Topic: This is killing me - 1985 GW

[70CB750]

$950 OBO, 10 miles from me with clean title and 11 600 miles on it.

I wonder if I could convince my wife that she always wanted one. 

[PeWe]

Bring it home and ask your wife if she need help with the bike with her name on the passenger area of the seat.
A time machine;)

[dusterdude]

If you buy it and want its twin,let me know

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[Johnie]

I believe those 1985 1200 Wings had an issue with the charging system which required a costly repair to get at the problem. With those few miles I doubt it has been repaired. Not sure if Honda had a recall on the issue. You could contact member chickenman_26 as he has worked on a lot of Wings. Good luck and let us know how you come out. Actually looks nice from the pic.

[Alan F.]

I recently restrained myself from calling about a 2003 Kawasaki Voyager 1200 with near 30k miles.
I'd love a large touring bike, but not just yet.
For $1200 I was tempted.

[grcamna2]

I believe those 1985 1200 Wings had an issue with the charging system which required a costly repair to get at the problem. With those few miles I doubt it has been repaired. Not sure if Honda had a recall on the issue. You could contact member chickenman_26 as he has worked on a lot of Wings. Good luck and let us know how you come out. Actually looks nice from the pic.

The engine needs to be removed to change the stator.

The electrical system needs regular cleaning & tightening:preventive maintenance. 
The owners didn't know that all the multitude of connections from the 'harness to frame' ground straps need to be metal to metal rather than the frame ground wires connecting to painted connections on the frame.
I also see that a large number of owners would overload the bike's system with electrical accessories plus not clean the connections,especially the reg/rect. harness.
I had a customer back in the 90's(Dr. Jacobs)who had an 85' GL1200 Interstate and I cleaned all the connections as noted plus made sure he always had full regular maintenance which included removing covers and making sure all connections stayed clean and tight.
He never had a stator or Reg/rect. burn out in the 10 years I serviced his bike and he had a few electrical accessories too.

That bike has been garaged(just like my former customer's 85' GL1200I in Ma.)which is great:less corrosion. 

[newday777]

I believe those 1985 1200 Wings had an issue with the charging system which required a costly repair to get at the problem. With those few miles I doubt it has been repaired. Not sure if Honda had a recall on the issue. You could contact member chickenman_26 as he has worked on a lot of Wings. Good luck and let us know how you come out. Actually looks nice from the pic.

Nope.
The problem was people didn't clean the stator to regulator wire connector. Dirt got in the connector and caused a weak connection and the heat from the bad connection burnt the wires eventually to where you'd loose a leg of the 3 phase stator.
There's a simple fix if wires are burnt and the stator is still operational,  either cut out the bad sections of the wires and connector, solder and heatshrink new wires without a connector. Or just rig up a external car alternator (known as a poorboy alternator.

It actually happened/happens to many different Japanese bikes of that Era using a stator, not just the gl1200.

[newday777]

I recently restrained myself from calling about a 2003 Kawasaki Voyager 1200 with near 30k miles.
I'd love a large touring bike, but not just yet.
For $1200 I was tempted.

You probably should have grabbed it. Kawi came the closest to the goldwing in competition in the touring bike category. The downfall was of the aftermarket accessory availability just wasn't there for the voyager owners to farkel them as the goldwing had.
I have a friend here in Milford that has an 86 voyager that they have put well over 100,000 miles on it themselves and they bought it with @70,000 on it for cheap money.

[RAFster122s]

As has been said, super common failure mode of GW is that dirty connector block and engine out replacement for stator parked many bikes as the GW lump is tough to drop and reinstall for folks without some skills in handling a big motor and frame/ rolling chassis to access the stator. So, many bikes got parked after developing the trouble to languish in a garage or shed.
That’s a really nice looking bike, so it would be a nice runner after you sorted out the issues that caused it to get parked. If you can pick it up for a nice price and have the room and desire/motivation for getting it running again, then add it to the collection.

There are stators available rewound for higher output that with a new rectifier regulator (mosfet design) can allow you to have the capacity to handle almost anything you would want to equip the bike with as an accessory.

David

[70CB750]

In 1995 me and my wife were touring Europe on CBX750.  I remember pulling to a parking lot at Berchtesgaden and there was a group of bikers on Gold Wings.  With our butts hurting we were bit envious of the GW comfort 

This one might be just the ticket to get the wifey to ride with me again. 

