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Repairing Your Broken Fairing/Windshield Tabs


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Trust me, if you have a 2nd Gen, you DO have broken tabs on the inner fairing where the ends of the windshield bracket SHOULD be attached! Even if your bike is quite new, they are broken. Here is a picture of what the tabs should look like - I'm holding the broken back piece to show how it would look if it was actually there:

[ATTACH]15890[/ATTACH]

 

I'm sure Yamahaha would replace the inner fairing under warranty for this, but frankly, I don't want them to rip my bike apart to do it when the new ones will just break in the first week anyway. The relatively easy solution is to make a brace that will run from the bottom screw on the speaker to the screw in the windshield bracket. When positioned correctly, this will clamp the windshield bracket against the tiny bit of the tab that remains and stop all motion.

 

To start with, you will need a couple of metal straps - they cannot be too thick, but must be more sturdy than hardware tape. I found this bracket in the framing section of the hardware store and just cut the two pieces off:

[ATTACH]15891[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]15892[/ATTACH]

 

Put one end on the speaker screw and then cut the bracket to the exact length that will just fit under the top lip of the inner fairing. You will have to use a pair of pliers to twist and curve the strap to fit flush against the rubber grommet that holds the nut. The correct position for the windshield bracket is to have the metal piece behind the fairing tabs, and the front lip of the rubber grommet on the outside of the tab. Here are a couple of pictures of how it should be positioned:

[ATTACH]15899[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]15898[/ATTACH]

 

In other words, if the tab was still in one piece, it would slide over the groove in the rubber grommet on the outside of the metal windshield bracket. You will need to make sure the windshield bracket is properly positioned on the remaining piece of the tab before you can mark the correct position for the screw hole in the new brace. Here are pictures of the brace before I cut it to length, the finished brace before mounting, and then a couple of different shots of the brace all fastened in place.

[ATTACH]15895[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]15893[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]15894[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]15897[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]15896[/ATTACH]

 

Once you have those new braces in place they work like clamps and everything is rock solid. :080402gudl_prv:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Kent.. great idea.. I see the new brace attached the the broken piece

with the bolt that is used for the windshield. but I do not see how

you attached the windshield to the place were you have the brace. ?????

 

And with that piece broken like mine are how will that brace stay there

 

 

I guess I am not understand the pictures right..

 

Jeff.

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Kent.. great idea.. I see the new brace attached the the broken piece

with the bolt that is used for the windshield. but I do not see how

you attached the windshield to the place were you have the brace. ?????

 

And with that piece broken like mine are how will that brace stay there

I guess I am not understand the pictures right..

 

Jeff.

Jeff, the brace I made is attached to the original bolt that you find in the end of the windshield bracket where it should be attached to the tabs sticking down from the inner fairing. If the ends of your windshield mounting bracket move at all, the mounting tabs are broken. If you look at the first picture again, you can see me holding the long rear tab that most often breaks off. Even if both the rear tab and the shorter front tab are gone, There is enough ridge still sticking down in the middle to clamp the bracket against if you make sure the new brace is long enough to go clear up to just touch the lip of the inner fairing overhang.

 

Now look at the second to the last picture carefully - this is the right hand side of the windshield bracket as you face the bike. The stock windshield mounting bracket with the rubber strip is obviously in front running across the middle of the picture - nothing is in the way of mounting the windshield. If you look above and behind it, you can see the bracket re-attached to the original mounting tab on the inner fairing (the front tab is still in place). You CANNOT hardly see the new brace at all in this picture, as it is hidden between the screw head and the rubber grommet.

 

What you do see, left to right are: a) the nut encased in the rubber grommet, b) the vertical gold bar is the mounting arm on the back of the windshield bracket, c) the little blue mounting tab sticking down from the inner fairing - notice that this fits in the groove in the rubber grommet OUTSIDE of the windshield bracket mounting bar, d) just to the right of the blue tab you see the end of the rubber grommet, somewhat misshapen from the pressure of the screw against the new brace, e) then if you look carefully at the top of the rubber grommet, you see a little silver piece of the upper corner of the new brace that looks like it is angled somewhat to the left, between the screw head and the blue tab. All of this is attached with the stock screw that was there to begin with, and it simply re-attaches the ends of the windshield mounting bracket to the place they are supposed to be on the inner fairing. The last picture clearly shows the brace in place on the OTHER side of the fairing. I hope using some pictures from the left side and some from the right didn't cause the confusion - I just chose the ones that I thought best illustrated what I was trying to say.

