Milwaukee Eight (M8) 2017 and up M8 Air and Liquid Cooled discussion
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Old May 1, 2020 | 08:03 AM
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Default Frankenstein Nightmare

So had this bright idea to build a 2017 Road Glide on the cheap. And did. It’s a beautiful bike. Certified straight salvage frame from a 2017 Electra Glide Ultra. No big deal. All the touring frames are the same. 2018 M8 air cooled motor with 1090 miles on it. Everything else to the specs of a 2017 RG. Take 3 months buying parts from HD and the Long Beach Motorcycle Swap meet. The used ECM came out of a 2017 RG. speedo and Tach cluster came from who knows where. The bike is finished. Looks amazing. runs great. Out riding Monday. Smooth at 110 mph out in the desert.
The only problem... Speedo reads VINERR because the ECM and speedo aren’t married. Take it to the dealer. They say no big deal. You can ride lit like that. Won’t hurt the bike. But it hurt my feelings every time I looked t it... because everything else was PERFECT.
Dealer tells me only solution is a new ECM and Speedo cluster. So I drop the $1200 bucks for the parts and install.
Here is the problem... The bike was built as a RG but the Vin is for a 2017 FLHTK. The Vin causes the New ECM to look for the oil cooled Electra Glide Ultra engine... which isn’t there. So it throws the Check Engine light... which now puts the bike in limp mode because it thinks there is a problem with the cooling system that isn’t there.
the simple solution would have been to put a RG Vin in the New ECM... but obviously the dealer can’t legally do that... and now it’s married to the Brand new speedo... which can’t be divorced.
So... the dealer is now talking with the Harley Factory service department to see if it’s possible to train the ECM to

look for specs as the bike was built rather than the specs ascribed by the original Vin #.
Any ideas?

 
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May 1, 2020, 04:08 PM
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Old May 1, 2020 | 04:08 PM
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Old May 1, 2020 | 04:41 PM
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I have one for you. Take the old ECM and buy a new speedo and mate it to the old ECM and you should be good.
I bought a digital/analog gauge combo used from a guy and he threw in his old ECM and I swapped the ECM on my softail. That is a thought for you.
 
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Old May 1, 2020 | 09:11 PM
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that^

you didn't have to buy a new ecm when you bought the new speedo. only the speedo was necessary.
 
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Old May 1, 2020 | 09:15 PM
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Bit of advice about the concept of " PERFECT " and motorcycles, no such thing in this life. You can get damned close but you'll never really get there
 
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Old May 1, 2020 | 09:16 PM
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Just wondering if a Thundermax tuner would solve your problem. It replaces the stock ECM completely.
 
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Old May 1, 2020 | 09:20 PM
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Diag4Bike would have done it fine
 
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Old May 2, 2020 | 04:49 AM
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Old May 2, 2020 | 05:39 AM
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MJ. Where do you come up with this stuff...too funny
 
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Old May 2, 2020 | 05:57 AM
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Originally Posted by GlidingJoe
MJ. Where do you come up with this stuff...too funny
way too much idle time obviously..bored, raining, locked down and I finished Netflix
 
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