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[cptdenny]

2011 FLTRUSE, Found the above melted the entire length attached on the lower frame rail, between the lower frame rail and exhaust pipes.  I don't know if it occurred while stock or after engine mods since today was first time noticed.  My cruise control light wouldn't turn on in the tach and won't engage.  I don't know if the two are related.  The fuses all look good.
I plan to take it to dealership under warranty.

Just wanted to know if this occured before, or giving you all a heads up.
Mileage under 6K miles.

Mods: Stage lll, Full Sac with X-pipe.  LED Lights on lower rail.

[bobroadglide]

What's an FLHRUSE?

[cptdenny]

What's an FLHRUSE?

My mistake!  FLTRUSE

[motor1]

Have melted conduit, along right side of frame, but wires seem ok. Hydraulic lines are ok. I also have Fullsac x pipe, but find it hard to believe that the x pipe can run any hotter than the stock head pipe with a cat in it. I plan on wrapping the harness with foil tape and sliding a new conduit over it. Not sure what else can be done.

[cptdenny]

Have melted conduit, along right side of frame, but wires seem ok. Hydraulic lines are ok. I also have Fullsac x pipe, but find it hard to believe that the x pipe can run any hotter than the stock head pipe with a cat in it. I plan on wrapping the harness with foil tape and sliding a new conduit over it. Not sure what else can be done.

I'm sure mine had to occur with the stock set-up.  It ran very hot when the cats were in.  Now it runs much cooler.  I can see in some spots where the conduit melted right through and exposed the wires running through.  No damage seen on the wires.  The plastic frame conduit retainers, which look like zip ties.  Have melted off as well.

I only have a short melted section on my clutch hydraulic line, about a half inch.  It's the protective covering over the hydraulic line closest to the exhaust.

Thanks for responding.

[mattm]

You could use something like this DEI heatwrap:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/DEI-010477/

Comes in different diameters. 

[spydglide]

You could use something like this DEI heatwrap:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/DEI-010477/

Comes in different diameters. 

Boy, that Racing Equipment is priced as if it were aviation or marine.  spyder

[cptdenny]

Well I remedied my cruise control issue this morning by removing seat and readjusting connectors.  Had LEDs accent lights installed 10 days ago and most of the wiring was under the seat.  Last night I reinstalled all the fuses, no joy on that.

[hd rider 4 ever]

I have a new 2011.5 FLHTCUSE6 and noticed a burn smell of wires. I'm in Massachusetts so the weather is still cold and I only have 60 miles on it. The day I rode it was about 50 out. Our winters have been mild. What I did notice was that on the right rear side where the cross over is there is a plasitc conduit that runs along the frame to the front of the bike. From the crossover back to the rear of the bike the wiring is covered in a heat wrap but that's it. The conduit is wrapped with electrical tape. I can see the tape melted and heat has definately made its mark. I can just imagine a 90 degree day outside. I am going to keep an eye on this. I can see something bad coming here. They should have wrapped that with the sheilding mentioned above from summit racing. Harley does use that on it's wiring but should of also used it here. Those plastic conduits are very robust when it comes to heat so for there to be enough heat to melt that it's serous. again will keep you guys posted.

[dlaws01]

Boy, that Racing Equipment is priced as if it were aviation or marine. 


I was going to suggest using a similar wrap that we often use in the hangar on aircraft but thought it might be too expensive, until I saw what they were asking for their's!
Maybe I ought to charge a little more! 

