How do I fix my floppy flagpole? (The American one!)

[NSASarge]

Yeah, I know. Prolly badly worded. Anyhoo. I have a stainless flagpole mounted on my luggage rack. It folds down so I can put the cover over the bike. There is a cast metal eagle on top of the pole. There is no visible standard fastener that can be tightened to keep it upright. There is a pin or bolt through the pivoting point, but, it looks like a convex smooth round fastener on both sides of the fastener. There is no way to put a tool to it and nothing through the base when the assembly is removed. Any ideas?!?

[ninjarob]

I had the same problem with one of mine (have two on the rack) Mine both came from Rumbling Pride and the earlier models have no adjustment for when they get 'floppy' I called them and they had me send the loose one in as they have a tool that adjusts the tension. When I inquired about the tool, they told me they no longer send them out as the customers would not send them back. I would have bought the tool as my guess is this will happen again.

Anyways, a week later I got a new pole back, instead of fixing they sent a new model that is exactly the same except for the adjustment area, it now has a allen head there so you can adjust the tension. Now I just hope my other one doesn't develop the same issue.

One tip is to only fold them down as few times as possible (I do it once a year for the cover in the garage) and keep cleaners away from the hinge area, that is what I think did me in.

Hope that helps....