I thought I might go through life as the first person who never had a fairing bracket break, but lately I noticed more fairing movement that I was used to, so I removed the outer fairing for an inspection. I didn't have a broken bracket, I had two--left vertical at the top bolt and right horizontal at the speaker. These are classic breaking points and I had some options.

My warranty is good for about three more weeks, but I would have to wait a week to get scheduled, plus I'd be installing more faulty brackets that would undoubtedly break again sometime down the road. So, I decided to fix it myself and make it better than stock, or try to. I bought two new horizontal brackets--left and right, even though one wasn't broken--but wanted to try repairing the vertical bracket as described in several previous threads on this topic.

First, the broken vertical bracket. In photo #2 you can see where the original piece broke off and the right side showing the "L" section I added. Photo #1 is the left side. The "L" section is steel and about double the thickness of the original. I think it may hold indefinitely and is very solid. There was little attention to cosmetics, as you can tell, but who cares?

BTW, the horizontal brackets are $10 each and the verticals $47.

Next, look at Photo #3 of the right-side horizontal bracket with the arrow pointing at the usual breaking point. With this flimsy design no wonder these things break all the time! My metal-working tools and skills are not top-drawer, and after about an hour of futzing around with making the thin, cheap horizontal bracket stronger by adding some additional support, I gave up. These have some twists and turns that are hard (for me) to form using scrap metal pieces collected over many years, a jigsaw, cutting wheel, drill, and other unsophisticated metal-working tools. So, this area remains unchanged. I still have the same cheap, thin horizontal brackets, adding only a washer at the speaker bolt, which I thought might help. So, essentially this part of the project remains unfinished. In an old thread, member "fryeca" was going to fabricate a better horizontal bracket, but I don't know the results of that project, as he hasn't posted here since August.

I do have some ideas along these lines, however. I thought about adding another bracket going from the edge of the fairing at the top air-deflector nut to the middle bolt on the vertical bracket. Sorry, no photo. The problem again was limited fabrication tools and too-shallow threads on the air-deflector nuts when equipped with an air deflector. If you don't have one installed the nuts may be deep enough to hold another bracket.

Another idea was to lay a second horizontal bracket on top the normal one, cutting it in places to make it fit, which might add some strength to the bracket. Globbing some epoxy between them and maybe a small bolt or two would also help. I didn't try this since I only had one duplicate bracket for the left side only, so I might attempt this at a later time.

Lastly, I decided to fortify the unbroken right-side vertical bracket. In Photo #4 you can see that the angled section stops where the arrow points, so there is a lack of structural ridgity at the bolt. The 90° section to the right of the arrow is predictably where these brackets are breaking. Had HD spent a few more cents on the bracket's construction and joined those sections at the arrow I think it might not ever be a problem. So, I thought adding another "L" section at that point might help, shown in Photo #5. It can't hurt and should decrease the metal fatigue at the 90° bend to the right of the arrow.

Any comments are welcome. I would like to get these brackets to a point where I won't have to worry about them again, and I'm only partially there.

 

While the cracked brackets are very common,I wonder what will crack now that this weak area has been beefed up?

 

I'm not sure the verticals will break now, as the weak points were indeed very weak, but time will tell. It did occur to me that they're purposefully engineered that way. One person on another thread thought HD might've done that to allow the brackets to break before something else more important did, like the fairing plastic. Or, perhaps as a means of keeping warranty costs down. As you suggested, if a plastic part on the fairing breaks, like the point at which the brackets mount, it would require a new inner fairing. Brackets are cheaper to replace than inner fairings.

I can't see that as a reason to engineer a weak point into the bracket, especially given the frequency of the breaks, but who knows. Since the problem is not new and HD doesn't seem to be upgrading the part, maybe there is a good reason for their reluctance to improve the design.

Some others have installed o-rings between the brackets and the mount to reduce vibration, but I wouldn't think that would make much of a difference, so I didn't try that. I did think about that or a rubber washer, however.

 

Just did all four last Monday. The left side bracket had the clutch cable running through it. Wizzer cut it and routed under the new bracket. fairing is Wayyyyy more stable now. Svc Mgr siad to weld the gusset holes on the new ones or they will break over time also. I didn't for now.

 

Your mods look good, with 1 exception.
In pic #5, I think you should have added another bolt further up the bracket.
If my thinking is right, that piece is going to eventually fold.

I'll definitely be using your ideas when mine break.

Good job.

 

I did think about the holes I drilled in the brackets, as that will decrease the structural rigidity, but where they are located shouldn't be a problem (IMO). In the case of the vertical brackets they are in L-shaped sections that should be plenty strong enough at those points.

BTW, where is the bottom of the vertical bracket attached? I removed the top and middle bolts, but it is attached at the bottom somewhere around the turn-signal brackets on my SG. I wasn't planning on replacing either so I didn't look too hard or check the service manual.

 

I just hope it holds for a while. The horizontal brackets are cheap ($10 each), but the verticals are not ($47 each), so I was more intent on making the vertical brackets stronger.

In photo #5, I didn't add another bolt because the stock bracket tapers and there wasn't much width to drill into. I did put two bolts in the repair in photo #1 and #2, as it definitely needed it. In the bracket that didn't break, I didn't think there'd be that much movement that would tax the L-section, and it is there just to solidify it a bit. That said, I probably should've put some JB Weld between the bracket and L-section.

 

I plan on getting me a set of these from a member on another board. Would be nice if he had the other brackets as well, but hey at least it's a start.

Made from laser cut 718 inconel stainless steel.
$50.00 plus ship from 06082

 

Dawg,
Instead of making us hunt for the member...
Care to provide his Member ID?
Thanks!

 

member ID is "2003flht" on the HTT board in the swapmeet section. If you don't hang over there, it is now considered "swap: evo =>" for EVO's to present. The thread is entitled "FS: stainless fairing brackets" and is still located on page 1