[deputydog95]

I got my Sargent seat today. I thought this would be a quick and easy job.

I removed the four primary nuts holding the seat down. I also removed the screw that holds the small black box down.

However, judging by the two bolts on very front most of the sargent seat, I assume that I am going to have to remove or loosen the tail section hinge. That's where it appears the two front most bolts on the sargent seat go.

It's got to be easier than this. What am I doing wrong? Any tips would be much appreciated.

 

[danielspdx]

You're almost there dawg. Four bolts that hold the seat, and the two that affix the seat unit hinge. Sometimes the seat sticks and doesn't want to come off, but those six points are the only thing holding it on.

 

[deputydog95]

how do you get at the bolts that hold the hinge on? they hinge itself blocks access to the bolts. i'm sure i'm looking at this funny somehow...

 

[bubbazenetty]

Ok, in the middle of the hinge there is a rubber piece that connects to both sides of the pins. Remove that piece by pulling on it. Then push each pin out, carefully, and then you'll have the tail piece off the bike. Disconnect the taillight wires, and turn it over and pull out the last 2 bolts that holds down the seat. Replace with new Sargent seat, and reinstall everything. Done.

 

[danielspdx]

You'll have to remove the seat unit from the bike. Pull the rubber caps from the plastic hinge pins, push the pins out, disconnect the tail light wiring harness and remove the seat unit. The hinge bracket on the tail section is affixed with two hex flat head machine screw. Remove those two screws and remove the bracket. Those screws go through the hinge bracket, tail section plastic and seat pan.

 

[deputydog95]

okay. still gonna need a little more help.

got the tail section. not too bad. installed the new seat. fit is pretty good once you tighten things down a bit. doesn't totally fill out the front part like the stock piece, but pretty good for the aftermarket.

anyway, i'm stumped on how to get it back on.

several problems...

one, the new seat is really thick at the front. i can't get it even close to lining up the brackets to put the pins in.

two, even if i could get it in there, the tank bolt would prevent me from getting the rubber piece between the pins back on.

lastly, when i took the tail section off, heard that spring snap forward on the seat hinge. how is that spring setup and what should it be pusing against?

sorry for so many questions, but this was a little more complicated than planned. am i going to need to take the tank off to complete this?

 

[danielspdx]

I've never installed or even seen a Sargent seat in person, so I don't know how it would be different than the OEM seat.

Once you mounted the new seat, hold the tail section in one arm with the taillight pointed directly up, thus the front of the seat pad is pointed down. Now, position the tail section (front down, rear up) so the front of the tail section is just above the spring loaded hinge. With your free hand, slap yourself silly.....oh......did I say that out loud? OK, with your free hand, rotate the spring loaded hinge arm back (away from the tank) and wedge the bottom of the tail section between the spring loaded hinge arm and the fuel tank. Just wiggle the thing around until you can pop the plastic hinge pins in place. This should take you no more than 30 seconds! Ready? Set? GO!!!!!!! (not to be confused with the GAULAUSES logo on last year's bikes)

 

[deputydog95]

i'm not even gonna tell you guys what i was doing wrong. not so smart i am i can't believe i had loosened the rear tank bolt to move the tank around a bit last night. i didn't pursue that for very long, but i was actually considering removing the gas tank to make this work. this is why i don't make money working on motorcycles

anyway, it's on.

way more comfortable than the stock seat. however, fit is a little so so. it doesn't really follow the contour of the seat cutout on the tail section towards the front of the seat. there is a pretty big gap between the bottom from edge of the seat and the cutout on the tail section. anybody got a pic of theirs installed as a reference for me? are they all like this or just mine? there doesn't really appear to be a wrong way to mount the seat to the tail section , so i don't think this is me this time

 

[John]

Wow, did I get lucky installing mine, coming from an absolute mechanical idiot. What I have learned from my mehanically minded friends is to lay out any parts in the order and sequence they came off the bike rather than in a big pile. A rough drawing of the area and placing the actual parts on the drawing helps too.

I installed a Sargent on my 916, same deal as yours. I don't recall any fitting issues at all, the seat fit the tail the same as the stock unit. I can't reaffirm this due to the fact my tail is at the body shop for painting the number plate scheme. I did remove the seat prior to this and this went off without a hitch. The only issue I had was the correct mounting of the hinge spring. The seat should fit without any issues, if there are then something is amiss.

Off the subject, but the seat shape is universal. In time you may want to think about fine tuning the shape through Sargent. Now if I had a Corbin I could simply ride down to their factory and have them custom pad it there on the spot. I opted for the Sargent because its lighter. I don't know about mail order padding, doesn't seem like you can get it right the first time.

 

[deputydog95]

here's a shot of the seat. you can see what i'm talking about in the front. the bottom edge of the front of the seat is sitting snugly against the tail section, so it's not that it's raised up or something.

i haven't been able to find any good pics for comparison, so i'm not sure if it's supposed to look like this.

the seat removal install was really easy. now that i know what i'm doing, i'm sure i could do the whole process in under 10 mins.

as GI Joe would say, knowing is the half the battle. as i would say, having the right tools is the other half