[Richard]

I am posting for two reasons. One, if you are dumb as me and do this, here is the fix. Two, so that you can be entertained by my folly.

I was replacing the front air bags. On the first one the bottom plate holes would not line up with the bolt holes in the frame. If I had forced it, the bag would have had about 1/2 of twist in it. The bottom plate is bolted to the air bag assembly, and in theory should be free to rotate if the center bolt is loosened. Since the air bag folds over itself and then seats on the bottom plate, the plate cannot be simply rotated cause the rubber grips it too tightly. Being the rocket surgeon I am, I thought inflate the bag fully, rotate the plate, and good to go. Wrong. Oh the bag inflates fully, and does indeed release the bottom plate to rotate. Then I was left with the task of refolding the bag over itself to seat onto the bottom plate. The rubber is quite stiff, no way to get a grip on it, and the bag needs to be compressed to even start the process. A few minutes of struggle, and some new words produced no progress. Sorry no pictures, I wasn't in a photogenic state of mind at this point

Hmmmmm. Was I making this harder than it needed to be. I tried to imagine how this would be done in the manufacturing process.I I imagined a jig where a very slight pressure was applied to the bag and the top and bottom plate were held in place and moved towards each other. How am I going to cobble such a fixture? I didn't have anything to lose, so I wadded up the air bag and put it in place on the frame. The rubber part was all jacked up and wrong. I hooked the air line back up, and hit the UP button on the control panel. POP! It resumed it's correct shape. I did the happy dance.

Have a great Sunday, and a good laugh at my expense.