LAUGHING!!!
I liked the part where your bride said:
"....then was serious and said maybe the dealership should do this...etc.. kinda stuff Rob....."
That is still what has me LAUGHING!!!....
Ok so I have recovered enough to see if I can help you.....
If you want a cool tip.....if you have a Harley Davidson 2012 Genuine Motor Parts & Accessories Catalog go to page# 703 and take a peak at the Chrome Bungee Nuts which come in either a 16 pitch thread (coarse) or a 24 pitch thread (fine) I put these in the two side holes (the two side holes actually have a dual purpose, the rear side hole is where your turn signals would normally come through and the front hole is where normally a bolt goes through, both side holes have the purpose of keeping the strut secured and the chrome cover, covering the strut as well....if it seems confusing on why I have been able to secure two bungee nuts on each side that's because the rear one is where your turn signals are located as I just mentioned. I "relocated" my turn signals allowing me to use two sets of these bungee nuts and So you could use one set. To be clear I didn't relocate my turn signals to put bungee nuts in their place, I originally relocated my turn signals to run the FXRS-CONV saddlebags, and had to run one of the connecting points (well nut receptacle) there but now that I sold the FXRS-CONV saddlebags I sold the receptacle well nut attachments and since my turn signals were permanently relocated, it was an easy transition over to the bungee nut alternative that I am showing here.
My reference is that anyone can run at least one set of bungee nuts the front side hole in place the typical ordinary bolt in it's place with a little ingenuity of securing a button head/hex head bolt adjusting it to the right length and putting the bungee nuts on the outside against the chrome side plate/cover over the strut. In order to do this modification it would need to be coordinated when the rear tire is removed from the fender well to provide enough room to make the modification or releasing the shocks and jack up the rest of the bike allowing there to be enough room to get in there and complete the job.
Now back to my original comments:
The best thing to do is to either try fighting to get a wrench in there or as you suggested let the tire hang while on a lift which should provide enough room to get in there to hold a nut.
As I am thinking about this, you are going to have to remove your wiring back through to be able to get the side plates in position, does this make sense since the wiring for the turn signals goes through the rear strut location. Which means that the previous owner had to remove the wiring to, to remove the side plate in the first place. That's very interesting. I am thinking that your turn signal wiring MUST have been actually spliced once already because they had to be cut to remove the side plate to begin with as all models came with side plates originally from the factory. The OEM wiring does not have a stoping point from the turn signals until it gets to the lens area of the turn signal back to the tail light location. (Hopefully this makes sense)
Dropping that tire a bit should be enough room to squeeze your hand up there to work the 4 nuts off....if not....then I would suggest releasing your shocks slowly while the lift is holding the tire barely touching the ground and letting the fender raise up slowly....which will keep you from having to drop the tire completely off and out of the wheel well....
Let me know if I can provide further help.
Regards,
Tim
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Topic: Sideplate install (Read 3434 times)