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That retaining collar on the left grip serves 2 purposes. First it holds the grip onto the bar preventing it from slipping off. Secondly it stops the grip from rotating as the larger diameter section on the bottom half will not fit inside the groove on the top clamshell half. These accessory grips from Harley have a much bulkier retaining collar than the oem grip supplied from the factory. It's really quite simple to determine if any trimming is required and I agree....it shouldn't be but sometimes that's just not the case. If any part of the plastic collar sits above the mating edge on the switch housing it must be trimmed. Plain and simple as the top will never sit over the collar to allow a proper fit gap-free. Another tip is to install the left grip first before the throttle side grip so that you can properly align the bar & shield logos on both sides with each other. The left side grip will only install in one position but you can rotate the throttle side to any position on the twist grip sensor "gear" to allow for proper alignment. I should also add that while it's rare I have sometimes had to shave down the collar on the throttle grip as well just a little to decrease the diameter just a hair as the throttle would bind or stick when the clamshells were tightened down. And that's after checking that the throttle grip is pulled slightly away from the end of the handlebar so as to not hang up and drag on the bar end. Sometimes these pricey accessory parts from Harley don't fit the way they "should" and need a little tweaking.
Last edited by wide glider; Dec 4, 2022 at 09:37 PM.
Reason: Additional info added
I never ever had to trim these grips to install them - check and recheck that everything is in place before butchering the half moons because they are supposed to prevent the grips from rotating when installed...
Put a little coating of Vaseline on the clamping area and wiped it off, leaving it with a greasy sheen. Slowly walked the bolts down, tightening, loosening, front to back, repeated a few times. Then gave it a good ol over tighten and got them to seat to the point that I am satisfied, without stripping, looked at it and said that aint goin no where. Problem solved. Thanks everyone
Put a little coating of Vaseline on the clamping area and wiped it off, leaving it with a greasy sheen. Slowly walked the bolts down, tightening, loosening, front to back, repeated a few times. Then gave it a good ol over tighten and got them to seat to the point that I am satisfied, without stripping, looked at it and said that aint goin no where. Problem solved. Thanks everyone
Put a little coating of Vaseline on the clamping area and wiped it off, leaving it with a greasy sheen. Slowly walked the bolts down, tightening, loosening, front to back, repeated a few times. Then gave it a good ol over tighten and got them to seat to the point that I am satisfied, without stripping, looked at it and said that aint goin no where. Problem solved. Thanks everyone
Glad to hear you got it sorted out. That being said, they should have fit without issue. I added, and internally wired them when I swapped out my bars (1.25" Khrome Werks) on my previous 2012 Ultra Classic. No issues at all.
Not sure what the "Does not fit 08-13 models with internally wired handlebars" is all about?? Maybe that refers to the stock bars...maybe not drilled appropriately??
Anyway...in my humble opinion, the Kahuna's are the best/nicest grips that HD offers. Not cheap but I liked them so much, I pulled the stock heated rubber grips off my 2020 RGL a month after I got it and replaced with Kahuna's. Enjoy!
I ran into this exact issue last spring when doing Empire collection heated grips on the stock bars on my 2014 SGS. I've done grip replacement before including heated grips, and never had this issue. I have enough mechanical experience to know when I've screwed up...I didn't. No amount of fussing, fiddling, or twerking would make any difference. There was simply no way to get them on without removing some material with a Dremel. This was infuriating to me.
Since doing this project, I've added other components from the Empire collection and I have run into a number of fitment issues. Not sure what they are smoking over there at the Moco these days.
If nothing else, seeing your problem validated that it wasn't me.
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