Hey guys. I recently purchased a Wald 198 Front Basket for my bike and attempted to install it. The basket itself attached to my handlebars just fine, however, I can't seem to get the legs to attach to my front axle correctly. The legs are meant to attach the basket to the front wheel axle so that the basket does not droop when I place items inside of it.

For reference, my bike is a TREK RST CTCOM105. It's over a decade old at this point, so I wouldn't be surprised if the bike itself is an issue. This bike came with a quick release axle, but I replaced it with a new axle with a hex key lock about a year ago.

Here are some pics of my bike explaining the issue. I can't actually post a full URL yet as this is my first post, so bear with me here:
imgur
.com
/a/R2s9E

Did I install the legs incorrectly, or do I just need a new axle that's compatible with this setup?

First is that with two points of contact and both having hinges in them any basket will drift to the lowest point of energy (gravity). Wald front baskets are pretty poor for holding the position you want in general. Additionally they are really intended for nutted axles with a diameter that fits in their strut hole fully. This will help support the strut's angle. A skewer allows a lot of float within the hole and most modern skewers don't clamp very tightly to hold whatever strut position you start with. The strut's top mount to the basket is hinged so this end won't hold it's angle. Then the handle bar clip will both rotate on the bars as well as on the basket wire. lastly is the presence of brake cables. Wald baskets were designed around coaster brake bikes back in the 1960s )(give or take a decade) for the most part. No brake levers or cables to be comprised by the basket or goods being carried. Andy.

A dissenting opinion:

We used to install a fair amount of that style basket during the summer (beach town). I agree with Andy that a quick release is a worst-case scenario with that mounting option, but it can be mounted quite securely using either front dropout braze-ons (if present), and sometimes rear-facing braze-ons (fender mounts), if the stays can clear the front hub locknuts. If neither of those methods work, a large-ish hose clamp and nut/bolt is still fairly secure; I would load a 5 pound weight in the basket while setting up to make sure that it would sit in the same spot on both sides. 7-8mm wide washers help provide a good amount of clamping force.

All that said, I agree with Andy, but for a different reason: you have a suspension fork, however basic, on that bike, so the lower struts will not have a secure place to attach, no matter what. If you really want a basket on that bike, I would recommend you look at the Wald 3133. While it has a slightly lower weight limit, it relies solely on the stem/handlebars for support.

A basket of that type is probably not best for a suspension fork. How will it move when the fork compresses and expands?