Combining Brake Lights and Turn Signals to Tow a Trailer with a Honda Gold Wing

Updated 08/01/2013 | Published 07/31/2013

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16 Gauge, 4 Conductor Bonded Parallel Wire - Per Foot

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Hook Probe Circuit Tester

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Roadmaster Brite-Lite 3-to-2 Tail Light Converter for Towed Vehicles

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Question:

I am hooking up a trailer to my 1982 Honda Goldwing Aspencade motorcycle. The trailer wiring is standard basic four wires, white ground, brown tail and markers, green right signal/brake, yellow left signal/brake, flat four-prong connector. All lighting functions work when I connect to my Dodge Ram. The GoldWing wiring however is different, as the tail/brake light unit and the signal light units are separate units. There is a trailer connection already installed on the GoldWing that tucks up neatly under the licence plate below the tail/brake unit, and the trailer tail lights, side lights and signal lights all work fine when connected to it. But the GoldWings brake light runs off a fifth yellow/green wire that isnt connected to the trailer hookup harness there isnt a fifth connector anyway. I tried running a jumper from the brake light wire to the signal wire, but all that did was overload the signal circuit. Any suggestions?

asked by: Michael J

Expert Reply:

What are the functions of the wiring harness on the Gold Wing? Use a circuit tester like # PTW2993 if needed to test its functions to determine what each one does. You should have a ground and running lights for sure. But it is the turn signal and brake signals we are concerned with.

What you could do is use a converter, # RM-732. It will take the separate turn signals and brake lights, combine them, and on the output side the signals will be combined to work with the trailer.

If you test the connector on the Gold Wing and it has a different configuration let me know.

expert reply by: Michael H