I just did this over the winter and here are a few tips to make your life easier.

1. Don't worry about a special tool to get the pins out of the plugs I found a small screwdriver or piece of wire worked great for pushing the little lock clips out of the way.

2. Draw out the outline of the plug and write out the colors of the wire for each spot before you take the plug apart, great reference and really speeds up the install.

3. If your going to run the wires thru the bars cut off all but 3 inches of the factory wire protection from the switch side of the wires and pull it off. Get the smallest heat shrink tubing that will fit all your wires and cover them with that. (I used a salamander heater to shink the tubing, but it was winter time.) I tucked an inch or so of the new covering under the factory protection and used a little electrical tape to seal it up.

4. Don't disconnect the brake line or the clutch cable from the handles just loosen the screws and hang them safely out of the way. That way you don't have to adjust anything but the throttle cables on installation.

5. Make sure all your grommets are in place on the bars before you pull the wires thru so you don't have to start over. ( don't ask)

Take your time and make good notes on what you've disconnected and you'll be fine. The throttle is a piece of cake to do but watch those brass ferrells because they are a pain to find if you drop them. Have everything there when you start that you'll need and it will take a couple of hours if you take time out for smoke breaks. Post up with any questions and I'll help guide you thru it. If you look at my past write ups I have the job I did on my Road King written up with pictures. Good luck.

 

This is what we did also... only it took longer than 4 hours... I think we started at 7 and got done around 1 a.m....... u might want to tell your friends the beer comes after the job is finished.

Anyway, we got it done that night so it was no biggie... usually how are mod sessions are.

 

I just finished swapping the bars on my Springer and it is time-consuming, but very doable. I am no wrench and it probably took me 5-6 hours of actual labor. I confess that I do not know how to take apart the connectors, so I just cut them loose, threaded the wires through the bars and soldered all the connections. It looks great and everything works so it must be okay. I admit to a little sense of pride having done it myself, too.

If my wife decides to go with different bars on her Heritage, I would do it again.

 

dealer here wanted $700-800 to do my internally wired drags. i thought to myself they were HIGH on crack!!

So i did them myself. took pics of the wires and got out the service manual. my service manual has great wiring diagrams. I just took my time and got it done correctly with saving $700. it can be done. the trickiest part is getting the wires out of the harness, but once you figure out how to release the pins, it is fairly easy.

good luck

 

MCSarge
Thanks a million for the detailed tips!

 

Don't let this discourge you but your going to have to syphon out your tank and disconnect the crossover tubing.

Once the tank is pretty empty you'll have to slide it back to access the wiring connector. A small ice pic will release the wires. The best thing to do is to draw a diagram of what color wire goes where.

You'll also want to have a nice cloth to cover your tank. You don't want to screw up the paint. In the pic below you can see the tank crossover (chrome tubing) is disconnected and the lite gray box is the connector.

If and when the time comes, I found all those pics.

I did the entire job by myself. The few buddies I did this with were here on the forum.

 

Your 08 does not have deutsh connectors, it has molex connectors, which are a bit more difficult to remove the pins. Have fun.

 

First of all, before anything, buy the serviuce manual...best 65 or whatever you'll ever spend. Describes in detail how to get to connectors, wiriomg diagrams, how to remove pins, remove the tank properly (fuel line is pressurized) lots of tips and tricks that will keep you from wrecking stuff.

 

Some great information here guys... Thanks!! I am planning to do new handle bars in the future myself! Still deciding between Wild1, Carlini and Z-bars....

 

07FXSTC, +1, and nuff said. I got plenty of pics when I did mine over the winter...

JUST DO IT!! (not to be confused with Nike)...