Stuck seat latch - Trouble shooting/instruction

[Amymk]

To echo many similar posts: the seat latch on my Buddy 125 no longer reliably opens. Unlike others, I have all my keys, but when I push the key in and turn counterclockwise, the lock won't pop. It's a used bike (2014, 300mi) that I purchased two weeks ago. I could access the storage area reliably for two days, then only intermittently. I haven't been able to open it for the past two days and now I'm on empty. So needless to say I'm motivated to figure this out.

Here's what I've done so far:

- Tightened the cable (topic1814.html). But even yanking on the cable didn't pop the latch.
- Different from others I don't hear the pop of the latch releasing which makes me believe that latch is jammed, but I'm not familiar enough with the latch to spray a ton of W2 under the seat.
- I tried to take the pin out, but it only removed halfway.

Can anyone help me out with a diagnosis? Or some other nefarious way to open the seat?

Thanks in advance!

[dasscooter]

Have you tried pulling on the seat while turning the key? That usually does the trick.

[Amymk]

I wish it worked, but yes, I've tried all permutations of pushing and pulling while engaging the key.

[Amymk]

Can anyone PM the secret way to get into the pet carrier?

I called a shop in Salt Lake today to ask for advice and they said if I alrady tried trouble shooting the tensioner without luck, that the cable might be broken. They also said that getting into the seat was labor intensive and costly. After cruising this forum, I know that may not be true...

Much appreciated!

[Amymk]

Problem: Seat latch stopped working reliably. Unlike other posts "stuck keys, please help", I still had my keys. However turning the ignition no longer popped the seat. When I got on empty, I realized I'd have to fix it.

Here was my trouble shooting process.

1. Followed instructions to tighten the cable. With the front cover off, I could confirmed that the ignition was pulling the cable (1/4 to 1/2 inch) when turned, however the seat latch was not popping. Which meant that possibly the cable wasn't attached or that the latch wasn't functioning.

2. I attempted to take out the bolt on the nose of the seat. It comes out 1/2 way. This gave me enough room to see inside the seat (possibly fish out keys), however, it doesn't remove the seat, therefore isn't useful in trouble shooting a stuck latch.

3. I called a shop to see if they had any ideas and they confirmed that after tightening the cable they would move on to dissemble the body. I live 35 miles away from a shop and wasn't psyched to drive down, so I elected to remove the body panels myself.

Body panel removal instructions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-4RF6ITSns

When I started I was very unsure if I would be able to remove the body panels w/o being able to remove the seat. Obviously, if you *could* open the seat, you would. However, I decided to give it a try. While it was nerve wracking and I got stumped a couple times, I kept at it, unscrewing, gently prying, finding another screw I missed, gently popping, etc. The plastic has enough flexibility that I was able to remove everything without issue.

Most screws on the Buddy seem to be standard, when I came across a larger screw or specialty piece I snapped a picture so I could remember where things went. It seemed to work ok.

Once I had everything removed I could see where the latch sits between the pet carrier and fuel tank. There's not a lot of space and I couldn't really see what was going on so, I relied on this picture to understand how the mechanism work.



Fishing around I could feel that the cable end wasn't seeded correctly. The excess slack seemed to allow it to work it's way out of the keeper. I got it back into the groove, tried the ignition but still no luck. This didn't help me, but could help someone else.

I continued to try and pry on the springs to see if I could pop it (not possible) until I dislodged something. I pulled out a small rectangular piece of plastic that had been sitting underneath the the cable mechanism inside the latch body. I have no idea where this plastic came from, it doesn't appear to come standard in the latch assembly. How, it fell inside is also a mystery as the latch body is recessed and has a 1/4inch rim around it. Regardless, with the plastic removed the cable popped the latch! I tightened up the cable to remove any play and had no problem since.

Any one know what the plastic piece is?

So long story short. It's totally possible to remove the body panels without the seat working. I'm just a gal with a screw driver and was able to take apart and put back together in an hour and a half. I only ended up with two matching screws with no home, which seems pretty good, and hopefully not too big of a big deal.

Perhaps this process can help someone else who has a broken cable or whose latch isn't working because a loose cable worked it's way out of the latch pull assembly.