[1500 Gold Wing glitch]

I'd be doing a total clean up of the battery cables, ends and posts. Maybe even replace the ends, just to be sure.

I did that after the first incident. Wire wheeled them, wire brushed them, sanded some of them, coated all parts with di-electric grease and reassembled everything. I THOUGHT that did the trick. Two rides later it just plain ole quit, again.

[1500 Gold Wing glitch]

I KNOW, I KNOW, I KNOW, A short between the seat and the handle bars !!

 

Just kidding, I know these type of problems are no joke, but I just had to:witch_brew:

Oooo. Kick a guy whilst he's on the side of the road !!!

[1500 Gold Wing glitch]

My buddy had a similar issue on his wing. It would work fine for days/weeks/months and then go dead. After two seasons of riding, and visiting 2 different Honda dealers, it was eventually traced to the ignition switch. Replaced the switch and has not had a glitch in 2 years.

Now, you see, this idea sounds more like the symptoms my bike has. The problem is completely erratic with no discernible rhyme nor reason and a short time after it's acted up, it's perfectly fine. Although, this bike does not go dead unless you're riding it at speed. It'll start all day, every day in the barn but it MAY act up and make you walk if you go riding (or it may not!)

I'll keep hunting. So far I've removed and inspected the 55 amp 'main fuse' mentioned by Freezyrider and it is in perfect shape. Nothing else looks corroded or stressed or worn.

Using the factory manual electrical schematics I've discovered the common 'link' between the starting circuit and the circuit that supplies power to the coils. It's called "Starter / Cruise Relay #6" but in the index and the pictures of the electrical components I can't find any more info. It BELIEVE they're referring to the relay immediately adjacent to the battery and near the aforementioned 55 amp 'main fuse' but ...

[1500 Gold Wing glitch]

Thanks again, Freezy R. I'll check that first thing in the morning.

[1500 Gold Wing glitch]

Eck: Yes, the problem started AFTER I got the gel battery but it was nearly TWO YEARS and 10,000 miles AFTER. The battery isn't the problem.

No. The bike starts like a brand new one. Then after 15 minutes one time and an hour the next time it simply quit. Thanks for the ideas but the battery ain't my problem.

Eck: I am going to have the alternator rebuild (after Christmas bills are paid) because of the 100K miles on the bike BUT ..... the battery is NOT dead, the battery is NOT low. The charging system IS WORKING PERFECTLY. I'm dropping power !!! Just like someone unplugs it as I go down the road.

Freezy Rider: Good thought. I'll check that. Thermal expansion makes sense. My current line of reasoning is the main relay coming out of the battery. All power wires to every system start at the "Out" side of that relay. I was wondering if it were internally charred or corroded (like a set of points in the olden days) would it cause this? This would explain the loss of power to the coils and the lack of power to the starter and then 5 minutes later all being right with the world. I TRULY HATE throwing money at a problem so I was hoping to hear of someone having a similar problem.

[1500 Gold Wing glitch]

Mini-Muffin: The battery is a new gel type.

1 Canuck: I'll take a look for corroded connections. The battery posts and cables WERE corroded badly the first time it quit on me.

1Canuck: No, it does not always happen when it's hot and it does not ONLY happen when it's hot. Looking back I can remember 3 incidents where it lost power to the coils when it got wet (once in WY, once in WV, and once at a car wash here in Flint). In those incidents the starter would crank ALL DAY LONG but the engine wouldn't fire. Wait 3-4 minutes and every time it started like always.

The bike still acts/starts like it has for 99,300 miles in every way EXCEPT these last two rides. It will start hot, cold, wet, whatever then this came up. AND it's not only when those two incidents happened that it didn't start but it wouldn't crank over, gauges went out, lights wouldn't work then minutes later EVERYTHING was normal !!??

I'll check the connections (busy right now but I've got 3 months before MI riding time). Even when the power was out the starter solenoid would buzz like it was trying to engage but didn't have the juice to fully activate.

[1500 Gold Wing glitch]

Hey, I got a question I'm hoping someone knows the answer to. My 1998 Gold Wing 1500 has an annoying electrical tendency. The last two time I went for a ride it all was right with the world then suddenly it acted like the battery was dead. The motor lost all power and I coasted to the shoulder and stopped. There wasn't enough juice in the battery to crank the engine. Karl, ic23b, came by with his van and jumper cables. We had to jump it 3 times to make it 6 miles home. All my gauges were wacko, with either no readouts or ridiculous readouts.

I cleaned the battery terminals and cables and put the battery on the charger BUT the charger said it was ALREADY fully charged !!??

A couple days later it happened again and I ended up walking home to get the car and trailer. When I got back to the bike it cranked over just like 'downtown' and fired right up.

Is there a relay or solenoid in the main circuit that could fail and interrupt the current flow?

Any ideas??

Quirk

[Greetings !!]

Hi all,

Cap'n Quirk here. I've been friends with IC23b and 99silver for more years than they will admit they are old. I've been to a couple Meet&Eats and have talked to a bunch of you MI and ONT types. I've witnessed many good deeds that you have done for each other and have heard of many, MANY more so I'm happy to join your efforts and meet some more of you in person.