canucklehead-biker
Well-known member
Ok... here it is: the definitive look at the mechanism and internals for an FJR sidebag.
It's actually been a few weeks since FJRGuy and myself disected the sidecase. Sorry for the delay in posting this up.
First thing to note is that the thing is held together by a bunch of rivets. We drilled all of them out with a 1/4" air drill, which was small enough to fit inside the case to get at the internal ones.
The thing we didn't realize as we were madly drilling them all out is that most of them don't actually hold the bag together, but actually attach various components to the bag or to each other. The other thing we found out is that even with all the rivets drilled out, the two parts of the shell won't come apart. We suspect that there's a pretty tight vacuum fit of the two pieces, augmented with a squirt of silicone or some other adhesive... bottom line is, the two pieces won't separate.
We did promise a look at the guts of this thing though, and I really wanted to know how the mechanism worked so I could figure out how to fix mine, so we did what any self-respecting shady tree mechanic would do... we destroyed it!
Dremel tool cut the case apart to reveal the inner workings. Here you can see the cogs that engage when you lock the bag onto the bike (or unlock it). This is where we suspected mine had skipped a tooth.
And here's a closer view:
When the gears engage, they move a metal strap connected to a cam arm that lifts the locking pin into position.
This picture shows the mechanism in the "unlocked, bag off the bike" position:
This picture shows the mechanism in the "almost full-up, but not locked" position (which was as far as mine would go).
The last few degrees of movement throws the cam over centre, locking it into position and preventing the bag from disengaging. Here's the picture in that position.
If you want to test if your sidecase has jumped a tooth and is in danger of becoming a projectile, take it off the bike, and close the latch as though it was locked on... then press down on the centre pin and see if there is any movement. If the cam has gone over centre and locked, there will be no movement and you're ok. If there is, then you have the same problem I had - the gears have misaligned.
(We actually shot some video of the mechanism in action, which illustrates it far better than a still picture. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to get video up here on the forum, or even if it is possible... if anyone can let me know how, I'll post it up).
It is possible that this could explain some cases where folks have lost a sidebag along the road. Usually people have blamed themselves (D'Oh!!! I must not have put it on right!!!), but if the gear has slipped there may not be any indication - I certainly didn't realize there was a problem until FJRGuy noticed the bag was almost ready to jump off the bike while we were in the parking lot at CFR
In any case, fixing the problem means getting the teeth back where they are supposed to be. Once aligned, the locking mechanism should work properly again.
To do that, I inserted a flat-bladed screwdriver into the slot where the gears are, and applied a steady, even upward pressure until I felt it jump back into position. There's enough flex in the plastic to do this without breaking anything.
Once the teeth were aligned, the bag worked as it is supposed to. I suspect that the pin got spooged up with road grime and jammed, and I forced and caused the mechanism to skip a tooth... rest assured I'll try to keep that area clean from now on. No telling if the thing will jump again, but now at least I know enough to check it.
So there's the promised pictorial of a disected sidecase.
And now... we have slightly used sidecase parts for sale if anyone's interested
Hope this helps...
Griff
It's actually been a few weeks since FJRGuy and myself disected the sidecase. Sorry for the delay in posting this up.
First thing to note is that the thing is held together by a bunch of rivets. We drilled all of them out with a 1/4" air drill, which was small enough to fit inside the case to get at the internal ones.
The thing we didn't realize as we were madly drilling them all out is that most of them don't actually hold the bag together, but actually attach various components to the bag or to each other. The other thing we found out is that even with all the rivets drilled out, the two parts of the shell won't come apart. We suspect that there's a pretty tight vacuum fit of the two pieces, augmented with a squirt of silicone or some other adhesive... bottom line is, the two pieces won't separate.
We did promise a look at the guts of this thing though, and I really wanted to know how the mechanism worked so I could figure out how to fix mine, so we did what any self-respecting shady tree mechanic would do... we destroyed it!
Dremel tool cut the case apart to reveal the inner workings. Here you can see the cogs that engage when you lock the bag onto the bike (or unlock it). This is where we suspected mine had skipped a tooth.
And here's a closer view:
When the gears engage, they move a metal strap connected to a cam arm that lifts the locking pin into position.
This picture shows the mechanism in the "unlocked, bag off the bike" position:
This picture shows the mechanism in the "almost full-up, but not locked" position (which was as far as mine would go).
The last few degrees of movement throws the cam over centre, locking it into position and preventing the bag from disengaging. Here's the picture in that position.
If you want to test if your sidecase has jumped a tooth and is in danger of becoming a projectile, take it off the bike, and close the latch as though it was locked on... then press down on the centre pin and see if there is any movement. If the cam has gone over centre and locked, there will be no movement and you're ok. If there is, then you have the same problem I had - the gears have misaligned.
(We actually shot some video of the mechanism in action, which illustrates it far better than a still picture. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to get video up here on the forum, or even if it is possible... if anyone can let me know how, I'll post it up).
It is possible that this could explain some cases where folks have lost a sidebag along the road. Usually people have blamed themselves (D'Oh!!! I must not have put it on right!!!), but if the gear has slipped there may not be any indication - I certainly didn't realize there was a problem until FJRGuy noticed the bag was almost ready to jump off the bike while we were in the parking lot at CFR
In any case, fixing the problem means getting the teeth back where they are supposed to be. Once aligned, the locking mechanism should work properly again.
To do that, I inserted a flat-bladed screwdriver into the slot where the gears are, and applied a steady, even upward pressure until I felt it jump back into position. There's enough flex in the plastic to do this without breaking anything.
Once the teeth were aligned, the bag worked as it is supposed to. I suspect that the pin got spooged up with road grime and jammed, and I forced and caused the mechanism to skip a tooth... rest assured I'll try to keep that area clean from now on. No telling if the thing will jump again, but now at least I know enough to check it.
So there's the promised pictorial of a disected sidecase.
And now... we have slightly used sidecase parts for sale if anyone's interested
Hope this helps...
Griff
