Sticking helmet/seat lock [how to fix]

Last season I bought an '81 xj650 and I've slowly been putting things right (and taking off the vast variety of skulls related cheap fake chrome pieces the PO loved so much), and one of the little things which has always been a thorn in my side but not enough of one to address was that the helmet/seat lock mechanism was sticky.

Yesterday I figured that I was probably spending more time fiddling with it trying to open it every time than I would if I just fixed it. So I took it off and started in.

I opened it up, did a little cleaning, and oiled it up, but the seat lock was still sticking. I cleaned up the cylinder groove until it shone but no luck. I finally figured out that the channel which the seat lock pin rides up and down had been gouged a bit by the seat lock pin:



The metal is pretty soft, so I just ran some sandpaper in the channel and now the pin slides very easily. Just figured I'd throw this up in case anyone else got stumped as to why the seat lock was still giving problems after being cleaned and oiled.

 

Thanks! I may now take the initiative to disassemble mine and check for gouged sides.

 

how funny... i went to pop my seat off earlier and the lock fought me as well. now i know where to start looking. great timing! thanks for posting