Noobie Question.

Joined
Mar 18, 2025
Messages
11
Age
35
Location
Jupiter Florida
Bike
gl500i
When installing my timing belt I put the radiator grill upside down.I Didn't think it would harm anything but I believe my bike has developed a howl/bellow between 40-70mph that is not rpm related.I know from the fan behavior the bike doesn't really push enough air till around 40mph The design, particularly the cutouts iam sure are there for a reason. Anyone make the same mistake?
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Yeah I would have to say that you will be installing it the correct way. Have been told the St1100 spent a few hours in a wind tunnel when being designed. Should also help with stopping rocks hitting the radiator. G
 
I remember a number of weird noises before I knew how to put the fairing back on properly.

One of them was a buttock clenching "I'm riding on wet tar" sort of noise - which came from the radiator grill.

I don't remember much about fitting the ST1100 fairing - its been nearly 20 years since I took one off and reinstalled it. But those push button clips must got through two holes before the button is pushed in. It is so easy to get it throught the first hole, and push away the plastic containing the second hole. So when the button is pushed in, nothing is fastened together. Make sure that the button is pulled out and check that the two holes into which it fits are both lined up properly - push a cross head screwdriver through the holes to manoeuvre them into alignment.
Then push the fastener in. Then push the button in to expand the fastener to secure both bits of fairing together.

I think that the fairing pieces have little tabs on them - one bit has to fit behind another bit. Sometimes there are two tabs one on one part of the fairing, one on the other part. When fitted together, the two tabs are next to each other - Each tab hidden behind the mating fairing - so the only way that you can do that it to offer them up to each other before anything is held in place. This is a common mistake made when taking the bike to the dealers. It can only be rectified by undoing everything and putting it together properly.

I can see the button at the bottom left of your photo- it does not look like it is holding the red inner fairing in the correct place - the edge is sticking out a bit in relation to the lower outer fairing - the red part on the bottom left corner of the photo.

The shoulder bolts. LIke the one holding the grey plastic - again in the bottom left corner. Hex socket.
These are not all the same. They are designed so that they do not clamp the plastic. When you tighten them, the base of the shoulder is tightening against the metal that contains the female thread. The broad flange of the head of the bolt does not press tightly against the plastic. It fits snug but not tight. That shoulder is fractionally longer than the thickness of the plastic that it supports. So the plastic is never put under any strain. Unless you have used a bolt that is supposed to go somewhere else in which case either the fairing will rattle aorund ont he shoulder, or the plastic will be clamped tight.

Sometimes - over the years - the cosy fit of the fairing pieces has become a little slack. This was the case the grey pieces of mine under the windscreen. There was a gap. One piece of plastic didn't fit snugly against the other. Maybe it has deformed slightly in the heat. I don't know. But the screen used to whistle annoyingly in the airflow. All it took was a a strip of ductape wrapped round the edge of one of the pieces for an airtight seal to be obtained.

You don't have this, but when you do - the pieces inside the housing with the timing belt at the front of the engine - well my overactive imaginationw as convinced that somethign in there was broken off, the timing belt would get out of synch and at any time I could be thrown over the handlebars. But it only happened at 2000-3000 rpm.

It turned out to be a cracked exaust shield - one bolt on the exhaust header was holding a circular piece of the shield. The rest of the shield with a hole in it was resonating.

But the one that took me the longest to solve - was a jingly high pitched rattle. It would never do it in the garage, only when I was out on a ride.
It turned out to be my house keys that I put in the lockable fairing pocket.
 
I definitely had a puzzle with the fasteners for the lower fairing. Iam sure some things were swapped around etc. Definitely harder than I anticipated with the variety of fasteners. I was waiting for the PO to mail me the manual and was in a time crunch to get the bike ready for my trip up north.
 
Took a break from the other projects and and got the radiator grill installed correctly. the 45mph-65mph howl is noticeably quieter and the bike runs cooler. Mr honda knew what he was doing. Bizarre looking grill. It looks almost broken.
 
If you are talking about the grey lower cowling, they are socket head shoulder 'bolts' that a 5mm t-handle will fit.
The one on the right side at the very back is a little shorter than the other ones.
If you are talking about the colored lower fairings (left and right) they are combination of 5mm JIS screws and some 10mm flange hex head bolts, IIRC.
 
If you are talking about the grey lower cowling, they are socket head shoulder 'bolts' that a 5mm t-handle will fit.

FYI... in my experience, the shoulder bolts Honda uses for the faring pieces on both the 1100 and 1300 have a shallow hex recess compared to a typical socket head cap screw.

My T-handle wrenches have ball ends. I recommend NOT using the ball end to break free a tight screw or the final tightening thereof.

On my bikes, I find the ball end wrenches have minimal engagement with the hex of the screw and have the potential to wallow out the upper portion if you're too aggressive.

I use a hex bit with a square tip for those tasks. I bought a T-handle for 1/4" sockets, where I attach my 5mm 1/4" square drive bit just for this.
 
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