Goldwing repair

I own a 1996 Honda Goldwing Interstate. The Goldwing marque set the motorcycling market on its ear back in 1975 and continues to be the leader in comfort, innovation, and dependability. Mine has carried me across country, and is still a solid, dependable bike, with some 140,000 miles on the odometer. I wouldn't hesitate to give it a basic servicing and ride it across the country again. This is my second Goldwing and if the good Lord allows me to ride, there will probably be a third one in a couple of years.

However, with a bike this old, things happen. Last fall, I had a problem with the bike I couldn't diagnose. The motorcycle ran fine until you applied the brakes, then the engine died as if you had cut the ignition switch. I traced wires and called techs and no one could help me with the problem.

Until this morning. My second son, a mechanic by training and trade, helped me look for the problem and after an evening of poring over schematics he had an idea of what the problem might be. He suspected a interittent ground connector in the bank-angle sensor, or the brake light circuit. As it turns out, there was a burned ground lead in one of the main connectors. Matt told me that when the connector got hot, that connector would lose connectivity and would trip the bank-angle sensor, which told the bike it was on its side. The sensor killed the ignition, just like it was designed to do.

A trip to the parts house, a couple of connectors, some dialectric grease, and my scooter is running again. Try as we might in the garage, we were unable to duplicate the fault. I think it's fixed.