Honda Top Box & Spoiler

[Ken]

First, a little plug for CruiserBackrest.Com - they rock. Placed an order early Sunday morning and :fe1: arrived 4 days later with my package. Great communication and lightning fast order shipment.

My order consisted of the Pan European silver top box, matching spoiler, and spoiler connecting harness.

Last night I installed the top box and the spoiler - not a bad job at all. Once you find the English language steps, steady your eyeballs from the schematic, and inventory the hardware, it all makes sense. The trickiest part is making sure you use all the various washer types in the proper order and location. It also helps to know that a few pieces of hardware from the exsting backplate are used in the installation of the top box sub platform. Everything looks great, and I already appreciate having a larger storage area that can hold my laptop bag for commuting.

I do have question for those that have installed the wiring harness for the spoiler. How did you attach/run the wires on the lid of the top box? The instructions appear to show drill holes and screws! Uh, no thanks. There are some retaining clips that are meant to hold the wires to route to the front of the box and out. My tendency is to use some type of adhesive to hold those clips in place, and run the wire out near the bottom, through the original backplate and down in to the tail light assembly so that none of the wiring harness is visible.

Any thoughts, ideas, or recommendations are most appreciated.

[georgeorge]

I didn't mount a brake light on the top box, but I did do some wiring inside to mount an interior light. The way I ran wires was to get some plastic tubing, about 1/4 inch will do, and run the wires through the tubing. Then I got some 4 Minute epoxy and used it to glue the tubing to the walls of the box. It worked great and there's no exposed wires for my stuff to get tangled in.

[EdsST]

I used the good ol' southern way - duct tape. There was no way I was going to drill more holes in the top box.

[Ken]

Well, I have to step back and look at the 'big' picture. I have these Hyper-Lites from our group buy too. Have machined some aluminum braces for them, but need to figure out where best to place them in relation to the top box and where to bring the wires. Probably will take off the (nearly useless) side reflectors and mount my braces there. Do not want to mount them on the top box even though I'd like to get them up as high as possible.

Heading to the lake house in the AM with tools and parts. Should have this all figured out by then.

[sherob]

Ordered mine from CB as well... Paypal posted... but didn't post to CB :eek: After 2 days of no contact I emailed them with Paypal info asking what's up. Had to let them know what I ordered since Paypal info was truncated... finally got email saying my Topbox, spoiler, and wiring harness will be shipped out this week... :D They at least apologized and thanked me for the business, which was nice ;)

[John-DownUnder]

Ken,
I fitted the spoiler/light and ran 2-pair of wires: one pair for the spoiler light, the other pair for a cigarette lighter fitting inside the lid (just where the wiring comes through from the spoiler light).

Like Georgeorge, I ran these wires through a coil plastic tube along the crease in the lid, then down the right side crease in the front side of the lid, along the retainer cord, then down under the carpet (cut a small "V" to make a slot for it), into the pocket on the right side. I put a rubber grommet in the hole I made and a 4-pin marine plug (male) on the end.

I ran the wiring up from the tail light and from a power connector off my additional fuse box under the rear seat. These 2 pair were fed out through a "U" shaped slot I cut in the plastic lip at the back-right corner of the rear seat. Again through a grommet to the (female) marine plug. I also ran the coax cable out from this area and along the antenna bracket. I have photos, but have not been able to upload them for months (system conflicts?).

See the thread “Added Top box, where do I mount CB antenna?” under Farkles for details on the antenna bracket (http://www.st-owners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4268). My post suggests you can click this URL for pictures of my stainless antenna bracket:
http://groups.msn.com/ST1300US/antennabracket.msnw The last photo shows the wiring at the rear seat exit point.

And here is the URL for my plan of the bracket: http://au.msnusers.com/ST1300US/Documents/Antenna%20Bracket%2Edoc
Alternatively, go to http://groups.msn.com/ST1300US/ and click on the documents menu to look for "Antenna Bracket.doc".

Hope this helps
John