Rear turn signal connector under fender, Interstate

[DenverDave]

Recently I went to the Darkside (205/65-16) and have only ridden solo, this evening I went for my first 2up ride since adding the C/T. As I got to the end of my street to make a right hand turn I noticed the turn signal was blinking faster than normal. Burnt out bulb was my first thought, tried the left turn signal, same thing.

After looking up into the rear fender I saw the issue, the connector to the rear turn signals/license plate light was disconnected. I seems that when drove out off my driveway and dropped off the curb into the street the rear tire contacted the connector and disconnected it.  I believe the plastic latch that holds the two half's together is broken, but I did manage to reconnect and the turn signals work normally.

Now my questions

1. Is it possible just to get a replacement connector?

2. Would a dose of electrical grease and a liberal amount of electrical tape be a semi-permanent fix?

3. Is there enough slack/room to move the connector away from tire?

4. Will I end up having to buy a different 4 pin or 5pin connector and replace the stock connector?

4a. What type of connector would I use?

I will know more once I put the bike on the lift and possibly pull off the back half of the rear fender.

TIA

Dave

[gordonv]

Replacement connectors: www.vintageconnections.com

I don't know if all you would have to do is to remove each "pin" from the connector housing, and place them back into the new housing, one at a time.

If you have to replace the connector on the wire, make sure you get the right size. Todays standard is a 4mm bullet, Honda MC was a 3.5mm, what size is the Valk I don't know.

I think some dielectric grease and maybe a zip strap to hold the 2 housings together, will keep it functional.

The IS rear wires have 3 sections. (a little self plug) I think I still have them all, from the main, to the rear lights (part listed $5), and to the trunk (I'm keeping the trunk for now).

[R J]

Use some good loom tape and wrap it up.  I bought it at O'Rielly's, where we get 90% of our parts and supplies for the shop.

Mine on MGM was torn off when I ran over a railroad spike in 98.     Took the wheel off to replace the tire and wrapped the connector.   Started on the wire at the top when attached in the fender, wrapped 2 or 3 wraps around it and down onto the other wire.    Better explanation.   Started at one end of the connector, wrapped to the other end and back to the starting point and then did another wrap to the bottom.  Cut tape and stuck it to the loom.

It has been that way for over 200K miles.  No problem as of this writing.

[Canuck]

Check these out.  I have not used them myself, yet.
http://www.posi-products.com/posilock.html

[Kylenav]

This happened to me about 10K miles ago.  My connector had a couple of small pieces broken off and the clip was completely broken.  I used some environmental tape and two zip ties to keep it in the small housing area it's designed to be in.  Never had a problem or gave it a second though until I saw this post

[wild6]

Just curious to those that have had this happen.
What length rear shocks do you have?

[scoot]

Both pieces of the harness total less then $13.00. Nice thing about doing it this way is there is less chance of something going wrong later. I had a problem with my brake light not working at times. I could reach up in the fender and move the connection a little and all would be good....for a while.

http://www.hdlparts.com/fiche_section_detail.asp?section=148054&category=MOTORCYCLES&make=HONDA&year=1997&fveh=3465

#6 and 7 in the diagram.

[DenverDave]

Found the wiring harness, it is a little bit more pricey for the interstate

http://www.hdlparts.com/fiche_section_detail.asp?section=148559&category=MOTORCYCLES&make=HONDA&year=1999&fveh=3473

As far as I call tell only the outer connector is damaged, #8 in the above link.

Think I will order the #8 harness $7.74, and will temporarily fix the connector until the part arrives. Don't want to pull the rear half of the fender off more than I have to.

1999 Interstate, stock shocks, extremely fast green and silver

Thanks

Dave