2006 RSV Seat Fix

[Jcgfree]

Well I torqued down too much and unevenly while tightening the barrel nut to secure the drivers seat down on both sides within a couple weeks and snapped the threaded studs off. Of course the threaded stud is inlayed in the plastic of the seat. Asked a dealer if there was a fix. They didn't have one except to replace the whole seat. Too expensive I thought. There has to be a way. So I took all the staples out and took the cover and padding off which was pretty easy. There is a hole on the opposite side of where the stud is. I tried punching it to see if it would come through some how. But that is when I discovered it is inlayed in the plastic. So my thought was to heat up the stud and maybe I could punch it out. So I got out a torch and proceeded to heat up the stud. Be careful because the plastic with start on fire real easy. I had to adjust the flame as low as the torch would go and it would still catch the plastic on fire a bit. I just kept blowing it out until I felt the stud was hot enough to try and punch out. I turned the seat over and it punched out pretty easily. Leave a bit of a hole but it is perfect for a nut to fit into. Next I bought a couple metric threaded studs. The old studs were 6mm. I bought 8mm studs because I wanted something stronger. I had to drill the hole open a bit on the seat so the 8mm stud would fit. I also had to drill the hole out just a little bit on the bike itself so the stud would fit through it. I then put a nut on the stud about half way. I then inserted the stud through the hole in the seat so just enough came through to put a lock nut on it. I had to put another regular nut on the other side so that I could tighten the lock nut down and it would pull the first regular nut into the hole where the stud came out. Make sure you get the right length threaded stud. It took me 2 trips to the hardware store because the first stud type I got was too long and it was the kind that didn't have thread in the center. Second trip I got a threaded stud a bit shorter and it was threaded the whole length. Once you secure one stud in the plastic you can put it on the bike to check the fit. I couldn't find a barrel nut like the one Yamaha uses and didn't really want to use one anyway, so I bought a few wing nuts to use to secure to the bike. Easier than having to use an allen wrench or socket. If you wanted to, you could use a 6mm threaded stud to do this. After it is all fitted right you can put the cushion and seat cover back on and staple the cover back to the plastic mold. FYI the cover and padding stay together so it is an easy uninstall and install. This was much cheaper than having to buy a new seat. The first 3 pics show the side of the seat that you sit on which is the side I used the lock nuts. I put the old studs in those pics just so you could see what they looked like. I actually punched them out the other side. The last pic is the side the stud is sticking out to attach to the bike with the wing nut.

 

[Condor]

Nice job....