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Got Some New Farkles Today...


TNRabbit

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VFRness bundle & a Powerlet steering head plug kit from Joshua @ wiremybike.com:

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...and a powerlet--to-dual-USB adapter from amazon.com:

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It's supposed to rain Saturday so I know what I'll be doing in the garage~

Edited by TNRabbit
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Joshua's custom components for our bikes are awesome. I think his fuse kit is excellent, simple, and combined with the VFRness just an excellent proactive thing you can do to prevent future meltdowns. The build quality is also off the charts, I was blown away when I got mine. We're lucky he makes these for us. Enjoy! :biggrin:

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I picked up the exact same set up from Josh a while back. You'll be glad you installed both - good stuff. :fing02:

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MMmmm ... farkles :laugh: I also bought the VFRness with fuse panel, but haven't gotten around to installing it yet. Would you mind taking a few shots and posting them as/after you do it? The VFRness seems straightforward (though Cogswell mentioned in one of his posts that it's a lot of wire to tuck into place) but it wasn't immediately clear to me looking at the pieces how the fuse panel is supposed to be wired.

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MMmmm ... farkles :laugh: I also bought the VFRness with fuse panel, but haven't gotten around to installing it yet. Would you mind taking a few shots and posting them as/after you do it? The VFRness seems straightforward (though Cogswell mentioned in one of his posts that it's a lot of wire to tuck into place) but it wasn't immediately clear to me looking at the pieces how the fuse panel is supposed to be wired.

Sure will.

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MMmmm ... farkles :laugh: I also bought the VFRness with fuse panel, but haven't gotten around to installing it yet. Would you mind taking a few shots and posting them as/after you do it? The VFRness seems straightforward (though Cogswell mentioned in one of his posts that it's a lot of wire to tuck into place) but it wasn't immediately clear to me looking at the pieces how the fuse panel is supposed to be wired.

Belfry,

I, too, have the vfrness with fuse panel. If u want to see it installed, pm me and you can come over. I'm in Burnaby. I do not claim it's installed properly though... :-). Btw, i'm out of town for the next couple of weeks, but there should be one night where we can get together at some point. My vfr is out of commission due to a stubborn set of gears behind the clutch cover but I should have some time to work on it as of July 3rd. Just saying.

Christian

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Just finished installing the harness but didn't get around to the powerlet outlet yet...that will have to wait until tomorrow afternoon. Pics will get loaded tomorrow.

A picture sure would have been nice as the instructions weren't real clear. I thought the fuse block was wired into the VFRness but they are two separate harnesses.

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Up front, I wanted to let everyone know that my system charges like a champ & all my connectors are OEM and look like new. I chose to install the VFRness & fuse harness as a preventative measure & don't like jury-rigging electrical connections to a tail light like SO MANY do~

For some reason, half the pictures I took didn't show up on the camera, so sorry there's not more detail.

Well, whoever said there was a lot of wire to tuck into place was right~

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First of all, Joshua has been GREAT, but these instruction suck-a-bag-of-dicks. PICTURES are needed!! The instructions say to thread the harness down & around the bottom of the battery box; I don't know what the hell that means! I finally gave up & tucked them however best I could as shown above. The key is to get the positive battery connection in a good position to match up with the positive terminal while getting the R/R connections to fit in between the frame rail, and connecting the green ground wire to a suitable location (instructions said to use the front R/R bolt which I did...I sanded off the paint around the hole & used OxGuard for a good connection). Other than that, it really doesn't matter where the wires go.

Second, the instructions say to REMOVE the battery cover--a PITA to do & not necessary. Just flip it up & out of the way--a bungee to hold it out of the way is valuable here (those wires were to the voltage meter & were incorporated into the new fuse block/harness).

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Remove all the fuses in the harnesses, including the 30 amp in the bike, BEFORE you begin in order to avoid accidentally finding a ground source with one of the positive wires~

In this pic, the factory main fuse is in the white fuse terminal with red wiring on the left:

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This should go without saying, but be especially careful when dealing with the positive battery terminal (I use a 10 mm socket on a 10" extension) -- good place to melt the beejeezus out of a tool if you contact the frame while touching the + terminal.

I used OxGuard on EVERY DAMN CONNECTION, including the fuses. Don't have any issues & don't want any.

Get some small zip ties & use them liberally to keep everything in place.

I LOATHE these types of connectors but ended up using one on the license plate positive wire for the sake of getting this done (it was 2 in the morning & I couldn't locate a better switched wire to connect to). This wire is for the fuse harness relay so it is an extremely low current draw & I wasn't too worried about drawing any significant power. I plan to goop sealer all around it to avoid any issues as this area does get some dirt/water thrown up from the rear tire.

