Had what should have been a fantastic weekend, installing a bunch of parts that I've been accumulating. I was planning on unveiling my baby in the Club thread later today. Instead, I'll be having my bike towed to the dealer as soon as they can get to it. I have never had to quit on a mechanical project before, but I have exceeded my capacity.

Started by putting on my new JRI shocks from Motorcycle Metal and getting the sag dialed in. Easy day. If I'd known what was coming, I'd have gone for a ride right then and there to try them out.

Next up was tank lift, coil relocation, and horn relocation. Easy day again, after spending some time hunting for a suitable spot for the horn (there's no spot on the downtubes on my '14 Street Bob that will fit the hardware supplied in the DK kit).

Then things started to go bad. I went to install my True-Track. Sweet baby Jesus, that is a pain in the ***. It took several frustrating hours for me to get that done. I also made a user error and installed the wrong bolts in the rear; they went in and torqued to spec, but they are never coming out without being drilled. Guess that will be a project the first time I have the rear wheel off.

Then, I took my rear turn signals off and disassembled them for Plasti-Dip. Two things - I suck at Plasti-Dip, and in my opinion people shouldn't believe the hype. Get your stuff powdercoated.

Cut my front turn signals off, to be relocated to the forks using the H-D kit. Plasti-dipped the fronts and the fork mounting clamps as well. I still sucked at Plasti-Dip.

When I went to reassamble and put new terminals on the new wires, I found out that I also suck at crimping terminals onto wires.

Got everything reassembled and back on the bike, and none of my turn signals work the way they are supposed to. The fronts don't function as running lights, and the rears don't work at all with my LED's installed. With regular incandescents in, the left rear is non-functional and the right side works as a turn/brake, but not as running (I did swap bulbs around, and they all worked, so it's not a bad bulb).

I installed a new speedometer (the combo speedo/tach). It's pretty sweet, but the fuel level function doesn't work on it and the fuel level function stopped working on my flush mount fuel gauge. The gas tank symbol just blinks, which indicates a fault in the fuel level circuitry.

So, as stated at the beginning, for the first time ever I am going to have to cry uncle and take my bike to the dealer to see if they can figure out what I did. What should have been an awesome weekend has been a frustrating and ultimately unsatisfying experience. And, the lack of brake light and turn signal makes it totally unsafe to ride where I live, so I have to have it towed.

If you read this far, how was your weekend?

 

That sucks man. Do you have a factory manual? Just check the wiring diagrams you can probably fix it yourself. Did you check all the fuses and obvious stuff like that? Also make sure you didn't swap the rear signal bulbs to the front, the front has 2 elements that makes them running lights. Walk away for a while have a few cold ones and check it out again. You'll feel a lot better if you figure it out yourself. Or you can take your signals and throw them in the garbage can, that will fix half your issues

 

Dude, sorry to hear you had a bummer experience with all that, sometimes it's enough to make you spit!
It will get all sorted out, don't let it get you down.

 

very sorry to hear about the difficulties
i don't think you asked for advice but here is some anyway
go inside and relax for a while and dont think about it till tomorrow then work on it alittle and if you start to get pissed off or frustrated go back inside.
it sounds like you should redo or check your electrical connections, if you dont have a multimeter your can get one for really cheap anywhere, with that tool you can check continuaty of the connections you made

i dont know for sure about what type of lights you went to, but for alot of times if you go from incandesent to led you cant just wire them up without causing some sort of problems

the true track rear is a bitch, to put mine on i had to bend the rear brake line alittle

 

You took on too much at one time. Take a deep breath, get some sleep and try again tomorrow.
No way would I do that much work in one day...frustartion sets in and things go FUBAR quickly.

 

Thanks all. This was actually work that started on Friday. The lights really have me flustered, especially the rear. I don't suspect fuses, because I only have three and enough stuff is still working that I don't think any of them are blown.

I had no issues with the LEDs at all before I started moving stuff around. I have no choice but to step away, because in finding out that I sucked at crimping terminals I decided that my hack job was unacceptable and they needed to be done right. So, I cut the sockets off and either need to go to the dealership and buy new terminals/sockets or just let them do the wiring as part of the troubleshooting. They don't open again until Tuesday.

I may be able to talk my wife into driving with me so that I can at least take the bike in myself and not in their truck.

 

Just take a breather. Trace what you've done so far, it maybe something simple you're over thinking. Everybody gets to the give-up stage once in a while, push through it you'll feel much better doing it yourself. Then when someone on here has the same problem you can give them the information. Good luck.

 

I had to replace the front wire harness in an wrecked Eclipse a few years back. Several plugs had to routed through the firewall to the fusebox in the tightest spot imaginable to get to. One plug in particular had to go on the backside of the fuse box and you could only move the fusebox out an inch or so, and involved some major cursing to plug in. Once it was all together everything worked well, at least for short periods of time then the harness would begin to get warm and start blowing fuses. I checked and rechecked all plugs except that one in the back, assuming it was ok. The wire harness was used and I assumed there must be something different in that one and the old one. Well after many hours of banging my head on the bottom of the dash I gave up and sent it to a guy really good at tracking electrical probs. 2 days and $650 later he said one pin in that back plug was bent over. SOAB, I could kick my own ***!!!! Lessened learned - never assume a plug went in correctly when you have a problem. Trace EVERYTHING over one step at a time, more than likely you will find it is something simple and save you alot of money. Good luck with it, I'm sure you will get it straight.

 

Something I've learned is that I take digital photo's of everything before I disassemble it then during each major step. Makes a nice reference to go back to. I'm sure with a little sleep and distance you'll figure it out !

 

Yeah, like others have advised, take a break and come back fresh with a clear mind. Wiring can really get you baffled at times, especially if you get just one connection wrong. Take your time and double check your connections. Re-read the instructions. Get a cheap voltage tester and continuity tester. You will feel so much better if you can figure it out yourself. You definitely bit off a big chunk by doing what you've done so far. Feel good about what went right and do not give up on yourself. My advice is to NOT take the bike to the dealership. Good luck!