Any good mechanic will tell you to disconnect the battery ground before beginning any wiring repair work. They are right. This is good practice and it can save a lot of blown fuses and messed up computers. Disregarding my own advice (and M.D. Wright's) I completed the repair without disconnecting the battery. However, unless you are very confident, a masochist, or both, I would not recommend performing the installation with the battery connected.

Begin by removing the seat and rear bodywork. Remove the right side rear cowl first, then the middle piece. You will need the Allen wrench supplied with your Triumph tool kit or a similar one. Don't substitute an SAE Allen wrench for a Metric one though, because you'll mar the chromed bolts. Before you remove the left cowl, you will need to remove the seat latch.

The seat latch is held in place by two Torx bolts. Many people don't have Torx drivers laying around, but if you are VERY careful, you can substitute a 5/32" Allen wrench.

After removing the Torx bolts, you can remove the left rear cowl. Set all bodywork well away from your work area. There's nothing more frustrating than dropping your wrench onto your shiny paint!

Next, remove the tail light assembly. The tail light assembly can be removed in one piece without removing the lens by removing the three 8mm bolts at the tail of the bike. Unplug the connector on the right side of the frame and set the tail light assembly with the body work.

Begin removing the turn signals by unplugging the two connectors per side which power the signals. The turn signal connectors are Green/Red and Black on the left side and Green/White and black on the right side (see wiring schematic in section three) and are located near the rear of the bike on either side of the computer. The signals themselves are held on with a 14mm nut on the back side of the mud flap. Remove the nut and then pull the wire through and set the signals with the other body work.

Remove the reflector that is mounted between the turn signals by gently prying it away from the mud flap. Next, remove the inserts that the reflector pressed into by pulling them straight out from the mud flap with a pair of needle nose pliers. Don't worry about damaging the inserts as they will be discarded. Next, remove the license plate and then remove the license plate mounting plate by removing the two 10mm Nylock nuts on the back side of the mud flap.

If you are lucky enough to live in California or another pollution-regulated state, you will find a rather large charcoal canister zip-tied at the very stern of the bike. I contemplated removing this piece entirely and simply bridging the hoses. However, morality got the better of me and I decided to keep the canister. In order to cut the mud flap from the bike though, you will need to clip the zip-ties and allow the canister to hang away. Place a cover over the exhaust can in case any stray molten plastic flies onto it during cutting. At this point, you are ready to begin cutting away the mud flap.