Maintenance BEST Preventative: The Wiring Harness

Many, many times I have worked on GL1800’s and noted that the stock factory dialectic ‘grease’ was still in the connections. On some, that grease was dried out to the point of nearing ‘crumble’ state. In effect, it was doing very little, if anything, to protect the wiring from moisture, oxidization and electrolysis effects.

Ensuring that all wiring connectors on your Goldwing, including grounding straps and connections, are clean and properly functional and connecting properly is absolutely the best aspect of maintenance you can perform for longevity of the electrical and electronic controls on your Goldwing.

Dependant on your climate, whether dry or humid, that should be done regularly and without fail: or your different parts will start to fail. Why?

Corroded and oxidized automotive wires disrupt electrical flow, causing voltage drops, increased resistance (leading to heat and potential fires), and electrical system failures, potentially leading to complete vehicle breakdowns.

Here’s a more detailed explanation:

    How it happens:

   Your Goldwing, especially the GL1800 models, use automotive-type wires, connectors, and electronics. The wires themselves, but especially the connectors: especially those made of copper which most if not all are: can corrode and oxidize when exposed to moisture, oxygen, and salts (like de-icing chemicals which are on the road in late fall and early spring).

Consequences of corrosion and oxidation:

 Increased Resistance: The corrosion and oxidation create a layer of resistance at the wire’s surface, which means more energy is required to move electricity through the wire, causing voltage drops.

Heat and Potential Fires: With the resistance, the heat generated by the electrical current increases, potentially leading to hot connections, melting of components and wire-terminals, and even fires, especially in high-power applications.

Electrical System Problems: Corroded wires can lead to intermittent or complete failures of electrical components or systems, such as headlights, lights, the ECU, ABS controller, the Cruise Controller, or the entire electrical system.

Battery drain: Corroded connections can cause a constant draw of power, leading to a battery drain.

Signal Loss: In lower-power data connections, faulty signal readings or even signal loss may result from the resistance caused by corrosion. You might think you’ve blown a $2k ECU, and it turns out to be a neglected wire.

Minimizing oxidation and corrosion:

    Preventative Maintenance: Regularly inspecting and cleaning electrical connections and wires can help to prevent any problems occurring, as well as to provide the opportunity to catch corrosion early and prevent it from spreading inside any particular connector.

Goldwings use ‘sealed’ connections to protect against moisture intrusion, but none of them are fail-safe, and the GL1000, GL1100, GL1200 had very few of those connectors, if any, whereas the GL1800 and Gl1500 models had a few.

When to do the prevention:

In a humid climate: once every three years. If the Goldwing is stored inside in a heated garage, then every 4 years. For drier climates: change that to every 5 years and 6 years. Those recommendations must be tempered by the riding you do. If you are travelling through areas where you have encountered heavy rain, then 3 years is good. If dusty areas (such as a dust storm in particular) then two years, regardless. Water or fine dust will get into everything, given the opportunity to ‘walk’ into the connector.

Regardless, when you are working on or cleaning the bike it is ALWAYS a good opportunity to refresh the lubricants and cleaners in the areas you are working close to.

What to do:

Pull every piece out of the way and/or off the bike so that you can reach all terminal connections on it. That is not as difficult as it sounds, and most of it can be done while doing regular maintenance like changing the air-filter.

GL1800 and to some extent GL1500 and GL1200:

Remove: Windshield garnish and windshield to gain access to the meter (speedo, etc) plugs.

Remove: Seat: to gain access to the relay box, and all the connectors going to the rear of the bike: saddlebags and trunk, tail lights.

Remove : Shelter: To gain access to all of the plugs on the main harness going to the engine sensors, ECU, Cruise control module, right hand connectors and left hand connectors to controls. (special treatment on these if you aren’t taking the cowl/fairing off)

Fuse Box: Pull each and every fuse in turn, clean it. Have a rag with a light soaking of Nu-trol, and wipe each fuse. A light spray over the fuse area is good when all of the fuses are removed, but that can get confusing replacing them, hence the ‘wet’ rag.

Relay Box: Treat just like the fuse box, only here you put a very light spray into each relay receptor, work each relay in and out a couple times to clean them.

