I have a 1975 500R that had/has a non-locking engine cover handle. It's a long handle that you lift up on to unlatch. Last summer I bought the same style handle (except it locks), but the two holes that screw it into the engine cover were too close together by a centimeter or so, so I couldn't use it(maybe meant for a different model 500?). Fast forward to today and I just received another locking engine handle, this time the small one shown below. The holes line up and everything, but the problem I'm having is figuring out how I'm supposed to mount it.

Pic 1&2 show how I mounted the latch. This is upside down compared to how my other handle went, but due to the locking mechanism that pushes against the latch it has to mount this way, otherwise the lock is much higher than the latch, and completely misses the latch "lever" when you push the button in.
You can also see that how I have it mounted now the lock pushes against the "lever" very close to the pivot point, so it takes an extraordinary amount of effort to push the lock button in to release the latch (think two thumbs with all of my body weight behind it). This all seems very wrong, but I can't figure out how else to mount this thing. Can anyone take a look at what I've done and tell me if I have things in the right order or not?

Would it be possible to fit the lock the other way up ( i.e. finger grip pointing up) and then fit the latch the correct way up and get it adjusted so that it's easier to operate?

Al.

Remove the rubber push on strip.....does this improve opening?

F123C -the lock only fits one way into the hole, it sticks out by about 1/2" if the finger grip is facing up.

AndrewHarvey said:

Remove the rubber push on strip.....does this improve opening?

Click to expand...

The rubber strip actually isn't in the way. I took the whole lock off and it looks like the real problem is just that the spring on the latch is way too strong. It's incredibly hard to push even when pushing on the very end of it, to the point that I'm concerned the engine cover will bend/dent due to the pressure. I'm going to try to find a way to weaken the spring, since I'm not willing to roll the dice on buying a 3rd (or 4th or 5th) lock in the hope of finding one that works properly.

took a few photos of the catch on my 500R which might help. the spring isn't as strong as your sounds though, can easily push it with on finger under the catch. Looks like you have mounted it correctly.

Thanks for the pictures Cambio, they helped me figure out part of the problem. I was able to weaken the springs by widening the coils which helped a lot. Looking at Cambio's picture I saw that his lock rotates down to the bottom of the opening, so I took another look at mine and realized I could take it apart and rotate the lock 180° within its housing. It now looks identical to Cambio's and is working pretty well. Thanks for the suggestions.