Spare wheel holder 'rattle'

[mvanderh]

I have a 3rd gen Surf with a spare wheel on the back.
Whilst it was quite heavy to swing out the spare a few years ago, it has now become surprisingly easy.
Moreover, when I drive over bumps and can hear a clunk coming from the spare wheel holder.
I checked it, and there is a little leeway in top hinge which explains the clunk sound. Since there is no 'screw' on the top hinge on first sight, any ideas how I can tighten the spare wheel holder at the top hinge?

[Hawaii]

afternoon

I had the same thing with mine, there is an expensive option where you can get new hinge pins or sleeves made and get the old ones pressed out & replaced or you can do what i did by getting a 6" square piece of pushbike innertube and fixing it to the inner part of the upper arm, basically making a kind of rubber bung between the arm & the hinge.

This means you have to push the carrier reasonablly hard to get it to close but no rattles - the innertube does wear out and on mine, I've replaced it probably 3 times in a year, takes about 10 mins but still no rattle

hope this helps

hawaii

[mvanderh]

Thanks. Where exaclty do you fit the rubber, and how does it 'stick'?

[Hawaii]

Ok here goes with a blue peter description

1. open the carrier as far as it will go
2. get your piece of inner tube and fold it until it roughtly matched to diameter of the lower arm of the carrier - if it's too broad you won't get it to shut afterwards
3. tape your bit of innertube, use good quality tape like duct or carpet tape, but use black as it looks better, to the inside of the lower arm of the carrier as near to the hinge as you can get it - I wrapped mine in about 4 layers of tape to hold it securely and used a fair bit of pressure to get it to follow the profile of the carrier
4. try to close the carrier, what should happen is that having the additional rubber there makes the carrier harder to close, you will have to use a bit of force to close it - that's fine and the rubber will compress
5. job done - no rattle.
6. If it still rattles open the carrier and put another bit of rubber in as per 3 above, taped over the first until you get a tight fit

hope that helps

hawaii