gl1500 SE Relays

[SirGB]

Hello Fellow gl1500 owners,
I have 1997 gl1500 SE and saw Scott on YouTube talking about “Relays” and the importance of having extras because it will only be a matter of time before they quit working for any number of reasons. My question is, which ones are the most important and how many should I have in my onboard toolkit when one or more decide to pack it in ?
If anyone knows how many different types are needed, the quantity as well, it would be greatly appreciated. Riding season in Edmonton, Alberta is a short 2 months away and this is my third season of learning the ins and outs that require attention on the GoldWing gl1500 SE and there are several I never would have thought of if not for GoldWing Docs.
Thank you all for the advice previously received and the advice that is yet to come.
All the best,
SirGB.

[DenverWinger]

There are 8 relays in the 1992+ GL1500 relay box, seven of which can be replaced by the ones available on this site. The Blue colored one is different but not critical, it just works the front "Position" lights.

Relay #3 seems to be the most troublesome of them, but if you have an issue along the road, remember 7 of the 8 are interchangeable, You can always pull a relay from some other function (High Beam Headlight, for instance) and swap it with the one which is causing you to be on the side of the road. A spare in your kit never hurts, though.

I bought three of the relays from this site, there's one in the trunk of the bike (just in case) and two more spares in the toolbox on my workbench. I've yet to actually change any relays in my '93 bike though.

I might replace relay #1, last fall I was driving to work one day and had no turn signals. I didn't check the horn (on same circuit) but it probably wasn't working, either. But on the way home the turn signals were good again, and have been every time since. It was probably just a little corrosion on the contacts, and this particular time the contacts didn't connect well.

[SirGB]

Hi Denver,
Thank you for your thoughts on the matter, advice as well. I didn’t know you could swap relays not being used, like high beams not being used during the day for instance, to get yourself home to diagnose the issue or issues. If I chose to have a relay for every circuit, how many would I need and how many are completely different that require their own separate relay.
Thank you again,
SirGB.

[DenverWinger]

SirGB,

Another relay you can swap besides the High Beam relay is the Air Compressor relay.....

If you order seven from the site, you can replace all of the relays in the relay box except the blue one. (Position Lights)

There's a handful of other relays scattered around the bike (cornering lights, for instance) but the ones sold here won't work for them.

Replacing them all certainly won't hurt anything, but it's overkill in my opinion. They don't fail very often.

[aj1500]

just my 2 cents worth here, I did keep 1 spare relay in my bike. I have had 3 1500 1 we still have and of those I have only had 1 relay fail and it was for the tail lights or maybe it was the brake lights but either way not something you want to keep riding without. the first time it happened I just swapped it with one for the air pump until I could get one. after that I always kept one in the saddle bag
never needed more than just that one at a time in all the years and miles I rode

[Charlie1Horse]

I purchased 7 of the relays that you can buy here and replaced them all after about 160,000 miles, just to be safe. But, I kept the old ones strictly for backup if needed. I like having new, reliable relays handling the job. And if I find myself on the side of the road, I can replace any one of these relays with time proven used ones.
Russell