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RT Tupperware

bobs_one

Member
When I changed the battery on my 2014 RT this spring, I had to remove and replace the lower (black) piece of Tupperware that provides access to the battery. Since then, I have been unable to get the mushroom-head peg on the TW to stay in the rubber grommet on the gas tank TW piece. I undo the two screws holding the TW in place and firmly seat the peg in the grommet and then re-insert the two screws. The TW is firm and I think everything is ok, but a day to two later, the peg will be out of the grommet again and the TW is just supported by the two screws.

I may have caused this problem myself, as for years I have always lubed these pegs and grommets with a silicone grease to ease removal - after I had a peg so thoroughly "bond" to the grommet on my Goldwing that the peg snapped off when removing the side panel which resulted in an expensive replacement. I lube the pegs and tabs on the RT side panels to reduce the chance of me breaking off those notorious tabs when changing the air filter too.

I've now put the peg into the grommet so many times now that I doubt there is any grease left, but I can remove and clean the grommet if that's the solution...

Is there a trick to getting these things properly mounted?
 
RT Tuppware

Well, it's nice to see that it's not just me...

Thanks for the links.

I'll go take a look at the grommet for the slots that other poster refers to. I know I did turn the grommet one of the times I reinserted the peg and it seemed to work better. I'll also check to alignment issues. The bottom screw seems to go into a flimsy piece of metal - maybe that was previously moved out of place.
Oh well, I'll take it all apart and see what I can discover - the bike needs a good wash anyway.
 
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That grommet spin process did nothing for me. But what does seem to work (as odd as this may sound) is I spray a bit of hairspray on the grommet. The wet spray helps it slip in and then the tacky stuff when dry seems to hold it in place. I also put the grommet in first THEN tighten the other 2 screws. I have also added a nylon spacer to the bottom fastener so it does not move the panel as much when I tighten it up.

Good Luck!
 
That grommet spin process did nothing for me. But what does seem to work (as odd as this may sound) is I spray a bit of hairspray on the grommet. The wet spray helps it slip in and then the tacky stuff when dry seems to hold it in place.

For many years hair spray has been a favorite for installing hand grips on handlebars. While wet it lubricates and when it dries (it is mostly lacquer) it turns to glue.
 
Fixed?

So, I tried the various suggestions (cleaned the grommet and applied something (didn't have any hairspray!) that was sticky), etc. Nothing seemed to work.

Went back and decided that maybe the bottom mount (down by the oil level window) was maybe misaligned. It's pretty flimsy and could have been abused (bent out of position) when the bike was last serviced or when I installed the battery. It seemed to be pretty far "in" towards the engine block and so I bent it out, away from the engine block, which also required me to bend the tab on the mount that the screw goes into to get the tab parallel to the side panel surface and then I reattached the panel.

So far (~400 miles) this seems to have worked - panel seems pretty rigid. Fingers crossed
 
On my RT, it was the top hole that was far out of line. I converted the round hole to a slot (as long as I could file into the hole). While not perfect alignment, it seems to help considerably. That took a lot of stess off the Tupperware, and -- so far -- the panel is holding find, grommet and all.
 
JB Weld

So, my panel got worse and worse to the point where I was concerned it'd break while riding. I had nothing to lose, so I took a small (less than pea-sized) blob of JB weld and slightly built up the end of the post that goes into the grommet.

It's been two weeks now and the panel is still rock solid.

Before I built it up, the end of the post was almost the same diameter as the post itself - so it's pretty easy to see why it would pop out of the grommet. Also, I'm wondering if the problem was made worse as the grommet wore from repeated removals and installs.

In any case, it's rock solid now and it was (eventually) a pretty easy fix
 
Quick hit, I took the rubber grommets out, turned them around, and reinserted the posts. Worked like a champ.
 
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