Removed rear fender

[Rick]

removed rear fender today to ship it back to BDM for a repaint due to ding from a spike in the tire. Found some interestring stuff along the way.

disconnected rear tail light connection

Remove strut bolts

My little helper

Removed one bolt on each side, this lets you drop the fender on the tire.

Fender, struts and sissy bar removed

Removed sissy bar and found rusted bolts and bolt holes

Found I had hit the rear swing arm on the frame stops. Don't know how this happened?? You would think BDM would put rubber stops on them?

Disassembled the fender struts and tail lights from the fender

saw two layers of shrink tubing on the ends of the tail light wire harness. Did some inspection and found what I already thought was the case. When I had the dealer install the new fender struts fro the sissy bar rather then taking the time to unhook the wires from the connections, they just cut and spliced the wires.

In addition to the wire splicing, they crushed the wires between the fender and the strut on reassembly

Finally the reason for removing the fender

Now time for a beer

 

[Oscar Maldonado]

Damn! That sucks.

 

[Rick]

Damn! That sucks.

Yeah i am now a firm believer in either doing the work on my BD myself or seriously inspecting the work of the dealer.

 

[Raywood]

Good job Rick, now get a big tube of die-electric grease and some shrink wrap and weather proof all that wiring when you put it back together.
To bad the dealer didn't do it the right way but at least you found some future problems or grounds.

Great post,
Ray

:flag:

 

[mudslinger]

Ray is right.

surprissed to see the crushing????
Good thing your on the job there!

:2thumbs:

 

[LDO]

Rick,
nice work. I tell ya, when it comes to wiring, I TRUST NO ONE!!!

Also, it looks like you have recruited yourself a great garage helper!!! :2thumbs:

 

[Rick]

Thanks LDO saw your son in the garage in a previous post as well. Always nice to have company in the garage. :2thumbs: She will probably be a far better wrench than I.

 

[LDO]

Thanks LDO saw your son in the garage in a previous post as well. Always nice to have company in the garage. :2thumbs: She will probably be a far better wrench than I.

Or at least, a better wrench than the dealer who screwed up your wires!!

 

[Raywood]

Rick, while you have the fender and side covers off you may as well take the tank off and do up all the wiring. With all the miles you like to do you water proof it like this.

From this;

[/IMG]
To this;

And my little helper. Ha ha

 

[Rick]

Ray I am all over it! I printed out the how to Gas posted on doing the wires. That is on my list before I reassemble. I also found other wires rubbed through see below.

I plan on inspecting the entire harness and making adjustments where needed. I really wish they had lef the traditional 12V system on these bikes like I had on my '03 chopper.

 

[Raywood]

I found a few wires like that on mine. You will be doing some serious long term maintenance and prevention so good on you!

I'm looking forward to that beer tap!

 

[mudslinger]

Have not took my tank off ,Yet .
But did notice the old owner did dialectric grease the fittings I can see.
seems like a really good thing to do.

 

[bdmridgeback]

IT'S GOOD TO KNOW THAT OUR TRUSTY BDM DEALERS ALWAYS HIRE PROFESSIONAL MECHANICS TO DO THIS WORK!!

My god that is awfull! See this Big Dog? This is why you have twice as many warranty claims than you should!!

 

[slowrower]

Another steeler shows thier true colors .. Also get some conformal spray coating as GAS sugggests in one of his how-to's to seal the electronics in the lights.

 

[Gas Man]

Good job Rick... I give you major credit... I'm not sure I would trust my young kid that close to the bike with a wrench. She is adorable though.

Further, on the marks on the swing arms. that is the same thing I have on my dog. It's from the swingarm compressing all the way up and hitting the bottom of your fender struts. Its not hard enough to F up metal but enough to F up the powdercoating. Remove your fender stops and put at least big fender washers between them and the frame. It needs an additional 1/2" I'd say. I mentioned this in somebody's air ride thread... I told you guys I wasn't smokin the grass!

 

[LDO]

I've gone thru my wiring several times and I always seem to find something that makes it better. I use solder joints where I can and then terminals and environmentally sealed splices everywhere else.

 

[Tim]

Nice write up and on hell of a cute helper. :2thumbs:

 

[Rick]

Props to Gas on his How to's. Yall don't know how much goes into one till you try it. You need two people to do one, one gut to wrench and another person to take pics and document the whole process. I started out planning on doing a through how to, but then drank a few beers and decided I would leave how to's to the pro (Gas Man). I did get a bit accomplished though see below. Don't know if I will ever live down the tappet screen!

 

[LDO]

Nice job. I've had my bike torn down like that and even more so many time it ain't funny.

I usually have the wife take the pics though, I'm no good at it and I get too focused when I start something...

 

[Gas Man]

For the record... I do all my how to's by myself... I wrench, I take pics, I write notes... it doubles ++ my time to do the job.

And thanks for the props... i do what I can to help...