How To: Hardwire AUX input on Harley-Davidson stereo

Always wanted to have a clean way of wiring your iPhone, iPod, or GPS device? Us too! We recently put together this “How To” while doing this to our in-house Road Glide. Takes about an hour and is pretty easy, as long as you are comfortable with a soldering iron.

Special shout out to “hd-dude” from CVOHarley.com. These instructions are merely a follow-up to the research he had already done. Also, the photos were taken after our own install. You will notice that the cable is already mounted in all of the photos.

**Please proceed with caution, these are undocumented instructions obtained from multiple sources and is a hack to your stereo. You can permanently damage your stereo if you are not careful. Iron Aces Speed Shop will not be held responsible for any damage caused by this modification. Proceed at your own risk.

You will need the following items…

• 3.5mm stereo headphone jack extension cable ($0.73 cents from Monoprice!)
• Rubber Grommet – Size depends on cable you buy
• Zip Tie
• Zip Tie Anchor

Tools Used:

• Soldering Iron
• Multimeter (Not necessary, but helpful)
• T8 Torx Bit
• T25 Torx Bit
• Small Flathead Screwdriver
• Exacto Knife
• Drill & Bit

Step 1:
Remove radio from mounting cradle. (To make it easier to slide the radio out of the mounting cradle, rub a little bit of dishwasher soap on both sides of the water seal. This will allow the radio to slide out much easier without possibly damaging the seal.)

Step 2:
If equipped, also remove the CB and XM module.

Step 3:
Flip seal over faceplate to access the plastic tabs.

Step 4:
Using a small screwdriver, remove faceplate from radio by gently prying the six plastic tabs around faceplate. One on each side, two on the top and two on the bottom.

Step 5:
Make sure the orange rubber seal (the one that seals the front AUX input jack) remains within the faceplate.

Step 6:
Remove top plate by unscrewing the two T8 Torx screws located on the front rim and remove the two T25 Torx screws on the back of the radio.

Step 7:
Pick a location on the back of the radio to drill a hole to run your AUX audio cable through.  Use the appropriate size drill pit for the size of audio extension cable you purchased.

I picked the location you see here, because I will never use the additional Harley modules. If you plan to upgrade your stereo, you may want to drill a hole in the main chassis.

Step 8:
Place the correct grommet in the hole and run the AUX audio cable through it.

Step 9:
Route the cable to the left of the radio to exit near the front AUX input.

Step 10:
Now solder the appropriate leads to the inboard connections. Different cables will possibly have different color leads. Test leads with a multimeter to determine the appropriate lead.

Step 11:
Anchor the cable inside the radio with a single zip tie and anchor.

Step 12:
In order for the radio to stop at the AUX input position without anything plugged into the front port, you will need to cut the tracer on the circuit board. Using a sharp Exacto knife, cut into the board across the tracer.  Before you put the radio back together, put the faceplate back on and plug the stereo back into the radio harness to test that you can select the AUX position without anything plugged in to the front AUX jack. If you can’t, then you have not cut the tracer. This took me a few tries.

Also, don’t worry about cutting the tracer, your front AUX input port will still work.

Here is a closer view of the tracer you will need to cut.

Step 13:
Place the top plate back on the radio, snap the face back on the radio, flip radio seal back over body and install radio back into fairing.

Done! Not so bad huh?!?