chat349

[c7112l]

Has anyone else had problems with the lower cowling cracking?I have a 2007 midnight venture and I have replaced the lower left cowling twice.

[Tom]

I never had that problem...I am wondering if all the grommets are in the right place that fasten the cowling on..I tend to overtighten everything and never came close to cracking the cowling?

[RandyR]

has this been done by a dealer under warranty? Which I would assume is the case.

[V7Goose]

This problem is not unheard of, but it is not particularly common either. If the cowling has not been hit by anything it should be handled by warranty without argument. I did have the left one crack on my 05 somewhere around 50,000 miles and had no problem getting my shop to replace it.

 

The main cause of this is misaligned mounting points that cause you to push te plastic around to find the right positions when putting in the screws. This causes stress on the cowling. It is easily fixed. The mounting brackets behind the cowling are easily bent (very soft metal. This is particularly true for the top one that is part of the same bracket that holds the air filter.

 

Start by attaching the cowling with the lower lug into the rubber grommet, then loosely insert the rear screw (the one above your floorboard). Just start the threads, but do not tighten. Now see if the bottom screw hole in front lines up - it probably will, so go ahead and insert that screw. You can gently move the cowling around a bit tl align that hole, just watch it to make sure you don't move it enough to flex or bend the plastic at the edge. Finally, look in the hole on top and see which direction the bracket needs to be bent to line up properly. After you take the cowling off again you can bend it easily with long-nose pliers. It may take a try or two, but once you get them to line up without having to shove the plastic around, you won't have any more cracking.

 

Last comment - you cannot over-tighten the front screws because they tighten down on a metal collar that fits through the cowling. You can, however damage things if you over-tighten the rear screw, so just snug it up good.

Goose