Just picked up a retractable cargo cover for my '87 Waggy. The PO said it came off of a '91 Cherokee. The cover retraction mechanism fits in fine behind the seat, but when I pull the cover out to latch it, it's not close enough to the passenger side of the XJ to latch. You can see in the pictures that when I pull it straight out, it's not wide enough to catch on that side (the other side fits fine).

Does anyone have a picture of the Passenger Side catch mechanism from a '91 XJ so I can see what it looks like and fab one up?

Thanks!!


Driver's side lines right up:


Passenger side (when pulled straight out) isn't wide enough:

 

That kind of sucks! I am wondering if you have access to a welder that maybe you could just get some pipe of the same size and material and just put a few tack welds on either side to give you extra inch or so. I know sounds like a lot of work but I don't see it work any other way unless you get along piece of pipe or plastic? I can't tell if that's metal or plastic either way your local hardware store should have everything you need.

 

small chunk of PVC maybe? easy to work with, and paintable...

 

I would put a block of wood behind the bracket, and use longer screws to make up the difference. Depending on your woodworking skills, you could make it look almost stock. You could even paint it to match.

 

Well I could post a pic of mine, but the brackets you have fabbed are in the wrong place & that's why the rod isn't long enough. Stock brackets fit directly behind the taillights on the little "shoulders" that jut out making the opening less wide. I'd go the route that was suggested with perhaps extending the rod with some PVC. seems like the simplest solution.

Pretty ingenious fab job you have done on the brackets, by the way!

 

Thanks for the replies. Those brackets are stock and in the stock location for the Waggie-my father-in-law was the PO and bought it new. He never did any sort of mod on it...I've got an idea and will try it in the morning...I'll unscrew the "tube" from the vinyl and see if it'll scoot over. Thanks for joggin' the old critical thinking bone in my noodle.

Will report back with any sort of progress

 

Ah ... Waggie brackets are located different but the cover is the same? Then there's your problem. You need brackets from the model the cover came from - and mounted in the "correct" location. Waggie covers prolly had a slightly longer rod. Looking forward to seeing what solution you come up with.

Meanwhile, here's the passenger side location of the bracket in my '92.

 

BTW, they can be had (rarely) from a junk yard. I do have a couple laying around, but since I often break them, I am reluctant to part with any.

 

Thanks for the picture - I never woulda thought that they'd be located in different positions. Finding that cover was hard enough; gonna try to make it work. I've got an idea to try after work

 

Took a little bit to find the time, but here's how I solutioned the problem.

The problem:
Cargo cover rod too short on the passenger side


Unscrewed the handle and took it out of the cover to verify it was actually long enough. With the driver's side being adjustable, it was:



It needed to be shifted 1.3" right, so I marked the holes for the handle 1.3" left, center punched them, drilled a pilot hole, then full sized:
(this pic is upside down...new holes were actually to the left of originals)





Reassembled the cover-you can see how much further to the right the rod now is:



Test fit and final position:





Done and done!

 

If you are breaking that many I might suggest a trip to a local kite shop for some carbon fiber rod.
That would handle it. no pun intended.