On July 29, 2022, Harley-Davidson announced a recall for certain Detachable Tour-Pak Luggage Carrier Conversion Kits due to a possible interference issue with a bike's turn signals. The affected units are part number 53000916 and part number 53000917, and the recall affects the units if they're installed on 2014 to 2022 touring and CVO touring motorcycles and number around 2,055 units.
According to the NHTSA recall data, when the Tour-Pak box is removed while the Detachable Luggage Carrier Conversion Kit is still installed on the bike and unplugged from the wiring harness, "the turn signal indicator lights may flash fast continuously and not adjust the frequency to alert the operator of a turn signal light failure. As such, these Luggage Carrier Conversion Kits fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard number 108, "Lamps, Reflective Devices, and Associated Equipment."
Owners who may be eligible for this recall will be contacted by mail after August 15, 2022. The remedy for this issue is total replacement of the Detachable Tour-Pak Luggage Carrier Conversion Kit, which your local Harley dealership will do free of charge. For more information, owners may contact Harley's customer service line at 1-800-258-2464 and reference recall number 0633.
It's not entirely clear why removing your Tour-Pak should cause your turn signals to malfunction, as the wording in the recall document is relatively vague. We reached out to Harley-Davidson for clarification on this point, but as of publication, we haven't heard back from them about it. When Harley-Davidson gets back to us about this, we'll update this article with more information about the specifics of the recall.
UPDATE
Harley got back to us regarding the issue at hand with this recall. Here's what they had to say.
P&A Detachable Tour-Pak Luggage Carrier Conversion Kits, P/Ns 53000916 and 53000917, are equipped with lamps that draw power from the accessory power circuit instead of the BCM turn signal circuit. Due to this design, if the Tour-Pak is removed and the vehicle is operated while one of these kits is installed, the turn signal indicator will “fast flash” regardless of the functionality of the turn signal lamps. As a consequence, if a turn signal lamp does subsequently malfunction, there will be no change in flashing rate within the instrument cluster as required by FMVSS 108 S9.3.6.
