I've been screwed twice (and big time) by what thought were friends, and also screwed by Louisiana Pacific when I opened the Mexican market for them without charging them a penny... and when I had to close my doors (import duties went to the roof for my Indonesian/Malaysian plywood), they sent me to hell. I made them millions over the years, and not even a paltry commission for each railcar, just because they already sold to my customers directly (maybe I was stupid not to charge BOTH, but I've never been greedy). Live and learn.
Anyway, let's go back to the Connie. Removed the storage compartment (no need to remove anything else), removed both the solenoid and locking mechanism (put them aside for resale time) like they were never there, taped the connector and zip-tied it (green) nicely, put back the compartment, and found an aluminum torx bolt laying around for the bottom since it was missing on my new bike (manual says it has a push-pin, but mine had threads, so found an appropriate bolt and it's rock-solid now). Compartment is always open now, and operates very smoothly. Tomorrow will remove the cotter pin on the rear axle and replace it with one of the several R-clips I have laying around from my Hayabusa and CBR1100XX days. Enjoy your weekend folks.