Recently there has been some question of where the auxiliary power plug is on our softails. Yes, the discussion of the elusive orange wire with the white tag stripe is what I am referring to. I decided to show some pictures of the plug, where it's located, and what I did to utilize it.

With the fuel tank off of my 2004 EFI Fat Boy, on the left side of the neck, this is what the wiring harness looks like.



My daughter's finger is pointing to the unused plug here. It is part of the harness that goes to the headlight itself.



With the headlight harness unplugged, it's quite easy to distinguish the black, yellow, and white wires that run to the bike's 3-prong, H4 headlight plug. The auxiliary plug is seen on the right with its tell-tale orange wire with white tag stripe. The black wire is a ground that shares the same ground circuit as the headlight itself.



I could not find the correct plug in the service parts or schematics to mate to this plug. My local dealer searched and came up with zero. Even the HD power port for the softails does not have the correct mate for this. My solution was to swap the plug. I started by opening the wire retainer end of the part.



That allowed me to remove the pins from the plug itself, as you can see here.



I replaced the errant plug with a 2-pin Deutsch connector that I sourced from my HD dealer. All the parts shown are individual part numbers and came to $19.14 with sales tax. Your price may vary and choice of place to purchase said parts could vary as well.



The plug seal needed to be removed first.



The seal was slid over the wires and then the original pins were cut off and the wires stripped to the proper length.



My decision was to replace the female plug already on the bike with the new female Deutsch connector. It gets the male pins. As you can see, the proper wire length has the wire all the way in the socket, the first set of tangs has to catch the bare wire, and the second set of tangs grabs the wire covering. I did not have the correct crimping tool so I folded the tangs over best I could and soldered them once complete.



Both male pins were on the factory wires ready to be soldered permanently.



It's a simple matter of plugging the pins into the rear of the socket housing, sliding the seal into position, and putting the pin lock inside the socket (green one from picture 6). At this point my bike would now be ready to accept the factory accessories listed in the catalog (power port, GPS, etc...).



You can see what the entire headlight harness with the updated plug looks like removed from the bike.



That was not my plan though. I wanted to utilize the accessory power supply to run my passing lamps from an on/off switch, allowing my lights to work with both the low and high beam. Only the power circuit was necessary so I wired the male end of the Deutsch connector with the female plugs as seen here (completed plug). I made sure to put the wire on the side that will mate to the orange/white wire.



All together here, you can see how I omitted the ground wire since it would not used. The passing lamps are chassis grounded inside the housings.



Inside the headlight nacelle (freight train-style), it was a simple matter of placing the spade connector on the switch. From this point the passing lamps would be on their own power circuit and would not be influenced by the low/high beam switch. Manual control (with ignition on) is handled by the on/off switch accessible from the rear of the nacelle.



Something did not set right with me and it was the fact that I only wanted to use the power circuit offered by the orange/white wire. So in effect, I ran an extra plug for absolutely nothing. Begrudgingly I pulled the harness back off the Fat Boy, de-pinned the Deutsch connector, pulled the orange wire pin from the headlight plug, and cut the headlight harness apart so I could rid myself of the butt connectors (the butt connectors from the nacelle conversion never sat right with me).



Just so happens that I have plenty of heat shrink tubing around so I soldered the headlight wires together and covered them with matching heat shrink.



After soldering a length of wire to the orange/white wire, I heat shrinked it with red tubing (no orange in my inventory), and put the pin back in the stock headlight harness plug.


Covered with split loom and plugged back into the motorcycle, it nearly looked original equipment. Best part for me was there was no extra plug.


Your results and needs may vary but I am completely happy about the final revision. My headlight is a low/high HID and the passing lamps are no longer T-tapped from the low beam circuit before my HID's ballast. All the connections are now solid electrical connections that will last for years to come and provide me with worry-free miles.

 

did the same thing on my fatbones conversion.manuals are great

 

I like it, the writeup and pics are even better. Great work.
Do you know if that line uses the headlight fuse?
If so it may not be a good idea to use it for some kinds of accessories.
Depending on whatever was plugged in you could accidentally blow the fuse leaving you without a headlight.

 

Nice detailed write-up, Big H.

 

Good write-up. I tapped into that connection to put a 12-volt (cigarette lighter type) outlet on my Fat Boy. That connection is used for the fender tip light on softails equiped with them (like the Heritage). If interested, you should be able to look up the mating connector in the Heritage parts manual.

 

when I used this plug, I went and looked up a heritage schematic. the proper plug is listed on the schematic with the front fender light. my dealer didnt know either, since I was asking for a deluxe. But, I had him look up the heritage instead. bingo. there it is.

also can be found on heritage springer, or probably anything that comes with a fender light.

 

Great write up and pics Big H! It'll come in handy when I put the Heritage Springer front fender light on my Deluxe. And since you're in the neighborhood....

 

so...where is it fused?

 

I made the same error looking up the Fat Boy schematics. Dealer did the same thing when I double checked it.

 

Well look at that, we are nearly neighbors. Glad to assist when you are ready.