I felt that having a separate key for the gas cap was dopey, so I took that sucker apart: If you look at the top green part on the backside you'll see a locking pin. Depress the whole deal and the pin falls out. Remove the spring and the second green piece Pry up the last green piece. You can remove the rubber seal if you want. http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r155/nesbocaj/GasCap/IMG_2178.jpg The lock mechanism will now just push out to the front Leaving the O-Ring in the cap, it goes here Next loose the tabs that hold the pretty cap in place, and remove it The lock pins will stay in place till you remove this brass pin from here: If you tap the lock on its face the brass pin will start to fall out. THIS IS THE POINT WHERE you should ask yourself if you want to proceed. Pins out, their springs next to be removed, these will STAY out. I modified (drilled the crap out) of the lock so that the stock key will fit in comfortably Filings cleaned out, RED key slot thing put back in place Put the cap back on, bend the tabs back to hold it on, greased the lock, O-ring back in place Insert the lock back into the cap. Refit the rubber seal Refit the bottom Green piece Refit the second Green piece Insert spring Place top Green piece in place, line it up with the rod hole in the lock mechanism, and the two Green pieces. Compress with a vise type tool Refit the locking rod Notes: The brass rod no longer holds anything, leave it out if you want. IF you find that the mechanism won't turn, disassemble and rotate the lock 180° and try again. ANY key/thing that fits will now unlock the cap, BUT, it looks stock, and looks like it needs a key to open. What I wanted to accomplish: My ignition key now fits the gas cap lock, it turns it to lock and unlock. WHY: It was raining and I had to be home for something else. TIME: 1 hour 15 minutes.
Bravo!! I am going to read this thread again when I haven't been drinking red wine and we will probably be doing this very thing to my 610! BTW, Eric's LC4 has the exact same gas cap and his works with his ignition key TipsyChick
Thanks for posting. I'm wondering with the lock pins exposed, would it be possible to stick the ignition key in and then grind the misaligned pins to the same length. This would be like re-keying the tumbler for the ignition key. Just a thought for allowing it to be lockable. Of course, if that fails then you would just remove the pins like you did and make it non-lockable.
Better pass the bottle around to Nesbocaj. It definitely can't impair his closeup photgraphy, in fact I think a drink might settle him down. Great info Nesbocaj.
If you scan through the picture quickly the get blurrier with each one. I think he was into the wine.
Corona. But I did get it back together If you print out the pics and staple them together and then fan them quickly with your finger, they will be just as blurry.
I was looking at my bike today and a thought occurred to me... How about using the core from the helmet lock and install it in the gas cap? The helmet lock uses the same key as the ignition. Well, I took off the helmet lock but could not see how to disassemble it easily. Anyone know how to? The length of the core would be too short compared to the gas cap version shown above. However, you could possibly replace the key pins in the gas cap with those in the helmet lock. Just an idea...
http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r155/nesbocaj/GasCap/IMG_2175.jpg I was thinking more like this pic, where you would swap out the key pin & springs for those with helmet lock's. Basically, reassemble using only pins for the ignition key. It's an idea but may not be possible.
I looked at it closely before removing the pins. The keys are two different shapes, one will not fit in the other. Try to fit the gas cap key into your helmet lock, you will see what I saw.
