I have a 2005 electric glide classic, I’ll try to make a long story short, I decided to put an aftermarket stereo in my faring along with some upgraded speakers. I ordered the specific wiring harness for Installing aftermarket stereos. The wiring harness is also wired for the steering wheel controls which I purchased separately as well. According to everything I read, it was to be a simple plug and play once I wire the stereo harness to the aftermarket harness, then plug into the bikes factory harness..bing bam boom and done. Just in case you’re wondering I have installed many stereos in bikes and cars and boats so I’m very familiar with the wiring. What I am not familiar with is plugging into the factory Harley harness. Using a test light I checked the fuses and the harness going into the back of the stereo, everything has juice, both red and yellow wires are hot to the stereo when I turn the ignition or acc on. However when I push the power button on the radio nothing happens. At first I thought it was a bad head unit so I ran up to my local AutoZone and grabbed a cheap $49 head unit and wired it up and same thing no power. Out of desperation and frustration of not being able to figure this mystery out, I grabbed my security fob and press it a couple times not sure exactly what I did but I looked over and the stereo was on. So I’m thinking to myself there’s some kind of interlock or relay or something connected to this key fob and power to the stereo...??? Anyhow, thinking that I figured out the problem I went ahead and finished my install, disconnect the battery, Finished wiring up and tying up everything making it nice, reconnected everything, put the bearing back on, thinking I had a touchdown, so I turn on the ignition and there I am again, no power. I grab the key fob and I start messing with it again flashing the lights on and off pressing it various times with no luck so I don’t believe that’s connected to the power issue but I’m stumped on what else it could be, any ideas would be appreciated. I went ahead and used the extra power line coming off the headlight harness and put a spade on the power wire for the stereo just to get it working for now. I would really like to figure out the issue I’m having and be able to use the factory bike harness for power.

Thanks Leedawg007

 

OK so I found my problem, many have read my post but no one replied. I decided to continue investigating and took the faring off, I took my test light to re-check the power that was coming off of the factory harness. The harness had power, so then I tested the aftermarket harness which is connected to the stereo harness, then plugged it into the stereo. I took my test light and tested the red and yellow wire on the back of the stereo harness and there was power to both. Then I put the test light on the ground connection and I found the test light illuminated a faint light. There shouldn’t be any power on the negative side/wise so that told me I had a bad ground.

I rewired all the ground wires to another location and boom everything works as it should. My stereo now holds all settings, like it should, the stereo operates on the ignition switch like it should, the steering wheel controls work as they should. The whole time it was a grounding issue and I never thought to put my test light on the ground wire...So if you’re ever in a situation like mine, and using a test light to check various connections for power, go ahead and put that test light on the negative wire just to see if there’s any power on it which would be a short to ground!

 

Welcome. And allow me to introduce the concept of brevity.