Fat Bob Tri-bar LED crapped out
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Joined: Apr 2008
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From: NEW YORK
Fat Bob Tri-bar LED crapped out
When I was backing into my garage last night I noticed that I didn't see that usual red glow behind me. Pulled the front brake lever and nothing! Upon closer inspection I noticed that only the lower white plate lamp part of my Tri-Bar LED "upgrade" was illuminated. Only when I tapped the light housing did the red blink for a micro second. So I removed the light and unplugged it from the housing. Everything looked fine, no water damage no wires chewed up by mice. So i put some dielectric grease on the connector and plugged it back in. For half a second it came on and then went dark again. Again the red only lights up when tapped or banged. I should add that when i unscrewed the unit the problem everyone else has complained about happened to me, the tabs broke where the light is fastened. I wonder if it will blink red when I smash it on the ground?
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Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 491
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From: Manitoba, Canada
Mine crapped out last year as well so I thought I'd take it apart and try to fix it. The light board sits vertically in the housing and the circuit board sits horizontally with the two meeting at 90 degrees in order to tranfer the power from one to the other. For some reason the lower circuit board ended up being slightly bowed (one side came out of it's slot) so it would not maintain contact with the light board, and thus, lost the connection. I made sure both boards were securely seated in their slots (used silicone to hold them in place) in the housing and then reinstalled the two retaining screws through the back of the housing. I also installed two small peices of 1/4" thick foam between the circuit board and the bottom of the housing in order to keep the circuit board "shimmed" tightly against the light board. Before reinstalling the lense, I made sure I removed as much of the original adhesive as I could and re-sealed the unit. While I had it apart I also noticed that the plastic mounting tabs were starting to crack so I reinforced them with metal and epoxy. I've ridden with it the past two seasons like this and haven't had anymore trouble with it since the fix.
Tourer
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 309
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From: Columbus NJ
Nice reply. I had one on my 09 Fatbob, but was lucky I had no issues. The Tri bar LED has gotten much worse since then, so I opted for the low profile LED brake light from Kuryakyn for my 2012 Fatbob. $129 and took 3 minutes to install, and it still works! I agree it doesn't look as sleek, but I like seeing the red lens all the time,( instead of the blacked out and clear plastic) which matches the run turn brake lights bullets on the sides.
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Joined: Apr 2008
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From: NEW YORK
Northern, you were right, opened it up and the lower board was not making contact. Held them together and plugged it in while still apart, and I have red LED's again! Gonna follow your write up with some silicone and wedge some foam under that lower board as well as reinforcing the cracking tabs, thanks for saving me a couple hundred bucks on a new unit!
Tourer
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 491
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From: Manitoba, Canada
no problem, glad I could help .... IMO these lights are very poorly put together considering what HD charges for them
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Joined: Apr 2008
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From: NEW YORK
BTW what did you use to seal the housing back up? And did you simply silicon the two boards together or did you solder the two contacts?
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Tourer
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 491
Likes: 5
From: Manitoba, Canada
I just used silicon and it been okay, no problems.
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lazy eye
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Feb 1, 2012 08:18 AM
