Topcase concerns part II

Skippy · Post by **Skippy** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 12:37 am

Ok, so I purchased a matching seafoam topcase a few weeks ago for my Buddy 125 and thought everything was fine, but just realized that the thing doesn't always lock when closed, even after turning the key. I thought that once closed it automatically locked, but it must be off just a little and not making contact with the metal post inside. I have to move the lid around a lot to make it lock, and never know exactly when that's going to happen.

Anyone else experience this problem and is it common or do I just have a dud that I should return to Scooterworks?

anthony · Post by **anthony** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 4:49 am

I think this is just how they're made (i.e. not exactly to amazing QC standards). I assume you have the Soft Italia topcase? When I got mine, it latched on its own for a while. That is, I opened it, took the key out of the lock, put whatever in or took whatever out, and dropped the lid and it locked on its own. Eventually, it stopped locking on its own because the latch would no longer go far enough to the left to catch under the lock. I fiddled with it for a while trying to get it to do so with mixed results. Eventually, I resigned myself to keeping the key in the lock the whole time- i.e. unlock, keep key in while lid is up, put things in or take them out, manually bring lid down while moving key clockwise to bring the latch over the locking mechanism, and then turn the key counter-clockwise to catch once all the way down. Slightly annoying, but a relatively minor annoyance in the grand scheme of things.

Skippy · Post by **Skippy** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 4:22 pm

Yes, sounds similar, but even with the key it won't always lock. I have to fiddle a lot and I'm not sure in which direction it is slightly off. Sounds like a common issue, so I'll just live with it.

anthony · Post by **anthony** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 6:18 pm

Skippy wrote:Yes, sounds similar, but even with the key it won't always lock. I have to fiddle a lot and I'm not sure in which direction it is slightly off. Sounds like a common issue, so I'll just live with it.

When facing it, the latch would most likely be off too much to the right, as it locks by catching under a mechanism on its right. The only way it could be off too much to the left is if its sticking in place or something (which could happen). So even with the key in, you sometimes can't get it to lock? Are you turning the key slightly clockwise? You need to do that when manually closing it so that it can catch under the aforementioned mechanism- insert key, turn maybe 30-45 degrees clockwise, close lid, turn key back counter-clockwise, take key out and it should be locked. If it still doesn't work following those instructions, it seems like something could be wrong with the locking mechanism.

At any rate, despite it being somewhat poorly constructed, apparently the older Genuine top-cases were a lot worse.