Radio controller acting weird

[1BigDog]

Yesterday I washed the bike. Today while hitting the road I found that I could not get the radio to switch stations and the CB would come up as CBer. If I shut the bike down and fiddled with the buttons it would finally go off. If I turned it on I had the same issue again. Last year I had unplugged virtually any connection I came across and cleaned and dialectrically greased them, including the radio connections. I read up on some of the other threads involving this. Looks like it may just be a bad controller. Any thoughts on this??

[bongobobny]

I would try spraying the contacts of the controller connector(inside the fairing) with contact cleaner really good, blow out with an air gun, and then apply dielectric grease and reseat a couple of times first before you spend money on another controller. It causes all sorts of strange problems...

[Seaking]

I had such problems with mine the other year.. and even after it was replaced by a shop who accidentally broke it on the bike while doing repairs, I was still experiencing some odd problems with my controller.. so it wasn't the controller in my case.. but to fix the problem, here's what I went through, perhaps one of these will help your situation.

 

As others have suggested, clean the contacts of course, careful on the dielectric grease not to bridge the gaps between the pins.. you want grease on the pins but not bathe the sockets in them.. odd I know but something I was told by electricians..

 

One of the issues that I had encountered was weird.. the cable going from the controller to the box was being pinched at the neck by the other cables when turning the bars.. almost as if pinching off the flow of electrons.. (or blocking the smoke from traveling through the circuit, see "theory of smoke in electronics" for more on this.. I rerouted the cables and that took care of the problem for a while..

 

The next time I started having problems was probably more the reason why the previous fix had worked.. the socket that the controller plugs into the radio wasn't secure enough.. I guess with the cable being pinched before it would put a strain on the connection and worked something askew so that I would lose contact on one of the pins, making the system fail.. The fix to that was to take a bunch of zip ties and fabricating a locking system to force both ends into each other so that they wouldn't separate. And THIS worked for me.. that was my fix to the problem. You need 4 zip ties, one around each cable below the socket ends, fitted loosely. Then you run two more zip ties between these two so that when you cinch up the last two, it pulls the connectors tightly together. (I have a photo of it somewhere on here) But this keeps the connector socket from rocking or vibrating loose..

 

The only other time my controller doesn't work is when it gets too cold out.. it gets raw and cold out here but we refuse to put the bikes away before the snow..

 

hope something here might help..

 

Best of luck

[Sleeperhawk]

Actually I really believe the problem is the Operator of said device "NOT KNOWING WHAT THE HECK HE IS DOING" :rasberry:

 

These units never fail, sheeez

[Rick Haywood]

I had the same problem on mine and believe it or not it was the passenger controller for the volume and push to talk button. I bought some electrical cleaner (that's safe for plastic) and just soaked it over and over while I kept pushing the talk button and turning the volume button. I believe it was just the talk button and when I was done everything worked as it should. The push to talk button was sticking a bit but after cleaning it worked freely and solved the problem. Mine was doing exactly what yours is. Good Luck

[Seaking]

Oooh never would have thought of THAT one.. good observation!

[Guest]

Actually I really believe the problem is the Operator of said device "NOT KNOWING WHAT THE HECK HE IS DOING" :rasberry:

 

These units never fail, sheeez

 

Sooooo, what your saying is my right hand dont know what my left hand is doing??

 

All good suggestions too. Ill look into the PTT and volume control on the trunk area as well as disassembling/cleaning the controller while the bike is down. Since the fairing will be removed fully ill go ahead and re-clean all my connections and re-grease them. Bike most likely will be down for about a month anyway.

Thanks for the ideas.

[Woody]

Ruffy, when I cleaned my connectors the first time I taped them and a couple of weeks later I was having problems again so I used the zip tie method of locking them together and it has been a year since I have had any trouble. good luck

[Old Miner]

I had a similar problem after washing the bike down but the fault turned out to be flooded connections under the rear seat to/from the CB unit. Cleaned them, dried them with a hairdryer and have had no further problems. I also go easy with the water near the back of the bike now.

 

Not like when I had my Gold Wing 1100 with aftermarket fairing and radio cassette, with a hose-pipe shot a jet of water into the flap where the tape went. Did that a lot of good.

 

Neil.

[ashley9187]

I original post was in the wrong thread It was in 1st Gen Tech. So I'm posting in this thread.

 

Today, I have just developed a very high squeal in the headset. I have tried to trouble shoot by using various headset in different helmets and changing out the various cables to no effect. The squeal does not affect the external speakers. It is only present when the lower end cable is plugged into the bike connection. Its the same with the passenger connection also.

 

I really need the communication between rider and passenger.

 

It is a constant very very high pitch. I had the problem once before and found the problem to be a short in the wire, actually was caused by the cable getting cought in the rear break caliper, had a very high pitch squeal disconnected the plug cleaned out the caliper, new cable and worked fine. The cable I am using now is brand new bought from a honda shop here in san antonio, then switched out cables and all have the same problem.

 

It was not the antenna cable it was the passenger com. cable that got cought by the caliper. I was running with the right side saddle bag off so the wheel was exposed to the elements. In case you hadn't noticed on my avatar I have a 08 RSV. I don't think I can remove my left panel.

 

I hate electronics!!!:confus ed24:

The title of this thread is about an '86. SO you might want to post your question/problem in the 2ndGen forum. Tagging it onto a 1stGen thread isn't much help. Also I'm as dumb as a brick when it comes to messing with a 2ndGen audio systems. Someday I'm sure I'll be a little better versed, just not now....

 

Any suggestion???

 

I want to thank Condor for setting me straight on my posting location.

 

 

 

Rick A.

[Guest]

Soooo, I did absolutely nothing and the radio is now working fine. CB still showed an er code so I looked at the trunk PTT and, of course, the new button was missing and the button shaft was pushed in. I had to use a needle nose to get it back out. Im thinking the wife hit it hard with her booted foot when either climbing on or off and pushed it in hard. Even had loctite on the threads and it still came off!! Now if I could win the lottery........