Restoring an '82 Self Cancelling Turn Signal System

My '82 was pretty much a rusted barn find when we got her in '07. Have done a tremendous amount of work restoring the old girl and making lots of modifications along the way. One of the things I did not know about was the '82 had self cancelling turn signals. Much to my chagrin (and mostly to not knowing any about GL1100's before we started tearing her down) I pretty much killed the system by removing all of the functioning parts. :cheeky:

Over this past twelve months or so, I have been accumulating the parts needed to get this system functioning again! :yahoo:

Most of the parts we used to get the old girl on the road were from a wrecked '81. I had to go out and get a new speedometer with the '82 parts for the speed sensor, bank angle sensor, wiring, left side controls with the self cancelling device and a replacement '82 triple tree. So....here is the build........ opcorn:

First up.......I need to restore my '82 wire harness and check for any bad wires or connectors. I removed the harness from the bike back in '07 since it was pretty darn weather beatin and the fuse box connections were frozen and rusty. I pulled it out of storage and started by pulling all of the old tape off.

Boy is that stuff sticky!! :shock:

Glad I did it though! Found a few bad wires and connectors. Plus, the fuse block has not got any better with time. :hihihi:

With the whole harness out, I think it is a good time to upgrade the fuse block. Plus I can add new wires now to run to the radio, trailer wiring and horn directly from new fuses without all of the excess wires running around the bike now. I'm think a small fuse panel with blade fuses and adding a relay to set up another small fuse panel for everything that runs off the accessory side such as the horn, radio and trailer lights.

opcorn: :good:

A new fuse block was high on my list of changes. I hate the glass tube fuses. It was easy enough to do too.

Since you're going this far why not restore the entire harness as best you can? Ohm through every wire to be sure it's still good inside the insulation and replace any wires that fail. Replace all the connectors. Brand spanky new ones are far more likely to make the best connections.

+1 on the connectors.
Unless you have severely burnt or corroded wires I wouldn't bother to replace them as the actual old Honda wiring is still great quality copper if it is undamaged. You could check for increased resistance or voltage drop of you are really keen. If the copper looks good when you are changing the crimps I wouldn't bother testing the wire. If you do want to test the wires I would recommend my high current test using a 65w headlight bulb etc.

The reason I suggest ohming through each wire now is Hooch had at least one wire that appeared good and insulation was undamaged but the wire simply corroded in half part way. Also wires this old tend to act more like resistors than conductors. Better to check and know than hunt later.

[url=https://classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=171916#p171916:mih3wo55 said:

slabghost » Sat Apr 16, 2016 6:10 am[/url]":mih3wo55]
Since you're going this far why not restore the entire harness as best you can? Ohm through every wire to be sure it's still good inside the insulation and replace any wires that fail. Replace all the connectors. Brand spanky new ones are far more likely to make the best connections.

Click to expand...

I am going to test each wire, but the vast majority of them appear to be in pretty good shape. I am going to replace any of the connectors that are showing any signs of damage. Some of the connectors were always under cover and appear to be in good shape.

Since I replaced my stator connector 2 years ago and saw how easy it is to make up the connectors, I might do all of them. Time is on my side since I do not have to take the bike out of service for this project until everything is done! :yes:

[url=https://classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=171922#p171922:1iogi462 said:

mcgovern61 » Sat Apr 16, 2016 7:36 am[/url]":1iogi462]

[url=https://classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=171916#p171916:1iogi462 said:

slabghost » Sat Apr 16, 2016 6:10 am[/url]":1iogi462]
Since you're going this far why not restore the entire harness as best you can? Ohm through every wire to be sure it's still good inside the insulation and replace any wires that fail. Replace all the connectors. Brand spanky new ones are far more likely to make the best connections.

Click to expand...

I am going to test each wire, but the vast majority of them appear to be in pretty good shape. I am going to replace any of the connectors that are showing any signs of damage. Some of the connectors were always under cover and appear to be in good shape.

Since I replaced my stator connector 2 years ago and saw how easy it is to make up the connectors, I might do all of them. Time is on my side since I do not have to take the bike out of service for this project until everything is done! :yes:

Click to expand...

Good plan and you don't want to take it out of service and install a new wiring harness so you can chase down problems. Unless you really like playing with the meter and pulling your hair. :BigGrin:

Wire testing is going very well. Only two wires have issues and that is mostly because they had chafed at the rear fender and under the tank. Two connectors are shot. The rest of the connectors are actually much better than I expected once cleaned up. I am most likely going to only replace the pins on them. They all get crimped and soldered.

I was having an issue chasing one wire out the front of the harness (the brown wire). It doesn't seem to connect to anything. Traced it out on the schematic and the brown wires are the parking lights. So, why is there one in the headlight? Checked my old Vetter manual since I remember that brown wire connected to something. Turns out, it is a switched circuit that can be used for an optional accessory and the Vetter harness connected to it for the radio. It is only a 5 amp fuse, but that may have been enough for an AM/FM radio back then.

Been chasing through the wire harness, checking multiple wiring diagrams (mostly because there are differences in the color schematics for the '80-'82 and the '83). The '82 wiring is a real mixture of the '80-'81 and '83 standard wiring; none of the schematics are correct for the '82 standard. BUT, since I pulled all of the electrical tape off, it has been a fairly easy process to follow the wires from connector to connector. Some of these have been real interesting.

