Jeff,

thanks, I'm leaning to welding on a nut and dealing with the clip. On
the van (91 syncro westy) the clip is plastic and not steel as is on
my '86. The steel clip might be easier to modify to fit. Added chore
is that the owner has 15" wheels and wider than stock tires so he has
fitment problems which is what I am trying to help him with.

alistair

On 17-Jun-11, at 8:26 AM, Jeff Lincoln wrote:

> Allistair,
>
> I can't tell you for sure but I had this problem with my '90 when I
> had it.
> I suspect you are correct and it is a nut welded inside the tne box
> section
> of the frame. I'm not sure how common this issue is but I suspect
> the darn
> thing can get rusty and break off when you attempt to remove or
> replace the
> bolt.
>
> I didn't have the '90 long enough after this happened to fix the
> problem but
> I had considered just having a new bolt welded to the underside of
> the box
> frame there. The only problem I could think with that is that the tray
> "clip" would no longer reach the tray - but with the bolt there it
> would be
> sufficiently secure.
>
> Biggest problem I had was that mine broke when I was removing the
> bolt - so
> I had to cut the bolt to get the darn thing open.
>
> Good luck.
>
> --
> Thanks,
>
> Jeff
> '85 GL (Gertie)
> '90 Carat (Grover - the noble parts donor)
> '78 Bus (Melissa) Patty's Bus