Are the bimini pin lanyard rivets holding the end caps on?

[Ozshadow]

My bimini poles have caps at the end where they pin to the boat. The mount has a rivet in the end cap with a wire to hold the pin. The wires are long gone, leaving a very sharp nib. If I drill out the rivet holding the nib, is the end mounting cap going to fall off? I just need to know if the rivet only holds the wire or if it is important to the structure.

 

[BillK2632]

I just did some bimini work on my boat over the winter, part of it replacing the end caps. The rivet holds the the lanyard and the cap in place. I found the caps to be on very tight, so they didn't just fall off when I drilled the rivet out. It was very easy, I replaced all the fittings on my bimini, all of the outside fittings have a rivet holding them (I just used a pop rivet gun from Harbor Freight with aluminium rieots). Some of my fittings are SS and some are nylon. Also two on the support poles are the inside ends, they fit inside the pole vs outside - they were the biggest PIA of any of them to remove and reinstall the new ones. When I put the end caps with the lanyards back on, I just put the rivet through the lanyard and it popped in and holds it tight.