I recently installed the 56512-08A heated grips on my 2009 Ultra and thought I'd relate my experiences before I forget them. My model of grips is the most basic style, but the instructions covered many styles. 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.

 

Thanks for the write up. I was considering HD's heated grips as a future purchase, but was curious what all was involved on the install.
Take care,
Dave

 

One of the few items I let the dealer install. Glad I did.

 

I asked my local dealer service manager about installing HD heated grips on my 08 Ultra. He said don't do it, buy a good pair of heavy gloves. I guess he has installed a few and they end up coming back to be repaired.
Just my 2 cents

 

Damn - you need to be writing installation instructions for Harley! Or at least proof-reading them for accuracy and completeness! Really excellent write-up, thanks for pointing out all the pitfalls - I may pass on this particular install myself, I don't have the patience to do some of what you described.

 

Thanks for the kind words. I do a lot of technical writing and review in my work and can't stand to see instructions that look like the writer never actually ran through them and followed them verbatim. In this case I think that the electrical portion just wasn't updated for the 2009 models (I know that my 2007 Road King does have some fuses under the right side panel.)

Harley's instructions in general are still a lot better than BMW's.

 

I was concerned with installing them with the TBW so I paid the dealer to "professionally install" mine at purchase. Later when I had the fairing cover off running the wire for my GS I got to see their work. What looked to be the control wire was spliced into the headlight power wire. The power wire was snap-spliced on the cigarette lighter hot lead. There was lots of extra wiring simply coiled up and laying in there. I disconnected it all when I connected the GPS. I didn't get the installation instructions but I assumed the wires were that long because they are supposed to run back to the fuse box. Before cool weather I'll try to get a copy of the instructions and finish it myself.
Thanks for your post.

 

I just completed my installation and want to affirm that the fuse block wiring for my 08 FLHTCU is as cookiemech states...that there is no wire where the instructions state there should be. I finished the install assuming the power connection is indeed buried in the fuse block rather than discretely wired, and the grips work as they should.
Also,the supplied electrical schematic for the heated grips is leaving out some details such as an apparent relay that is engaged from an ignition source circuit ( the most difficult and last connection to make in the fuse block) that allows the B+ power connection to provide the higher current for the grips to operate on. The relay must be located in the left grip.

Also, I had to take a Dremel tool and sanding drum to the handle bar end, maybe the first 1 inch, to get the left grip to fully slide up onto the bars. Measure the depth of the recess, and put some tape to mark the depth on your bars to make sure your grip is slid fully on. I had to remove some material on both the inside and outside of the bars, and still had to push the grip on.

The instructions with the grips are to install them as close to a factory original option as possible, therefore go pretty deep into the innards of the bike. I think other threads show that some dealers won't do the time to follow the instructions, especially for getting to the ignition switched circuit. One thread shows they tapped into the cigarette lighter power for that "signal". I probably have 8 hours invested as my first time doing this installation, but could probably do it in 3-4 hours without scratching anything, and at 65$ an hour, is $260 just for labor.

Finally, the MOCO only provides 2 cheap 10 cent crimp on termninals for the molex connector. Screw one up ( as I did even using a Molex crimper) and it won't seat in the connector correctly. You can order replacement pins at a 3 week wait, so instead I hardwired (soldered and shrink wrapped) some wire for the right side grip, used the supplied wiring to put a connector at the middle of the handle bars with about 6 inches excess from both left and right sides. That way when you slide the left grip on, you are not mashing 7 -8 inches of cabling up into your handlebars. Pull both out the middle of the bars into the fairing area, and connect them together there.

For what its worth

 

been doing my install great write up wish it was here before i started a few things i did to get the wire from one side of handle bar to the other used a wire and soaped it and feed it Thur one side to the other also used crimp connectors wiring up to throttle side still have a problem with fuse box which i will work on today i removed the orange tap but i did not have my volt meter to check it (work van in for service )
thanks gabe

 

I was out riding yesterday in the rain. It was a 45 degree or so day...wet...windy...the wife on the back to keep me warm...but my hands got cold. Not frigid cold, or numb, but cold; and it made me think I needed heated grips.

I'm glad I read all these posts as it really sounds like a pain in the rear to set it all up. My gloves cost me about $125. They aren't' the best but they are better than my summer gloves for sure. I had some really nice old Hein Gerhick (Spelling?) gloves from twenty years ago but during the years I wasn't riding I let my son take them snowboarding...never seen 'em again...

$250 is a lot for a pair of grips. For the amount of riding I do during the Winter is it worth it? I'm thinking right now about riding down to La Paz Mexico in a week or two just to dose up on some rays. I live in Seattle so getting through Washington, Oregon, and Northern California will take about 12 hours each way. That's a long freaking haul for cold hands. I guess I could supplement some hand warmer packets...

What I'm getting at is this: Are Heated Hand warmers worth the $ and hassle? Would my Dad call me a puss for whining about cold hands? Grampa didn't have heated grips, so why should I need them? A guy has to think utility to stay sharp. Make due with what I have so to speak.

I'd like to hear from other riders who ride in cold wet weather without them and also from people who have logged tons of miles with them...I'd like to compare experiences. Bottom Line...are heated grips necessary or just another gadget to spend hard earned money on? My Ultra Classic already has plenty of wires on it.