03 Road King Police: Add a Dash of Frustration!

For two glorious days the weather of the midwest looked favorably upon Ohio and granted us 70+ degree weather. This sudden and unexpected gift created a frustration that was difficult to ignore. I had just ordered some additional parts for the bike assuming the weather was not going to be nice. Realizing I was a solid 6 days out from receiving these parts I decided to, uncharacteristically, display some restraint and not run to my uncles to take the bike out.

Trying to complete the black and white look of the bike was taking more time than I imagined it would. Everytime we added another small piece of black trim we then realized something else needed to be black. We decided after our last saturday wrenching session that two things needed to be blacked out; the horn cover and the dash.

Stretched out and cheap looking.

The dash isn't exactly a large board. It's more like an instrument panel that sits on the tank and completes the look. For some reason the Road King takes a huge departure in terms of design from it's older brother. Gone are the "cat's eye" indicators and the small style dash. Instead, the Road King opts for a longer piece of pot metal, chromed and stretched down like a bib across the gas tank. It does not look terrible but feels like it doesn't belong on a Harley.

That is soo 1960's!

As for the horn, well, it's a cover. It is chrome by default and is rubber mounted as it sits on the left side of the bike suspended between the two cylinders. By changing out this cover and the dash it was hoped that the black and white look would be complete.

Just the right amount of black on this side.

The Easy Part

I always assume that buying the items is the easy part to every job. I was very mistaken. My uncle had ordered numerous black gloss powdercoated items from a man in Michigan. He said that this person did good work and shipped fast. I managed to track this person down and EBay and sure enough, he had lot's of stuff. I found the dash and the horn cover I needed and quickly purchased them. It is important to note that I purchased the dash on a Wednesday and the horn cover on a Saturday.

A few days pass and it's the weekend again. The dash had not shipped yet, which was odd, but I didn't really worry. Then on Monday I received an Email saying the horn cover had shipped and was given a tracking number. I was confused. If I ordered the dash on Wednesday of last week and the horn cover on Saturday, why wouldn't they both just ship at the same time? Further, why would the item I ordered later not ship later as well? I assumed that the seller had a problem receiving my payment so I decided to send an email to see if everything was well. Here is the answer I received;

Please Click to read and be as confused as I was.

What the hell?

I have no idea what I did to warrant a rant like I got but it was really impressive. I don't understand why he would lie to me? Why tell me you just got off the road from a well deserved vacation but somehow manage to ship an item out a day earlier even though you weren't home. Even worse is that the shipping times are stamped from Michigan and during the day. Unless he traveled at light speed from Daytona in order to ship the horn cover, he is lying. I did not bother responding to him. Obviously someone who would lie about such mundane issues has bigger fish to fry.

I eventually got both pieces delivered by Friday so they would be ready for fitment on Saturday. Of course the dash had a scratch on it but I didn't bother emailing the seller. I'm sure he would have lots of reasons why it didn't have that scratch on it. Since I don't have any real repercussion (EBay always sides with the seller and often removes negative feedback) I decided the best way to protest was by not giving him any more of my money.

Never an Easy Job

My uncle was going to be a bit late but we decided to forge ahead without him. All that was remaining was to place two saddlebag inserts, insert two reflectors on the front bumper, tighten the highway pegs down, change the horn cover and change out the dash. That sounds like a lot but it only ended up lasting around 5 hours.

Fresh black plastic strips make the saddlebags look new again!

The horn cover came off begrudgingly after I fought with the rubber mounting for a bit. Since it sits on a piece of rubber with a washer to absorb the vibration, I found it useful to have my wife hold the horn assembly in place while I turned the acorn nut with a socket. After that 3 simple bolts held it in place and it were easily removed and placed into the new one. The whole event was uneventful and took around 15 minutes.

The stock vs. powder coat.

The endurance test came with the dash. Removing it from the bike is easy. Remove the screw and the acorn nut from the dash, lift slowly and as you life disconnect the 3 power jumpers that run into each part of the dash. There are 3 total, one for ignition, one for the speedometer and finally one for the instrument panel.

The naked tank. Notice all the wiring that is hidden under the dash.

Once the dash is off you can remove the speedometer by gently pulling back on the three tabs of the black plastic ring holding it in. Once you remove those 3 tabs the speedometer will fall out along with the rubber ring holding it in place. Don't loose that ring and don't damage the speedometer.

Four small hex head screws hold the ignition switch in place. Simply remove them with a nut driver.

Finally, the instrument cluster. This is where the turn signals, bright lights and check engine are displayed. This took awhile. There are 4 tabs that you must use 2 pair of needle nose pliers on to slowly work upwards. While doing this it is wise to place a flathead screwdriver underneath the panel and slowly turn it, allowing the torque from the flathead to bend the panel upwards along with your pulling motions. It took awhile but we got it. Once the light housing is out we popped the panel out, filed it down to fit in the new powder coated dash and started the reinstall.

The end result. Not easily obtained.

About one frustrating hour later we had the dash back on. There were many reasons why this took so damn long. First, the bolt that holds the top of the dash in place kept moving around on us. It's meant to, I understand, but what a frustrating experience. Second, the tabs that hold the cable harnesses into place weren't there, so we had to hold the wires in place while trying to place the dash on the floating bolt. To top it off the rubber gasket that protects the tank from the metal of the dash kept falling off. Oh, did I mention one of the ignition wires kept falling out of the ignition harness? I don't think I have ever seen 3 people sit around swearing in frustration like that before. Even my wife was pissed off.

That was it. The bike was ready for take off! Before we even put the tools away I turned it on and flew off for it's first ride in months. Was all the frustration worth it? Yes, yes it was. The look is complete and now I can't wait for the season.