|
OK, back at the home summer CG after our lengthy trip. I just 'repaired' or should I say fixed Keystone's shoddy assembly of the LR escape window.
A bit of definition of how they are built first. These windows are made to swing out and then fall away for your exit. They do this via a hook fit of two pieces of aluminum, one of which is a part of the Hehr window frame. The other is supposed to be bonded the window glass. On ours it was two very small globs of some sort of glue. It is now bonded full length with J-B Weld which I hope lasts forever, or in our case at least as long as we own this 5er. There are two pop rivets that are used to hold the window in the correct location and will allow the operating rod to be correctly centered in the slot in the window frame. Oops - the assembler drilled and installed the pop rivets~1/4" out of correct location. This in turn jammed the operating rod to one side and in turn 'jacked' one corner of the window up and out of the hook fit. I drilled out the two existing rivets, then put the window back in place, marked where I needed to drill. removed it and did my drilling. I also widened the slot on the frame as it was too narrow to allow the rivet to fully fit. Next, up went the window, both new rivets installed, it's currently tight against the seals, the rod is latched. It will now operate 'as designed' but it will probably never be opened again.
Unfortunately, we haven't 'sacrificed' a lobstah' for that special rubber band, but it's going to happen ..... soon as a trip to Maine might happen yet this fall
|