If anyone is interested in a low budget LT trunk latch repair, I just finished one and am very confident in it's durability. Being my first, it took about 6hrs. A couple pieces of scrap steel, and some basic tools did the trick. Doesn't look stock, but doesn't look at all bad. What you see from the back is a small step up in the thickness on the upper half of the latch with 4 evenly spaced 3/16 rivets that bond the steel to the original latch. I,m sure my second one would be much better, but don't think I'll be needing one.
Repaired mine about a year ago. The upper right arm broke off the whole corner of the latch paddle. After disassembling the latch mechanism I turned a rod in my lathe to use as an alignment tool & glued the piece back on with a 2 part epoxy (like J-B weld) See pictures #4 & 5. Then I dremel ground the black finish off the back where I was going to brace the broken piece. I cut some pieces of thin aluminum angle from an old storm door to use as buttress pieces & laminated them in with epoxy. (I sanded them to remove the anodized finish) My photo record of this fix is not too good so I drew an illustration of the buildup. (Freehand, so cut me some slack) The illustration just shows how the pieces were cut & set in. It doesn’t represent the Epoxy (J-B) between each layer & it sure isn’t to scale. Also I troweled a nice layer of epoxy over the whole laminate with a good fillet at the base. Picture #6 shows a couple of the aluminum pieces before glueing & picture #7 shows the first of 3 layers set in. After the epoxy cured, I sanded the bead of epoxy off of the side that shows & used surfacing primer to smooth it further then finish painted. Picture #8 is after the fix. I think it’s as strong as before it broke (which may not be saying much) so now I push down on the trunk lid when opening & closing to take the strain off of the latches as they cam over. It’s been over a year & so far haven’t had any more trouble.
Hey Robert, Very clever work. Seems like a strong repair, and is far better looking than the "hack" job I performed on my latch. I'm sure with all the thought you put into it, you'll have great success ....... Scott
Hey Robert, Very clever work. Seems like a strong repair, and is far better looking than the "hack" job I performed on my latch. I'm sure with all the thought you put into it, you'll have great success ....... Scott
Thanks Scott. I don't think it's a strong as yours but I wanted to try something cheap that would preserve the looks of the latch & I think it will do fine as long as I take the strain off of it when opening & closing by pushing down on the lid.
My latch broke, and I'm tried of it popping open when i'm riding. I'm going to try the epoxy and maybe some scrap steel. I love this bike, but BMW messed up on some little things that are very annoying
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