Fixing Loose and Rattling Lids

My RT has over 55,000 miles of use on it, and over time, the fairing side pocket lids no longer fit tight and rattle around when the bike is in motion. They have a rubber rope type gasket on the inside lip to provide some level of protection and stability, but the real problem is the extended wear on the lid “clips” and the pocket edge where the two meet. The clips cut into a slot into the pocket edge causing the lid to slide down towards the gas tank.

 

To fix this, I decided to beef up the pocket lip with a strip of 1/8″ thick aluminum stock. I made it 1/2″ wide by 7″ long. One for each side.

 

I clamped the strip to the pocket lip and drilled three 1/8″ holes for pop rivets, making sure they were offset from where the lid clips engaged the lip.

Measuring the thickness of the lip with the aluminum strip attached was just under 1/4″. The rivet head added another 1/16″.

I transferred this measurement to the clips on the lid. This gave me a reference for how much more I needed to make the notch on the lid clips.

Using a diamond wheel on my Dremel, I cut the clips on an angle with the leading edge (widest) measuring 5/16″.

With a little trial and error, taking off a little at a time, all the clips ended up like this.

Now the lids fit tight, they’re sitting up higher where they belong on the pocket, and they won’t be wearing down from plastic rubbing on plastic.