| Author | Message | ||
     Cme2c |
If you have installed a highbar kit on your CR you may want to check your brake light wires that connect to your front master cylinder. I have noticed twice, when working on my bike, that they had become disconnected from the master cylinder. The first time I thought I had disconnected them myself and had just forgotten, but this second time I knew I hadn't. After checking it out, I discovered the wires on the factory harness were just a little too short when you turn the handlebars to full lock and they were pulling out of their connectors. Might want to check yours out, just to be safe. | ||
| Dannybuell |
did you move the controls inward to accommodate for the shortage? dannybuell | ||
| Cme2c |
Nope, just made some wire extensions with some spare wire and connectors I had laying around the garage. | ||
| Hdwrenchtx |
that was happening on mine also | ||
| Illbuell |
Wire reroute?? | ||
| Lunatic |
cant reroute, the cables come straight from the wire harness, just get a couple blade connectors i think they are 4.7mm iirc and some heat shrink/ sheathing and make an extension | ||
| Crazyhawk99 |
Not to get too anal, but this obviously sounds like a significant safety issue that should be reported to the NHTSA. A inoperative brake light is no small matter, particularly on a motorcycle. | ||
| Hdwrenchtx |
I think I cut some zip ties and maybe some of the wrap that is used on the wire harness that gave me enough slack. What are you going to report? That someone modded their bike, probably themselves and then had some wires come undone because the wires needed some more slack? | ||
| Aseecobra |
No tension on the brake light wire here and all my control wires are neatly zip tied to the bar. Cme2c: Are your wires secured to the bar or hanging free? | ||
| Cme2c |
There wasn't enough slack to tie them to the bars until I added the extensions. Hdwrenchtx: Actually this is a "factory accessory" which is supposed to include all necessary cables, etc. and was installed per instructions. Obviously some of the factory wiring harnesses were cut a little short to use the highbars on. | ||
| Hdwrenchtx |
in a perfect world everything would go that smooth. since I do this kind of thing for a living I know that is not the case. | ||
| Aseecobra |
Probably the wires were cut short or the loom was cut too long. I also did a high bar kit on another CR that was 20 serials from mine and there was plenty of length on that bike to secure. Both were made 10/08. | ||
| Rex |
I was reading this thread last night, and just had my new bars put on. I tried the front brake light last night, and you were right, not working. The back one did. I went out in the day light, and the wires are too short to connect to the switch. Definitely a safety problem that should be addressed and provided with the bar kit we bought. REX what a dealer. I was asking questions about my new CR....they told me to go and read my manual. What a team | ||
| Ratsmc |
Thanks for the reminder. I got my from the dealer with the high bars and didn't notice until I got home that one of the connectors was missing altogether. It looked like it had been pulled off rather than not installed. I brought the bike back for some other stuff and had them replace the connector. I thought everything was fine until a while later, I noticed that the connectors had both come loose. I re-attached them and rotated the front end which pulled the connectors loose again.. An closer examination revealed that while the wires had plenty of slack, they were not attached to the rest of the wires in any way which meant that when the bars were turned, the wires had nothing to force them to move with the bars. A simple wire-tie solved the problem. I did notice that the rest of the wires were remarkably tight to the forks but since they are stationary relative to them it doesn't seem to be a serious issue. | ||
| Crazyhawk99 |
This does not sound like an isolated incident. It could be that those without problems are just not chiming in, but it appears from those that have replied to the thread, there is a high percentage of associated problems after installing the highbar kit. I urge those of you that have experienced this problem to go to the NHTSA website and report it. This appears to be a significant safety issue. By reporting it, you could save the life of a brother motorcyclist. The link is: http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/ If the NHSTA deems necessary, they may issue a recall on bikes with the highbar kit so that they can be brought into a dealer and inspected. At least one CR riders was not aware he had the problem until he read this thread. Imagine how many riders with the kit installed haven't read the thread. You are not doing a dis-service to HD or Buell. If anything, it may save them from a very big lawsuit. Hdwrench, if you work at an authorized HD dealer, I am sure you are aware of the recall process and the importance of the program. It seems that the instructions with the highbar kit should have called for an extension to the front brake light switch wiring. Not only should the contact not pull apart, but there should be sufficient slack in the wiring to ensure there is no tension. As some members have speculated, it is highly possible some bikes were assembled with a shorter wiring harness. We are talking about the Buell factory authorized CR HighBar kit, not some shade-tree owner compiled kit. | ||
