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Road bike, everything working great, to gym. When I came out, fuel gauge and speedo not working. Everything else is cherry. Visibly checked all fuses and they look good, no breaks. Didn't have light tester with me. Important to re-check with tester?
This problem is above my pay grade. Clue might be the dumb-*** move I made. After installing and riding for a couple weeks with neon glow lights under bike at front and back, had a pair of hot wires (red) disconnect. I "accidentally" reconnected them to a ground wire in-line with T-Tap wire connector.
I own a multimeter, light tester and just need some direction on trouble-shooting this thing out.
Feel free to take pot-shots at me for the smooth move
First up reverse everything by disconnecting your wiring. Make sure everything then works correctly on the bike.
Any wiring I have done on my bike I make reversible. I create Y connectors at applicable connectors so that I can unplug my wiring and return the bike to stock.
I have added led accent lights and used the accessory connector on the bike. I didn't use the HD harness but they do make a daisy chain arrangement for accessory into that plug on a Sportster.
On bikes that have a CAN DLC connector one of those pins is switched power and HD makes a lead for that to daisy chain devices to.
Last edited by Andy from Sandy; Jan 13, 2023 at 08:20 AM.
Ok. Thanks for input. See attached pic. I undid the lights and removed the wire taps. Tested all fuses with light tester and they checked out good. Where do I go from here?
Check the wires on your extra lights for any sign of damage. If you have a 12volt source check them off the bike first. Maybe a small 9volt battery will do.
If everything on the bike is working perfectly then make sure to pick the correct wires for positive and negative and connect up your lights again.
See if you can find a supply that doesn't involve using those crimp splice things. I suspect as you have used them you have compromised the insulation on some wires in the loom?
Last edited by Andy from Sandy; Jan 17, 2023 at 09:12 AM.
Your malfunctions may or may not be related to the mods you made. Ive been bitten several times by coincidences.
- closely examine the wires that you spliced into. By design those taps damage the wires, and if you used too small tap for the wires then you could have severed them. As well they can chew the wires up due to the vibration on the bike.
- after you disconnect everything you added, and examined the tapped wires, check all the fuses with a multi meter.
- if all the above checks out, then it sounds like you are in the coincidence territory. Youll need to get the factory service Manuel, and reference the schematics to figure out where its screwed up. If two gauges are scrued up, its likely a ground or power that is common to both of these.
By the way, Im very happy with using those heated solder shrink connector things. Especially when there is enough room to slide on regular best shrink and shrink it on top after melting the solder. Ive never had one go bad on motorcycles or boats. Make sure you use the smallest that will fit over the wires. I twist the wires together, then slide the connector with the solder over the wires, then heat with a heat gun until the solder melts, and the shrink tube shrinks.
Im ok putting two wires in one or both sides. But, if I need to connect more than that I daisy chain them.
Last edited by TriGeezer; Jan 17, 2023 at 10:07 AM.
Road bike, everything working great, to gym. When I came out, fuel gauge and speedo not working. Everything else is cherry. Visibly checked all fuses and they look good, no breaks. Didn't have light tester with me. Important to re-check with tester?
This problem is above my pay grade. Clue might be the dumb-*** move I made. After installing and riding for a couple weeks with neon glow lights under bike at front and back, had a pair of hot wires (red) disconnect. I "accidentally" reconnected them to a ground wire in-line with T-Tap wire connector.
I own a multimeter, light tester and just need some direction on trouble-shooting this thing out.
Feel free to take pot-shots at me for the smooth move
Thanks
And after these bounce around for a while, they saw through the wire. Even worse if they are exposed to the elements. Do you yourself a favor, and toss these.
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