So I took the day off work today to try and get my bike finished up. It is now almost 10:30 and I don't know if I have every been so frustrated in my entire life. I thought the tank swap would be the hardest part of this project, boy was I wrong. Internally wiring the street slammers has been so frustrating that I literally wanted to kick the bike over at one point.

So my brother and I spent he whole day on this, at one point we got one side completely wired through the bars, spliced in some extension wires and shrinkwrapped, getting ready to attach the controls and realized that WE PULLED THE WRONG WIRES THROUGH THE WRONG SIDE OF THE BARS! I have never felt so stupid and so pissed off at the same time.

So eventually we gave up on trying to feed the stock cables through and ran all new wiring through the bars, cut it long and staggered it, pulled it through with a low E string from one of my guitars. But anyway, in an entire day of working all we got done is getting some naked wire pulled through the bars and it isn't even spliced into anything yet.

 

A trick I learned it to get the smallest shrink wrap that will fit all the wires and put it on in place of the stock covering. I also use a little grease on the shrink wrap as I pull it thru. You don't want to have unprotected wires in there due to the chance of them chaffing were they go around the corners.

 

Baby powder works well too to help the wiring slide through.

Drew

 

Hey doc thanks never thought of that. Probably cleaner than the grease for sure.

 

I like to use some thin chain, like the kind you use to pull an old light on as my pull cable. All you have to do is shake it down the bars, it works like a snap. Then take all the wires together in some shrink wrap and pull them all at once with electrical lube. But this is just one way.

 

Lead pinch weight from your tackle box and some 20lb test tied around the end of the taped up wire ends. Drop the weighted line through first, pull and feed... piece of cake.

The soldering each wire & heat shrink is what I get impatient with.

 

Before I installed the Carlini's on my bike. I bolted them to a drilled piece of 2x4. I chucked the 2x4 with the bars bolted to them in my bench vice, ran the wiring and completely assembled the bars while in the vise. I used some thin nylon string with a nut tied to the end to get the "fish tape" through the bars. I then tied and taped the wiring to the string.

I think most people have trouble getting the wires past the 90 degree bend because they try to pull the wires through. An alternating push pull technique works best. Push some wire into the hole at the grip end and gently pull...alternate like this until the wiring is all the way in. I did not have to do anything to the factory wiring. The black casing is still on there, and I had no need to remove it, no grease, no talcum powder. The wiring went right in. Think about what is going on inside the bars at the 90 degree bend if you are just pulling on the wires. Bad idea to remove the harness casing, it's there for a reason.

Tech23

 

+1000 here!!! This works like a charm on any bar. I thought running internal wiring was the easiest job I had to do this winter.

 

yup interal wiring is bitch, if you think t bars are bad, try some z bars!

 

The new wires were wrapped tightly with tape when I pulled them through, so they would not have been chaffed on the bends, i wrapped them all the way down so there is a good chance that they part that goes around the bend is still wrapped. To be honest, I am willing to take the chance, I do not want to pull them out and re-do it again. My brother has had unwrapped wires in his bars for 7 years with no issues, they were heat shrinked at the entry and exit points only.