Hoodstands broken corners???

just curious to ask Geno this question from his years of experience working on WH -- on the furthest most rear frame edges of the hoodstand, just under the drivers thighs, is the cross bracket for seat pan area. There are screw bolts that go down into the rear corner edge of the hoodstand where there is a hole for the bolt - my WH has a triangle piece broken off the corner right by the bolt hole -- and my daughters had both sides broken off so seat wobbled left to right - i have seen it on other WH also - obviously its a fatigue issue and a design flaw - but just wanted to ask of all the WH you've worked on and restored about what percentage have that piece broken off? What do you do to repair it - weld on a new missing piece? Cut part of the hoodstand off and put in new larger replacement piece? I have seen larger washers installed as solution - especially as preventative, or when a crack is showing but not yet broken off?

Morning Bill.

If no one has been in there before the broken piece should still be bolted to the front seat pan bracket. Easy way to fix it is to take the original pieces, clean the pieces and hood stand where you will be welding (clean up by removing all the paint makes all the difference), then weld them back in. I would do that regardless, you can call that good and it will last a long time, or you can go a step further for a longer lasting fix which could be putting an extra piece underneath, welding some ears on the original to go up to the next bolt hole so you use 4 bolts to hold it, or both lol. The later 520's were fixed with an extended plate that I used in the pics below when I built the 4x4 here.

When I built the articulated one here I knew this was gonna be a huge problem, especially with no rear stand support and the higher center of gravity throwing more weight around. I used one of the later 520 plates, made the seat bracket from 1/4" and ran it under all 4 bolts, added an angle 1/4" piece reinforcement down to the frame, and made heavier panels for the shifter cover and lower upright. You don't have to do all that of course but it may give you some ideas on what you do want to do. If you can stop the movement then you will stop the cracks.

You may get some idea from the pics below on which way you want to go, we can chat more in here, and of course you are welcome to give me a shout at the shop anytime.

thats a heck of a fun looking project you are building - awesome new toy!! Just curious - about what percent of WH do you see with those "ears" broken off the hoodstand?

Quite a few, not all but a lot, some of it depends on the size of the rider as well. Oops, did I say that out loud?