Tenere 700: Repair of Broken U-Nut Tabs on Body Panel

 Repair of Broken U-Nut Tabs on Body Panel

The T7 ABS body panels bolt mounting tabs that hold the U-nuts in place are not designed to withstand much torque or stress & can snap off easily if misaligned and/or over tightened. 

Tech Tip: ensure that body panels are fully aligned in place & hand tighten snug, additional tightening & use of loctite not recommended as the torque required may exceed the tensile strength of the tabs.

Repair

Plastic welding (JB Plastic Weld) or soldering could be used for this type of repair, however, I opted to use RapidFix to chemically bond 1.5 mm (1/16") black abs to the back of the tabs & a smaller piece inserted into the void on the front where the tab with the bolt hole broke off. The thickness of the 2 bonded pieces is a little more than tab's 2.6 mm (3/32") thickness & the slightly recessed slot for the spring nut.

Tech Tip: lightly scuff up the surfaces to be bonded with sand paper & clean thoroughly with Isopropyl alcohol (99%)

I used a much stronger BMW U-nut #46-63-7-658-638 I had left over from my K1300GT vs the smaller & lighter duty Yamaha #90183-05076 U-nut, which have a tendency to split apart, both with the same thread size & pitch.