Latching On

The stock tour pack latches from Harley aren't exactly the most durable pieces of equipment in the world.  One of the ones on my original '08 had broken as well, but the whole bike went bye-bye before I had a chance to replace it.  Fast forward to this bike, but the same problem.

I found a replacement one on eBay for short dough (~$13) and after plopping some credit card cash down, I soon had a package in the mail.  So, here's a few pics and a quick writeup of this very easy procedure.
The offending latch...

The tool that came with the new latch was a simple Allen wrench, but the bolts on the existing latch required a torx-head.

A simple matter of removing the old bolts...

Here's an exploded view of the old latch.  Nice locktite residue on the old bolts (I should probably look into getting some of that stuff at some point).  The middle piece is the spacer and is re-used when attaching the new latch assembly.

Here's the new latch, all shiny and pretty.

I figured you didn't need to see a pic of me bolting the new one back on, so here's things all finished.  It works fine, but doesn't operate as smoothly as the original.  It has a bit of drag to it, even after I siliconed it.  Oh well, at cheap money, it's much better than the OEM one that doesn't last that long, anyway.  We'll see how long this one lasts (and with the price difference, I can afford 4 of these for each ~$50 Harley one.)

The test ride last night (out with McCarthy and Nellie) proved it to work great.  No more rattling and popping of the pack top every time I hit a bump.

Ride Hard, Don't Take Chances On Things Falling Out Of Your Tour Pack.