PhilMills
Well-known member
I picked up one of the Garmin 2730s from an eBay vendor that somebody here linked to - good deal, good product: except for the "refurb" sticker, I'd have a hard time telling it from new.
When it came to getting power to the thing, I decided that a Powerlet socket somewhere on the front panels routed directly to the battery was the way to go: short run to the GPS, able to power a tank bag in the future, good location for a battery tender connection... Unfortunately, Yamaha wasn't feeling like doing me any favors when they laid out the GenII FJR - there's really no clearance for mounting anything on the A-B-C-D panels.
Ultimately, I ended up putting the socket into the 'A' panel on the thin strip of plastic inboard of the glove compartment. There's just enough room for the 11/16" hole you need to drill and enough free depth behind it for the socket and wiring. Getting the washer and nut on takes some work - you'll need to clip the edges of the washer down to the width of the nut on two sides so that it fits in the available space and then you'll need to thread the socket into the nut instead of the nut onto the socket - there's not enough room to spin the nut.
The rubber boot on the socket just squeezes in to place with the help of some dielectric grease to lubricate things.
Powerlet's 36" battery leads kit provides the correct length to route directly from the battery up and over the B and C panels (above the vent) and down into the space below the glove compartment. The in-line fuse holder wedges into a small space up behind the C panel.
Everything goes back together with no sign of any changes except the new Powerlet socket. The best kind of modification is the one that looks "factory" and only modifies parts that are cheap(ish) to replace if you break them.
Pictures eventually - I was too busy making sure it all worked (and going back to the parts store for replacement plastic rivets) to remember to document it.
When it came to getting power to the thing, I decided that a Powerlet socket somewhere on the front panels routed directly to the battery was the way to go: short run to the GPS, able to power a tank bag in the future, good location for a battery tender connection... Unfortunately, Yamaha wasn't feeling like doing me any favors when they laid out the GenII FJR - there's really no clearance for mounting anything on the A-B-C-D panels.
Ultimately, I ended up putting the socket into the 'A' panel on the thin strip of plastic inboard of the glove compartment. There's just enough room for the 11/16" hole you need to drill and enough free depth behind it for the socket and wiring. Getting the washer and nut on takes some work - you'll need to clip the edges of the washer down to the width of the nut on two sides so that it fits in the available space and then you'll need to thread the socket into the nut instead of the nut onto the socket - there's not enough room to spin the nut.
The rubber boot on the socket just squeezes in to place with the help of some dielectric grease to lubricate things.
Powerlet's 36" battery leads kit provides the correct length to route directly from the battery up and over the B and C panels (above the vent) and down into the space below the glove compartment. The in-line fuse holder wedges into a small space up behind the C panel.
Everything goes back together with no sign of any changes except the new Powerlet socket. The best kind of modification is the one that looks "factory" and only modifies parts that are cheap(ish) to replace if you break them.
Pictures eventually - I was too busy making sure it all worked (and going back to the parts store for replacement plastic rivets) to remember to document it.
