When trailing the Wing back home from New Mexico last month, I noticed a pebble size bulge in the left fairing. Thought that was strange but other pressing matters at home kept me from investigating what might be pressing against the fairing from the inside?
Finally found time to dig into the mystery. Quickly I learned that removing the Goldwing's plastic panels is like peeling an onion. One must carefully remove layer after layer to be where you can finally see what is beneath.
Thank the internet that there are YouTube videos to help guide you on the journey.
Lost count of how many screws and pushpins were removed to reach this stage of disassembly, there were many, that allowed me to finally access the cooling fan and its mount.
For whatever reason the left cooling fan has overheated to the point where it melted the mount, then fell against the outside panel melting plastics as it went. That is what caused the bulge in the upper fairing panel.
How it was able to continue drawing electric current once the fan blades stopped turning and not blow a fuse is a mystery. But overheat it did, melting both its mount and side fairing.
The fan motor had actually fused itself to the outside fairing. Had to break it loose.
Checking with several Honda vendors, they said the cooling fans were not available at this time..??? Either the fans never fail so vendors don't stock them, OR...
the demand is so large that suppliers cannot keep up with demand. Hmmm...
Time to check alternate sources, E-Bay to the rescue. Found a pair of used cooling fans from the same year Wing as mine. Ordered it without questioning the price.
While waiting for the fan to arrive, was called out of state for an unexpected family funeral. On return, the fans were here waiting. Started the install... but now, after being away several days from the disassembled bike, I have forgotten how it came apart.
Well, back to the videos.
Here you can see the melted fan next to a normal fan.
The motor side...
The cooling blades side...
Well, it is finally all back together... sort of.
Took a test ride around the block. Ran great, all is good...
but why are there three bolts left-over ?
While waiting for the replacement fans, had to figure out what to do about the hole in the side fairing? Cannot leave it open like a wound. A replacement fairing in the factory color is pricey... very pricey.
Settled, am going with a down-home country patch...
Grind down the high points, sand it, fill the void with an epoxy glue, sand again, refill again, sand some more, in the end, slap on a SHORAI band-aid on the smooth outer surface.
The SHORAI sticker was in a box with a new Lithium battery I bought for the Wing several months ago. Good thing I had not thrown it away.
The patch works, the color is okay and the message is honest.
The original cause of why the fan motor overheated will remain a mystery.
Sorry, I do not even have a good guess to offer as to why.
Ride Safe, ride far my friends
CCjon
Wow that's quite the meltdown and yeah I'm surprised a fuse wasn't blown. Your comments re all the bits that have to be removed to get at stuff reminded me of the travail I used to go through removing plastic panels on my 1150 RT BMW....I don't miss those days. Nice fix re the hole!
ReplyDeleteThanks for accepting the band-aid approach. Now it just looks like someone slapped stickers here and there. But that's better than a hole or worse.
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