I finally got around to installing my HD mini-tach (68953-04) and HD tapered chrome cover (67524-04) on my 2001 Road King Classic using the nacelle chrome billet mini-tach mount (68961-98A). I have only owned the RKC for a couple months and I have been busy doing other improvements to it as time and money permitted. Before starting the install, I put tape on the fork lock cover and marked the center point. I next put tape on the front of the tach mount bracket and marked the center point. I placed the mounting bracket on the fork lock cover, centered it at the marks and drew a reference line for use with the drilling template.

The install went easy as I removed my headlight trim ring, headlight retainer, unplugged the headlight and removed the inner surround. I removed my detachable windshield and then removed the top of the nacelle trim piece. I took off the fork lock cover, placed the drilling template onto it, and made my two marks.

I drilled the two holes, loosely fastened the bracket to the cover and placed a reference mark for drilling a hole for a small rubber grommet halfway between the bracket and the top of the nacelle trim piece. I connected the wires to the tach per the instructions and mounted the tach into the bracket. I installed the tach cover and ran the wire bundle through the rubber grommet to make a neat finish. I installed the fork lock cover, fished the wire harness through the nacelle, and let the wires hang out the front.

I removed the seat, took the dash off, and laid it upside down on a towel on the frame. I located the pink tach wire, which was part of the speedometer wire harness. The pink wire was not part of the actual plug but was folded back with part of a plastic connector on the end and was wire tied to the harness. I cut the wire tie to free up the pink wire and cut off the plastic connector.

Inside the headlight nacelle, I located a black wire with a female spade plug. I also located an orange/white wire with a female spade plug with red plastic cover that I removed. I used a multi-meter to confirm that the black wire was a ground wire and the orange/white wire had 12 volts to it. I temporarily attached the tach wires as per the instructions and fired up the bike. The tack worked fine.

I disconnected the temporary wiring setup, proceeded to use a straight piece of coat hanger to fish only the pink tach wire from the nacelle, under the gas tank, along the frame, ran it along the speedometer wiring harness, and used a butt splice to connect the two pink wires. I reinstalled the dash cover and seat. I shortened the other two tach wires so they would fit inside the headlight nacelle and put male spades on both wires. The black tach wire was installed into the female spade connector of the nacelle black wire. The orange/white tach wire was installed into the female spade connector of the nacelle orange/white wire. The headlight assembly was reinstalled and the windshield put back on.

I fired up the bike and took it for a quick test ride. The tach works fine and I think it was worth the hour it took me to install. Harley missed the boat by not installing a tach as original equipment but at least I have one now.

 

What about some pics

 

Kewl.... I went with the Speedo\Tach Combo on my '01 RKC - I didn't want to give up my windshield bag (lol)

 

Sorry, no photos taken during the actual project as the wife had the camera in her purse and she was gone shopping. Here are a couple 'after' photos which I hope will do the install justice.

[IMG]local://upfiles/42703/EF2A578877B44931806AA5E0D5EDEA70.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/42703/6C03B102E367488FBB4D480EB5EAD732.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/42703/0F74583D420348F88F4920BF908865C1.jpg[/IMG]

 

It looks really good. Ya done good! LOL I sure wish I could afford the speedo/tach combo SoCal has... but nope. Not any time soon. And, the one you mounted is a no go, since I want to keep my chrome wind deflector. I think it would be nice to have a tach, but it is further down the list than other things I have planned.

Looks great, IMO.

 

I like it! Also keeps your eye ***** closer to the road. Been looking at tachs for my 03 RK.Think I willlook harder at this type.This may not be the place to ask but... How do you get pictures up loaded to this site.Have tryed but always says "too large" may need to change camera settings?

 

OLDMILL,

When you are creating/replying to a post, there is a 'Click here to upload!' link. If you have photos saved in a folder, just click on 'Browse', click on the photo and when done click on 'OK'. Once it/they are accepted, be sure to mark the box next to the 'Click here to upload!' which say's 'Embed picture in post'. Also keep in mind the photo is limited to 500kb per photo, although I know that I have posted larger sized jpeg's in the past.

Terry

 

What I did was to create a free photobucket account. http://photobucket.com/Then, to get pics to fit, I used http://www.resize2mail.com/. If you hit browse of here, you can load a pic from your photo album on the pc, resize it, and save it back to your photo album. Then create that account, and store them there.

Another quick way to size them down is to put the ones you want to downsize into a email, and send it to yourself. then save it to the photo album. Both work just fine, for me.