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1999-2000 Loom Problems - The Fixes


mickcbr1100

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I've seen mention of the following post a few times as the problem seems to making itself known a bit more now outside Europe, so to save anyone the trouble of finding and linking to it I'll post it on here also.

The 1999-2000 (FI with Analogue clocks) 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, the cost of a loom runs into the hundreds plus the fitting if you use a stealer.

The cost of DIY is next to nothing and these are the two methods you can use, the first one has been about for a while but I bit the bullet and ended up doing the second permanent one after further problems, I checked out the connections with a multimeter first to make sure what wires were connected where.

Initial fix -

DISCONNECT THE BATTERY

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.

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.

loom1.JPG

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

loom2.JPG

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.

loom3.JPG

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

loom4.JPG

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

loom5.JPG

After cleaning, doused both parts in clear plastic ignition sealer, 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 higher.

loom6.JPG

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.

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Permanent Fix-

This is the hardwire method that you may want to use first rather than last as it is a 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

hardwire3.JPG

hardwire4.JPG

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.

hardwire5.JPG

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 originally did this about 18 months ago and there has been no further problems with it. You should initially check the main frame earth wires, battery connections etc but if you are getting FI light problems with no fault codes there is a good chance this connector is the problem. You will not cause any other damage to the bike by doing it, you are just rectifying a piss poor design fault that was altered on later bikes.

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