free website stats program Tri Bar LED Flickering Fix | Harley Davidson Forums

Tri Bar LED Flickering Fix

NYHarley

Active Member
Ok, so I had the infamous flickering issue with my Tri Bar LED, flickering light, no light, tap it and its on.... Anyway, due to warranty of only 30 days and the replacement price I figured I would take it apart and see what was going on. Inside the light there are two circuit boards, and where these two boards are conected is the issue. I snapped a few pictures and will be assembling a "How To" later so that other members that have the issue can try to tackle it themselves.
 
Can you at least tell us what the issue is while we are waiting for the pictures and complete "How To?"
 
Ok, here is the fix I used, and it worked for me. I assume this will be the same fix for many of you. I have heard that Harley Revised the TriBar LED a few times, not sure how many, but my light was Revision B. I have posted too many how to's but I am hoping this will be intuitive for all attempting the fix.

Step 1:
Verify your LED issue! You don't want to proceed with this fix until you check all of your wiring harness connections, behind rear taillight, under seat etc. No need to take the LED apart if you don't really need to. The issue I was having is that of the light flickering while the bike idled and the light being completley out. If I tapped on the light with my hand it would come on solid, but only to flicker again after a minute or two.

Step 2:
Remove the light assembly from the bike. You will need to remove the pins from the harness. This can be done by flipping up the tab at the back of the connector and pulling the pins out with needle nose pliers. You will have to pull hard but they come out fairly easy. The harness has room for 4 wires, but there were only three wires in mine. They are labeled 1 thru 4 on the connector so write down which color goes with which number before pulling them out.

Step 3:
Remove backing cover from the lens. This will be a job of patientce. Do not just try to pry the back cover off as you rick damaging the tabs for reassembly. They use a good amount of sealent around the cover so start at it with a nice little blastic pry bar, and try using a precision screw drive or hook pick to cut away the seal. It tok me about 20 minutes to carefully do this with no noticeable damage. Take the time to clean the lens and cover of any left over sealant as you will need to use silicone or something similar when reassembling, this will keep the moisture out.

Step 4: Once inside the light you wil notice that there are two sperate circuit boards that are connected via small plug in connection. This connection is the problem. Inspect it to see if the soldered ends on the plug have come loose. if they have read on for the fix.

Step 5: Being very carefull with the plug seperated from the board and plugged in bend the plug upward. Be sure to just bend the long pins that go inside the plug, and be carefull to not damage the good soldered connection on the circuit board that the pins are connected to.


Step 6:
Get two short lengths of very fine braided wire (about 1.5" or so), no need to be colored coded, just be sure that when you solder the new wires in place you keep the orientation the same for proper positive / negative connection. Solder wires to the pins on the plug (pins that would have been originally conected to the other circuit board) it is easy to do the plug side first as you can do it away from the board. Next solder the other end of the wire to the opposite circuit board where the connection was originally. Use a soldering iron with a fine tip, and take precaution to not damage the board. This wil now give you a wired connection between the two boards that will be much more likely to hold up under vibration.

Step 7:
Before re-assembly be sure to test your light. No need to take it apart twice. Reassemble circuit boards, and lens / cover. When installing the rear cover use silicone or something equivelent to seal the light as it was from the factory. You want to seal it good to keep the moisture out.

CoverOff.jpg


OEM_Conn.jpg


LooseConn.jpg


New_Wires.jpg


The picture below is just in case you forgot to write down the color and number position.

Harness_Wire_Positions.jpg
 
Back
Top