[hd rider 4 ever]

That wrap may not be needed yet. Its true I saw the tape curled up and heat stressed but I see no damage to the plastic conduit, wires or brake line. I have a friend who has a 2011 road glide standard and even though he has a standard RG he got caught in serious traffic this past summer and said his bike felt like it was going to burst into flames. He got the recall notice on the brake switch but has not done it yet. I remind him every time I talk to him. Told him if it goes it's bad. I will take a look at his conduit to see what it looks like and see if it's also wrapped with tape or is similar to bike. I guess one could always use Kapton tape. They are compatible with a wide temperature range from -269°C (-452°F) to as high as 400°C (752°F). This tape has a higher temperature rating than that summit wrap stuff. I would hate to think that exhaust goes as high as 500 degrees but I put a thermocouple on my 08 CVO Ultra and the temperature was high in that area but the pipes didn’t come as close to the frame as these do and with this current cross over more heat is concentrated I one area.

[10SE5]

I was told that the x-pipe has caused some melted wiring harnesses

[hd rider 4 ever]

if the X pipe does start causing harnesses to melt then this issue is going to be very big because melting can turn into flames, especially on a hydralic line. I sure hope this doesn't become a major issue.

[charles05663]

I was told that the x-pipe has caused some melted wiring harnesses

I would throw the BS flag on the dealer for this.  Many members run the x-pipe and I have not seen any report issues.  If anything, they would have a lower heat transfer through the sides of the pipe.

[Unbalanced]

I was told that the x-pipe has caused some melted wiring harnesses

What they said.  Although I thought this had been corrected.   I would contact Steve at Fullsac.

[10SE5]

I would throw the BS flag on the dealer for this.  Many members run the x-pipe and I have not seen any report issues.  If anything, they would have a lower heat transfer through the sides of the pipe.

I was told by a "well known" person in the industry about this issue. I am assuming it has been corrected. If I find out I will post findings

[Twolanerider]

I was told by a "well known" person in the industry about this issue. I am assuming it has been corrected. If I find out I will post findings

Fullsac is a member here.  So any difficulties with the Xpipe can be described from the primary source.  That's always better than any oh-doesn't-it-make-me-sound-hot-to-know-someone-I-won't-cite source.

[10SE5]

Fullsac is a member here.  So any difficulties with the Xpipe can be described from the primary source.  That's always better than any oh-doesn't-it-make-me-sound-hot-to-know-someone-I-won't-cite source.

I know they are a member here and so is the person I spoke with. I was responding to the call of my comment as BS figuring the poster though I talked to the arts guy at the dealer. There is no need to get this individual involved unless he wants to speak up on his own. I sent him a message and he responded that the new pipe is wonderful. I never said anyhing derogatory about the x-pipe as I have one on my bike. And yes my wiring harness shows signs of heat issues as well.  

[10SE5]

I also have Fullsac x pipe, but find it hard to believe that the x pipe can run any hotter than the stock head pipe with a cat in it.

the issue is not hotter. its closer to the harness

[cptdenny]

Being the OP, I doubt my conduit melting issues has anything to do with Fullsac or it's X-pipe.  I'm not sure when the melting occurred but I can tell you that when I had the stock factory fresh set up, the heat was nearly unbearable on my right leg to the point I had to lift off the floor board and hold it in the breeze.
After moding to a Stage lll with Fullsac X-pipe, 2"Baffles and removal of the cats, there's almost no heat issue.

I still need to get to my local dealer and have the melted conduit replaced under warranty one of these days.  In the meantime I placed a piece of black electrical tape over the more servere melted section of the conduit 2 weeks ago or about 700 miles.  The tape is still there without any melting.

[grc]

One can always hope that Harley will eventually learn how to deal with simple stuff like routing wires and hydraulic lines and switches away from intensely hot parts.  But of course they haven't figured out yet how to keep the wiring in the fender off the tire 100% of the time either.  Give 'em time, they can't count their money AND fix their engineering screwups all at the same time.

btw, a smart company would have tried to contain as much of the heat inside the pipes as possible, versus frying customer's legs and feet plus the bike's wiring and hydraulics.  Since doing so might have cost a buck or two, and made the exhaust a little less pretty, the answer was to do nothing and let the customer deal with it.  Seems to be a popular method at Harley.


