Ever since we've had our TM, the front shell has always sagged a bit at the front and has been more difficult to open compared to the rear shell. The rear shell opens almost effortlessly; the front shell requires a fair amount of strength.
First let me say that I would have preferred to pay someone $100 to fix both problems. I figure it would take someone who knows what they are doing less than an hour to fix both problems. So I took it to my local dealer, and they were clueless. "We don't mess with the shells" was their response. Uhh, ok. Whatever.
I messed around with the adjustment bolts underneath for the front shell, but no matter what I did, nothing seemed to make a difference. That is odd.
So a few weeks ago, I loosened up the 4 bolts on both front lift arms of the front shell, and pulled the torsion bar out a bit from the lift arm. This raised the front of the front shell to the point where it almost eliminated the sag.
When I closed the shell, the catches for the white latches at the front of the shell moved....I would expect that, but what I didn't expect is that they moved FORWARD! By pulling the torsion bar out of the lift arm a bit, I would have expected that they moved backwards. But they didn't, which is very perplexing. The only think I can think of is that the front and rear of the front shell were binding against each other, which could perhaps explain the difficulty in opening and the lack of any difference when adjusting the bolts.
So perhaps by raising the front, I removed what was stopping the rear from pushing the shell forward. That would indicate that the rear is too low. The contact point between the two shells at the roof when open could perhaps use a bit more space, but when closed, there is about a 1/4" or so gap on the roof between the front and rear shells. But if I raise the rear, the front will sag again, but perhaps I just need to raise it more.
So I am perplexed.
Any suggestions?
Dave
Shell adjustment / alignment problems
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