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You'll only need to remove the plug between the R/R & the wiring harness; the plug from stator to R/R stays in place. You basically inserting the VFRness in between the R/R & factory wiring harness to give a direct-to-battery path with heavy wiring. In the picture below, the bottom connector goes to the R/R & the top goes to the factory harness plug you just unplugged from the R/R:

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Sorry that wasn't more clear; like I said I took a bunch of pics but they didn't show up (user error probably~).

If anyone doing this has questions, please PM me & I can walk you through it over the phone.

Edited by TNRabbit
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Just a note, if at all possible put the positive bolt in first and the negative side last. That way even if you contact the frame while putting in the positive side nothing will happen. OTOH if you touch the frame while bolting the negative side, no big deal. You probably already know that, but just a heads up for people that may be unaware. :beer:

But you're sure right about a lot of wire to stuff in there. I noticed that when I did mine.

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NOT HAPPY right now. Got everything connected & my charging voltage has dropped from 14.4 to 13.8!! Not only that, but I'm only getting 9 volts at the output on the Powerlet run to the steering stem....

SO, I disconnected everything & put it back as it was yesterday before I started and my charging voltage is still only 13.8 (or lower)!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!

*steaming*



Sometimes insulated screwdrivers are nice, or make your own plastidipped the screwdriver shaft.

Not using a screwdriver; used 10mm socket & 10" extension, as I said above~

Edited by TNRabbit
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OK guys....need some help. I'm due to lead a ride at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning and I need to get this thing fixed.

I've removed all the VFRness connections & gone back to the original connectors. I'm getting 17-86 volts AC at the stator output, and 16.5 (??) volts DC at the R/R output. I'm only seeing 13.5 volts at the battery & fuse panel.

In addition, I'm only getting fractions of a volt DC at the powerlet plug in the steering stem.....

Obviously there is a bad connection somewhere....I'm guessing a ground somewhere was knocked loose when I was installing everything Any other suggestions from those with electrical troubleshooting experience?

Stator & R/R readings were done at the output with the connector off (disconnected). I have a 3 volt power drop from the R/R output to the battery. I've double check all connections I can identify in that path & can't for the life of me figure out what the hell happened.

I cleaned all connections & added OxGuard, thought maybe that was he problem....went back & cleaned it all off...no change.

The battery has a standing voltage of between 13.2 & 13.7 volts with everything off. Whan I turn the key, it drops to 12.8-12.9 just as it did before. However, when I start it, it never gets above 13.7 volts (5k rpm) and drops to as low as 13.4 (idle). Before this, I had a steady 14.4 throughout most of the RPM range.

I'm stumped. As of right now, I'm out of the ride tomorrow.

Ideas?

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Did you disconnect the powerlet plug? I can't see that being the problem, but stranger things have happened. Are the black wires coming off the batter for the powerlet plug?

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Have you got another battery you could stick in there just to eliminate the battery? Seems pretty darned unlikely that is the problem, but you got to try things. You might do a continuity check for all the grounds you moved around.

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Have you got another battery you could stick in there just to eliminate the battery? Seems pretty darned unlikely that is the problem, but you got to try things. You might do a continuity check for all the grounds you moved around.

Yeah, I've spent the last day checking & cleaning all connections.

Battery I have in reserve was the one I replaced...it wasn't charging well when I put a new R/R on last month. Replaced it with this Lithium Ion battery & it's charged like a champ since. I will reiterate again IT WAS WORKING FINE UNTIL I INSTALLED THE VFRNESS. Now I can't get the 14.4 charge back even though I've gone back to the OEM harness. Battery is new & has the same standing rate & rate under load that it had when I installed it.

Edited by TNRabbit
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Anyone near w a spare rr to try? I know it doesnt make sense why said work would have caused an issue for it. So another thing i did was to run an extra 10 or 12 gauge wire directly from the neg term to the right side frame ground just forward of the rear brake reservoir. Then from that junction i ran additional wires to various spots on the motor, frame and sub frame. Overkill who knows but additional piece of mind, but even still previously running it i gained voltage (finally correct) when i added the vfrness. Damn gremelins.

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Weird fix. I soldered an additional 10" pigtail onto the powerlet harness ground & grounded it directly to the frame at a better point. Now have 13.2 volts at the powerlet plug & 14.2 at the battery at charge. That's down .2 from before but at this point I'm glad to take it. Been stressing hard the past couple of days~

Edited by TNRabbit
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