| Rex |
agreed. surely they had this worked out on the 2010 models, that came with the high bars? REX | ||
| Bobbuell1961 |
Good heads up, Same here, full right lock would pull the wires off no matter how routed, put a 1.5" extension in good to go | ||
| Cjr83 |
Same here, i just had to lengthen the wires and put new heat shrink on em but your right, too short. | ||
| Froggy |
I had no issues with mine with both the high bars and now back to the clubmans. | ||
| Avc8130 |
I just went out and checked mine. Everything is fine. I also used a zip tie to hold all of the wires together so I made sure there was slack lock to lock before tying them up. ac | ||
| Crazyhawk99 |
For what it's worth and as of this moment,there are currently 6 reports of having this problem and 3 reports of no problem from those that have posted to this thread. | ||
| Nickg |
the reason why they have this problem is purely due to the installer NOT paying attention..there is PLENTY of wire length for these. sorry to burst your bubble | ||
| Cme2c |
Nickg: it would be more helpful if you could explain to us just exactly what it is we are not paying attention to. I tried routing the wire every way I could think of and ran into the same problem. PLEASE tell us what we need to do rather than just giving us a smug know-it -all attitude. I was trying to help my fellow riders by giving them a heads-up about a potential safety problem. You, on the otherhand are just telling us we have our heads-up our a** for not doing it right! | ||
| Crazyhawk99 |
Nick, if you will read the thread, you will see that we are merely passing along info that may help someone with this problem, that they may be unaware of. And as for why the wires are pulling out, be it short harness or bad install, ultimately it doesn't matter. What matters is that it brings to riders attention that this MAY be an issue on their bike if they have the highbar kit. Read and you will see that others have checked different bikes and it indeed does appear that some harnesses are shorter than others. This forum is to share information in the interests of helping fellow riders, it is not? If you have something constructive to contribute, by all means do so. | ||
| Nickg |
look at the pictures i posted on the throttle cable routing, you can cl;early see how the wires SHOULD be routed. there is PLENTY of length to do the swap | ||
| Nickg |
here      | ||
| Trac95ker |
IMO calling the NHTSA is premature. Identifying the source of the problem and possible solutions should be first. This very well could be an installation problem not a factory engineering mistake. In the meantime, use your rear brake in addition to your front! | ||
| Bobbuell1961 |
Nick, now that you put it up in pictures i can understand, thanks for splaning it to me! I'm glad yours was long enough, mine was not, i have a couple more to look at. Adding a couple of inches to the harness is not a big deal just something people should check.  Bob (Message edited by bobbuell1961 on February 11, 2010) | ||
| Cme2c |
Nickg-Thank you, that's the kind of help we all needed, very helpful pictures. However, I ran my wires just like yours and mine did reach, until turning the bars. I still stand by the fact that some harnesses ended up shorter than others. Simple extensions fixed the problem. But, everybody, please check yours out to make sure you are ok, be it improper installation or improper manufacturing tolerances, the end result is the same. | ||
| Nickg |
when you take the headlight out, the harness is tie wrapped from the factory. you need to go ahead and remove the tie wraps, unplug the harness' and they will pull out a good 2" more. you must pull on them to take the slack out. (be carefull, don't yank) I also rotated the lever/mc down to have the mirror useable. | ||
| Bobbuell1961 |
Thanks again Nick, these are all things i looked at, Still they were not long enough. Bob | ||
| Dmhines |
Add me to the no issue list. There were some wire ties I removed behind the front flyscreen when I installed my highbars to get more slack. | ||
| Wbrisett |
I had to do some rerouting myself inside the cowling, but once that was done, I had plenty of slack when I did my upgrade this weekend. I'll keep my eyes peeled on the brake light, but I don't think it's going to be an issue. | ||
| Kirb |
I had no issues after moving things around behind the flyscreen and cutting the single cable tie in there. The wire length was plenty long, but the wire cover is fugly. I might put in my own extensions just to use shrink tube. |
