 

I just went out and took the clam-shell apart. I didn't notice anything obviously broken or any locator holes for a pin. I may see if there is room inside there to drill through bottom housing and into the clip-on. I could run a stainless pan head self tapping screw in, if it doesn't impact any control wires or button springs.

Edit; 5th Gen with what I believe are stock clip-ons.

 

Yes - there should be a plastic pin protruding from the housing, which is meant to locate into an alignment hole in the bar to prevent it moving.

Unbolt the housing and you will see whether it has sheared off or has just slipped out of its location and needs to be re-instated.

If its broken off - you can try to repair or substitute the broken pin, or just cheat and fix it in place the same way you would with heated grips by applying neoprene rubber glue to the bars below the control. If you ever need to remove the controls it will just require some gentle persuasion.

Take care



SkiMad

 

I did not see a hole for a pin to go in. Are we sure 5th gens have this hole?

 

Sorry I can't be certain about a 5th Gen but here is what the left side switchgear on a 6th gen looks like and as you can see that lug fits into a hole on the under-side of the clip on.

http://www.hills-bikes.co.uk/honda-vfr-800-vtec-2002-switch-gear-left-hand-p-49955.html#!prettyPhoto[49954]/1/


SkiMad