96 Royal Star seat stuck, and windshield question

[Gruffudd]

Hi, I have recently bought a '96 Royal star xvz13a, it's been sat a few years so naturally needs some carburetor work. But to get to them I need to get the seat off first of all and the latch seems to be stuck.

I did have the seat off before buying it when checking it over and it was a bit stiff,  so once I bought it I oiled the heck out of it, wd40 followed up by acf50 down both latch and lock. It seemed to be operating smoothly so I put the seat back on and it's been stuck ever since. Tried jumping on the seat while wiggling the lock, to no avail.

So any advice for either getting it off or alternative destructive ways? I'd prefer to fix it so I can keep using the original key lock, but it's holding everything else up so I'll take any solutions you have.

 

Bonus question does anybody have the measurements for the windshield mount for this model? Originals seem unreasonably expensive, so I figure a little improv fabrication would be the easiest solution. Any other suggestions for how to get a windshield fitted to a 96 xvz13a without the original bracket would also be more than welcome. 

[M61A1MECH]

I had that happen from time to time on my 98 Tour Classic, normally a good hard smack down on the seat right above the lock would do the trick, sometimes I needed to apply steady pressure on the key in the unlock direction while I smacked the seat.

Try flushing the lock with a plastic safe contact type cleaner, then blow it dry with canned air and apply powered graphite to the internals of the lock and rub some on the key as well. Oils are not normally recommended for locks, the oil tends to gather dirt and dust which will further hinder the proper operation. 

Good luck , keep us posted.

[Gruffudd]

On 11/28/2022 at 10:19 PM, M61A1MECH said:

Try flushing the lock with a plastic safe contact type cleaner, then blow it dry with canned air and apply powered graphite to the internals of the lock and rub some on the key as well. Oils are not normally recommended for locks, the oil tends to gather dirt and dust which will further hinder the proper operation. 

Good luck , keep us posted.

Thanks for the help! 

Just today found the time to have another crack at it. Your advice freed the lock cylinder itself up perfectly smooth, but it still wouldn't release the seat so I took some panels and a passenger peg off for an explore, and managed to reach the cable. Pulling on the cable released the seat and with it out of the way I can see now that the problem is that the cable sheath doesn't seem to  be secured at the key end. So the lock pushes the cable which flexes rather than effecting the latch on the other end if that makes any sense?

Do you know how it is meant to be arranged/secured? Clearly it needs something to hold the cable sheath firmly.

 

At least for now I can finally start on extracting and cleaning the carbs

[M61A1MECH]

3 hours ago, Gruffudd said:

Thanks for the help! 

Just today found the time to have another crack at it. Your advice freed the lock cylinder itself up perfectly smooth, but it still wouldn't release the seat so I took some panels and a passenger peg off for an explore, and managed to reach the cable. Pulling on the cable released the seat and with it out of the way I can see now that the problem is that the cable sheath doesn't seem to  be secured at the key end. So the lock pushes the cable which flexes rather than effecting the latch on the other end if that makes any sense?

Do you know how it is meant to be arranged/secured? Clearly it needs something to hold the cable sheath firmly.

 

At least for now I can finally start on extracting and cleaning the carbs

I wish I had more info for you, but my 98 has been gone since 2007, and I never needed to dive that deep into mine, hopefully someone with a functioning early model Royal Star will be along shortly to help out.