99 RSV trunk problems

[djb47]

As I stated earlier this month I discovered the prior owner of my 99 RSV had busted out the bottom of the trunk and several of the screws had or were pulling throught the holes. Joe was kind enought to hook me up with an e-bay add for a replacement in the correct color ( got it for $200.00). It just arrived and I noticed some very fine hair line cracks on the bottom of this one also (but not all the way through. Joe also gave me a web site to get different fastners that have rubber and metal reinforcements (hope they work). I am worndering if I should put down a layer of epoxy or something to reinforce the bottom prior to instillation. Any thoughts would be welcome.

[SilvrT]

When you say "on the bottom" are you referring to the inside or the outside?

 

Seeing as it's "on the bottom", this is what I would probably do (coz ya can't see it anyway). I would grind out the hairline cracks appx 1/2 way thru the plastic with an appropriate attachment on a drill. Then I'd get some ABS plastic cement (generally they are 2-part epoxy hardener/resin and there's a few brands out there) and I'd fill the ground out cracks with the cement. You want to make sure you grind away the plastic beyond where the end of the hairline crack stops. This will reinforce it and hopefully prevent it from cracking any further.

 

Hope this helps.

[friesman]

Would it be possible to cut a sheet of aluminum or something none rusting to fit the bottom of the trunk, drill holes in it to match your trunk bottom. That would allow the weight to be distributed better and the bolts wouldnt stress the plastic.

Or look up the stuff called Plastex, I saw Rocket and Mother working with it at Kruisn the Kootenays and it did a great job of fixing and filling the plastic on our scoots.

 

Brian

[juggler]

This is actually a known problem on the '99 RSV. Yamaha had to change the mounting brackets to prevent the cracking in later years. Dig around these forums, I think known issues in the tech library, for a description of this and what was done to fix/prevent the cracking.

[DRBentley]

I had the same problem with my '99 RSV trunk. Yamaha did put out a mod which consisted of mounting brackets and rubber mounts, I don't remember the Yam part # but a dealer should be able to get it for you, it was reasonably priced too.

 

In addition to installing the new mounts, I had an old '87 trunk (also ABS plastic) and cut out a couple of approx 2" by 3" squares and used standard ABS glue used for plumbing and glued the pieces over the rear mounting holes for additional support.

 

So far everything looks good and that's with slightly less than 14000 miles in the last 2 riding seasons, so there's a fair amount of shaking going on back there. So much so, that I've had screws come loose on one trunk hinge and one bag hinge.