OK so the 02 seat latch sucks, with that being said there are a couple of adjustments that will make it work much better.

1: Remove the seat and look at the plastic around the latches, if you look very closely you will see the mold marks in the plastic at the back side of the latches, take a knife and cut the plastic back to the mold mark.This is excess plastic that did not pop out of the hole when the fender was molded.

2: Now look at the seat release you will see that it is held in place by a bolt, make sure that the release mount is rocked forward at the bottom, if it is not readjust. This will allow the latch to completely close.

3: When you install the seat pull the latch before setting the back of the seat then release the seat latch and it will lock every time.

 

CaTTrax,I had done this mod. a couple weeks ago. I was having trouble latching and unlatching the seat.I looked real close a the operation of the latch with the seat off and noticed(like you said)that the latch was hiiting the plastic and that it appeared that not all the plastic was removed at the factory. Cut it!and the latch works fine now.(except for the seat back being so close to the rack). Everyone will thank you for this tip.