99-00 Loom Problem - The Fixes

[MickB]

The 1999-2000 models are prone to a fault within the loom. Symptoms are the FI flashing or staying steadily on for no apparent reason, the bike can still run but can also cut out without warning. You can also get the FI light coming on when you use other electrical items e.g. indicators, brake lights, horn etc. The problem gets worse with time, cuts out more often and then eventually totally shuts down.
The cause is a test block that comes out of the loom and is used when the bike is first built to test the various electrical systems, when done it is just taped up onto the side of the loom never to be used again, you wont find it on any wiring diagram in the official Honda or Haynes manuals.
The cure is a loom replacement which is covered by Hondas 5 year loom warranty or do it yourself if the bike is over 5 years old, I believe the cost of an official Honda loom if you have to pay is around £400 $%3un

The cost of DIY is a couple of quid if you have to buy any of the odds and sods and these are the two methods you can use-

Remove seat and rear cowling,take rear tank bolts out and raise the back of
the tank a few inches to give you some room to get at various connectors DISCONNECT THE BATTERY. This is the location of the connector a gob of insultation tape on the loom just in front of the left side rear passenger footpeg.


Disconnect the nearby electrical connectors including the main earth wire just under the back of the tank as it will give you a bit more room to work as the loom is pretty tight at this point


Cut away the insulation and this is the connector, not a straight through male and female block to join wires up but a dead end 20 pole connector with 19 connected wires within the block.

Took the thing apart but it took a bit of persuading as the corrosion was binding it and this is what I ended up with, doesn't show very well but well furred up


Used contact cleaner, soft and brass brushes, emery cloth and needle file to clean the male and female contacts and it came up quite good


After cleaning, doused both parts in ignition sealer(Holts puts on a clear plastic coat), put them back together, covered the outside with it as well, followed by a spray of silicone grease. Taped it all up and instead of putting it under the loom where it becomes the lowest point and collects all the moisture (no wonder it fails) cable tied it to the subframe rail just above the loom making it the highest point.


Put everything back together after spraying and silicon greasing every connector I could see.
This worked for me for 3 months then the FI light started coming on again with the brake light, other people have done it and had no further problem to date, I think it all depends how far gone the connector has gone with corrosion when you do it. So PLAN B was done.....

[MickB]

This is the hardwire method that you may want to use first rather than last as it is a more permanent fix.
The block has 20 poles, 19 wires go into it and within the male portion of the block it joins one row of 10 on the one side (all green earth related wires)and 3 lots of 3 on the other side with one unused terminal.
Cut the wires off the connector on the 3x3 side first..they are in their own colours so you don't get to mix them up.
When I stripped the insulation off the copper wire was black for a fair way up, there isn't really enough length to try and cut them back to perfect shiny copper so I cleaned them with a small wire brush and contact cleaner. Soldered the three wires together then used 2 layers of heatshrink tubing to seal them



For the main block of 10 the easiest way is to leave the main thicker earth on its own, solder the remaining 9 into three blocks of three. Used a small piece of heatshrink to hold all of them together then dipped them into a "thimble" full of heated/melted solder, sprayed a bit of water on it to cool it down and ended up with all ten soldered together.
Heatshrinked them, covered everthing in silicone grease and taped everything up to the main loom using self amalging rubber tape to seal it.


Started first time, FI light hasn't come on and hopefully thats it. I can see that when it does start to go you might as well hardwire it. If damp has got into the terminals it has also got into the actual wire and connections as well which you can't clean up so it is going to go again anyway.
Fairly easy to do, just take your time, it can be done on your own as I did but would have been easier to have an extra pair of hands to hold the wires in the right position when you are soldering. I don't mind helping anyone out who wants to do it if they don't feel up to it or haven't got the right tools.

Bezzer

[SteveG]

Having a 2000 model myself I thought I'd have a look at the loom on mine over the winter, it hardly ever see's rain,get's put into hibernation over winter and is kept in a garage as I have an XJ600 Yam' for commuting to work on.

