BTW.....the HDK remedy / fix for the Gerst failure is now available in steel and aluminum. The 100% bolt on chromoly support hoops complete the install. NEVER a failure in over 2 decades,
Cudo's to you and your team for coming up with a superior fix for the poor quality of someone else's part Denny but, for me, I'd just be worrying that some other equally bad component of the assembly would fail resulting in injury/death to me or someone else.
Junk is junk..
I'd cut my losses and throw the whole works in the garbage.
After looking at what's available and listening to comments on here and elsewhere.