Saddlebag latches

[canedriver]

Anyone know how to get the handles (latches) off of the saddlebag doors? I need to remove them to send parts off to paint.

[glwilson]

Send a PM to Utah Motorcyclist.

He has a good deal of experience in taking them off and putting them back on. ;)

[Jared]

Here is my response I sent in the PM. I figured I'd post it here too for anyone else.

First, completely remove the doors from the bags.

Removed the five-ish small screws and pop the 4"X8"-ish plate off that is in the inside of the door, behind the latches. Remove the small thin plastic filler. Now you can see the inside of the latches. Get some small needle nose pliers and pop the two springs off the latches, so that the tension isn't there anymore.

Now, very carefully, remove the tiny C clips from both sides of the bar that everything is hinging on. With those removed, and with your small pliers, pull the bar out from the side where you have the most space. You're going to have to pull the bar out and push it behind the large inner cover. (Unfortunately the large inner cover is glue in place and can't be removed.)

With the bar removed the latch will come off.

Good luck! It's a pain, but worth it when all is said and done. You can tape it off, which I have done with one of my previous Nomads, but fully removing it is a much cleaner look.

[canedriver]

Thanks for that fast response. I appreciate it. I cant believe I couldn't even find anything on the net for this.

[Jared]

Originally Posted by canedriver

Thanks for that fast response. I appreciate it. I cant believe I couldn't even find anything on the net for this.

I never was able to find anything either. I just had to work at it until I figured it out. While you doing it, maybe you could take some pics and write up a tutorial for everyone... :)

[canedriver]

This was fairly straight forward and few complications. Because my bike was bought used I am unsure if the problem I experienced was unique to my bike or the line of bikes as a whole. The problem is the inner liner that is glued in place.

First the bag. Remove the lid from the bag. On my bike this involved removing rivets that held the lid support straps in place. Your bike may be different. Remove the hinges making sure you save any rubber pieces that help to protect the paint and from water I think.

Ok we now have the lid. Turn the lid painted side down and You will see the cover covering the latch and lock mechanisms. You will see the 5 screws you need to remove to gain access to the latch and lock. In the following picture you will also see an arrow point out a screw. There are 4 of them. Ignore them. Because the inner liner is glued in place removing these screws does nothing.


When removing this cover to gain access you just need to gently pry up the top to get the molded tabs to release. Once these are released it is simple to remove this cover.


Now the lock. The lock is held in by a rubber grommet with 2 tabs (one on each side) Simply use a flat head screw driver to push in these tabs and pull the lock mechanism from the outside of the bag. This is really easy if you have the key in the lock to pull on. AN even easier method is to use a pair of 45 degree pliers to reach in and squeeze the tabs together and gently push. The mechanism falls right out. I did not remove the the lock bar on the inside of the lock mechanism and you do not have to. Once the mechanism releases you just have to rotate the lock and you can pull it out through the hole.


The latch.
The C clips from both sides of the bar need to be removed. The springs need to have 1 side pulled out and up or down to release tension on them so the bar will slide out.


On each end of the bar are 2 metal spacers that go inside the plastic hinge part of the lid. Remove these.


Now the fun part. Remember I said i ran into few complications. Well here is a big one. The inner lid panel is glued into place. On my lid there was not enough room on either side to slide the bar out. I tried for 30 minutes. No matter how I turned and twisted that bar it wasn't coming out. My fix was drilling a small hole into the lid liner from the side so the bar would come out. I will simply silicone or plastic weld (any hobby shop sells a kit for less then $10) on reassembly.

The bar is to long to come out this side.


From the other side. This side had potential but it just wouldn't come out. I was actually in fear of breaking something so I resorted to a mans favorite friend the power tool. I actually think the problem is the glue that holds the liner in place. I may have been running into a glue point. Running the bar into the side did not make the same sound as on the other side so i think was bottoming out on a glue point. It is up to you if you do the following step.



I then reassembled the latches as they go on the bike. I only did this as a reminder of how they go into the lid and to not lose any parts.


Thats it your done with removing your latches.

Thank you to glwilson to pointing me in the right direction to contact Utah about the latches. Many more thanks to Utah for taking the time to respond.

If this helps anyone it was well worth the time to take all the pictures and write it up.

[Jared]

You did a great job!

[canedriver]

Utah I am curious if you ran into that problem with the bar not sliding all the way out. It may have just been a glue point I was hitting.

[Jared]

Originally Posted by canedriver

Utah I am curious if you ran into that problem with the bar not sliding all the way out. It may have just been a glue point I was hitting.

I had to mine mine downwards to make it slide behind the inner cover. It was definitely tight, but now that I see what you've done, I think it is a MUCH easier way.

All the inner covers are glued down. Kinda lame! Not too sure what all the screws are for if they glued it...?

[GIBBY]

Great job canedriver. You should see if you can get that over on Gadgets page for ease of finding in the future. I am sure that many guys will be doing paintjobs as our Nomads age. Again, great job!

[BudMan]

Thank You. Very well done.
The arrows are a big help.
That way you know exactly what the text is referring to.

[canedriver]

Originally Posted by Gibby

Great job canedriver. You should see if you can get that over on Gadgets page for ease of finding in the future. I am sure that many guys will be doing paintjobs as our Nomads age. Again, great job!

Unsure how to go about doing that with gadget. Does this forum have a sticky area for common mods or write ups?

The age of our bikes is why i was so surprised there wasn't anything already on th web on how to do it.

Thanks for compliments.

[macmac]

Ring is the mod or one of them to the Support room. So long as this is all ok and hunky dory with YOU, he will move it for you.... Nice work man.

This should be on Gadjets site too. This link will get you contact info, and mess of great ideas.

Shoot him a e-mail. He has his name open on the web, it's John Lawrence.

http://www.gadgetjq.com/gadgetsfixitpage.htm

[canedriver]

its ok with me. I did it for others to use.