Good and bad news....

Good news: I made a perfectly tapped 5/16-18 hole for my rear tank mount.

Bad news: I may have went too deep with my first pilot hole and nicked up the main harness that runs directly thru the backbone in this area. It looks like only the wiring insulation is gnarled up and the wiring is fine. However, I also do not want to put it all back together to find out one of the wires is damaged and have to pull it all back apart to fix it. It may be better to pull the main harness out now and repair if needed.

Anybody have tips on pulling the harness out. I am hoping to not have to undo every connection on the back of the bike just to pull it out. The front end is all disconnected and ready to go.

 

Oh *****, did it grab and spin wires or just nick them?

I'd be tyring to get a better look in that holw, can you line it up with a smart phonr camera lense and explore it that way (Rather than pull the loom)

 

Ohh man that sucks..That's why I wrapped tape around the bit. I thought I'd got into mine also but turned out to be the Oring in the tank...I too would keep looking in that damn hole to look for nicks (and I did trust me) before I pulled the harness. But yah,sorry I have no harness tricks off hand. Damn that sucks..Going to look good though.

 

I wrapped tape around the final tapping bit. But the 3 others drill bits I used to step up to the hole, I did not use tape. Dumb *** mistake. After I made the first initial hole, I didn't feel any resistance so I assumed I was OK. Anyway, I shined some light in the now tapped hole and the wiring insulation only looks chewed. I do not see any signs of penetration (that's what she said ) of any copper strands. However, I put my shop vac to the hole after I was done tapping and it could have sucked out any of the evidence I am looking for.

With that said, I'm going to pull the loom out of the backbone and fully repair any damage I find. I will have to take the rear wheel off to get better access for pulling the loom through. The service manual talks about disconnecting pretty much every connection on the bike but I am hoping I don't have to do every damn connector but we will see. I may not have to slide it all the way out, just far enough to the area that needs repair.

Some other good news though, I got an email back from Pete at Rocket Bobs and he is shipping me a backing plate for that area in front of the rear wheel. I will wait until the bike is fully back together to decide on if I am getting the lightbar kit or not.

 

Tape together and then tie & tape a nylon cord around the wire bundle before pulling it out. You probably already figured that, but I wanted to make sure it was said.

 

I did think of this but it is a very good idea and thanks for pointing it out to anyone that may be reading this in the future. Someone will learn from my mistake.

I am still dreading pulling that loom out, mainly because of all the connections on the rear of the bike that need to be disconnected in order for me to pull out the loom through the rear of the backbone. Sucks being so close to the end only to have to dig back in with a new issue.

 

Yeah, I'd have to walk away for a couple days.

 

Got the main wire loom out of the backbone last night, cut back the wrapping, and was able to inspect the wires more closely. As I suspected, none of the wires are severed but there are a few that have the insulation severely chewed up and 2 of the wires have exposed inner strands. So I feel much better that I pulled the loom than ending up stranded one day and not knowing why because some wires shorted out while riding down the road. I will be soldering in new wiring as needed and then re-wrap the entire loom in black duct tape, especially in the area where the drilling incident occurred and my new rear tank bolt will go.

Quick tip: To pull the main loom out does not actually require disconnecting every single connector on the bike, like the service manual says. Obviously, you would if you were replacing it entirely but in my case I only had to disconnect the 2 ground connections and the first set of connectors that went to the rear lighting harnesses. I also pulled my rear wheel out of the way.

 

Good catch. If left unattended, the exposed conductors will also oxidize and eventually fail. (probably over a span of years or decades, but still...