Jerry

[hd rider 4 ever]

I just want to make it clear that what I noticed on my harness has nothing to do with fullsac or there pipe. I am strictly talking stock. My bike is completly stock. I don't want anyone thinking otherwise. Like I said if the FLHTCUSE6 or 6.5 are causing that harness to melt it is going to start shoing up everywhere not just with a few bikes. I am not going to beat this issues to death anymore untill I have more milage on the bike and I start ridding it in warmer weather. It may not even be an issue. I have good solutions already just in case and it's under warranty. i'm an elcrtical utilities engineer so I'm not worried. It's a solveable issue if it even becomes a long term issue.

[bikerboy53]

Anyone out there have any more melting going on lately? My BSR and I recently put a 120R in our 2010 CVO Ultra. Everything appeared OK during the engine swap, but now that we have a few miles on it the dealer noticed that the wiring sheath was melted and apparently part of the hydraulic clutch line was melted too! The wiring is OK, but they are replacing the clutch line.

We're running a similar exhaust pipe (Fullsac "D" x-pipe vs "older" Fullsac x-pipe) so I don't think that caused the problem. It occurred to me that maybe it was the time spent on the dyno that caused the damage due to little or no air flow around the frame? We're using a Buds oil cooler, but I doubt that would be related in any way? It's possible the bike was running a little too lean before the dyno tune? I'll be keeping a close eye on it for sure once the bike is running again!

[North Georgia Hawg]

If you are running stock exhaust, bear in mind that the normal operating temperature of a catalytic convertor is 1,200 to 1,600 degrees F. That's a lot of heat! They don't even begin to function until around 500 degrees F.

Now, much of this heat stays in the pipe, but any cat-less exhaust - even the stock headers with the cat cut out, and certainly an X-Pipe - are bound to run much cooler than the stock pipe with the cat in it.

All of the wires and lines need to routed well away from the exhaust headers, no matter what you're running.

No melting here...

[bikerboy53]

If you are running stock exhaust, bear in mind that the normal operating temperature of a catalytic convertor is 1,200 to 1,600 degrees F. That's a lot of heat! They don't even begin to function until around 500 degrees F.

Not running the stock exhaust -as mentioned in my post:

We're running a... (Fullsac "D" x-pipe vs "older" Fullsac x-pipe) so I don't think that caused the problem. It occurred to me that maybe it was the time spent on the dyno that caused the damage due to little or no air flow around the frame

The exhaust is similar to the one we ran for several years with the 110, so I don't think that's the problem. I'm hoping it was the time spent on the dyno, but we'll know more once I get some more miles on it... 

[cptdenny]

I'm the OP. I'm at 23K miles now and have no further melting issues after warranty replacement of the conduit done about 13 months ago.

[cahdbiker]

cptdenny, I have an 09SEUC, so the wiring conduit may be a little different however I noticed that all the conduit is zip tied to the frame and sits kind of at the lower part of the frame rail( keeping it away from the exhaust pipe)  the closest wiring to the exhaust  is the wiring for the brake light switch which is a little over one inch away from where the cat would normally be. None of that wiring has any evidence of heat distress. If your wiring was sitting on the side of the frame rail or wasn't zip tied properly to keep it away from the exhaust header that could be the problem. Just speculating. I see you have it fixed by your latest post. CAHDBIKER

[cptdenny]

cptdenny, I have an 09SEUC, so the wiring conduit may be a little different however I noticed that all the conduit is zip tied to the frame and sits kind of at the lower part of the frame rail( keeping it away from the exhaust pipe)  the closest wiring to the exhaust  is the wiring for the brake light switch which is a little over one inch away from where the cat would normally be. None of that wiring has any evidence of heat distress. If your wiring was sitting on the side of the frame rail or wasn't zip tied properly to keep it away from the exhaust header that could be the problem. Just speculating. I see you have it fixed by your latest post. CAHDBIKER

Thanks for posting though. It may help someone else trouble shoot this issue.