I'm looking at upgrading my grips as well as a few other minor changes. Is there anything I should be aware of..doesn't seem too complicated? Thanks.

 

Compressed air helps ALOT if you have access to it. Blow some air between the grip and the bars and you should be able to work it back and forth till it pops off.

 

that's what she said

 

There are small brass ferrules at the ends of your cables, be careful not to lose them when you take the cable out, they're slippery suckers. Here's a link about changing them:

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/chass...and-grips.html

If you're going to wrench on your bike, you might wanna invest in a service manual.Good investment.

 

The instructions that come with the grips should take care of most issues such as shimming the brake lever before removing and watching for the copper wedge in the right control falling out.

As stated watch you don't lose the brass ferrules that hold the throttle/idle cables in.

Some guys cut the left grip off. I was able to work a wire under mine and it came off fairly easy. The new HD ones I installed required no glue.

 

I changed mine out twice and it doesn't seem half the work that most tutorials make it out to be.

On the left side, I did not need any tools or chemicals nor did I need to cut the grip in order to remove it. All I did was unscrew the switch housing so that it was no longer clamped to the grip. Grasping the grip firmly I began to twist it gently back and forth (like it were a throttle) until I felt the adhesive begin to break free. As I felt it go lose I began to simultaneously pull the grip out of the bar while continuing the twisting motion. Once the grip was off I just used a rag dabbed with some GOOF OFF to clean the old glue off the bar. Some new glue and slide the new grip on making sure it is far enough in to allow the switch housing to clamp back over it properly. Most H-D left side grips have a rubber lip on the open end that fits into a groove in the switch housing to help keep it in place.

The right side is not quite as easy but still not a big deal. I first loosened the throttle and idle cable adjusters till I had plenty of slack. Then I unscrewed the switch housing. I pulled the top switch housing open as mush as I could to allow access to the cables inside. I twisted the throttle to the open position and carefully removed the throttle control cable ferrule from the grip. Now here is the tricky part. Twisting the throttle closed does not provide enough slack in the other cable to remove it from the grip. The trick that I used (which was the simplest solution for a total newb like me at the time) was to remove my air cleaner cover and filter so that I could access the throttle opening behind it. I twisted the throttle grip open to open the butterfly. While the butterfly was open, I places the rubber grip of a screwdriver in the throttle mouth to prevent it from snapping closed. This allowed me to rotate the throttle grip to the closed position but the cable remained slack because the actual throttle mechanism was still open. I then removed that ferrule. I cleaned off the bar, added white grease to it and dripped some Super Oil into my throttle cable housings, slid the new grip on and reversed the process. To put things back together.

Adjust your throttle and idle cables and check that the throttle snaps closed and does not bind. Follow your service manual instructions for adjusting those cables.

 

OOH YEA! She said that too!

 

gonna need the Goo Gone

 

on the clutch side i used a knife to cut around the housing instead of removing it so it has a water seal to keep the water out and just slide the knew one flush to the housing
the drivers side watch for the small parts that fall out or into the housing. when you get the top half off take some pictures before and then you can get the new one in correct.

 

Thanks for the help. We'll see how it goes.