The Nacelle From Hell

I really like the look of a nacelle with fork books on motorcycles.  I also really hated the way the stock sportster headlight looks.  Luckily for me Harley has a nacelle kit for sportsters and dynas, unluckily it was discontinued in 2007.  After trolling ebay and only finding buy it now auctions for $400 and up and a few completed listings for around $300 I figured it might be like finding a unicorn.  On a whim I stopped in the local dealer and asked them to run the part number 67971-04.  They searched other dealers and found some that showed them in inventory and said they possibly could order from another dealer.  I asked how much and was told the msrp was $199 so it'd be 220 with shipping.  They wouldn't give me the dealer list so I was stuck having to go through them but they said they'd get a firm price and call me back if they could find one.

The guy called back and said they had one but the price was now $250.  It was still cheaper than ebay and I figured at least I could return it if it was broken or missing parts.  I gave the go ahead and they said they'd call me back the following Tuesday to get my credit card once the order was final.  I swung by on Tuesday as I was in the area and it turns out the reason it had to wait 5 days was the dealers credit cards was maxed and they needed to pay their bill to use it again, I had to wait so I could order it through them and pay them for the privilege.  What a great system Harley dealers have a corner on the parts ripoff market.  Now I know why people were paying more money to deal with ebay sellers.

Anyways, the kit shows up that Friday and I decide it's going on immediately.  I verified I had all the part and then read through the instructions and found out that I had missed that I needed an in-lb and ft-lb torque wrench and blue lock tight so I immediately had to run back to harbor freight before I could get started.

Here are some before pictures

The instructions say I need to remove the stock bucket and visor.  I get the bulb out and find that while the instructions say I just need to break down the stock headlight connector and pull the terminals out the back and reassemble, my headlight also has 2 6pin Deutsch connectors for my speedo and tach and I would need to break both down to get the stock bucket off, it would be nice if the instructions even mentioned extra terminals.

Too many wires, not enough instructions

One of the 2 extra connectors

I checked the FSM and it said to pry the locking block out and I realized this was going to be a huge pain in the ass.  I started trying to get the first one apart without breaking anything and got nowhere.  I realized the I stood a good chance of breaking the block and needing extra parts and even if I got everything apart there was a chance I would end up screwing up the seal in the connectors.  I then said screw it and got the tin snips and just butchered the stock bucket.  I can get a new bucket but a new harness would be pricey.

I'm a terrible person

 For sale 02 Sportster headlight bucket, lightly used

 Down to the bare forks

Ok, now the stock parts are off.  Next step start putting all the nacelle parts together.  Just one problem each screw hole is full of shit and the screws are binding enough that I snapped off a few T15 torx bits.  I ended up having to oil up a qtip and put each screw in a tiny bit then back it out and swab the threads and put the screw in a bit more and repeat until the screw was able to seat.  I really need to buy a tap set.

Next step is put the nacelle on the forks using two flat brackets.  I screwed this up by having the nacelle on top of the fork boots. I then had to pull it back off and pull the boots down.  after reassembling I found the boots had angled the nacelle enough to cause the flimsy brackets to deform and no longer hold the nacelle to the forks and I had managed to pinch a wire in the speedo harness luckily not hard enough to break it but I'll probably have it fail at some point.  Luckily the brackets were so crappy I could recontour them by hand and get the nacelle mounted up right.

Next step screw in the rear panels.  Of course the directions don't mention that you have to unbole the brake lines on the right side of the bike to get that panel to fit.  I skipped to the left side and found that they had apparently used the rarest allen key size ever. I had 4 sets of allen keys and none had the correct size.  I decided to check the flip out set I carry with the bike and found the correct size, it was 7/64.  Unfortunately I didn't have the space to get to the screws with the flip out set so I gave up for the night.

The next day I got a allen set with 7/64 from harbor freight and I was finally able to finish the install.  It was probably 4hrs total and would have been so much easier with better instructions.  Keep in mind I had pulled the throttle cables out then I put on the fork boots or there would have been the need to remove the throttle as well which would have been at least and extra 20 minutes.  I also still need to make a cover for the backside as it's completely open and I'd like to shield the wiring to keep it from possibly rubbing the frame or getting wet.  Overall, way too big of a pain in the ass and you can see why Harley only had them from 2004-2007.


The finished product

Now that it's all done I do think it looks great but I dread ever having to get at anything that will require removing it. Though now I kind of want to paint the forks, it never ends.


Before and after Comparison