4100, 4110, 4115 et al broken fuel door workaround

[al3]

Last remaining molded in spring retainer hood slot finally finally broke. First one failed in 2005.

Without either of the two springs attached nothing holds the fuel door lid in place; the hing assembly is open on top. Lid promptly becomes dislodged and falls off the hood of the running tractor

No real way to repair the plastic hood castings short of fabricating something out of metal to replace the broken spring retainer slots and riveting it in place; broken pieces are gone, magic adhesive isn’t the solution.

I’d pondered this before and just thought I’d velcro the underside of the lid and call it a day. Now that the moment has arrived, I took a careful look and there isn’t really any way to do that short of adding additional structure of some kind.
No problem operating without a lid in the summer, but winter snow blowing mandates some sort of gas cap cover/lid.



Anyone solve this one with a straight forward fix? Duct tape came to mind…..ok until refueling when wet (snow). Add a gate hinge and a latch to the hood/lid? As you can tell, I’m one again singing the composite hood blues…….

 

[Grendahl]

I'd drill holes through the plastic at each end of the hinge rod and install the door with a slightly longer steel rod.

 

[al3]

Good idea, but pin appears to have been cast into the lid. Don't think its coming out without snapping the mount. Leaning towards removing what's left of the spring retainer and riveting in an L bracket to either capture the lid pins or re-create a spring anchor point. Thanks