For one thing, whenever Honda needed to extend and split off, say a ground circuit, they ran a 12 gauge wire, would cut out some casing and crimped in two 14 gauge wires to run off whichever way was needed and then ran blue electrical tape over the splice which is then covered by the black tape wrap around the harness. There are quite of few of these "crimped" circuits. I am surprised these bikes do not have more electrical problems than they do.

Another surprising find (at least to me), there are only two grounds in the entire wiring system. The main ground from the battery to the frame and then ONLY ONE 12 gauge green wire with an eyelet that attaches at the frame by the coils. That is it! :shock:

All negative pathways lead to the one ground wire connected at the coils. And that wire is spliced about 4 times through out the wire harness. I was pretty shocked! :heat:

Dan has a post about adding a relay for the fuse panel. viewtopic.php?p=171431#p171431

In there, he states, "The black wire from your ignition switch connects to terminal 86". This black wire is the main positive wire coming from the ignition switch. It is powered from the red wire which comes from the 30 amp fuse at the battery. So the entire power system for the harness is fed from the key switch back down through this black wire.

I am considering changing the system and taking the balance of the load off the key switch while maintaining the positive feed wire from the 30 amp fuse using the same relay setup. I will post more as I think this through.......... :read:

[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=171921#p171921:1pqt17se said:

slabghost » Sat Apr 16, 2016 9:33 pm[/url]":1pqt17se]
The reason I suggest ohming through each wire now is Hooch had at least one wire that appeared good and insulation was undamaged but the wire simply corroded in half part way. Also wires this old tend to act more like resistors than conductors. Better to check and know than hunt later.

Click to expand...

If you want to test the integrity of a wires I suggest you use at least my 55w headlamp high current tester ( 4.5 amps approx) rather than an ohmmeter or an LED test lamp as a circuit does not always guarantee good supply of current. :yes:

Project has been on hold for a while. I also had to stop working on the replacement wire harness upgrade and fuse/relay upgrade. I have all of the parts I need for this project except the connectors to finish the wire harness changes for the fuse/relay upgrade.

I have accumulated an excellent condition '82 speedo/tach, NOS OEM angle sensor, '82 triple tree (the one on my '82 is actually from an '81....don't ask...), new steering head bearings, good condition '82 left side hand controls with the self cancelling items, new ballast and wiring for the '82 coils and all of the clamps and pieces needed to put the '82 harness back in (again, it currently has an '81 harness).

The main hold up is a combination of selling the '81 Standard (still available) and I am looking at changing jobs. If I get the job I applied for, I will need to ride the '82 ASAP for work. Hence, I do not want to take the bike apart until I have to.

It is always something.........

Gerry - wiring on these old GWs is significant. It's also a challenge to get it back in the same space.

My '85 LTD seems to have only two ground connections as well. Found one up where the reg/rect used to be, and have the one from the battery to the frame. Have installed a separate ground bus that all grounds are now routed to as I find them or install new. Found one of the splices that Honda used in the charging/ignition circuit when I removed the charging circuit wiring because of the external alt install.

I also try to use marine grade wire when I change or add wires - tinned throughout.

Have to troubleshoot my self cancelling turn signals as well. Using a two pin electronic flasher, turn signals work but have to be manually cancelled. Hooking the 3 pin OEM flasher up and no signals, or cornering lights.

Best of luck with your project.

Cheers

Nearly 4 years in the making, but the self cancelling turn signals are working! arty: :Egyptian:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Wh-3tghhpk



Nice to see a feature that was original to this old girl come back to life. Never had it since I restored the bike from 2007. To get the system to work, I only had to perform the following:

*Replace the triple tree with an '82 triple tree. (Mistake made in 2007 in our effort to restore the bike, I had removed the original rusted triple tree and replaced with the clean one from the wrecked '81 we acquired for the engine.)
*New (NOS) bank angle sensor under the triple tree.
*Replacement '82 speedometer/tachometer (Needed because the '81 set I have been using does not have the speed sensor)
*Replacement left side controls WITH the self cancelling solenoid. (Again, I originally used the left side controls from the '81)
*Rebuild the original '82 wire harness that came with the bike.

Why all of this work for a bike I am selling? Well, I wanted for myself and had already acquired all of the pieces and, hey, this kind of hobby wrenching is still fun! For folks that were not around in 2007, here is what I started with. She was in pretty ratty shape. Blown engine, frozen brakes, 12 years out in the elements:





The test procedure is right out of the Honda Manual. Connect the tachometer cable to the speedometer, run the engine to achieve more than 10 MPH on the speedo (triggers the speed sensor to believe the bike is moving), click on the turn signal, turn the wheel to right (or left) and bring it back to ceneter and the turn signal should cancel.

Cool way to test it.

Isn't there also a lean sensor? Mine seems like it must have something like that, because after a lane change at speed requiring some lean the signal will turn off.

I am not sure.

I know the '82 only has the bank angle sensor under the triple tree. Turning the handlebars all the way to lock while on the center stand introduces enough angle to trigger the solenoid when the triple tree reaches center again. The second part of the equation is the bike must be moving over 5-8 MPH (as seen by the speedo sensor) in order for the solenoid to work. It may be that you notice it more while leaning into the turn, but it may actually be related to the speed and not lean.

It is the same speed sensor that triggers the "low air" warning light for the rear shocks. Again, it only triggers the light if there is low air pressure and the bike is moving faster than 5-8 MPH.