We had a surprisingly warm day today here in NJ, so I decided to install some parts I had sitting in my basement.

The first was the turn relocation kit. Before I started, I read the directions three times, decided it was pretty easy looking and it should take an hour tops.

Holy crap, it SHOULD have taken an hour, but the directions are goofy and the seemingly easiest thing to do--routing the cut wires--took forever with the freaking "conduit" they want you to sleeve the two sets of wires in. The conduit is way too big to fit through the holes provided in every part and is just plain awfully designed. Maybe I missed something but it would be nice to hear I'm not crazy.

It's also incredibly awkward making the crimps on the barrel connectors they give you under the fender. I still didn't make the final connections because I ran out of light and the jack I borrowed to lift the bike and drop the tire to make more clearance doesn't want to fit under the frame. It dawned on my while I was washing my hands that those connections should not be double crimp, but single crimp on each with a male/female butt connection to make things A LOT easier.

I also wanted to put on detachable backrest hardware which should be stupid easy only to find out I need a longer button bolt for the rear mount that, of course, they don't include in the freaking kit for some reason. No explanation either.

This was my first real foray into working on my bike with relatively easy stuff and I'm frustrated as hell already.

Just venting I guess...

 

Wow, what kit did you get? I bought a kit from Great Bike Gear with the signal relocation and a chrome license plate housing for $89. I didn't cut any wires either. Just removed the pins from the plugs at the end of the wires, rerouted the wires and plugged everything back in. Looks good and I only jacked up the bike to make it easier to get to the license plate nuts. The whole process only took about 30 minutes.
Grumpy

 

I'm so frustrated that I am looking (again for the 100th time) at the part numbers the dealer gave me and I think they fooked up. I don't think it would have made the wire routing easier, however it would have been nice if they mentioned the trick about the pins while I was there.

They gave me the 68732-02A relocation kit and the 53961-06 docking hardware kit.

Now I see there's an entirely different relo kit that might have had the proper bolts for the docking hardware (or maybe not).

I am not installing HD saddlebag brackets at this point and will be installing EZ Brackets in the near future. Maybe the EZ brackets come with two bolts on each side that are long enough to pass through the docking hardware? I don't know.

Does anyone happen to know what size button bolt I need for the rear just to get the damn things on until I buy the EZ brackets?

 

Yes, the EZ Bracket kit comes with longer bolts. There *MAY* be different sets depending on if you have the
removable sissybar docking kit on the bike. Check on that before you order..

Hope things go smoother..

 

Given so many of us have had many experiences like yours and worse (take a look at this thread), ...

I submit ... a few of Murphy's best laws and maintain Murphy probably owned a Harley and must have worked on his own bike.

• If anything can go wrong, it will
• If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong
• If anything just cannot go wrong, it will anyway
• If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which something can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop
• If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something

 

The turn signal relocation kit for my FXD didn't come with any connectors. I removed the existing pins from the amp connector and rerouted them thru the docking hardware. I'm guessing you received the wrong kit?

 

Thanks, guys...

I am beginning to think that the parts counter at the dealer is somewhat purposely vague/not helpful so as to encourage you to have the installs done across the hall in the service department.

I mean, I bought two insanely common DIY mods and they were almost clueless towards me when I was buying them and asking questions. Is it unrealistic to think that the four guys who seemingly have been at this parts counter for 10 years each don't know about the pins on the connectors?

 

Man, I know how you feel. It seems like every mod I have been doing lately has some evil twist.
Just today I was going to put on my new Kuryakyn ISO grips and it was going great until I slipped on the throttle grip and it would not turn because it was sticking at the closed end of the grip. So I pull the grip off and look inside and see a glob of hard glue inside the grip! Tried to chip it off, not happening, repack and send it back and wait again.
I am already waiting to get a new WindVest windshield after the first one was delivered broken.
I could go on but just wanted you to know, "I feel your pain".

 

I got the bike 100% put back together for the turns project yesterday. I ended up having to completely remove the tail light assembly from the fender to make the crimps and even then, it was not easy to do.

The person that wrote the directions for this mod for HD obviously did not ever try the installation themselves. Now that I did the install, I could write clearer instructions that made the install foolproof instead of how they tell you to do it now. I find it hard to believe that the dealership does it the way they tell you in the directions because it's time consuming and leads to a hack job at best.

They want you to heat shrink the butt connectors in the space between the tire and inside of the fender according to the directions. How the F are you supposed to do that without taking off the rear tire? Needless to say, I didn't heat shrink mine (I tried to put some dielectric grease on the butt connectors as a stop gap).

Everything works, but man, what a pain in the *** project.

Of course, now I can't get one of the long bolts that hold the original turns on the fender rail out because it's so long, it hits the tire before you can pull it out. One side came out with minimal effort, the other one won't even with the bike on a jack. Shoot me now.

 

I'm personally not a fan of butt connectors, I would have soldered and heat shrinked. But that being said, every time I have seen a dealer's work for a rear turn relocate, they use butt connectors.