Need Diagnostic Help

The windscreen on my 2005 ST1300 sporadically failed to go down. When it did go down, it never failed to rise fully up. It began to fail to go down more frequently, then finally failed always. There was never any indication that the motor was engaging and straining to overcome a mechanical block.

I recently took the ST to the local Honda dealer for brake, clutch, coolant flush/replace and final drive drain/refill. I asked them to fix the windscreen, suggesting it was an electrical issue, probably a sticky limit switch.

When all the work was done, the mechanic and manager said that they had taken the front plastic off, and could find nothing wrong. They said they could not get it to fail. On the way home, it worked just fine.

Less than a week later, it did not go down. Then it did once, and worked fine rising back up, then has since refused to lower.

Any suggestions based on these symptoms? Could be the left grip switch, no?

One of the limit switches sticking?

Help.

Sounds like it might be in the switch itself ,try spraying a dab of WD-40 into the edges . Maybe contacts are a little corroded .Just a thought !

MIKE

If you do that use an electric contact cleaner not wd-40.

More than a few guys here have had a wind screen hardware failure - usually the drive gear. There is an article - how to change the mechanism, which comes in one assembly from Honda for something less than $400. The article also tells you how to take it apart and lube it and put it back together. Some guys say not to move the screen at speeds over 50 mph.

SMSW said:

More than a few guys here have had a wind screen hardware failure - usually the drive gear.

Click to expand...

The typical symptom of a worn drive gear is that one side of the screen lags behind the other side when moving.

If you are not experiencing this symptom then an electrical failure maybe the culprit.
Here is a sketch of the wind screen electric circuit(s) that may be useful.

The sketch can be downloaded and viewed with any PDF viewer, the clarity will be much greater than that of the link.

Besides the switches failing, the relays also quit.

I would look at the switches first. take the windshield off, then the windshield cowl (small black cover above the upper cowl). This will expose the switches. work them back and forth when trying to move the windshield with the main switch. If one has failed, try a wire with alligator clips on each end and jump the switch, just don't let it go too far.

The two relays are identical, they sit just behind the windshield mechanism. You can swap one with another if trying to test them.

Thanks for all the suggestions. It turned out to be one of the easy fixes. Some CRC contact cleaner sprayed around the thumb switch on the left grip housing with one of those little straws seems to have done the trick. It had to soak a bit, and got better with more exercise

The contact cleaner apparently is not a lasting fix. The windscreen works for a bit, then fails the next day. The faulty component is pretty surely the up/down switch.

Is disassembly of the left grip switch housing something an owner can do, or is it one of those repairs that will scatter springs all over the place when a couple of screws are removed?