Build thread • Workshop project
Harley CVO Street Glide 117 — strip, wire, rebuild
A full stage-by-stage look at real Dynotech work: a CVO Street Glide opened up for fairing, audio, electrical and seat work, plus the cruiser, Rebel and car engine jobs running through the same bay that week.
What came into the bay
Machine
Harley-Davidson CVO Street Glide
Engine
Milwaukee-Eight 117 V-twin
Finish
Two-tone deep cherry / black metallic
Work type
Fairing, audio, electrics & seat build
Workshop
Dynotech, Primrose, Germiston
Also in the bay
Touring Ultra, V-twin cruiser, Rebel 500, 6-cyl car head
Batwing fairing & handlebar strip
The CVO comes in and the batwing fairing is opened up first. Inner fairing trim off, gauge and switch cluster disconnected, harness plugs released one at a time and labelled so the daymaker lighting, infotainment and bar switchgear all go back exactly as Harley wired them. Working around a factory CVO paint finish means panels come off flat, padded and out of the way — no leaning on tanks, no bar-end scuffs.
Seat off, pan out, wiring exposed
Rider seat and pillion pad lifted clear and the seat pan turned over on the bench. That's where the CVO hides its heated-seat and audio wiring — the yellow-marked pins in the pan are checked for chafe, corrosion and pin tension before anything is refitted. Every fastener that comes out of a CVO gets torqued back, not just nipped up: the pan clamps the loom, so an over-tight bolt is a future electrical fault.
Saddlebag audio, floorboards & guard
Top-down with the bike stripped: bag-lid speaker grilles, the CVO audio pods, rider floorboards, highway guard and engine bar all accessible. Bag lids and speaker mounts come off as a set so the grille cloth and paint edges stay perfect, and the spanners stay on the mat — never on the bodywork. Refit order is bags, boards, guard, then a full lighting, audio and switch function test before it goes back on the side stand.
V-twin cruiser: loom & ignition work
Alongside the CVO, a chrome-cased V-twin cruiser in for electrical fault finding. Headlight and bar loom opened, connectors cleaned and tested, ignition and charging circuits checked live rather than swapping parts on a guess. Heat-wrapped headers and chrome covers get masked and protected while the harness is worked.
Carb, fuel & running checks
Same cruiser, deeper in: air cleaner and fuel side inspected, breather and vacuum lines replaced where they've gone hard, then the bike is run up warm and checked for a clean idle, correct spark and no leaks. It leaves running properly — not just starting.
Rebel 500: battery & electrics
A matte-black Rebel in for a no-start. Seat and side cover off, battery tray out, terminals and earth points cleaned, a fresh sealed battery fitted and the charging output verified at idle and at revs so the same fault doesn't come back in a month.
Same hands on car engines
Proof the bike skill carries over: a six-cylinder car engine with the valve cover off — camshafts, rocker gear, hydraulic lifters and timing chain all exposed for inspection. Chain, guides and tensioner assessed, valve gear measured, then sealed and timed properly on reassembly. Bikes lead here, but heads and timing are the same discipline.
Detail you can actually see
- CVO-specific fairing, infotainment and audio wiring handled properly
- Factory paint and chrome protected throughout the strip-down
- Loom pins checked for corrosion, chafe and pin tension
- Torque values on every fastener that clamps wiring or panels
- Electrical faults diagnosed live, not fixed by parts-swapping
- Charging systems verified at idle and at revs before hand-back
- Full lighting, audio and switch function test before release
- Head, cam and timing-chain work on bikes and cars alike
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Where this work sits
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