Auspanglish Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 Maybe it's a stupid question... it's not that I don't trust Kanadians, nor Kanadian Ken for that matter... the thought just came into my head... it's a feedback wire... does it give feedback to the R/R or some other device?? Hmmm... somebody... please tell me I've missed something... :blush: Did you buy the VFRness? If so that does the Monitor wire fix. Your 98 wouldn't have a monitor wire. Yes I did (you've forgotten the biz with customs already?). But I still have that doubt in my head about the connection to the black wire and not the B&W one... in case people ask me over here in Spain. They're always asking me to translate stuff from here as it's well known you Americans get stuck into the DIY stuff a lot more... especially on this site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tightwad Posted April 3, 2008 Share Posted April 3, 2008 Ahhh, I misunderstood your questions....I certainly didn't forget the Customs battle. The black wire definantly goes TO the R/R....disconnected it has voltage, coming from the Ignition Switch in some case, from the battery round a bout in other cases. The VFRness supplies direct battery voltage to this wire, which steadys down the charging to needed voltage only. My bike went from almost 16 volts to 14.3 volts with the modification. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspanglish Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 Oh man... I just realized what's been putting me off... we see the black wire on the lower side (left in the pictures) and that "appears" to be the side away from the R/R. But what I forgot, and can't appreciate in the photos is that the wires coming out of the R/R double back and after the connector head back towards the R/R... so at first I was thinking... "but that's not going TO the R/R but AWAY from it... my bad... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tightwad Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 Good catch....this got me 3-4 times when building the original VFRness....only after building 50 or so did I not have to hold it up to the original prototype to be sure I had it right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
checksix Posted November 1, 2008 Share Posted November 1, 2008 (edited) I just wanted to thank Kanadian Ken for this outstanding "monitor wire fix" writeup. My '07 with 18K miles just blew another headlight bulb (first pair blew at 10K miles) and I noticed the voltage was running between 14.6 and 15.1 on my Lascar voltmeter so I started to get worried. I applied the fix and the voltage now runs between 14.3 and 14.7 (ie. .3-.4 volts lower). Why Honda runs the R/R monitor wire through the entire wiring harness including the ignition switch is beyond me. Anyway, this site is the greatest, and guys like KK who contribute this kind of information to the VFR knowledge pool deserve special appreciation! Edited November 2, 2008 by checksix 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer KevCarver Posted July 17, 2011 Member Contributer Share Posted July 17, 2011 OK I'm coming to this late as I have a 5th Gen without the extra wire. But since I recently had a stator failure on my RC51, I installed a Lascar voltmeter on it and was reading some potentially too high voltages. The voltage also seems to jump around a bit, as compared to my VFR. Is this another sign of needing to do this fix? I was thinking about just replacing the R/R with an R1 or ZX10 model, like I've done with my VFR. So I was looking to find out what the monitor wire actually does, and if it could just be bypassed when using a standard 3 wire input, 2 wire output R/R. This could be an easier solution! In a nutshell, it looks like I should run the monitor wire from the R/R direct to the battery positive terminal. Is it that simple? Maybe an inline fuse along the way, 5a? Thanks KK! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer KevCarver Posted July 17, 2011 Member Contributer Share Posted July 17, 2011 Well I did this to the SP1 this morning. I was already headed out for a ride, and didn't have any fuse holders around, so I did without. Still jumping around on the voltmeter, but the high number has come back down into The acceptable range. Good for now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer kaldek Posted July 17, 2011 Member Contributer Share Posted July 17, 2011 OK I'm coming to this late as I have a 5th Gen without the extra wire. But since I recently had a stator failure on my RC51, I installed a Lascar voltmeter on it and was reading some potentially too high voltages. The voltage also seems to jump around a bit, as compared to my VFR. Is this another sign of needing to do this fix? If it's jumping around I'd be checking my earth connections as well! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer JZH Posted July 18, 2011 Member Contributer Share Posted July 18, 2011 I was thinking about just replacing the R/R with an R1 or ZX10 model, like I've done with my VFR. So I was looking to find out what the monitor wire actually does, and if it could just be bypassed when using a standard 3 wire input, 2 wire output R/R. This could be an easier solution! Based on the wiring diagrams for the 5th-gen, the monitor wire appears to be for the benefit of the OEM reg/rec, only, with the rest of the bike being completely agnostic about whether or not the monitor wire is hooked up or not. The monitor wire simply taps into an existing circuit (present on the '98-'99). So if you fit a reg/rec without a monitor wire provision, the bike will be perfectly happy (as long as the reg/rec does its job!) My 5th-gen Compu-Fire upgrade circuit (see below) simply ignores the monitor wire. (Of course, the 6th-gen could be completely different, but I've had a look at those wiring diagrams as well, and there does not appear to be any significant difference in this circuit.) Ciao, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsamurai77 Posted April 15, 2014 Share Posted April 15, 2014 Help please!! You guys have saved me another riding season. Alright I have replaced my r/r and stator with Rick's stator and R/R. Just before I found that it was my stator plug that was draining my battery over night. My diods number on my r/r were off as well. Between the two and the new battery that problem has vanished along with the warmer weather here in Michigan, but I smelled another farmilar plastic burning today. It would seem that the z folded ckp sensor wires(w/y&y) are burnt going into the sensor. The connector looks good but so did my stator and r/r plugs and both units were dead and dying. So question (tightwad) and others who I have followed what is the ckp sensor and what are and what do they do the A32-SG2 and B22-PCP from the wiring diagram going to the ecm terminal. More importantly does the VFRness have connector to these small burning wires or allow them not to folded like they were from the factory? Also what can I excpect to happen now that they are brittle and building resistance. Help please I was feeling so proud even though the stator and reg fix took me 8hrs with two runs for tread lock and black gasket maker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Switchblade Posted April 15, 2014 Member Contributer Share Posted April 15, 2014 Dude look here . http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/index.php/topic/34762-6th-gen-monitor-wire-fix/ It explains it . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Svet Posted April 29, 2017 Share Posted April 29, 2017 Here is another solution to the problem. I had 17V at the battery and replaced many light bulbs multiple times until I resolved the problem. It was related to the relay next to the R/R. I did not have any connectivity from the battery to the monitor wire harness at all. So I opened up the relay housing and found out that the relay was stuck open due to rust. I cleaned it up and it worked fine after that but eventually I should replace it. That relay connects the monitor wire to the battery. Here are some pics of the relay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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