Bikers Workshop Series

GL1500 Goldwing Rear Wheel Removal.

By Steve Saunders.

Rear wheel removal on the Honda Goldwing GL1500 isn't as hard as it looks. The plastic which needs to be removed from the Goldwing first should only take about 20-30 minutes, and the GL1500 mufflers can be rotated down or removed easily. In this tutorial you can see the saddle removed, but you can leave yours fitted. I was doing other work on this Honda Goldwing and had to remove the saddle anyway.

Click the thumbnails for a bigger image.

Put your GL1500 Goldwing onto the main stand and remove the side covers. You don't need to remove the saddle.

Remove the four small Phillips screws securing the trunk lower cover...

...and carefully lower the cover down off the trunk light tabs and back towards the rear of the Goldwing.

Saddlebag removal. You really only need to remove the left saddlebag from the big Honda, but it is only a few minutes extra work to remove both and it  gives you much more space to work. Remove the saddlebag lower corner panels by pulling off the metal clips...

Then the two Phillips screws on each corner panel...

...and remove the panel.

Disconnect the saddlebag lights harness.

Each saddlebag is held on by four bolts.

Unhook the saddlebag release cable clip from the bar inside the top part of the saddlebag and remove the plastic clip from the cable...

...and pull the cable out from the rear of the saddlebag as you lift the saddlebag off the frame. If your Honda GL1500 has the air line in the saddlebag, remember to pull that out now.

A closer look at the clip fitted to the cable.

You can remove the mufflers with the painted covers in place, I only removed them here so I could clean up under them and it does give you a bit more room to work

Loosen the clamp on each muffler...

...and each rear muffler bracket nut from the bolt...

...and swivel the mufflers down and off the collector box.

Remove the left shock/caliper bracket 14mm bolt

The right-side air shock lower 12mm bolt can be hard to remove, sometimes when the thread clears, the bolt won't come out any further. To aid with this...

...there is a hole on the wheel side (wheel removed here for clarity) which you can get a long thin punch into and knock the bolt out.

Now remove the 27mm axle nut.

Loosen the 12mm axle pinch bolt

Pull the axle out and wiggle the brake caliper bracket and caliper off the brake disc.

With the wheel out, you can pull the flange off and check the condition of the cush drive rubbers. Remember to grease the flange splines before refitting the wheel.

Don't forget this spacer when refitting the wheel...

...and note the positions of the spacer and large washer either side of the caliper bracket as you push the axle back in.

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