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Originally Posted by BobRederick
Larry,
I am wondering if it would be a good idea to do this mod to a TM before it rips the square tubing out? It would be a lot easier then since the glue bond and the inner screws are still intact. I am thinking to put the pop rivets in the outer skin. Maybe do the factory mod and put in the little bars that spread the stirrup stress to a couple of more screws.
What do you think?
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Bob, I am of the opinion that the attachment screws for the upper shell's stirrups are stressed much more than those of the lower shell. That is because the upper shell bears down on the lower shell, and, this may take some of the tension off the screws of the lower shell's stirrups. I think that putting some pop rivets into the stock tube from the outside wall may help. I'm not totally confident, though, that this will eliminate the need for a more permanent repair in the future, especially with the front shell. I did pop some Cherry Q rivets (solid mandrel rivets) into the stock, thin wall tube from the outside around the stirrups' locations of my lower shell. You may recall that in my upper shell I replaced the stock 1" tube with a heavy wall tube (1/8" thickness) and inserted into the tube a 6" long square plug at the location of the stirrups. This essentially created a solid 1" square aluminum bar into which the stirrup's screws were threaded. I then drove CherryQ rivets into the tube from both inside and outside. It was a time consuming repair which I would not look forward to repeating.