Fender Tip Lights (cont.) - Front Fender Tip
Now the front fender tip light turned out to be a different animal all together. Gave me a headache. It was shown in the service manual that the front fender tip light socket is present under the fuel tank!!
And requires a 2 way AMP Multilock socket
BUT, no such socket turned out to be present when I removed/slid back the fuel tank. But I learned how to remove/slide back the fuel tank in the process...lolz. So here it is -
How to Remove/Slide Back a Harley Softail Fuel Tank -
So the first step is to remove the seat/s
Then the Leather Tank Bib screw (Torx 25) is removed
Which reveals the main Fuel Tank (Rear) bolt which is to be removed (Torx 40)
Then we move to the front of the fuel tank which is held in place by this long bolt
and the acorn nut on the other side
Then the fuel line is removed. Very simple tech. Just push the steel lock up and pull the fuel line from below (like a compressed air line).
And then the tank can be slid back to reveal the electrical connectors which are under this rubber boot
BUT surprise surprise, the front fender tip socket was missing. Perhaps because they have not provisioned for it in the India spec models. The left hand side sockets -
So searched the right side sockets. No fender tip socket there either
So now I WAS STUCK. Where do I provision the 12V current without cutting or disturbing any original wiring? So a distress call was made to the friendly Capital Harley Technician and problem explained. He suggested to me that the current can be drawn from the accessory wiring that powers the Front Fog/Auxiliary lights. So that was uncovered -
In the above picture you can make out that one wire socket is hanging free (orange socket) which according to him is the negative terminal and the positive terminal (also in orange cover) is attached to the fog light switch.
So I disconnected the positive terminal from the switch and took it out and also marked the already free negative terminal so I don't mix them up -
But NOW the problem was that according to him, the positive wire had to be cut and a extra wire soldered there to provide current to the front fender tip light. But I NEVER wanted to cut or touch the original wiring. So what to do?
The difference in the sockets can be seen clearly here and that is what gave me a IDEA! Bazingaa...
Why not to use, an easily available in the market, a One horn x 2 wire which comes with nearly every dual horn kit, to fit in all automobiles with a single horn -
So 2 of these kits were procured @20 bucks each. Checked the wire specs and they were a good quality 0.5mm multi-strand wire with IS standards, so should be good to go
Now the next PROBLEM was as to how to route the wire from the front fender to this switch near the headlight? So I checked some posts and opened up the entire front fender tip to look for clues (eventually this too was not needed)
The wire was eventually routed from inside the fender, there was a clip there, and also 2 zip ties were also used to tie the wire securely near the shocker bolts
Eventually the wire was routed along with the existing brake and ABS lines with plenty more zip ties. This is how the innards looked stuck with 3M tape (creepy, yeah)
But once covered, the results were fantastic. Better than OE, I would say
Here the middle row of the 5 LEDs is clearly visible
That's all folks, for now!
Cheers...