Got rear ended, need to replace my back fender

oK....so I'm sitting at a red light with a car behind me (also stopped)....light turns green, his foot slips off the clutcha nd his black dodge charger bashes me in the back. Low speed, old freddie is unHarmed, although his black royal star's rear fender in mashed in about four inches, and the lense cap is shattered. Left turn signal cycles rapidly, indicating loss of ground there; right side OK.

He was a nice young fellow, very respectful, most unhappy with his actions and very sorry, which was nice. A nice knucklehead...could have been a Nasty a-hole, so batting .500.

Here's my question: how hard is it to replace the rear fender? I think it is fairly simple, but i am concerned about the wires that run under the fender, and their connection to rear lights.

Anyone replaced arear fender before? Insurance claim is in, but thinking about doing it myself, if there is no magic involved...also, any possibility of "hidden damage" from something like this? Is there anything else on the bike that should be checked or might be damaged in a rear ender?

Thanks, ff

Hey Tom,

So glad to see you are able to post about your accident. Count your blessings...

As for the wires in the rear fender, I would suggest you connect a piece of string/ wire, something strong to each wire BEFORE you pull them out of your old fender.

Make a color chart as to which wire is for what..

Fish string/ wire through replacement fender and pull the old wiring through the channel as it is now.

On another note,

I posted a few days ago looking for you.

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=82925

I am presently in Starkville, MS for the next 2 weeks consulting on a new opportunity. I heard during our discussions of this trip that I may be asked to go to RI for three weeks to do some consulting up there on another issue. As of right now, I am not sure what my schedule will be or exactly where they want my help. I also heard they may be asking me to help on another manufacturing problem in Canton, Ga. for 3 days...I agreed to do the 2 weeks here in MS for now and I agreed to go to RI & Canton if and when they need me to. I cant ride my wing right now because I have it tore down and I have my bushtec trailer torn down doing all kinds of maintenance on both from front to back on it, so I figured I would do this for now while waiting for all the parts, tires and shocks to come in.

I will let you know if and when I may be coming up your way. Maybe we can meet up for that favorite drink and some VR.Org family conversation.

Hey, thanks for the reply, and the steer to your email.

I regret that i moved from RI two years ago, now live in colorado springs, co. Sorry i am tardy in my reply, but i check the venture account only ever so often. Yhanks again for the reply...tom

Check out Yamaha Sports Plaza if you are going to do it yourself. I searched around when fixing some deer damage on my RSTD. I had to replace the tank and lower fairing and got them both from Yamaha Sports Plaza for $200 less than my local dealer wanted for just the tank.

Replacing the fender really isn't your problem, it's the nice young man's insurance company's problem.

Hi there Tom.

I have taken off and reinstalled the rear fender on both a 1998 Tour Classic and a 2000 Venture. There really isn´t much to it. Regarding the electrical vires then they run through rubber grommets that are covering the pullthrough holes in the fender and also there are soft metal strips on the inside to hold the wire harness to the curve of the fender. What I did was I took a picture of how the wires were connected to the lights in the back, made some notes on a piece of paper. Then I started undoing the bolts that hold the fender to the fender frame and the side chrome rails. That frame is an individual piece that is bolted to the main frame of the bike just in back of the battery box (see picture) to hold and support the fender. To be able to pull the wireharness out you will need to get this frame out of the way. It will stay with the fender till you release the last two bolts by the batteribox but it actually came with my fender since it was kind of grown on.

This is basically a take bolt out / put bolt back in job apart from the wiring but if you take pictures of the connections then you should have no problems at all.

It is vice to have a extra set of hands available when reinstalling the fender (as well as all bigger body parts for that matter) to hold the fender in place when inserting the first bolts and so forth.

Note that I am writing this by memory (bike is not at home) so anybody please feel free to correct me if I am mistaken somewhere in this writing.

http://i1281.photobucket.com/albums/a501/jonaslill/Yamaha%20Venture%20Millenium%202000/SAM_0789_zps8c36397c.jpg?t=1384430786

http://i1281.photobucket.com/albums/a501/jonaslill/Yamaha%20Venture%20Millenium%202000/SAM_0785_zps615e320f.jpg?t=1384430760

http://i1281.photobucket.com/albums/a501/jonaslill/Yamaha%20Venture%20Millenium%202000/SAM_0784_zps7827b859.jpg?t=1384430765

http://i1281.photobucket.com/albums/a501/jonaslill/Yamaha%20Venture%20Millenium%202000/SAM_0776_zps956d05a6.jpg?t=1384430780

http://i1281.photobucket.com/albums/a501/jonaslill/Yamaha%20Venture%20Millenium%202000/SAM_0821_zps80d6ab01.jpg