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Honda trike with an electrical problem; has anyone else experienced this issue??

291 Views 4 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  gunsmoker
Hi ... I own a Honda trike ... 2006 Honda Goldwing 1800 front end with a Motor Trike backend. Have put about 30,000 miles on this trike since I bought it from the original owner in 2014, so my wife and I enjoy riding. I've got a problem that I can use some help with. The problem started a week or so ago. When I use the brakes, the turn signals light up ... both of the indicators on the "dash" light up at the same time. The problem comes and goes. When it's happening the turn signals do not function as they are intended to do.

My local Honda dealer has "checked out the front (Honda) end" and "everything is OK". Unfortunately, they refuse to try to check out the Motor Trike half of my machine. I've done a lot of exploring on my own over the past few days, but am not able to isolate the problem.

The intermittent nature of the problem suggests that it results from a contact between a wire and the frame or between two wires, one that is created by the jostling of the bike as it rolls down the road.

Has anyone run into a similar problem? If yes, how did you resolve it.

Otherwise, I'm looking for suggestions.

Thanks, John
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Has anyone run into a similar problem? If yes, how did you resolve it.
Yes. Classic symptoms of a failing negative ground connection.

Some older bikes had a similar problem in the front because the head bearings no longer provided a good ground to the front turn signals.

You can start at the rear turn/tail/stop light assemblies and trace out the ground.
OR you can get a piece of stranded wire and run a new ground all the way back to the battery.

You can test that first before you make the final hidden run just to be sure it fixes the problem.
Connect a wire to the (-) battery terminal and run it around the outside to the rear to the "ground" connection point on one of the lights.
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Great suggestion … thanks.
Great suggestion … thanks.
My problem has been solved ... it was indeed a bad ground wire. We ran a new wire from one of the tail lights to a grounding point and all is well now.
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