Seat Lock Problems (with a partial fix)

A couple weeks ago I ran into a problem trying to get the seat to lock into place, it would just pop loose on it's own. A friend and I mucked with it for a while, and it finally just locked in place on it's own.

It's always seemed to take a bunch of force on the seat to make it actually latch, though.

Riding over the weekend, I stopped to check the air in the tires (couple psi low), and double-checked that the owner's manual does say 42psi for the rear (which seems high). Seat wouldn't latch back on, which was going to make riding it difficult.

With some gas-station parking-lot re-engineering, I figure out the problem, and was very glad that I have a toolkit on the bike. The latch was bent.

The latch that's moved by the cable from the lock, and on a spring was bent down, far enough that it wouldn't engage the notch in the metal post on the seat. I removed the assembly, flipped it over, and used the pliers to flatten out the latching arm, and to put a slight upward curve in it, so that it would sit against the body of the assembly (with the hole that the post goes into).

The metal of the latch is VERY soft. Taking the seat off and putting it back on again while installing a pigtail for a battery tender partially rebent it into place. It appears the "proper" procedure is to use the key to retract the latch when putting the seat back on as well as when removing the seat?

 

Wooody you rock....... Ive been racking my poor polish brail trying to figure this out...... my latch was only a couple mm out and wouldent latch at all. a little screwdriver therapy and vouala fixarooni...........

 

Glad it was helpful!!

 

When I got a new Sargent seat, I had to enlarge the receiver opening in the plastic bottom to get the seat to latch. It was a PIA getting it just right.

 

I'll have to check this also, both my bikes won't latch the seat down.

 

one more quick little thing. the clasp part that is conected to the cable has ( or in my case had ) a little rubber spacer that kept it proped up enought so it would clasp to the seat. I in a very quick micky mouse fix used a folded up matchbook cover to reposistion it back into place an clicks strong no problem. im sure i will geek out on it and come up with a better solution.

 

odd I just got my Sargent seat and it latched fine even with the seat cowl on..

 

Mine's a 5th Gen, so maybe that's the difference?

 

Might be dunno this is my first VFR.But I have heard they fit tight.