Interstate electrical gremlins

[Kingbee]

On my '99 Interstate, certain electrical circuits started dropping out. First was the ignition switch accessory position, then the CB stopped working, then the dash lights and audio system quit.
As it turns out, two years ago a member here helped me get the CB going with a temporary workaround, suggesting that the main wiring loom splice block was the culprit. When the audio system went out, it was time to dig into it.  After finding the block, down by the swingarm & under the battery box, taped into the wiring loom, it was simply a matter of identifying the 6 groups of wires that needed to be soldered together after being cut from the block. 
The location of this block subjects it to water from the rear wheel and from washing, and it's only protected by a wrap of electrical tape, and NO dielectric grease.  I imagine as the Valk fleet gets older, more and more of these failures are going to show up.  Fortunately, I don't believe any circuits that could prevent the bike from running are going through here, so ths isn't going to strand anyone.

[Thunderbolt]

heard of this before, but didn't know what it looked like.  That thing looked really bad.

[Novavalker]

Anyone with an Interstate needs to pay attention to this splice block. Its just a matter of time until you will develop these electrical gremlins. I removed my splice block a back in 2007. Problems solved.

[Momz]

Walt,
there is also a large blue splice block in the fairing. Take it apart, spray both halves with tuner cleaner, let it dry, apply dielectric grease,....problem solved!

[valkyriemc]

I say good catch, thanks for reporting your findings...

[Kingbee]

I stand a bit corrected.  It's come to my attention that the sidestand switch and tipover switch may also go through this splice block, in which case, I guess it would be possible to get stranded.

 I have no idea if this block is on the std/tour models, or if it was added to their loom to accomodate the Interstate's needs.  My dealer did say that they do occur on other Honda motorcycles, and do cause problems....

[PhredValk]

I'd disconnect the battery before playing with that. There's big white connector block on the GL1100 that I opened and found badly fouled. Out came the brass brush and POOF! Some of the leads are hot. A friend drove me to the Honda shop and got a main fuse, in fact I bought all 6 that they had.
Fred.

[valkyriemc]

I'm tearing into mine tomorrow....

[Kingbee]

I'd be curious as to what you find

[Smokinjoe-VRCCDS#0005]

Good thread    I'll be checking mine out as well.

[tivoklr]

I do not remember seeing this connector on my 97 std, fwiw.

[Steve K (IA)]

So, can you tell us exactly how to find this plug?  Can you get to it from behind the right side cover?  Take the battery out?
Sounds like something that should be checked, like the others have suggested.

[Cattman]

If this is tied into the side stand switch, its under the battery box and is a royal PIA to get to.

[NEHI]

    After riding my 99 IS on the Bonnieville salt flats last September, and knowing what salt can do. I will be looking at this ASAP!
   Thanks for the post!!

[Kingbee]

Following is a quote from an E-mail I received from a member here a few years ago.  Now this is not a connecter, it is a block where various circuits are spliced together.  In my first post photo, if you look carefully you can discern that 4 groups of 3 wires, and 2 groups of 4 wires are joined together by jumpers that are in the cap of the splice block.

"The jumper splice block is located inside the wiring harness.
Look under your bike ( just forward of the swing arm) and you should see
the main wiring harness under the battery box. If you feel a block
inside the wiring harness thats the jumper connector where moisture
ingress causes electrical issues. Again I don't know if this same block
is inside a tourer wiring harness. They don't show on the Interstates
wiring diagram either but its there."

[Novavalker]

So, can you tell us exactly how to find this plug?  Can you get to it from behind the right side cover?  Take the battery out?
Sounds like something that should be checked, like the others have suggested.

Its hidden inside the main wiring harness. You have to pull the battery box out and feel for a square block taped inside the main wiring harness. You have to cut into the main wiring harness to expose it.
I don't know if its in a standard or tourer. If your not having any issues then I wouldn't mess with it until you have too. The only way to replace the plug is change the out the entire wiring harness OR
cut the plug out and follow the instructions in the splice document on which wires should be soldered heat shrink-ed and taped back up with the main harness.
I suppose you could pull it apart and try dielectric grease but a plug that's near the swing arm and exposed to 10+ years of road spray doesn't cooperate very well.

[Novavalker]

Following is a quote from an E-mail I received from a member here a few years ago.  Now this is not a connecter, it is a block where various circuits are spliced together.  In my first post photo, if you look carefully you can discern that 4 groups of 3 wires, and 2 groups of 4 wires are joined together by jumpers that are in the cap of the splice block.

"The jumper splice block is located inside the wiring harness.
Look under your bike ( just forward of the swing arm) and you should see
the main wiring harness under the battery box. If you feel a block
inside the wiring harness thats the jumper connector where moisture
ingress causes electrical issues. Again I don't know if this same block
is inside a tourer wiring harness. They don't show on the Interstates
wiring diagram either but its there."

I'm the member who posted that.

I'm in Afghanistan and can email the splice document if anyone needs it.

[X Ring]

I do not remember seeing this connector on my 97 std, fwiw.

That's why the title of this thread is "INTERSTATE electrical gremlins."  Honda didn't put audio systems on the Standards/Tourers.

Marty

[Kingbee]

For some that think this may be a connector, hopefully these photos will illustrate the blocks function.
Again, it's not a connector, but hidden under tape in the wiring loom.








And thanks to Novavalker for originally helping me with this a few years ago.  I didn't want to post his name until he chimed in.

[Baloo]

Very usefull thread, Kingbee! Tanks for bringing this up!

