Harley-Davidson Throttle Cable Repair

As part of general service, you should get in the habit of not only checking your throttle adjustment, but lubricating your throttle cables. A quick note; even though your service manual tells you to lube your throttle cables, a lot of today's cables are Teflon-lined and they do not require lubrication. Again, depending on environment, if you're in an extremely dusty environment, I don't recommend lubricating your cables. But I will, for practical purposes, show you how to do that. We'll start by removing the top switch-housing Torx. As with all hardware, we'll set it aside. We'll do the same with the bottom. You'll notice I'm working above all the painted pieces and I have them covered. With the two switch-housing Torx removed, I can gently lift the switch-housing cover away, just enough to sneak in with a little Loctite penetrating oil. Get just a touch in on the idle cable and the throttle cable. Make sure you work with a clean shop towel. Wipe up any excess fluid. You don't want it contaminating your hand grip, or possibly coming out of the housing when you're riding, and getting on your hands or the hand grip. A little lubricant in the cables. I can re-install the top switch-housing. Again, then hand-start the top Torx and the bottom Torx bolt into the switch-housing. I'll draw them down by hand. Before I torque these two bolts, I like to make sure I've got full throttle actuation, my brake lever still has nice feel, my brake light still works on the rear fender, and I also have turn-signal function through the switch, rocker operation, and start button. Anytime these housings are apart, all of those functions should be re-checked. Once I verify all of that works correctly, I'll re-torque these to 35 to 45 inch-pounds. Make sure you clean up any excess lubrication. At that point, we've lubed our throttle and idle cable.