Anyone done this with Chubby 575 bars?

 

I live in Central Wa and ride most all year. I bought heated gloves and hav no problem in cold weather. 11 degrees on Jan 1st and road with warm hands.

 

The first bike I had with heated grip was a BMW F 650 and, I also live in the PNW, I ride all year. This bike had them when I "inherited" it, but that is what sold me on them. When I bought my '09 Ultra I had the dealer install heated grips (part of the deal) and apparently installing them is quite an ordeal (I was going to do it myself and glad I didn't!) Final analyisis....... I would have heated grips if I lived in Florida.....

 

My hat is off to you and thanks for all the effort. HD needs to look at this. It is ridiculous that you cannot just plug the Heated Grips in without having to pull them through the bars. I've had my fairing off plenty of times. I'm no expert HD mechanic, but I look at that job and I just do not want to do it. I'm afraid I'll screw something up from breakage...(I have a Phobia of Wiring) Im not an idiot, but I look at this and think, "Your kidding right?" I've installed my J&M stereo myself... I once tried to replace my ON/Off switch only to turn back because it was friggen impossible without knowing what the hell I was doing. (you have to had been there) Life ain't supposed to be easy, but with so little time to enjoy myself riding, I'd sure like for these should be simple little things to be easy to do. I'll take my motor in to get rebuilt, I'll pay to have my clutch or tranny, or something requiring "Specialized Skill" to accomplish.

But to have to feed a wire through a whole, RISKING damage to other EXPENSIVE, Technical wiring...Throttle, Radio, CD, Cruise Control, Etc....is frickin' LUDICROUS!!!

Hey HD. You want me to buy HD accessories? Make 'em easy to install and quit friggin around. Heated Grips should be factory installed , or at least plug in easy enough to just unbolt, take off, put on, plug in. We all don't live in Phoenix, and I understand it does get cold there too. The money HD loses on Chargeable Hourly Rates at the Dealership will be offset by R&R Rear Tires and Balancing.

Read quote below:

This was not the most pleasant job.

While pulling the twist grip sensor out of the right side bar, you will need to feed the other end of its cable (disconnected inside the fairing) back into the slot/hole in the center of the bar (don't just "pull" it as the instructions say.) Page 3, Step 4, you are instructed to crimp the two Multilock terminals onto the sensor wires; unless you happen to have the special crimp tool you will be unlikely to be able to crimp them well enough to avoid shorting the connectors together when inserting them into the plastic connector housing. These are tiny wires and a tiny connector housing. I soldered them and used heat-shrink tubing after fiddling for quite a while with the terminals.

Prior to Page 6 Step 3 you are advised to use electrician's fish tape or air pressure to feed the harness through the bars. Don't even bother with the compressed air technique, since the right side bar is nearly full of wires for the electronic throttle (twist grip sensor.) Unless you have a tiny fish tape (standard fish tape won't bend enough for the four sharp bends in the bars and will likely damage the throttle wiring), that won't work either. I used teflon-coated 16 gauge copper wire, feeding one piece from the right and one from the left, pulling them out the hole in the middle of the bar (not trivial), joining them, then pulling from the left side. It's a bit tedious getting the heated grip harness through the bar and past the wiring and connectors in the right side bar.

Page 4, Step 29 (plugging in the small connector in the end of the throttle grip) is VERY difficult. I recommend very small long-nose pliers, a chair, good light (I actually used a small light on an elastic strap around my forehead that my young nephew gave me for Christmas years ago; silly as it looked it worked very well because you need both hands free), patience, and NO beer. The f***ing contacts are about as thick as small mechanical pencil lead and are not rigidly fixed in the rubber connector, so they flex inward while you move them toward the female part of the connector. And you can't see the contacts as they engage the female part since the rubber connector blocks your view. Party.

Wiring: Page 5 Step 6 is just plain wrong for 2009 Touring bikes. Fuse box is under the left side cover, not the right. Step 7/8: When you look at the back side of the fuse box, you will see what appears to be an empty metal terminal on one side of the "P&A IGN" slot (other side is empty, as expected.) This terminal is NOT empty; it has an internal jumper that you can't see which connects to the proper power source. Do NOT attempt to remove it (trust me; I tried and UGLY things happen.) Just install the orange/white wire from the kit in the other side of this fuse spot and you'll be fine.

The heated grips do work properly. I just hope that they've improved the quality since they made the ones for my 2007 Road King, because the originals lasted about three months. If there were aftermarket heated grips that worked on these bikes, I'd buy them, but I don't want wires hanging down or crap on the outside of the stock grips. I really need them for temperatures below about 55° to 60°F; circulation in my hands isn't great and I'd rather not hook up my heated gloves.

You know, installing these would be a snap if the bikes came pre-wired for heated grips. Guess that would deprive service departments of three or four hours labor charges, but I'm thinking that very few techs enjoy doing this particular job.[/quote]

 

I'm about to install harley heated grips 56512 on an 08 road king and appreciate the detailed tips on installation. I don't have the grips yet but have the instructions printed out. I'm good with wiring things up but I have not taken apart throttle by wire (TBW) before either. The question I have is why do we splice or solder into the black harness coming from the center of the twist grip per instructions. I don't undertand why we would mess with the TBW wires on right side to install heated grips that get powered from the left hand grip...I undertsand wiring /electronics well but the instructions don't help me follow the logic it seems the heated grip wiring would have nothing in common with the wires but obviously I'm missing something in the mechanics.

Thanks

 

The plain ones, which are stock for the FLHTK, are Plug and Play. I got those, because I don't like having to mess with my wiring harness. Anyhow the where installed by the dealer.

 

They use the twist grip sensor as a pass-thru because you can't get the right grip wire past it. Besides the two TBW wires there is another heated grip wire inside the handlebar.

 

Ok, I think I'm starting to understand it now. Is the splice going into TBW wires or is the splice going into wires made to be used by heated hand grip wiring if installed?

Thanks

 

the black wire is for heated grips only (the two TBW wires have green insulating sleeves on them)

 

Following the tips on this thread which was huge I completed the install successfully. The hardest part was trying to understand the installation instructions. What I found the most confusing before I started the job was the wiring for the TBW right side grip. If I had seen a picture of what it looked like before I started it would have been very easy for me. I didn't understand how we got power thru the FBW assembly and how the heated grip plugged into it until I got it apart. The heated grip wires were pigtailed off to the side dead ended coming out of the throttle grip sensor shown in my pictures, see my fingers holding the black shrink tube. Just open that black wire bundle up for the two wires inside, solder some extension wires to those and feed thru handle bars to opening in nacelle. The right heated grip plugs into the end of the TBW senser with two male prongs. Left side grip no issues straight forward install except the left grip took a little force to slide all the way on handle bar. The heat feels great so far worth the effort.