Kickstand Mounting

[WesV]

Since I had to take my exhaust system off to do a base gasket replacement on my '81 850G I figured it would be a good time to tackle the nagging kickstand problem I have had since I bought the bike 2.5 years ago. Both of the nuts which were factory welded in place that the kickstand bolts to are have broke lose and I managed to lose one bolt completely and the other one just continually loosened with me being able to slightly tighten it once in a while with a flat head screwdriver to press against the nut.

Has anyone else fixed this on their own bike and if so what did you do? I think I have 2 options:

1.) Tap the hole in the metal plate, drill out the stand metal piece for the larger bolt and do that, but I am a bit afraid of the weight stripping it out in short order.

2.) Cut open the factory plate, reweld the nuts in place and weld the plate back. This is the option I am kinda leaning towards at the moment.

For a short time I considered welding nuts to the outside of the plate, but again I am worried that the leverage will just break something again in short order.

So I am open to options before I break out the cutting wheel and welder.

 

[SqDancerLynn1]

would go with option #2 cut it open..

 

[hampshirehog]

This is pretty common I'm afraid and really poor design by Suzuki. Your only option is number 2.

 

[Big T]

Drill thru the nuts, use a longer bolt and another nut, apply Locktite or equivalent

 

[Dogma]

My kickstand is welded directly to the frame. The nuts inside the box stripped completely. Luckily, I was able to catch the bike when it happened.

 

[flyanimator]

I had this same problem and actually just finished repairing it. I cut off the mounting plate at the welds and got some beefier nuts and welded those in place. the original square one seemed less than adequate to me and were only tack welded on each corner. That probably why they gave out fue to the strees.

Just carefully grind off the welds so you can remve the plate and open it up a bit so you can get in there with a mig welder. weld on the nuts, close the plate back up to the original shape and weld it back on. Make sure you do a test fit before welding to see what angle it needs to be at.

Having the engine out of the frame also makes things much easier to get to.