Had my 2013 LTD sitting in a very hot parking lot (direct sun) for about an hour the other day while I was in a store.
When approaching the bike to head back home I noticed that there was about a 1/4" gap between the center of the inner fairing and the inside of my 4" LRS windshield-right in the area where the fairing's upper center screw is. Large enough gap to where I could look down in there and see the heat sinks on my stereo. Would not have been a good thing if it had been raining!
Anyhow, when the bike was back home sitting in the garage and cooled off a bit, I noticed the gap was now barely visible, albeit still there. I put the torx bit on all (3) top fairing screws for a "gentle" snug up. The outer ones were tight but the center one tightined almost one full turn-did not try to push it beyond that as I'm aware that this is fragile territory. So, got to wondering about the batwing windshield lower trims I see a lot of folks running: do they serve a structural purpose regarding the aforementioned windshield/inner fairing top screws-or are they just bling?
I do not currently have one on my bike. I do intend to add a windshield pouch in the very near future as soon as I decide which one I prefer. Don't want a gap-or worse, stripped screws, when I'm all done with the windshield pouch install.
So: Windshield trims-structural support or just bling?

 

 

I'll check my manual for the torque specs and put the fancy ratchet on the screws and see if they can go a little tighter before they reach the torque value. Just don't want to strip out the inner female threads or crack the fairing-this forum has a bunch of those posts-after the damage was already done.

 

 

Really did not want to have to pull the outer fairing but might as well when I install the windshield pouches and make sure all is well.
I'll search the forum for the part number of those brass ferrules others have used as a remedy to the "weak" threaded OEM fairing screw insert problems