 

You may have to loosen the two center bolts on the windshield bracket (right above the radio) to allow it to shift a little for the ends of the bracket to properly fit against the mounting tabs). On one of the bikes I repaired, I actually had to put a bigger curve in the windshield mounting bracket to make it fit properly. When I got done repairing my 07, the rub marks on the windshield where it had been against the top of the dash showed that the whole windshield had actually moved up about 3/16th of an inch by putting the bracket back where it was supposed to be.:080402gudl_prv:

Goose

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Kent,

I have all that stuff to do this project and my fairing is still

off and both left and right tabs are broken as well. have been

for sometime now.. I have been installing the new speakers and

such , then gave up as it got cold. the whole front is still apart.

 

So I hope DON ad's this to the tech fix-it , so I can look at it if

I lose it in this forum *lol* Thanks so much for the neat fix..

 

It has been bothering me.. and with the larger windscreen

Those tabs just do not hold up.. If I still do not understand

your method I will give you a jingle.. I think I still have your cell #

From when I am suppose to send you my head-sets *oops*

Jeff

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  • 4 months later...

Thanks Goose!!!

Ifinally got around to fixing mine today. I installed new brackets on both sides.

Then I installed my new clearview XL. The new windshield is great and it doesn't move around like before.

I was surprised how small the new bracket actually is.

Thanks for the great post, and excellent pictures!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks just fixed as your info was a great help. I found my tabs were broken when installing new clearview a while back. This is a great site for keeping bike in shape . I have a works rear shock on order, this site also cost you money or saves I can't decide.

Thanks again jmc

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  • 9 months later...

Goose,

 

Not sure how long this post has been here but it came in very handy tonight. Got my new Clearview Sheild today and during the install I looked at the tabs inside the faring and just as you say they were broken. I bought a couple hose clamps at Auto Zone and straightened them out and used them. Worked great. Thanks for posting this, much more solid in there now.

Edited by 2Whlsrollin
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  • 1 year later...

Goose your instructions are clear to me until we start to deal with the BROKEN TAB.

 

I picked up some metal for the brace (clearly it was not stiff enough though), and could see how the bracket would connect to the bolt on the speaker, and I can see how it attaches to the METAL STRIP, but I can't figure out what you're referring to when it comes to how the bracket attaches to the broken tab.

 

Wouldn't the brace from the speaker directly to the METAL STRIP be enough stability to keep the windshield secure/

 

More pictures (maybe not possible)...or try explaining it so a 2nd grader (me) can understand it.

 

Any more info on this fix would be greatly appreciated. icon14.gif

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Goose your instructions are clear to me until we start to deal with the BROKEN TAB.

 

I picked up some metal for the brace (clearly it was not stiff enough though), and could see how the bracket would connect to the bolt on the speaker, and I can see how it attaches to the METAL STRIP, but I can't figure out what you're referring to when it comes to how the bracket attaches to the broken tab.

 

Wouldn't the brace from the speaker directly to the METAL STRIP be enough stability to keep the windshield secure/

 

More pictures (maybe not possible)...or try explaining it so a 2nd grader (me) can understand it.

 

Any more info on this fix would be greatly appreciated. icon14.gif

I do not think that just screwing the metal bracket to the new brace will produce much improvement. It would prevent any up and down movement of the end of the windshield mounting bracket, but it doesn't really move in that direction anyway. Even with the bracket attached to a very stiff brace, it will still flex easily front to back unless it is attached to the fairing.

 

The new brace does not attach directly to the broken tab - it just lays on the face of the rubber grommet so that screw tightly squeezes the remaining top piece of the tab between the metal bracket and the top of the rubber grommet. If you make sure to cut the new brace long enough to slightly push up on the top lip of the inner fairing, it will prevent the windshield bracket from flexing down and off the remaining part of the broken plastic tab. Just as a little extra insurance, I slightly bend the very top edge of the new brace in towards the broken tab so it can apply an extra amount of grip when the screw is tightened.

Goose

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