HarleyTechTalk

I have a 2010 Ultra. I have a Hogtunes Big Ultra amp that sit above the HK head unit. Been that way since 2011. Recently, the head unit started dropping out after 5 or 10 minutes of play time. I pulled the unit and sent into Iron Cross for a rebuild. I had them install the Metra BT-HD01 Blue Tooth Interface device. Got the radio back in pretty quick. I have reinstalled head unit and all. THere was no rewiring amp wise, just plug it back together. The blue tooth device has a whole new pigtail that is in series with the big plug on back of head unit. I also had to connect power for blue tooth device off the smaller plug from back of head unit. Got everything connected back up. With switch on amp set at 4ch, I only get fron two speakers to work, not all four on the Ultra. Reversing the speaker plugs, front and rear, to the respective jacks, I only get the rear speakers to work. This tells me speakers are all good and output wiring good. If I set the amp swith to 2ch, I get all speakers working but signal not run through the amp, low volume. I sent Hogtunes an email describing what I have going. I got a quick reply back that said only "Rear out from High Level wires need connected to our amp". I do have HD Shop Manual for the bike, but not with me right now. Does anyone know what pair(s) of wires need connected? I thought amp was a plug and play and already had wired. It worked great when I unplugged it!

I'd contact Iron Cross. If it worked fine before they repaired and modified it and now doesn't I would suspect their work.

Thanks and I did email them last night after 5 PM EST. I did get a response back with a phone number to call back Monday morning! I will! I don't know if there some of these HK head units that were for 2 speakers only and some units for 4 speakers or all the units the same. I conclude thus far it is set up for 2. In my original emails and phone calls to them, I made clear I am a 4 speaker guy!

Pretty sure 2 speaker, 4 speaker is a mode setting. But I think you need a tool to set it... like Digtech, Centurion etc

So the Iron Cross folks maybe didn't set it right on the return? Well, hope to clear it up tomorrow. They seem pretty good to work with. Have family coming down from out of state this week and was looking forward to having bike operational during this time. Looks like I might have a gaping hole in the dash.
Thanks for the response!

I think if it's set for 4 speakers,  you will have a fader option.  Otherwise no.

Quote from: Coyote on June 19, 2022, 08:11:32 AMI think if it's set for 4 speakers,  you will have a fader option.  Otherwise no.

Makes me ask, did you check the fader settings, make sure it's not set for fronts only?

Yes I did. In the normal hook up, I ran the fader all the way in both direction. I then swapped out put plugs and got rear speakers to work and again, ran the fader all the way in both direction.
I did talk to Iron Cross support this Monday morning and went all over this issue. One question I asked was are HK units same when it comes to 2 or 4 speaker hookup. Iron Cross says they are all 4 even though not all application are 4 speakers. I had mentioned also that when I go to bypass mode on the Amp, I do get all 4 speakers working, just not amplified. Iron Cross says that tells them the HK head unit IS working and says the amp is at fault.
Thoughts?

All sounds correct. Time to look at the amp.

That is next!!  Stay tuned...

After weeks of vacations, with kids, grandkids and others, traveling by cage state to state, I am back on this !@#&& project again! You may recall head unit was sent in for rebuild and added Bluetooth. After being assured by Iron Cross support back in June that there is no possible way for the head unit to be a fault and I should look at the Hog Tunes "Big Ultra" amp. Being the amp was 12 years old, I decided to purchase new amp. In fact, it is a Hog Tunes REV 450-AA. Tearing out the old Hog Tunes amp and removing all the wiring, I installed the new amp, complete with cool new mounting brackets, pulling that recently rebuilt head unit to retap brass threads on, removing all the old wiring for rear speakers under gas tank, installing new and getting this baby all hooked up, connected to and throwing in the 40 amp main fuse all in the Florida 100 degree weather it is now time for sweet Pandora to play from my phone! NO! Same as before! Check the fader switch....yes set to Fader! Try A or B speakers No difference, only front speaker plays.
Remove front speaker input jack and rear speaker jack and swap them out. Now the rear speakers work, no front. Just where I was before all this amp work. Run fader up and down, no change with rear and front plugs in either position. Literally hundreds of dollars on all this and just a bunch of pointing fingers. The only way to get all speakers working is to switch fader switch to no fader. I may just leave it there.....

That sucks. I still think Iron Cross screwed something up and now after what you've done I'm convinced they're the problem.

Thanks and I agree! It all behaves the same way! I spent $464 with Iron Cross. $250 for the rebuild and $199 for Blue tooth add on and shipping. Reinstalled it and behaves the way described above. An email to Iron Cross who returned a phone number to me to call. Next morning I did call. Guy on the other end says the problem is the amp. Spent another $450 for amp. Installed, all new wire etc. Behaves the same way. $900 on old technology and still not working right.

Do you have a buddy that will swap radios for 10 min as a quick test?

Looked around a few indie shops around. Nobody had a spare unit of any kind. I did discconect (bypass) the Hogtunes amp and connected all 4 speakers back up as original and fired up the radio. Got the SAME situation! Front speakers only. Run fader back and forth and no rear speakers can be heard. Called Iron Cross back. The voice at the other end said he had never heard anything like that before and had me send head unit back in. I said I hadn't heard rear speakers either since May.... So I got a brand new $450 amp I didn't need....Good thing I have a Fat Boy to ride in the meantime.

Another $23 to ship back to Iron Cross...

If it comes back fixed this time, send them a bill

It came back. The findings of it was that if was found to play correctly and the fader circuit working as it should. They let it play for 24 hours non stop. It worked fine. Iron Cross sent me a video clip of it to where I could hear the unit plus see the visual of the fader running up and down. Will try to reinstall sometime this week and see how that goes.