Posted this in another forum but thought it might help someone here too!

Have a 2003 EG FLHTCI that I had repaired a broken fairing bracket on about 25K miles ago. Went for a ride and got that familiar rattle and vibration on one side of the batwing. I removed the fairing expecting to find another broken bracket. WRONG…the plastic mounting post is cracked on one side and broken completely off on the other. At least there are no other cracks in any of the vertical or speaker brackets and no broken tabs.

Posting this to show the method I used to repair the broken inner fairing support posts. Did some testing and decided to use J-B Weld Original epoxy for the repair. I also chose to re-enforce all the epoxy repairs with fiberglass tape and use a “bolt through” the front panel idea to take the stress and load. This way the repair does not depend completely on the strength of the plastic parts and epoxy. This picture gives the general idea of the assembly.





Day 1 -- First step was to simply epoxy the broken piece back in place on the inner fairing. It was easy to hold the broken piece in place because I drilled a small hole through the front panel and ran a long small bolt all the way through the post. The bottom of post molding on the inside of the panel allowed me to accurately drill the hole. Used washers and a nut and then tightened the bolt to hold things together. Let the epoxy cure overnight.




Day 2 -- Used a small etching bit (small ball bit) in my trusty Dremel and carefully enlarged the area along the cracks in each gusset and post. This gives the epoxy more area to ensure a good “grip” for binding to the plastic. Cleaned everything with alcohol, dried everything with compressed air, and then applied epoxy along the etched cracks and let it cure overnight. The long small bolt and nut held everything secure during all the etching and epoxy application.

Day 3 -- Took small etching bit and roughed up large areas around the cracks and on the gussets and remaining post material. Cut pieces of stick on drywall fiberglass tape shaped and sized to cover the roughed up areas and cracks, cleaned and dried areas again, and then coated them with epoxy. This basically embedded the fiberglass in the epoxy to give the repair more strength. Let epoxy cure overnight.

Day 4 -- Roughed up the epoxy again and applied a final coat of epoxy to make sure all of the fiberglass patches are securely embedded in the epoxy. You can tell from the finish that I’m not an auto body repair type, but it should get the job done!




Used ¼-20 x 2 ½ inch button head allen bolts inserted through holes drilled in the front panel. The bolt screws through the threaded insert that’s still in the post. The bolt is not screwed all the way through in the picture above. The insert has ¼-20 threads.

The front panel has a slope to it so I cut some angled spacers out of nylon spacer stock so the tension on the bolt spreads evenly on the front panel when the bolt is screwed through the insert that’s still in the repaired post piece.




Placed a washer on the back side of the post and secured it with a ¼-20 nut using a small amount of blue locktite. Placed the angle bracket I had previously fabricated to repair the broken factory brace on the bolt and secured it using a nylon lock nut. The bracket is held between these two nuts. The nuts are “jammed” and secured with locktite so this should secure the bracket regardless of the vibration (fingers-crossed). The angle bracket is secured to the factory bracket with two bolts and nylon locknuts through holes drilled in the bracket. I carefully aligned everything to try and eliminate any side loads on the bolt and plastic pieces.





Here’s a picture of the front panel with the bolts and inserts so everyone can see what it looks like. I’m okay with the look but others might not be.




Hopefully this approach places very little load on the plastic mounting post. The goal was to transfer the stress and load to the bolt that is placed through the panel, screwed through the insert inside the post, and on to the heavy duty angle bracket. Only time will tell if the repair will hold.

I did a similar repair on the left side mounting post. That post was just cracked so it was an easier fix. The left side also has the newer redesigned bracket from H-D. The tab has not broken on the new design so I did not need to fabricate an angle bracket. Still chose to use the “bolt through” the front panel bolt approach so the panel looks uniform, but more importantly, so it has the additional strength.

Maybe this will help some else that might be facing the same repair.

 

Good Job! Agree the front panel may not look nice, but to consider the alternative, I would have those fasteners there as well.
Good write up, thanks for sharing.

 

Excellent work, and a nice write up for the next person facing this!

Keep your eyes peeled when you walk through the hardware store, you might find a black piece of some description that you can silicone over the exposed fasteners. The flexible plastic caps that come on steel cable might work or leave it as is… small badge of honor kinda thing!

 

Thanks! Thought about using black anodized allen head bolts and black spacer material. Would have probably helped "hide" the posts but I just used what I had

 

Harley was replacing them for free some time back. They also sell an improved bracket set for under $20.

 

Curious, are you talking about free replacement of brackets or the inner panel or both? Guessing brackets since the original tab was a bad design. I did install one of the new model brackets and the tab has held up well. My biggest issue now is the broken post on the inner fairing. That's why I did a DIY repair figuring I couldn't afford H-D replacement (parts or shop time)

The bike is a 2003 so I figure Harley would suggest replacing the whole machine instead of just brackets...ha...ha!

 

Those are the horizontal brackets that extend outward from the vertical brackets. The OP's vertical bracket broke. A set of vertical brackets will set you back about $140.

 

or these: https://www.alloyart.com/collections...iring-brackets

 

Just to clarify for anyone reading the thread. The vertical bracket top tab had broken and was repaired with a DIY angle bracket about 25K miles ago. What broke this time was the plastic mounting post of the inner fairing that has the threaded insert that the top of the vertical bracket bolts to. That made the repair a little more difficult since I did not want to remove/replace the inner panel.

Can give a thumbs up for H-Ds re-designed vertical brackets because I replaced one on the left side and it is holding up well. Having two tabs bent over and welded makes a big difference. Have not tried the injection-molded high-impact nylon type vertical brackets. They look interesting!

 

I had to do a similar repair when my brackets broke. The second time I saw issues was when I disassembled to change the bars. That time I decided to replace the entire fairing bracket set with polymer. It seems to shake more now at stops but everything moves together and I haven't had anymore cracks.