Know what the thread pitch is for mirror mount?

[Sparkster]

1980 GS850G; I need to extend my mirror with a straight bolt and the mirror extenders I've found so far are not straight or are not long enough. I found this on ebay and I'm wondering if the 1.5 thread pitch they mention is the same as the mirror. I thought metric stuff would be standard but they emphasize it so I figured I would check with those who know.
I got some pineapple grenades and I need the extender to a) see past my shoulder and b) fit through the grenade so it will look like the mirror is mounted to the grenade. :-D

[Zooks]

I think the mirrors will be an M12 bolt but not sure of pitch. There are dozens of printable thread gauges on the net.

here's one - http://www.boltdepot.com/fastener-in...Bolt-Sizes.pdf

[BentRod]

I believe that the mirrors are a M10 with 1.25 pitch.

[Zooks]

There you go - I told you not trust me. lol

Thanks BentRod

[Sparkster]

I got the chart you pointed to and used that- I believe m10 1.25 is right. It didn't print exactly to scale according to a tape measure but it gave me enough of an idea to be pretty sure. Thanks for the help- saved me 12 bucks. Now I'm back to square one though...

[Zooks]

Why don't you go the hardware store and buy a piece of threaded rod (the correct thread) and a couple of thread connectors? You can then make your own. Just use some thread locker and your good to go.

[Sparkster]

Why don't you go the hardware store and buy a piece of threaded rod (the correct thread) and a couple of thread connectors? You can then make your own. Just use some thread locker and your good to go.

Actually that was my first inkling. I went to Lowe's (before any proper research and w/o the part in hand) and bought some 3/8" parts thinking that they looked about right. I was right- they were about right. At any rate I didn't see anything metric whatsoever. I have to go to town today so I'll try at some of the smaller hardwares along the way.

[Sparkster]

Sigh...
I've called three to check.
#1 Nice and helpful, went out of his way, but has only 1.5 pitch
#2 and #3 - Long pause after the explanation followed by rude clipped answers about not having such a thing.
People suck. It's no wonder I've been accused of being antisocial :-|

I'm about to just buy threaded rod and connectors and then cut the mirror in two and just use a two part epoxy to secure the stems down inside the threaded connectors. :shock: It'll be inside the grenade so it'll look just fine.


Edit
MUH-HAH-HAH! http://www.fastenal.com/

[Zooks]

Go to an engineers supply store (nut & bolt shop).

[Sparkster]

Go to an engineers supply store (nut & bolt shop).

I'm guessing that's what Fastenal is. Struck out there; they had the threaded rod but said I had to buy a whole bag of nuts @$25. And I forgot my wallet. I found exactly what I need finally on the web:

http://www.koubalink.com/mirror.html

But I still don't want to spend $25 when I should be able to make the same thing for $5 out of a parts bin. Everything will be concealed so looks don't matter. Sigh!

I refuse to give up- MacGuyver was my childhood hero

[Zooks]

You must have stores like this all over the place - http://www.mitchellsengineerssupplies.com.au/

This is my local store. The guys here have anything and everything I could ever dream of and it is only a small store. Hunt the yellow pages.

[Sparkster]

I ended up just having someone cut the mirrors in two and weld an extension in.

[bwringer]

The basic problem is that here in the metrically retarded USA, 99.9% of everything in our local hardware stores is in inch sizes. The only machines that use this stuff are lawn mowers, Hardley-Ablesons, and pre-1975 American cars. Even the American car brands have been totally metric since about 1980.

So when you go to a hardware store here, you have about 50 meters of completely untouched racks overflowing with beautiful inch-based hardware of every description that's completely useless unless you're pimping out a Harley, lawn mower, or ancient hot rod. They hardly ever sell any of it, so it's always in stock

Stuffed in the middle, there might be one or two drawers with a small selection of basic low-grade metric hardware at eye-watering prices. Much of it is completely missing, since it is in high demand and never, ever gets restocked. What's left has been mixed together randomly by frustrated shoppers and unsupervised children.

I am seriously not exaggerating in the least, unfortunately.

You will not find metric hardware at a big box store like sLowes, Meantards, or Clone Depot. Your only shot is a smaller hardware store like Ace or DoItBest. And you have to go look for yourself -- if you call or even go and ask, they will have no idea what you're talking about. Just tell Skippy the teenager or Henry the senile ancient wanderer of aisles to buzz off and let you look yerdamself -- they only get confused in the presence of millimeters.

Fastenal is only slightly better -- in my experience, Fastenal specializes in the phrases "we don't got none o' that" and "we might be able to order that". Again, 99.9% of what they stock is inch sizes because they'd rather keep their shelves full than actually sell fasteners.

Two places that will save your sanity:

http://boltdepot.com

Order any quantity, mostly standard metric thread pitches available.

http://mcmaster.com

Lots of oddball stuff available, including threaded rod, oddball thread pitches, etc. Excellent per-piece pricing, but many fasteners are sold in packs of 25, 50 , or 100.

Peruse the technical diagrams and info until you understand how fasteners are specified. "Socket head cap screws" are what most of us call "allen head bolts".

Both have no minimum order, and fast, low-cost shipping.


In many cases, you might consider ordering new hardware from Suzuki -- it's surprisingly cheap, and $1.25 for a new axle nut or whatever is probably easier than cleaning up the old one to look decent.

There's also a basic problem that it is simply impossible in the US to get JIS metric hardware -- even metric stuff can be slightly different because all we can get is SAE metric stuff. The threads are the same, fortunately, but you mostly run into this as mismatches between thread and wrench size.

For example, the Japanese spec for 8mm bolts and nuts is a 12mm wrench size. All we can get in the US is 13mm, which sometimes creates a clearance problem, or just looks wrong or requires us to carry another &%$#@ wrench. Same with 10mm fasteners -- the Japanese stuff has a 14mm head, while the US spec is a 15mm wrench size. The standard thread pitch is usually different, too.

Can't we all just get along...?

[Zooks]

Mr bwringer you are a gent. I knew someone would have an answer for sparkster.
In Australia we still have all the 'inch' stuff too (as hotrods, Harleys and vintage cars are still big business) but it makes up 10% of the stock. 90% of everything is metric these days. We trade heavily with Asia though and I suspect this has had an enormous influence over the last 30 or so years.

[MikeG]

The Lowes near me has a pretty decent selection of metirc hardware; I was able to get body screws and bolts for my 86 Honda CH150 scooter there when no one else had them. Home Depot had nothing.