Gas lock cylinder broken - hep!

[staffordworks]

all i can find elsewhere is buy a new one, dont care about it locking, just about out of gas, just need to get it open and be able to still ride, pushed down on the bit on the cap to relieve pressure because it was getting hard to turn lately, using very little rotation pressure slight pop and now the key spins.

i keep seeing drill it out, if i do that can i just screw driver the pin open and push it shut ok til i get a new lock?

many thanks
 :mbird

[staffordworks]

looking like i wont have to drill, couple places (one I had to translate from german) said i could hammer out the tiny pin that makes the hinge for the back of the lid and pop it out that way.

[Grim]

Check with Duck for a new cap. Hes on your end of the country and I think hes close to you.
http://kbikeparts.com/

[staffordworks]

yea, just saw that he's got one for $70, if i can get this one off that will be what i'll do, he's so close i can swing by on my way home from werk.

 :clap:

[Chaos]

FWIW, my lock froze back when the bike was only a year or 2 old, made it back home on fumes.  Put some graphite in the lock and it finally turned, now I regularly treat it with the stuff.  Hasn't frozen up again in the last 25 years.

[staffordworks]

yea that is the more common problem and how mine started but now my lock spins freely, the cylinder is no longer attached to the lobe that pushes the latch back, might have been forestalled if i'd done the graphite before it snapped

[rbm]

The cylinder has two pins on the bottom that engage holes on a cam.  It is quite possible that the pins have leaped out of the holes because the lock cylinder is higher than it should be (maybe the latching mechanism on the cylinder is bent).  My first action would be to disassemble the gas cap and check the operation of the latch.  The fix might be simple.

[TimTyler]

[staffordworks]

yep, its more likely those, probably broken with the lessor possibility or additional possibility of the lobe being worn or broken, once i get the darn thing out i can tell, will try to post pics of that procedure (getting at it through the hinge) if it works as it sounds like most people resort to drilling out the lock, in my case i don't think the lock itself has any issue and the danger/effort of drilling into a fume filled tank is not appealing.

[rbm]

The pins are metal, the cam is plastic.  It is possible that the cam is distorted or the holes in the cam deformed such that they cannot capture the pins properly.  The latter would be unfortunate, if so.  You'll know once the cap is off the tank.  The hinge pin is a 2.5mm X 40mm spring pin.  You'll have to drift it out towards one side enough for the cap to come off.  I hope that the spring pin doesn't interfere with the tank as it gets pushed to one side but since others have had success, there is little possibility of that happening.

[staffordworks]

so am i pushing against a spring and lifting the back of the cap or am i hammering the pin through the whole hinge out one side enough to release the other side?

[rbm]

You're not pushing against a spring.  Rather you are hammering (drifting) out a split pin that is used as a hinge.  There are three pieces comprising the gas cap assembly -- the movable lid, the spring pin and the fixed part bolted to the tank.


As you see the picture below,  the pin enters/exits from either side of the ears on the fixed part:

Use a suitably sized drift to knock the pin until it clears both sides of the cap's tongue (the part sandwiched between the ears).  As illustrated, you'll have to drift the pin quite a distance to clear the tongue.  As a result, you have to protect the tank finish with something because the hole will be located close to the surface of the tank. 

[staffordworks]

awesome! thank you so much for the pics!!!  i've been scouring the web for any hint of what is going on inside of there

yea, so the big trick is just getting something just the right size and strong enough to drive that pin all the way out.

very cool will post how it goes and whats going on inside once i get there (naturally i'm right in the middle of moving so not sure when that will be, great timing as ever)

Thanks!

[staffordworks]

pin out cap off, gas added, will get some pics, punch broke right away trying to move the pin, used various implements and some frustration to just force it out far enough to bend and grab with vice grips, right rear of the hinge is destroyed but all told i like the idea of this method better than drilling, naturally i did scratch the tank quite a bit, but its got plenty of that, this is a work horse not a beauty queen, will be buyin that cap from duck when i get done with this move. if i've got the time i will open up the cap and see which problem was the culprit, my guess is the lobe is worn and the pins snapped all told i should have just replaced it when it started acting up.