After some research here on this forum and others, I decided to go for it and take on the ignition relocation challenge for my '06 Street Bob. Here are some pictures and story of my weekend project, some cautions, and perhaps a new idea or two for the next person to make use of...

First picture is of the 3 ignition switch wires pulled out from under the frame, above the front cylinder rocker box. There is a plastic snap cover under there that sort of snaps and pulls out, above the fuel crossover line. I have a 2" tank lift, so it's easy enough to get in there without moving the tank at all. I decided to tap into the wires with Posi-tap connectors instead of cutting wires to the stock switch. Some have asked in various other threads about doing this, and if the stock switch could be unaltered and still function as desired--it works just fine this way.






I then built a short harness to test my theory with the two switches, before building a shrink-wrapped full-length harness. One note of caution here--make sure to have pulled out the main fuse, or disconnect the battery before connecting any new wires to these. Let's just say that it doesn't take much activity before you know you should have done that first...
This is what the full-length harness looked like after running it through the right side frame grommet and up to the tank. I put a baggie over it just to protect whatever while working on other things...






3" wide steel that is 1/8" thick makes for a good base plate. Cutting, shaping on grinder, and drilling on the press to follow...






Here's my trim ring--it's a desk grommet for running wires through an office desk in 2" size. Originally it had a lot more material, but I just cut off the top ring, then shaped and sized with a dremel to fit around the switch, and sit on the dash nicely. The textured black finish is nearly perfect for the dash as well, which is nice.






Rough-shaped the mounting plate, then started drilling my marked holes. I just used some tracing paper and sharpie pen to transfer bolt locations from the tank to the material.






Test fit, more shaping and drilling yet to come...






This is the dash hole drilled out. A bit of advice here--get a very tough hole saw. This dash is made of something very strong...that's the wood backer beneath it just to show what I had it on while drilling on the press.






After dulling two lesser hole saws, I sprung for the Milwaukee brand carbide-tipped abrasive hole saw. It was still a workout for my little drill press, but we eventually made it!






Loose test fit of switch, hole, and trim ring...






With the dash re-mounted over the base plate, I transferred some lines onto the base plate, then located the 4 holes on the switch using pencil before center-punching them for drilling. Then, back to the press...






More final shaping, and ready for mocking up.






Once the screws are installed, it's just a matter of finding the right height and angle of each screw and nut combination. A little back and forth with the dash helps dial it in pretty easily. I used #4 x 70 metric screws in 25 and 40mm lengths, with nylock and regular nuts. The 40mm ones were too long, which I knew they would be, but that's what I could find locally available, so I just shortened them a bit on the grinder, and filed them to an acceptable length.






Top view of switch assembly in place.






I ran the wire harness under the switch, and then back to the terminals, and gooped them with liquid electrical tape, which is awesome stuff.






Higher view...






Got the dash all back on, and then taped the trim ring in place to hold it still while I applied some silicone adhesive...






Then, it's all done!






Backed it off the lift, fired it up, and took a little ride tonight to make sure all was well.

Thanks to those who paved this trail, here's to ya!

All the best,

Shane

 

Nice job!
Thanks for all the detail. Great pics and descriptions. I always wanted to do that on my 09 Street Bob but never got around to it.
I never did like the stock location.

 

Cool. Love me some yankee engineering.

 

That is some seriously impressive work my friend.

 

Good work.

Never understood why everyone likes the ignition switch on the dash anyway. I prefer the ignition in the neck and keeps my dash uncluttered.

 

The grass is always greener, I guess. I'm going to great lengths to get the top of my tank decluttered.

 

Ha. I thank Harley for not cluttering up my dash. Although, the newer Street Bobs have returned to the ignition switch on the dash.

Maybe something I am missing here? Is there a real benefit? Is it so you don't have to bend over to turn your bike off, even though you still have to bend over to get the key out of the neck when leaving your bike?

 

Looks good. One of the things I prefer my soft tail over the dyna I used to own is the ignition switch location. I didn't like fumbling around looking for the ignition. Its nice to have it right there where you need it.

Good job, thanks for the post.

 

The stock ignition situation bothers me for three reasons...

One, because it requires a key at all times to function, two, because the key must remain in the switch while running (unless you modify the key to remove while running, which has it's own set of issues), and three, because the key switch is not visible while in motion.

Key-less operation (can still be locked off), better location, visible--these are my reasons. And, because I enjoy making stuff.

Keeping the stock switch operational maintains stock functionality as well, which is nice.

YMMV, this is not recommended that anyone else do to their machine...

Shane

 

Just to elaborate some on my previous post. I went from a dyna to a soft tail 4 years ago.

My dyna was a 2001 superglide and the ignition was kinda under the seat. It was a challenge at night with gloves on to start it. And what really irritated me about it was the key remaining in the ignition after starting. I got a quick connect for my key ring to take the HD barrel key off as all my other keys couldn't be hanging, and as clumsy as I am, I always had to be exceptionally careful disconnecting the HD key from the keyring in fear of accidentally dropping the HD key and watch it bounce and roll down a storm drain.

I loved my dyna, but among many reasons I wouldn't go from soft tails back to dyna's, this is a small yet significant one.