radio on my 1985 aspencade HELP

[Guest]

When I bought my bike there was electrical tape breaking the connection at the back of the radio.
When I removed the tape and slid radio back into connection it made a strange sound.
It made no difference if I pushed power button on or off did same thing. Channel and volume are also unresponsive.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Guest]

Hmm - just curious , does the radio show it has any power at all ? You say it did the same thing (what was that?). Do you know the P.O. - for questions about the tape or whatever ? ------WngDng-------

[Guest]

Radio does not show that it has power. But when it makes connection there is static and humming noise.But no music. When I said it does the same thing I meant it makes no difference if i push power on and off still makes same noises.
Sorry but is dont know what P.O. means

[Guest]

P.O. (Previous Owner). I really don't know - all I know is that I would make sure to check that all connections are clean and properly connected. You may have to send the radio in to get it tested. Maybe there is someone else here who knows more about the issue at hand - sorry I couldn't be of more help. ------WngDng------

[Guest]

thanks anyway

[neoracer]

save yourself alot of headaches and just send it back to Sierra to have it repaired ,hopefully u got into your wing cheap enough,trying to change to another radio is not worth all the heartache,especially if it came with cb and intercom and buying another off ebay could get u into a situation that u end up with two radios needing repair,

[Guest]

I guess my only problem with sending it off is, how do i know the problem is in the radio and not somewhere else?

[roscoepc]

If it were me,, I'd start by checking the fuses. There are 3. One is located in the fuse box and is #7. The other 2 fuses are located under the left fairing pocket. One is a 7.5amp and the other is a 20amp. If these are good then as the next step go to this site, <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.goldwingdocs.com/">http://www.goldwingdocs.com/</a><!-- m --> and download the 1985 Electrical Troubleshooting Manual. On page 126 is the troublechooting proccedures for the radio if it doesn't work.

Good Luck with her!!

[SIR tricky]

Do you have a CB?
Do you have the headset option?

If you could swap the radio with somone who has an aspy you could see if it worked in his bike.

There are three pictures here, click on them to enlarge them.

The first one is the basic Aspy setup without the intercom option (dotted lines)

the second is the setup with both Intercom and CB option

The third is the basic electrical wiring for the radio and amplifier.

If you have neither intercom or CB if you go into the left pocket you will see a 5Pin DIN plug coming from the radio, that will be the wire that would go to the intercom headset junction box.
If you could get hold of a headset you could plug into that and see if the radio is working.
The speakers and headset although come from the radio they come out separately so you could disconect the cable (blue tape) going to the auto volume and if you get music from the radio through the headset you would perhaps have an idea that the radio was working.

You also could try plugging the blue taped 5 pin DIN going to the auto volume directly into the amplifier thus isolating the auto volume.
Thats two ways of possibly identifying the problem without using specialised electronic equipment.

If you havnt got a headset then now is the time to buy one. I think you could pick up one for about $60

[Guest]

Ok first of all I just want to thank everyone for the help.
I took a closer look at all the wire and discovered that the antenna was not connected.
I hooked up the antenna and the radio started making different noises but did not get music.
Then I isolated the auto volume by swapping the connections. Now the radio turns on and off. I can also see the station numbers in the display. So I guess my radio is working. Maybe with a little more TLC I can get it just right.
Is it alright to spray contact cleaner into the mute and tune buttons on the handle bar?

[SIR tricky]

I usually use wd40 to get the dirt loosened then spray contact cleaner.
I have never tried this but someone mentioned taking the switch apart and cleaning it, don't lose any springs if you do.

Put your location in your profile so we know where your at. We have members all over the Canada, USA and all over the world.

[Guest]

Alright I used the WD 40. I am now able to change the stations and hear music but there is still something funky happening. Strange noise and music cuts out. What is the next step?

[Guest]

Based on everything your saying you have multiple bad connections between the radio and and audio system. Start at the radio, make sure all the contacts on the large blue and gold connector on the back of the radio are nice and clean and shiny... use a small pencil eraser to clean them... then do the same for the female socket at the back of the radio mounting assy..... easiest way is pull the dash display head, not difficult at all.... before you do this, go to your freindly auto parts store, get a tube/can of dielectric grease, electrical contact cleaner, and clean every connector then lube it with the grease, do not use regular grease, petroleum jelly can be used in a pinch..... once you get the display head out then its easy to get to the contacts of the radio mount. Remember that every interface signal between the radio and the system has to flow through this connector so its very important... I found that mine had a bit of verdigris (green stuff) on it which made the radio work when it wanted to instead of when I wanted it to. Next remove the storage compartment on the left side, you may want to remove the false tank at the same time, there are many connectors in the audio system buried in there, disconnect them one at a time, clean and lube them...find the connector that goes between the handlebar control and radio, do the same thing, then find the various 5 pin din connectors, (round black barrels ) do the same with them.... once you have all the interconnecting signal and contol interface connectors cleaned and lubed, the last thiings are the fuses and the antenna.... find all the connectors for the antenna, clean and lube them, and do the same for the fuses,,,,, they are located on the right side of the pocket...... once all this is done correctly, if the radio still doesn't work right then you send it off to Sierra... but based on what you have said above, it works intermittently, and that is normally caused by bad/loose/dirty connections. Good luck, have fun, remember that someone put the bike together, the engineers at Honda IMHO are excellent, and made it pretty easy to work on, not to mention that they are very well designed. All of this is based on close to 40 years working in the electronics industry......as a technician and engineer. Hope this helps. BTW once your radio is working correctly do the same for every connector on the bike.... you won't be sorry, and you may not loose some critical connection in the middle of the nght in the middle of rainstorm.


Capn