Hey everyone, new to Harley's here and recently got a 1987 FLHTC to turn into a project. I am stripping it to frame and building it back up. Have the factory manual, a Clymer manual, have been doing lots of reading on here, and already learned a lot. Engine is being overhauled to 83" with a Woods w6h cam, super E carb, weisco 10:1 pistons, and some head work. Suspension I am removing the air and replacing everything with Fox shocks in the rear and fox shock cartridges in the forks, I am debating on the late model swing arm upgrade too. Transmission I haven't quite figured out what I need to/should do to it. Would appreciate some input there.
I am currently running into issues with the fairing and wiring. My outer fairing is in ok shape, needed a little bit of repair, but my inner fairing and most of the gauges are busted. I looked for year correct replacements but they're damn near impossible to find or cost a lot when I do find them. I have seen on here where several people have updated to the newer style fairing and gauges, so am probably going to go that route.
My tentative plan is the get the appropriate inner and outer fairing as well as the brackets. For gauges I found a set of Dakota Digital MVX gauges that I am looking to use (given the speedometer is a cable driven, I emailed them to find out). I also am wanting to upgrade handlebar switches to the '96+ as well since mine have seen their better days, and there again impossible to find replacements.
My question then becomes, would it be possible to buy a 96 or 97 wiring harness and "simply" replace my current wiring harness? As I am having the frame powder coated, the wiring will have to come out anyways, so figured just replace with the wiring harness that has the connectors that will match gauges and switches to save on having to splice new connectors in. Unless for some reason that isn't feasible. Also will be removing the air suspension wiring, since that no longer going to be needed. Less gremlins to deal with.
How it looked when I picked it up Breakdown underway 167/800 Not sure if that's a "corvette" guy statistic or not. But will be reusing this gas tank cover, piece is too cool to get rid of it.
If you could find and use a '96-'98 era harness and gauges, you can make it work, but you would still have to modify some of the wiring.
This is the thread when I did the fairing swap, this is what I did, but there's other ways to go about the wiring and gauges https://www.hdforums.com/forum/evo/1...a-updates.html
I also still have the gauge cluster from the '90 Ultra if interested
Guys with your vintage touring bike move the battery from the side mount and put it under the seat. Then they get newer bags and pick up a lot of extra storage space, plus get rid of that ugly bump on the side of your bike. Do a search on the Forum, it was a popular modification 10+ years ago, definitely full threads on here how to do it. Good luck, cool bike.
If you could find and use a '96-'98 era harness and gauges, you can make it work, but you would still have to modify some of the wiring.
This is the thread when I did the fairing swap, this is what I did, but there's other ways to go about the wiring and gauges https://www.hdforums.com/forum/evo/1...a-updates.html
I also still have the gauge cluster from the '90 Ultra if interested
Just the person I was hoping would chime in. I have read through your thread a dozen times now I think lol
I know you spliced two harnesses together, but was trying to avoid that if possible, which is where I'm curious if a different year harness is more or less plug and play. Figure there is probably some stuff that will need to be removed, but not sure if the bulk will just mount right up, and then if it does mount up, will it even work. Not mechanically inept, however wiring has never been my strong suit. Is there a reason you took those two years and built your own?
As for the gauges themselves the MVX state plug and play for '96+ and the rep emailed me back and said it is not a cable speedo, but that they have an adapter part the allows it to work for cable driven. Your gauges are a good bit cheaper though so may end up with those.
It kind of sounds like I should be able to wire the bike as if it is a '96.
Guys with your vintage touring bike move the battery from the side mount and put it under the seat. Then they get newer bags and pick up a lot of extra storage space, plus get rid of that ugly bump on the side of your bike. Do a search on the Forum, it was a popular modification 10+ years ago, definitely full threads on here how to do it. Good luck, cool bike.
Already looking into that one too. Bike didn't come with bags, and finding the old ones is again impossible.
Just the person I was hoping would chime in. I have read through your thread a dozen times now I think lol
I know you spliced two harnesses together, but was trying to avoid that if possible, which is where I'm curious if a different year harness is more or less plug and play. Figure there is probably some stuff that will need to be removed, but not sure if the bulk will just mount right up, and then if it does mount up, will it even work. Not mechanically inept, however wiring has never been my strong suit. Is there a reason you took those two years and built your own?
As for the gauges themselves the MVX state plug and play for '96+ and the rep emailed me back and said it is not a cable speedo, but that they have an adapter part the allows it to work for cable driven. Your gauges are a good bit cheaper though so may end up with those.
It kind of sounds like I should be able to wire the bike as if it is a '96.
I did a quick eBay search for “Harley touring wire harness 1998” and got more hits than expected.
It can be made to work, it won’t just bolt up though, you would need the ‘98 wire diagrams, then plan out what you need and don’t need, depending what harness you start with, if off an efi bike, you’d need to change some stuff around, you may have some cruise control wiring, cb, audio wiring you might want to eliminate, you may be able to use a oem TSM or an aftermarket like the Badlands turn signal module, you could make your old style hand controls work or change to the 96+ hand controls.
Also mounting fuse box and such.
Go to FB page”Harley PDF Manual trade and share”, you can get manuals and wiring diagrams
That’s good they make the MVX gauges for back to ‘96, and the speedo sender.
I tore apart two harnesses and made my own with the parts.
I did the wiring and fairing in a couple weeks time, I put about 8k miles on it since then, it took me two years to finally finish the paint on the bags and side covers.
Thats one of the reason I was looking late 90s, I know they still made carbed versions so figured it would be one less wiring nightmare to deal with. I'll look for the late 90's harness and then split it open to pull out the few things I wont need. My clymer manual has a wiring diagram for a 96 flhtc I believe. If not ill look into getting one of those too. So you just used the two years and made your own so you only had what you needed? not really a specific reasoning due to year or anything?
One issue you may have with the harnesses is that HD changed the connectors over time. I know my '91 has very different connectors than my '97. Not only are the plastic plugs different, the but the crimped on wire ends are also different. Hacking and splicing would of course work with time. I would ditch the Clymer door stop and get the correct factory wiring diagram for your bike and the donor harness.
Guys like NAMZ do not make new harnesses? I think I would give them a call.
04-03-2024, 09:35 AM
1987 FLHTC Build
looking forward to your progress.