rear speaker

[REBlakesley]

I recently purchased a 05 GL1800 With hannagen trike kit. my question is Why my rear speakers only work when I'm backing up ? I checked the fade and it is right in the middle,any ideas ?

[Big Blue UK]

You serious ........

[REBlakesley]

Yes ,very strange but it's true

[Viking]

I would seriously suspect a ground problem. When they did the trike kit, they must have interupted a ground, and when you put it in reverse, the ground is re-established. Only thing that makes sense to me. I would add a ground to the rear speakers, temporarily, to ensure that is the problem, and if it is, make it permanent. A simple wire from the ground side of one of the speakers to a point on the frame, or even directly to the negative terminal of the battery would test it. More grounds cannot hurt your electrical system.

[Steve F]

I would seriously suspect a ground problem. When they did the trike kit, they must have interupted a ground, and when you put it in reverse, the ground is re-established. Only thing that makes sense to me. I would add a ground to the rear speakers, temporarily, to ensure that is the problem, and if it is, make it permanent. A simple wire from the ground side of one of the speakers to a point on the frame, or even directly to the negative terminal of the battery would test it. More grounds cannot hurt your electrical system.

Q: Are you sure it's a good idea to ground a speaker directly to ground? I thought that speakers were to maintain a circuit back to the amplifier, and not necessarily a frame ground.

[Viking]

Q: Are you sure it's a good idea to ground a speaker directly to ground? I thought that speakers were to maintain a circuit back to the amplifier, and not necessarily a frame ground.

You may have a point with the new electronics, but we used to do this in the past. Perhaps just ground the metal frame of the speaker itself, and try that. Going from the ground wire of the speaker was intended only as a test, and I did not continue my thought. Hey, I am old, whadda ya want.

So, I guess what you could do, is test from the ground side of the speaker to a grounded point with an ohm meter, both in neutral and while backing up to see if a zero ohm condition appears only when in reverse. I am, obviously, not an electronics Guru, and all of them are in the Hocking Hills at the moment. Perhaps WingAdmin will jump into this when he gets home.

[AZgl1800]

Retired IT electronics guy here.

Running a direct ground to the speaker will not harm it, providing the amplifier feeding that speaker is powered from the same power supply system, and on your bike, that just about has to be the only battery on the bike.

I agree that when the trike conversion was installed, the rear speaker grounds were not reconnected. So, if you can't find that ground wire, install a new one to the speakers and enjoy your ride.

[Big Blue UK]

I cannot understand how only the rear speaker - cannot be re connected, does it have reversing lights.

[REBlakesley]

Thank you all for the tip i will give it a try this week,

[WingAdmin]

I would say that anytime I have seen an electrical problem with something, that is resolved or is involved with a completely unrelated different system (i.e. speakers and reverse), the problem ends up being a bad ground 99.99999% of the time.

[WingAdmin]

Retired IT electronics guy here.

Running a direct ground to the speaker will not harm it, providing the amplifier feeding that speaker is powered from the same power supply system, and on your bike, that just about has to be the only battery on the bike.

I agree that when the trike conversion was installed, the rear speaker grounds were not reconnected. So, if you can't find that ground wire, install a new one to the speakers and enjoy your ride.

Not necessarily - there are many audio amplifiers that use two buses - positive and negative, with the zero cross between the two being ground. Grounding one side of the speaker with this type of amp can cook the amplifier.

[raven41951]

Did anybody stop to think that when you put the Goldwing in reverse it mutes the speakers?

It sounds like a connector got reversed.