[PhredValk]

Just a thought, but if an ADMIN user could get that document and put it on the Shoptalk page there would be permanent, easy access to it forever. We all have ten year old bikes, and there's a lot of aging Interstates out there...
Fred.

[valkyriemc]

Well I dug into finding and opening that connector, but the result was not what I expected. The connector was clean, with no corosion so I filled it with dielectric grease while I was in there. Then re-taped up the connector to the harness with 3M 33+ electrical tape. But I found other problems.

What was most bothersome was the condition of my fairly new battery. This prompted a trip to the bat store, and they gave me another _no questions asked. The battery always started the bike fine. However I did have to sand and repaint the metal plate under the battery, from the overflow of acid. It looks fine now.  




While readjusting the connectors, unwinding and "neatenizing" the right side connectors, I checked and found the start of some corosion on the starter relay connector. Cleaned and greased that too.
And I actually took most every connector I could find apart and inspected and added insul grease.  

Basically if I hadnt gone in looking for that connector I wouldn't have found these problems. Thanks to King Bee for alerting us to possible electrical issues.  Thank You....

[jer0177]

Sorry to revive an old topic here, but does anyone have any kind of list as to what circuits go through this thing? 

I see light green/black, which I think is the output from the audio relay, which is split here and goes to the 2 inner cluster lights and the 12v acc signal for the radio, and it looks like maybe light green/red which is neutral switch, split here to go to the ICM and neutral diode. 

Are these two right?  What about the others?

Reason for asking - the inner cluster lights (that illuminate the stereo channel/clock) aren't working on my IS, and the bulbs are good - they're not getting current to the plug on the back of the cluster.  I'm ready to tear into this thing if that's where the circuit branches, but if it doesn't go through there, I'm not going to touch it yet.

[RP#62]

http://www.rattlebars.com/valkfaq/schematics/rpage05i.html

-RP

[jer0177]

So I went ahead and tore into mine.  Here's what it took for those looking to tackle it:

1: remove seat and both side covers.
2: raise stereo unit and remove strap and battery box cover.
3: remove battery and whatever's in the other half of the battery box.
4: remove coolant overflow tank (the side cover stud unscrews (10mm socket) to remove the tank, and there are 2 hoses attached to it - top and bottom).
5: remove relays and ecu from the battery box on the left side, and unscrew the bolt on the left side (10mm socket).
6: remove the fuse panel (it unsnaps), starter solenoid and bolt from the right side (10mm socket) of the battery box.
7: remove the 2 bolts holding the back of the battery box to the rear fender (10mm socket).
8: work the battery box out of the bike by twisting it and pulling it up towards the back.
9: locate the gremlin in the wiring harness (blue circle in pic below), and remove the electrical tape holding it in.


10: doing one set at a time, cut the wires from the connector and solder them together.  I had to use a dremel with a stainless steel wire brush to remove the corrosion from the wires themselves after I cut and stripped them because they had corroded inside the insulation and you can't achieve a proper solder connection on a corroded wire.  I used a small scrap of plywood as a backing to clean the wire against (see picture).  It make things a lot easier than trying to wire brush wires mid-air.  The plywood also makes a great place to solder against while soldering the wires together.



11: cover all connections individually with heat shrink or electrical tape to protect them from the world.


12: tape them back into the wiring harness.
13: put everything back in the way it came out.

It wasn't really as difficult as I thought it would be from reading the previous posts about it.  Once the battery box and coolant tank are out of the way, you can easily sit on the left side of the bike and do all the work needed.

[Maldog]

thanks guys for all the great advise,wow

[Rotny52]

Thank you so much for sharing your experience.  Without your photos and description, I would never had cut the tape off the wiring loom.  Just as  you described and showed, five of my wires were corroded and had disconnected.  Now I am back up and running.  Rod Vandiver

[JB99IS]

I found the Interstate gremlin. I hope I’m able to get this all cleaned up and back to running. It started with my IS dying a few houses from home. Tried restarting was a no go. Got it into my garage and didn’t touch it till Saturday. After checking and cleaning everything, fuses, kill switch starter button etc. I got it to start multiple times. Sunday it started multiple times. Monday nothing no click but instead the BAS relay was buzzing when I turned the key on. Broke out the meter and checked all I could . I can here and found pint about the junction taped into the harness. I cut it open last night and it was bad. Does anyone have a schematic of how I should reconnect these wires?

[RonW]

does you have a new battery? Any pics of the suspected electrical junction?

[gordonv]

Monday nothing no click but instead the BAS relay was buzzing when I turned the key on.

Sorry, but I don't know what the BAS is? Like mentioned, pictures would be great. Make an account with postimage.org , and you can post the links/images in your threads.

I can here and found pint about the junction taped into the harness. I cut it open last night and it was bad. Does anyone have a schematic of how I should reconnect these wires?

Sorry, I don't know if it's me, but I don't understand what you wrote again here.

If you're referring to the OP (original post), I have a doc on how to do this, send me an email and I'll forward it to you. But those pictures above are great, shows you how that connector is a series of jumpers, and what happens after water gets in and causes corrosion.

[JB99IS]

https://postimg.cc/SjBBkzCd

[The emperor has no clothes]

Dang ! That looks terrible. With it being 110* here lately, I’ve been feeling pretty bummed. But, I guess there are some advantages to living in a desert.

[gordonv]

Wow, looks like you found what might be your problem. No wonder why you wanted the Doc for that.

Good luck, keep us posted.