Glad I found this thread as it's great to get some guidance from those who've experienced this before.
This just happened to my bike. I heard a scratching sound... kind of like a chirp every few seconds. Fortunately, I was close to my house...pulled off the cover and out popped the screw. The first two threads were worn/gone...and just a little wear inside of the cover.
I ran an new bolt into the crank threads to true it up...there wasn't much damage, but it did have a little resistance as it went in...somewhat concerning, but it feels solid now. I was able to salvage the original screw with a die, and then used some loctite as I screwed it back on.
I didn't hit it with an impact hammer...but I suppose I could? We'll see how this holds. If it comes out again, I'm not sure I can save the crank threads...maybe a retap there would still work. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
This just happened to my bike. I heard a scratching sound... kind of like a chirp every few seconds. Fortunately, I was close to my house...pulled off the cover and out popped the screw. The first two threads were worn/gone...and just a little wear inside of the cover.
I ran an new bolt into the crank threads to true it up...there wasn't much damage, but it did have a little resistance as it went in...somewhat concerning, but it feels solid now. I was able to salvage the original screw with a die, and then used some loctite as I screwed it back on.
I didn't hit it with an impact hammer...but I suppose I could? We'll see how this holds. If it comes out again, I'm not sure I can save the crank threads...maybe a retap there would still work. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.