As far as wrenching - I feel I have to get Dorothy back on the road first.

But I never had a water cooled bike. 

[ekpent]

Buddy of mine has a GL650 Silverwing that's been sitting in his garage for many years that has an electrical problem and was told it would be an expensive engine out fix. I think he offered to give it to me for free once. He had an old Yammie 360 also that I would have bought off him but some other sucker sneaked in there and bought it before I knew he was interested in moving it.

[Stev-o]

Not an easy bike to work on, I recall many guys complaining about that. It's cheap for a reason and the cheapest bikes can sometimes be the most expensive!

[Alan F.]

I recently restrained myself from calling about a 2003 Kawasaki Voyager 1200 with near 30k miles.
I'd love a large touring bike, but not just yet.
For $1200 I was tempted.

You probably should have grabbed it. Kawi came the closest to the goldwing in competition in the touring bike category. The downfall was of the aftermarket accessory availability just wasn't there for the voyager owners to farkel them as the goldwing had.
I have a friend here in Milford that has an 86 voyager that they have put well over 100,000 miles on it themselves and they bought it with @70,000 on it for cheap money.

I agree, this was the last year of production too so any issues should have been ironed out by then. And we all appreciate an inline 4.....

[70CB750]

Not an easy bike to work on, I recall many guys complaining about that. It's cheap for a reason and the cheapest bikes can sometimes be the most expensive!

Thank you, I needed that, seriously 

[grcamna2]

Labor is expensive.

[Alan F.]

Nooooo! I can resist.

https://boston.craigslist.org/nos/mcy/d/peabody-1995-honda-aspencade/7574479730.html

[grcamna2]

Nooooo! I can resist.

https://boston.craigslist.org/nos/mcy/d/peabody-1995-honda-aspencade/7574479730.html

 

[newday777]

Nooooo! I can resist.

https://boston.craigslist.org/nos/mcy/d/peabody-1995-honda-aspencade/7574479730.html

The transmission is toast on that 95.

[Kelly E]

My favorite touring bike is a first generation Kawasaki Concours from from 94' to 05'. It's plenty fast, great range, plenty comfortable, great weather protection, is built like a tank and thinks it's a Ninja. I've done 4k miles in 11 days on mine and was still ready for more. I got mine for $1800 with 24k miles.

[grcamna2]

My favorite touring bike is a first generation Kawasaki Concours from from 94' to 05'. It's plenty fast, great range, plenty comfortable, great weather protection, is built like a tank and thinks it's a Ninja. I've done 4k miles in 11 days on mine and was still ready for more. I got mine for $1800 with 24k miles.

I like the stock fairing on it.

[70CB750]

Labor is expensive.

I outsource very little. 

[grcamna2]

Labor is expensive.

I outsource very little.

Honda has some fantastic Service manuals;sometimes a couple special tools are necessary.

[Bankerdanny]

I believe those 1985 1200 Wings had an issue with the charging system which required a costly repair to get at the problem. With those few miles I doubt it has been repaired. Not sure if Honda had a recall on the issue. You could contact member chickenman_26 as he has worked on a lot of Wings. Good luck and let us know how you come out. Actually looks nice from the pic.

Nope.
The problem was people didn't clean the stator to regulator wire connector. Dirt got in the connector and caused a weak connection and the heat from the bad connection burnt the wires eventually to where you'd loose a leg of the 3 phase stator.
There's a simple fix if wires are burnt and the stator is still operational,  either cut out the bad sections of the wires and connector, solder and heatshrink new wires without a connector. Or just rig up a external car alternator (known as a poorboy alternator.

It actually happened/happens to many different Japanese bikes of that Era using a stator, not just the gl1200.

The 1000's had issues with the stator connectors too. I replaced the connector on my '77 with new plastic and pins from Vintage Connections and it still melted so I just did the elimination and soldering fix and road another few thousand miles with no issues.

[RAFster122s]

If you caught it soon enough you avoided the stator from frying itself, otherwise you had to drop the motor to change the stator or install an alternator...Says something when fabbing up a mount and running the belt needed to drive an alternator was easier than dropping a motor in the goldwing. The CX and Silvering Gl500 motors can be easily dropped in a couple hours by an inexperienced mechanic. The CX motor can fit on a milk crate with very little height difference. Experienced guys can drop the cX motor in 30 minutes.