Seat T-bar

[VintageTwin]

1. (top) (VT or Colony 8623-2) Pin & Spring. The spring won't fit on the T-bar. It's too short to make the bend around the the posts nubs where it usually hooks up okay on an OEM seat-T. I bent my old one straight and then re-bent it with needle nose vise-grips, but bent it too many times and it snapped. Ordered two more from Kick-Start. He said his are OEM. We'll see if they fit.
2. (top) (VT 31-0569) Seat T comes with (useable) mount kit, zerk fitting, bushing and (Panhead era) seat bolt and nut.
3. (middle) (VT 49-0427) cad. Seat Post comes with the seat post nut and washer.
(bottom left) Option items:
A. (VT or Colony 8874-2) Seat post Nut kit. (duplicate of original).
B. (VT or Colony 8873-18) Seat Post Mount kit (duplicate of original).

[VintageTwin]

Kick-Start only has a few -29 OEM springs left in stock. (616) 245-8991 EST
(left to right) The Colony duplicate, the OEM and the repop one I broke. You see where the dip is in the springs (under the word "clevis")? That's where you need to bend the spring straight, because the "dip" that goes under the groove in the pin is too far back, because the boss of the seat that the spring needs to wrap around, is too fat on the repop seat tee. Spring steel too, so it doesn't want to bend. I don't know about this bend-adjustment for replication. The repop (Taiwan) spring I broke was thinner wire. Colony's is beefy like the OEM ones.
envelope: Kick-Start

[VintageTwin]

Good shape. Flawless hide. Cover edge is rolled and sewn to a leather strip and the strip sewn to nylon tape, through the Royalite skirt, then the tape is riveted to the pan.

[VintageTwin]

The seat holes on the repop seat-T don't match up to the support holes on the back of the seat pan. Gotta fix it. Might as well post a few pix.

[VintageTwin]

Fitting the seat clevis pin spring took four hours. Tools used were a 4" grinder, a Foredom (dremel) tool with a couple of select burrs and rasp wheel. Spring fits now.
1. The spring on the OEM T-bar (left) fits tight around the curved part of the seat casting. The curved part of the re-pop T-bar (right) is too fat. Alot of material needs to be removed.
2. Yellow paint marks the areas that need grinding.
3. Both sides of the T-bar get ground, but the left side takes a healthy cut.

[VintageTwin]

Rough-out the work with the 4" wheel. Watch out for the spring anchor-nubs on the T-bar. The wheel cuts fast. Better to make alot of fit-checks and go slowly with light cuts.
4. It's a combination of the T-bar being too thick and the anchor-nubs being set higher than the OEM ones.
5. The spring will still not fit over the (left-side) nub. Material from the left side, under the nub, needs removal.
6. More material needs to be removed from both sides of the pin-base on the T-bar.

[VintageTwin]

7. Use the rasp wheel to remove material from the sides of the casting.
8. Numerous fittings and slow removal of material, after study, and marking the areas for removal with a fine-tip marking pen will postion the wire "early" into the pin groove. You can see that the OEM spring arrives in the pin groove "late".
9. The nub needs to have a narrow groove cut into the top and forward surface to give the spring some reach, through seat depth. Check out how much metal was removed in that notch in back of the nub. Necessary.
Tools used will be posted later.

[80Flh]

Vintage Twin thank you for the detailed write-up.
I am adding the Deluxe Solo Seat and with the price of used
Genuine T-bars went with a $50 ebay V-twin T bar complete kit.
Front bushing where the 3/8 bolt goes through bushing seems awful sloppy letting t tilt left and right. Will the Colony kit I am getting get rid of the slop or did all the t bars have this slop, just asking what observations you have made and learned from?
Thank you, Dave

[RUBONE]

Vintage Twin thank you for the detailed write-up.
I am adding the Deluxe Solo Seat and with the price of used
Genuine T-bars went with a $50 ebay V-twin T bar complete kit.
Front bushing where the 3/8 bolt goes through bushing seems awful sloppy letting t tilt left and right. Will the Colony kit I am getting get rid of the slop or did all the t bars have this slop, just asking what observations you have made and learned from?
Thank you, Dave

The bolt to bushing fit is not part of a fitted design. The bolt merely holds the bushing tightly between the tank/seat mount tabs. The important fit is the two bushings, the one in the tee and the captive one on the frame.

[80Flh]

20231003_125446~2.jpg

Thanks all for the assist.
Used inner bushing and bolt from Colony kit. Man the slop is gone, Put one flat washer in front inside the frame tabs to reduce play side to side.
Deluxe Solo Saddle in and greased pogo seat post. Added a new Colony bottom lock washer and seat post lockout as either lost original or did not have one when I got it last year.
Look forward to the Caddy like ride. Post is set up 2 & 1/2 inches from the frame. Greased and ready to roll.

Appreciate all the ideas.