Took the thing apart but it took a bit of persuading as the corrosion was binding it and this is what I ended up with, doesn't show very well but well furred up
Used contact cleaner, soft and brass brushes, emery cloth and needle file to clean the male and female contacts and it came up quite good
My original idea was to cut and join the pair of wires with solder, heat shrink etc but it didn't turn out that way, there are 19 wires, 14-15 are earth related they all go into the main part of the block singly but the male connectors in the bottom part of the block join one complete row together then join the other row into three lots of three. It can be done but I thought I'd give the clean up method a go first and try it out.
After cleaning, doused both parts in ignition sealer(Holts puts on a clear plastic coat), put them back together, covered the outside with it as well, followed by a spray of silicone grease. Taped it all up and instead of putting it under the loom where it becomes the lowest point and collects all the moisture (no wonder it fails) cable tied it to the subframe rail just above the loom making it the highest point.
Put everything back together after spraying and silicon greasing every connector I could see and it started first time. Just got to run around for a bit now to see if it's properly cured it, if not Plan B comes into effect and I'll cut the block off and hardwire everything.
Well worth doing if you've got a 99 or 00 bike just for peace of mind, must have read about at least 15 bikes that have had the problem this year and that will be the tip of the iceberg.
Nearly forgot
Don't forget to disconnect the battery before you start just to make sure29.11.2004 An update....BOLLOXWell it lasted about 3 months then the FI light starting coming on with the front brake switch. No problems cutting out etc but obviously a duff connection somewhere......so today I hardwired it.
The block of 10 have to go together then the 3 blocks of 3 as well. Cut the wires off the connector on the 3x3 side first..they are in their own colours so you don't get to mix them up.
When I stripped the insulation off the copper wire was black for a fair way up, there isn't really enough length to try and cut them back to perfect shiny copper so I cleaned them with a small wire brush and contact cleaner. Soldered the three wires together then used 2 layers of heatshrink tubing to seal them
For the main block of 10 the easiest way is to leave the main thicker earth on its own, solder the remaining 9 into three blocks of three. Used a small piece of heatshrink to hold all of them together then dipped them into a "thimble" full of heated/melted solder, sprayed a bit of water on it to cool it down and ended up with all ten soldered together.
Heatshrinked them, covered everthing in silicone grease and taped everything up to the main loom using self amalging rubber tape to seal it.
Started first time, FI light hasn't come on and hopefully thats it. I can see that when it does start to go you might as well hardwire it. If damp has got in to the terminals it has also got into the actual wire and connections as well which you can't clean up so it is going to go again anyway.
Just come back to this thread to stick the pictures back up that had disappeared. Over the 6 years it's been reposted and copied on most Blackbird Forums and as the years have passed it turns out Honda didn't cure the problem after the 1999-2000 bikes, all FI bikes can get the same FI light problems, the connector has moved to further back on the left side and some on the right side, even has different amount of wires BUT it can be cured by following the above instructions just make sure with a multimeter which wires should be joined to which and you won't go wrong. If an FI light problem occurs do the permanent fix, don't bother with just a clean up, some people have done that and ended up having to replace stators, reg/recs and even ECUs because it soon gave problems again. It might not be the cure for all ills but if in doubt do the fix and at least that way you've got rid of one variable for little or no cost.
95% of all Harley Davidsons ever made are still on the road... the other 5% made it home.