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96 750 electrical nightmare


Guest dvfr750f

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Guest dvfr750f

HELP ME PLEASE!!! sad.gif

I have a 96 vfr750f with ~ 70,000 miles. She has been thru 5 RR(3 of which belong to electrex) and 3 stators. Currently I have a new honda oem RR and a new electrex stator.

About a 2 months ago I was riding and noticed on my installed volt meter that my voltage, under power was at ~9v and falling. I eventually lost all power at 6v and had to get picked up. I assumed a failed rr due to all noted symptoms to include crazy speedo.

The following day I did a diode test on the rr and it passed so I assume it works. Upon further inspection, I noticed that the 4 wire connector for the starter relay was seriously burnt and partially melted away. I fixed this by strpping back the wires and crimping them in individually to the relay. I also called electrex to ask a few questions. They thought my stator may be bad so I sent it back and they confirmed it to be bad. After installing the replacement, and a new battery, I went for a test ride. The volts increase as the thottle is opened, however, it does not go as high as before. I am seeing numbers in the mid 13v range. It used to spike inthe mid 14v range. Under power the bike never goes into the 14v range, EXCEPT when the throttle is released and then it shoots up into the low 14v range for a sec. At idle the bike loses volts rapidly, suggesting the bike is still on battery power. I checked the connections this morning and discovered the 3 wire connector coming from the stator iswarped from heat. The bikes female counterpart seems ok. All associated wires appear ok.

BTW, the voltmeter is wired to the battery.

Could the starter relay be bad? The RR even after passing the diode test? Or the new stator with less than 3 hours on it? The wire harness??

:beer:

WTF is going on here??? Someone please help this bike of mine! Any suggestions are helpfull! Thanks

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Could the starter relay be bad?  The RR even after passing the diode test? Or the new stator with less than 3 hours on it?  The wire harness??

Your voltages seem to be about right, but the dropping volts at idle is a bit of a problem. Could point to leakage in the charging harness?

I'd suggest you bypass the OEM charging harness, and get a decent ground happening (the stock ground is crap).

I don't have access to my instructions for doing this ATM, but a search of the US list archives using Bruce and electrical, from 2000/2001, will turn up the relevant info.

The starter relay is known for going south, as it carries a lot of load. I'd replace it too.

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  • Member Contributer
  I checked the connections this morning and discovered the 3 wire connector coming from the stator iswarped from heat. 

There's a blurb at the back of this month's Cycle World where a guy wrote in and I believe he removed this connector all together and connected the wires directly, problem solved. Apparently he's fixed more than one Honda this way.

Don't remember the exact details but might be worth checking out.

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Found some info for you:

https://lists.cs.wisc.edu/archive/vfr/2000-.../msg00894.shtml

https://lists.cs.wisc.edu/archive/vfr/2001-.../msg02112.shtml

Images showing where your harness grounds are - they are not particularly good and you might want to relocate them.

http://ip.infinity.nu:8000/vfr/grounds/

And an excerpt from another post from Bruce In Tucson, which contains a heap of useful information:

The battery has one terminal on the - side, it runs to a connector (eyelet) on the frame all by itself. The rest of the electrical system is grounded to the frame at another location. There is _no_ direct path from any of the electrical components or wiring (including the R/R) to the battery; be it the positive or negative side. As far as the + side of the battery, a single very short lead goes to the starter relay and attaches with an allen bolt. The other lead at the starter relay that attaches also with an allen bolt goes directly to the starter. The _entire_ + side of the electrical system (including the plus output of the R/R) runs thru the 4 pin connector at the starter relay.

The charging system relies on the following connections to work properly: The negative lead at the battery terminal and the frame, the wiring harness ground location on the frame (different place than the battery ground and the _only_ ground for the R/R as the R/R chassis is not a ground for this component), the output connector of the alternator (3pin), the input/output connector of the R/R (5pin), the input/output connector at the starter relay (4pin), the allen bolt connector for the + terminal on the starter relay, and finally the + terminal on the battery.

All of these connections/grounds must be good and clean for the charging system to charge properly. There are _14_ connection points in the charging circuit that

must be corrosion and resistance free for just the charging system to perform

properly! This is for the 90-97 VFR's, dont really know about the VFR 800's

though they are probably similar.

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Wow, thanks for all that guys! I will dig into this and let you know how it goes. If you have any other ideas let me know. Every little bit helps! :D

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I had a similar problem. My mechanic beefed up the connectors and the ground and made sure to correct any small shorts -- all happy.

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Hey hypnos, had you had rr problems before hand? I am kinda stumped as to why all this is occuring now after all these miles. Anyone have a clue as to why?

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No RR problems (previous owner had replaced it), but the mechanic said the wiring couldn't handle the charging load when I had overdrained the battery.

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