1985 LTD Steering stem Bearing Renewal

Decided it was time to do the steering stem bearings on my '85 LTD. Have had the All Balls bearing set for about 15 months and have been waiting for an appropriate time to do this work. A squealing sound started over the past week or so coming from the steering stem area when I would move the steering without the bike moving. Sounded like metal on metal, but could not isolate it. Decided yesterday to start taking the front off the bike including the upper fairing.

Have been wanting to get at the position light relay because my self-cancelling lights and cornering lights stopped working. I know the cornering lights work as I have bypassed the position light relay at the signal flasher. I also read a post on GW Docs, https://goldwingdocs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=14130 and got some information regarding this. There may be other issues but I dealt with this one first and because the upper fairing has to be removed to get at this relay. The position light relay is buried under the coils and behind the wiring on both sides of the bike.

Will detail my thread with pictures, but suffice it to say, Honda packed a lot of wiring/parts/items in a very small space and this makes working on parts of the '85LTD a bugbear.

Will get more info and pictures staring tomorrow.

Cheers

Supporting the handle bars, on each end in front of grips with bungie cords worked out well for me many times. :yes: Take the four mounting bolts out, & let it hang there while you do the bearing race replacement. :builder: Saves a lot of time when compared to the shop manuals instructions. :good:

[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=189692#p189692:x4w6xv7a said:

Denver » Today, 1:25 am[/url]":x4w6xv7a]
Supporting the handle bars, on each end in front of grips with bungie cords worked out well for me many times. :yes: Take the four mounting bolts out, & let it hang there while you do the bearing race replacement. :builder: Saves a lot of time when compared to the shop manuals instructions. :good:

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Took the front fairing off as well, no where to hang the bars. Have a lot more room to work though.

I wanted to do the steering stem bearings and get at the position light relay that requires the removal of the upper front fairing.

Had to do the easy items such as removing the seat, shelter, and fairing pieces. Once this was done, the fun started.

I removed the wire connectors that are attached to the upper fairing with the right and left blind panel connectors: It was easier to remove these and the atached wire connectors than to take the wire connectors apart.

There is a connector on the right side of the fairing just in front of the air compressor ride height control box, not a lot of room:

To get at it, I removed the air compressor ride height control box. You disconnect the electrical connector inside the right fairing pocket:then remove three screws and remove the box:

This is the connector that had to be removed from the right side of the upper fairing.

I had also put switches, indicator lights where the right fairing pocket is. The wires for this had to be removed and will be routed slightly differently when I put the fairing back on.

The left side connectors are a bit more challenging. There are travel computer connections, radio and CB antenna connectors, radio wires to the handle bar that are all jammed into a very small space.

Will be topic of my next post.

Cheers

oh my!!!!thats quite the job

Same renewal is on my to-do list for my '83. I'm also seeing an impending shorting of a main harness bundle of wires at bottom of the stem. Not looking forward to this whatsoever.

Took the front fairing off as well, no where to hang the bars. Have a lot more room to work though.

Hung mine from the stringers of the garage, with bungie cords.

With the front fairing off everything is available to get at. I've been able to get at and correct a few wiring issues and routing issues. Should be able to get the fairing off easier next time I have some items to get at.

Seems like a lot of work, just time consuming. I've learned to not rush as it gets me in trouble most times. It also goes faster because I don't have to do tings twice.

Cheers