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Eureka! When I changed the airbags, I found several of the nuts holding the lower studs missing. I installed nuts and split lock washers. The two lower nuts on this tag airbag had vibrated off. I believe At some point in time when I dumped left rear air, the airbag retracted pulling the lower studs from the mounting plate. When I reinflated airbag, the studs did not go back into the holes in the mounting plate and the pressure bent the two lower studs over causing eventual failure.
The moral of this story is that it would be prudent to check that lower mounting studs on your airbags are secured with stop nuts.
1999 XLV X-6872, liberty #440