Remove Airbox: to gain access to the plugs on the left side in front and under the box, and the 6 pin connector on the left rear area of the box. Be VERY careful with the seal between the throttle-body and the air-box. They are replaceable only with a different seal and some hassle. Usually they have spots of glue holding them in place. Leave them alone unless those spots are broke free. Those O-ring seals are not available unless you buy the whole throttle-body. (Sneaky but works: You have to buy specifically the ‘band’ that holds the ABS controller module onto the rear fender of a GL1800A, and glue it in place as a replacement. That band is a large O-ring, with the same thickness and overall circumference, but not shaped like a large open figure “8”. Hence it must be glued on section by section as you ‘walk’ around it, like spot-welding. Hint: use both a ‘crazy-glue’ (cyanoacrylate) like component in very small [well cleaned] spots to get them seated, and a then a non-setting and softer sealer to finish, pushed under the areas that are not spotted with the instant-glue. Then wipe the top of the seal with synthetic oil to ensure a good seal before mounting the box back on.

Remove: Saddlebag and tail light connectors, under the seat and inside the bags and trunk

Remove: trunk lid liner: to access the remote lock controller

Remove: rear fender section to access the rear light connectors.

Treatment: Harness generally:

Get good contact cleaner, and I cannot not state enough that Nu-trol Control Cleaner (401b) by MG Chemicals is absolutely the best for these purposes. It cleans the surfaces and leaves a good preservative film on surfaces as well. However, that is a preservative, not a true lubricant. For switches and the like, it must be backed up by a good quality, very fine lubricant such as EZ lube, and for heavier mechanical aspects (such as signal-light switches) use a good light synthetic lithium/moly grease. Other and different cleaners and lubrication can be used, but it must not be a ‘dry’ cleaner (which just dissipates away), and it must be a very good quality and very fine synthetic lubricant to finish with.

For all connectors: spray the female side with the Nu-Trol, then fit them together and pull them back apart several times. That way they will work against each other, and clean the tangs and recipient slots. The final step is to give the connector a light final shot of Nu-trol, and ensure a good ‘click’ connection back together.

Do that process with each and every terminal that you can possibly access, not forgetting the side stand switch and alternator harnesses, ABS sensor connectors front and rear if so equipped, and any aftermarket accessories.

The difficult ones to access are the connectors on each side of the bike, under the sides of the fairings, which are held by the main-harness stays and the ‘pipes’ on either side. Very difficult to separate with the fairing off. Very nearly impossible to disconnect with the fairing in place. Those: simply get in there as close as you can with the Nu-Trol, and soak them, from the top, with a rag stuffed underneath them. That’s the best you can do until the fairing is off. You have at least afforded them with some protection.

Treatment: Control Switches:

The handlebar switches and suspension levelling/ hazard light/fog-light switches, even though they are staring you in the face each and every ride: are always neglected. The mute button, the reverse button, the cruise button, the hazard button: always dry out and lose the lubrication over time. I have recovered many of them, with complete disassembly (do not do that unless you are really careful about what you are doing) and a lot of diligence, but it much better to simply keep them well contact-cleaned and lubricated.

With the Nu-trol and the EZ lube: tip the button to the down, and give a liberal spray into the top of the tip style or swivel-button switches (volume and CB controls, and the respective similar switches everywhere), and directly after the spray: work them up and down 15 to twenty times to get the contact cleaner distributed. Go to the next switch, do it again. And then next and so on.

Then, for the push button ones, and these are the switches that cause the most problems: with the button in the ‘out’ position: give a good spray into behind the top of the button, and immediately start to work the button out and in to distribute the cleaner. Do that 8 to 10 times, then with the button “IN”: do it again, same process. After you work all the switches, go back and spray the cleaner into all of the tip-style switches again, and work them again. Then back to the push buttons for one more time: spray and work them.

Now it is time, after the cleaner is worked through to clean the contacts and movement plates: to lubricate all the swivels, push-tangs and little internal rods with the EZ lube (or another very fine synthetic turbine lubricant), Give each button a brief spray, trying to force it in past the top of each button.

Results Over Time:

My favorite ride is a 2003 with at this point about 160k MILES on the switches through some extreme weather. (and 70k on the drive train) They perform as good or better than new ones. They were dry when I bought the bike 11 years ago. They weren’t dry for long.

I have never had any problem with any electrical or electronic component other than an “A” magnetic solenoid: and that failure I caused that by negligence on another 1800.

For the GL1200, GL1100, GL1000

The same process is done, but much less has to be detached or removed. The essence is to get at every terminal you possibly can, and contact clean it. Particular attention to the starter ground-straps on the early models where the strap terminal meets the motor and frame. An example is the strap that runs from the GL1100 starter to the frame under the triangular rear upper motor mount. Notorious for never being cleaned and tended. Another is the tail-light connector(s) under the rear fender.

Each different model has it’s potential foibles and hard-to-reach wired areas. Locate them and deal with them. Another is the tail-light connector under the rear fender.

Wire Harness Maintenance is easy, it is inexpensive, and it is worthwhile.

Ride safely.