I've got a way of messing some of the easiest jobs up.

Reinstalling my Eliminator 300s (long story)... snapped a thread chaser off in one of the lower mounting holes. Completely my fault for using too much force on it. Broke off at an angle and attempts to extract it were futile. Ordered a whole new muffler bracket and am waiting for that to show up. The passenger floorboards and saddlebag guards have made this even more enjoyable. Had to order a set of long-reach Torx sockets to reach in there for the lower mounting hole on those.

In the meantime, I took the left side saddlebag off to clean behind it. Went to clean the threads out on the fender struts before reinstalling the hardware and sure enough, one of those gave me fits, too. Removed the rear bracket fender mount and it looks like the dealership messed the threads up on that while originally installing the Holdfast hardware for the Tour Pak. Going to get a replacement fender mount on order tomorrow.

Good thing it's winter, I guess.

 

WOW, you sure are not having luck chasing threads.

 

Sounds like the same problem we had when installing the tour pack mounts on my wife's 2019 Heritage. If found that the threads on the fender back plate were buggered up. I have had problems with commercially available thread chasers in the past. I now make my own out of grade 8 bolts

 

I have the saddlebag guards on order and should get them this week. I don’t have the long reach Torx sockets either. I decided to pay for an hour and let H-D install what “should be” a very easy install. Think they make this stuff hard on purpose??

 

I had the dealership install mine, too, before I picked up the bike because I read on here it was a little bit of a bear. To their defense, they seem to have done that install well enough. I didn't have the long-reach Torx at the time, but now that I do and having taken them off, it's an easy job with the right tools. I wouldn't hesitate to do it myself again.

This is the second time I've had an issue with the muffler bolts on this new frame. On my 2018 Heritage, the dealership had installed some Street Canons prior to putting it in the demo fleet. When I went to swap those for Rineharts, one of the bolts was snugged at an angle and I rounded it out trying to get that out. Now with the 2020, the bolts came out easy enough but when I went to reinstall, one got hung up. Figured it was just some thread locker but it must have been something else because, like I said, the thread chaser broke right off in there.

The Holdfast is the one that kind of ticks me off. That bolt will go about half way in before it starts going at an angle. It's a cheap and easy enough fix, but with the holidays, I can't get my hands on one any time soon. Same with the replacement muffler bracket.

 

I somehow deducted from previous posts and my experience that these issues are for pre 2019 years but I could be wrong here. Maybe MoCo learned something??? Dunno more people will have to comment to determine that. My bike is from 11/2018 on manufacturing date.

 

I got these bars from a very generous forum member last summer. They had rust spots all over them so I sanded and spray painted them matte black. I'm not the best painter by any means but they came out pretty decently. This will work for now until I can find a food powder coat shop around here.




The total rise on these bars is 12" with 9" risers and the bars have 3" of rise as well. They are quite a bit more narrow than the stock bars so that will be something I will need to get used to. Used NAMZ 8" switch and signal wire extensions and found I could have gone with the 4" extensions and been perfect. I just tucked the rest of the wiring in the frame and grommet.

Snaking the wires through the bars took me about half the day while getting super frustrated and mumbling a few select words. It was a pain in the *** to get the signal and switch wires through along with the throttle wires on the right side. No TBW extension needed as there is plenty of slack to leave it alone. The left was a breeze with just the switch and signal wires.

Swapped the upper clutch cable and it seems a bit long but will work fine for now. I still need to swap the upper brake line with the longer line and bleed but it got cold and I ran out of daylight after mocking up the bars and getting the wires tucked back away so I'll get that done this weekend.

I like The look and feel from sitting on the bike so far. Can't wait to get the brakes bled so I can try these out.

 

Hi BowHunter, Are you cycling the ABS module as you bleed brakes?

 

No I am using a mityvac bleeder and over bleeding the system as others have done with success. Apparently as long as the bike is not powered on until after bleeding and bleeding some more it will not allow air to be trapped in the ABS module. I will let you know how it goes.

 

This is news to me. I'm interested to know how you make out with this. Please keep us posted.