So this afternoon after putting the fairing back on as I'd been doing some other work on it, I took the seat cowel off and after some fiddling around stripped the loom insulation away so as to get to the connector.

When I finally prised the connector apart, I was glad I went to the trouble, it was corroded with green gunge, so after much thought I decided to leave it and have a go at the hard wire solution tomorrow.

Just one question Bezzer, is it a simple case of soldering all the wires of the same colour coding together ?

[MickB]

Originally Posted by SteveG

Just one question Bezzer, is it a simple case of soldering all the wires of the same colour coding together ?

Steve basically yes, just cut off one side at a time, if you do the one with the 9 wires first then there is no mix up as you just end up with three lots of three wires the same colour that are soldered together. You can then do the ten green ones with no problems.

There are 3 green wires on the 9 side, they would probably join with the ten with no problems but as they aren't connected inside the block (checked with a multimeter) I reckon it's best to just keep them in their group of three just to make sure.

Is this problem recognised by Honda as a design fault

[MickB]

Originally Posted by ROVERT57

Is this problem recognised by Honda as a design fault

You're joking aren't you , Honda don't recognise ANY design faults unless they're subject of a recall..i.e. safety related, same as any other manufacturer. But that's not to say they don't know about it and must be the reason they give the extended warranty of 5 years so they only have to replace the ones that fail within the period not all of them.

[Jaws]

Just a little tip to add to Micks excellent fix description..

If like Mick you find the wires are blackened a fair way back, it is worth trying a bit of plumbers flux to tin the wires rather than just multicore solder.
The plumbers flux is fairly acidy and will do a beter job than the multicore on its own

[gypsy]

could i have this prob with a 98 carb?

[MickB]

No, not unless you've put a nicked 99-00 engine and loom in yours
The connector is just on the first 2 years of FI bikes, it was changed from 01 onwards.
Though we now know there is the same problem with bikes after that year but the block is smaller

[gas gas]

help :- read with interest so though i would deal with sooner rather than later, stripped of tape forced out connector , only to find i dont have 19 wires , have 10 on one side , but on the other side have 3 one end and 2 the other , 4 short? bike is 2000 reg in 2001, do i just forget about missing wires ? what do thay do/ should do thanks

[MickB]

weird no one else has mentioned less wires
Get your multimeter out and check the male part of the connector, if you look down at the pins you should get a good idea as to which ones are connected - ie you can just about see the gap between the different groups. Use the multimeter on the pins checking the continuity just to make sure what you think is a group actually is one. If the ten side is all green you should find they are all connected, probably the 4 and 2 wires you have are also connected (same colour?) but just check to make sure.

[gee]

thanks v.much for that detailed info about the loom prob,without that my bird would still be a non runner, many thanks mate,gee

[peter_spindley]

Just had some plug-related woes on my 2000 Bird - sorted now (thanks to Jaws again for the parts and the fault finding!) but the problem cost me a regulator, a battery and a new generator.

I recommend anyone who hasn't done the hardwire on their bird do it now - the problems with mine seemed to stem from the plug causing a bad earth which contributed to frying the charging circuit.

[yakasuko]

I think I am having this dreadful problem, I was riding the other night and I noticed the light come on at the stop light. It would go off after pressing the brake or turning the signal on. I read the discussion about this, but I am afraid to try and correct it myself, thinking I will screw something up. I guess my questions is, is it something I can do myself because I have not worked on my bike at all.... Thanks for any tips made easy..

[MickB]

If you've not worked on a bike at all that's no problem as it's easy enough to get to the connector, but if you've never done soldering before that will be your handicap. If you can solder then have a go it is fairly simple, if you can't then find a friend who can and give him a hand doing it.
If you take it into a shop it will cost and they would need a copy of the post as it probably is something they've never done before on a bird, I know of at least two people over there that have done it that way.