Looking to help a friend swap out his turn sigs on his 2014 Fat Bob, looking do direction and options.

 

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I just did it today on my Fat Bob. What do you want to know?

 

Here's a few links for supplies you'll need.

Plug and Play Wire Extensions
http://www.guerrillacables.com/2011_Softail.html

Or
Universal Length / Build your own kit
http://www.guerrillacables.com/Reloc...tail_Dyna.html

You'll need these OE style Barrel Crimpers which they sell if you go with the universal kit.
http://www.guerrillacables.com/Universal_Crimper.html

This company has good customer service. Used them before.


To remove from the stock location off the controls you'll need to cut the wires inside the controls and shrink wrap them shut to avoid any shorts/grounds. With the new length you can re-route from the signals new location (some one else verify???) should be a new plug in spot for them under the tank I believe. I know my softail CANBUS had them. Once everything is wired up and ready hit your flashers for like 10 flashes I think and it's supposed to re-learn the new location. I never "flashed" them and it already new as soon as I turned the key on. As far as mounting you'll just need to get some turn signal clamps from (your style choice / parts dealer of choice) for 49mm forks and bolt the signals on (assuming that's where he's putting them). My current bike I relocated them... Right to the junk pile of stock parts lol.

 

There are definitely two spare connectors in the loom under the tank. Each is a three way with ground, turn signal and running lamp connections. To get them, you need to take the tank off, and take the plastic cable door under the frame off.

Another way to do it without removing the tank would be to cut the wiring from the stock signals, solder on extension wires and feed them through the bars down to the trees and from there to wherever you relocate the signals to.

One thing I learnt.....the pre-soldered heat shrink wire connectors are awesome. They are a tube of see through heat shrink, with a solder ring in the middle, and adhesive sealant on each side. Just slide both wires in and heat with a heat gun to melt the solder, shrink the tube and fill any voids with sealant. Highly recommended.

 

Didn't know there was a set of traditional type three wire connectors built into the system. This is good to know.

He wanted to go one of three directions, he either wants to go with sig built into the mirrors or to relocate to the sigs to an LED style at the tree area or use a set of bar end type sigs.

With the three wire connector built into the loom at the neck, we can just remove the stock lights and wire in a set of sigs he chooses to use.

With the CABUS and the use of the traditional three wire connector, is the use of a module still needed to trick the system into not thanking the bulb is out when using LED's?

Funny, I have wired my 10' Street Bob tail lights so many times I know the system inside and out, but the CABUS system is a new beast for me to learn about.

 

Yes - you can just plug new signals straight into the spare connectors. However - there is one thing to be careful of.....if you use these connectors for the HD LED mirrors with built in turn signals, then you need to add in a "Y" harness that comes with the mirrors. This plugs into the spare connector, gives an additional spare connector for future use and converts the three wire signals to two - so the LED mirrors are always lit, and then flash when indicating for a turn.

On my 2014 CANBUS bike, no module was needed - everything just works fine. I have LED mirrors wired into the spare connectors under the tank, and LED bar end signals wired directly to the original stock turn signal wiring at the handlebar control modules.

 

Doesn't the CABUS system use a system much like a computer 0110010100110010 to talk between the light and and computer. I thought this remove the need for a traditional 18-20 gauge wire that requires the three wires to accomplish it's working goal. This would require teaching the computer what kinda frequency it need to see to work and making it hard to just cut and splice the new systems like we could do with the older systems.
I am guessing HD was smart enough to help avoid this need for the average at home tinkerer and added the traditional three wire connector and has the computer already set up to look for it's new frequency.

 

i did mine, its an 09 so not a canbus setup? i was able to fish my connectors out from the access below the tank without removing the tank,,, just undid it in front and shimmed it up for some extra room....plastic cover on underside of backbone is access...

 

I have spent a few hours reading the HD circuit diagrams, and tracing the wiring on my bike.....and here's how it works (to the best of my knowledge):

The CANBUS itself is indeed a digital network. It runs over a pair of wires (red/white and black/white stripes) and hooks the main digital modules on the bike together. These include the Engine Control Module, the Body Control Module and the Handlebar Control Units (there may be others, but I haven't needed to learn about those yet!)

The accessories on the bike are all wired into one of these CANBUS units - so the front turn signals have "regular" analog wires from the signals themselves to the Handlebar Control Units - but from those control units back to the Body Control Module, all the signals are sent digitally. This saves on needing to run individual wires for each function back from the bars to underneath the seat.

The rear turn signals are wired directly into the Body Control Unit.

So when you press one of the turn signal buttons, the Handlebar Control Unit talks to the Body Control Module to tell it there is a flash request, then both of these units tell the turn signals wired to them to flash by simply applying 12V to the turn signal wires. I presume the relevant flash speed is programmed into the BCM. The BCM will also be measuring the current draw at the signals to detect if there is a blown bulb. But it certainly seems to be able to compensate for the reduced current draw of LED signals.

The spare connectors under the tank are just straight analog wiring back to the BCM.

In a nutshell, this means that the wiring from the handlebar switches to the turn signals is regular old analog wiring. But the wiring from the switch units themselves back to the "brain" is digital. Don't mess with it!

One other thing to bear in mind......on the FXDF and some 2014 other bikes, the digital handlebar control units come with turn signals hard wired to them as a unit and are expensive to replace if you break them. If you want to run LED bar end indicators in place of the stock front signals, you need to cut this wiring as close to the signal as possible to give yourself room to solder on the bar end LEDs.