Day 1, Home to Wilmington NC

Mar 25, 2019 Mon0Motorcycle

Miles:	142
Start Point:	Home, NC
Start Weather:	At 6:00 AM EDT the temperature was 50.3 ° with 87% humidity. The conditions were partly cloudy with a wind speed of 4.7 MPH and wind gusts of 13.2 MPH.
End Point:	Wilmington, NC
End Weather:	At 6:00 PM EDT the temperature was 71.9 ° with 57% humidity. The conditions were clear with a wind speed of 13.7 MPH and wind gusts of 19.4 MPH.
Sun Rise:	7:12 AM EDT
Sun Set:	7:27 PM EDT

	Thought We Were Not Going to Make The Trip
	Elevation Changes During the Day
	Google Map Track Log
	Comments
	Other Blogs About This Trip

Thought We Were Not Going to Make The Trip

We had most of our preparations done by this past weekend so we were taking it easy. On Sunday afternoon, we took the bike and car down to the local gas station, fueled them both and grabbed a Subway sandwich. As we were eating our sandwiches back at home, Laurie happened to mention that the three top lights on the trailer were a little brighter than the lower two. That got my attention. The lower two are on all the time and the upper three only light up when the brakes are applied.

I gulped down my sandwich and ran out to check the lights. Yep, Houston, we have a problem. When I applied the brakes the top three got a little brighter. And when I released the brakes, the top three stayed illuminated.

Oh crap. This happened at about 3:00 PM on Sunday. Our Goldwing is a new left over 2016 with about 7,000 miles. There was no reason to expect there was a problem with the bike. The first thing I did was to disconnect the trailer. I still had the problem.

Earlier that day I had sprayed the trailer connectors with contact cleaner. I did not think that could possibly be the problem but I sprayed the connectors with air to completely dry them. I still had the problem.

I pulled the fuses for the trailer harness. I still had the problem. Under the seat is a connector from the relays in the trailer wiring harness to another wiring harness that connects to the OEM wiring in the trunk lid. I disconnected the harness under the seat. I still had the problem.

With the seat off I could easily hear a relay clicking when I applied the hand brake or foot brake. This told me the switches at the hand lever and foot pedal were good. Remember this is a new bike. So I thought maybe the relay contacts might be contaminated in some way and maybe when they were open, there might still be something shorting out the contacts. So I switched the relay with another one and I still had the problem.

Now I am beginning to panic. I began thinking maybe I can get this thing fixed in a couple of days and join the ride on Conway, AR.

Next I removed the 48 screws that holds the inner liner to the top of the trunk lid. I disconnected trailer harness from the OEM plugs and ..... wait for it.... my problem went away. I plugged the trailer harness back into the OEM plugs and the problem was still gone. That made no sense to me but maybe the connectors just needed to be reseated.

So I put the 47 screws back in the trunk liner (I dropped one under the seat someplace) lowered the lid and started to put all the relay assemblies back into the relay cover. Then I thought maybe I should check everything again. I had lowered the trunk lid. I turned on the key and..... I had the problem again. Crap. For some reason I decided to raise the trunk lid again and the problem went away. I lowered the trunk lid and I had the problem again.

Nailed it. Reseating the trailer harness connectors in the trunk lid did not solve my problem before. Having the trunk open solved my problem. Now I knew exactly where to look. The trailer harness runs from under the seat, along the trunk hinge and up behind the back seat into the trunk lid. I slit the cover over the wires along the hinge and found the problem. The wires has been crushed by the hinge and cut half in two and the bare wires were shorting out.

Yea! We were going on the trip after all. That was an easy fix and now I know to keep an eye on the hinge area. I also routed the wires better this time.

Today we missed the predicted rain for Wilmington and made it to the motel with no problems. It was nice seeing old friends from the last two rides and meeting new ones that we only knew via Facebook before today.

We walked out on the sand at Wrightsville Beach and if all goes well we should walk the beach at Chula Vista, CA in 10 days. Tomorrow is one of the longest days, about 400 miles to Conyers, GA. We are excited to be headed west again.