350 GTO Side Cover Question

[moonpup]

Ah yes, another in my series of GTO questions.  

I went to take the battery out of my GTO project and noticed that the black knob was missing that the parts manual shows is to be used to secure the side battery cover and in its place, was an acorn nut & small bolt. I assumed the previous owner lost the knob and just used these instead.

However, the section of the battery frame where the knob would screw into is just a plain hole!   I would have thought that there would have been a nut welded to the backside of it or something like that, but there isn't. What gives? Both my project and parts bike have the same setup.

The first pic is how it's currently secured and the second one is of the backside of where I thought a nut would've been welded for the knob to be screwed into. It doesn't appear that there was ever anything welded to it.

[whitegto]

Mine is threaded and the knob screws directly in. I would use a nutsert in the hole, problem solved.  John

[moonpup]

John,

What year is your GTO and is there anyway you could post a picture of the threaded piece? I'm wondering if maybe there was a design change and the earlier GTO's didn't use the black knob.

Thanks for your reply. 

Mike

[Mike Anderson]

Moonpup,

I believe they all used the nut originally. I have had two with it and one without. I believe they were probably twisted off by people trying to tighten the knob which is not threaded all the way. If you do not have the rubber spacer sleeve in place it will let the side cover be loose and rattle. Just my two cents worth.
Later Mike

[moonpup]

Ok, bear with me guys, I'm still a little confused.

Mike, I take it you're saying that the black knob IS what's suppose to be used and originally there was a nut attached to the frame piece and that mine were probably twisted off at some time.....right? Was this nut something like a nutsert that John recommends using or was a nut welded to the back of the frame mount?

Now if this is correct, it makes for another head-scratcher.... as my cover is now mounted, the back of the cover rests directly against the mounting tab and is perfectly perpendicular. If, as you and the pic in the parts manual suggest mounting with the spacer, the bottom of my cover would jut out towards the muffler the same distance as the spacer is long. The mounting tab on my bike appears untouched and has never been bent as far as I can tell.

Pictures would sure help me wrap my head around this. 

[Mike Anderson]

Moonpup,
Mine just has a nut welded to the back of the bracket.
Later Mike

[whitegto]

Just went and looked at mine, it has a nut welded on the rear face of the bracket and the black knob spacer is simply a rubber 15mm long that doubles a spacer and knob retainer. It simply pushes over the knob shaft/thread on the inside of the sidecover.
I hope that all makes sense. I simply suggested using a nutsert as a simple solution to save welding a nut in.    John

[moonpup]

Well guys, I finally figured it out.

What my eyes weren't telling my brain was that both the mounting tab and the cover have recessed areas where the spacer sits and allows for the cover to rest closer to the tab. Also messing with me (I didn't notice till this morning) was the fact that the top mounting bracket on the back of the cover was bent out of place and was contributing to the problem. 

So I took the knob & spacer from the tool box and tried it out after I adjusted everything and it fits perfectly now. 

Thanks John and Mike A. for all your feedback, I really appreciate it.

Mike D.