BOBINOTTAWA

Wow. That is impressive!

Sounds like mine. I love the rumble. Throaty, yet not overpoweringly loud.

Hooray!!

Before the black monitoring wire mod - 15.23 V cruising and 15.6 with brights on

After the black monitoring wire mod - 14.3 V and no change with brights

I will run this way for several days to ensure my fan comes on and causes no problems and then get to the grease and ground mods.

I just returned from talking with a lead mechanic and we went over the wiring diagram and the proposed solutions and he completely agrees with the black monitor wire needing to go to the battery. As per tracing the route, he indicated that depending on something as simple as the connection type, small amounts of resistance (ie producing a voltyage drop) could occur along the path before the RR would be reading it. He also agrees with the double fused circuit from the RR red wires to the battery.

He recommended doing the changes one at a time and measure the voltages and amps before and after a change and monitor the result. I couldn't agree more.

So, to get things going, later today, I will put in a new 12 gauge, single 30 amp gauge circuit to get bike startable and testable again. I will then do the fused black/white monitor wire to the positive battery pole and snip the old monitor circuit and run that way for several days and monitor etc.

Then I am planning on:

- Each RR red wire to battery

- Enhance RR green ground to new frame ground.

- Blue connector green ground wire mod to new frame ground

- Dilectric grease everything

Talus: My RR is less than 3 riding hours old and it fried the 30 amp fuse. It was hot to the touch at what I thought was the tail end of my last RR but the new one just continued to bake the fuse. It was probably even moreso due to the fact that my fan was on at least half of the time since the new RR change. Hopefully, I will get the new fuse and black wire mod done today sometime, and have some new observations (improved of course).

I will be keeping the old RR, as I think it may have some life left in it. One thing that I have to do is find >10 gauge wire and 30 amp battery combo somewhere. One of the auto store clerks said that I may have to go to a truck electrical supply store to find that.

EDIT: I studied the electrical layout a bit and now I am again confused (doesn't take much these years). Is what you are suggesting is that the black wire from the rr just monitoring for some/any voltage from the engine off relay and not actually be monitoring the actual voltage of the rr output? /EDIT

My info will be in bold

Battery Disconnected:

White/Black to Neg Batt Lead = Continuity (0.8 ohms) - mine - no continuity to neg post but yes when using frame

Battery Connected - Key OFF:

White/Black to Green = Continuity (0.9 ohms) - mine - 2 ohms

White/Black to Pos Batt Lead = Continuity (-153.2 or infinity if leads are switched) <-- Like a diode? - mine - minus 279 and infinity

White/Black to Neg Batt Lead = Continuity (0.8 ohms) - mine - 2 ohms

Battery Connected - Key ON (bike not running):

Green to Green = Continuity (39.6 ohms) <--- WTF? Grounding issue with power on? - mine - 25 ohms

Red to Red = Continuity (0.3 ohms)

Reds to Pos Battery Lead = Continuity (4.3 ohms) - mine - 4 ohms

Greens to Neg Batt Lead = Continuity (one shows 18.3 ohms the other 59.3 ohms) <---this is Odd but answers the above 39.6 ohms resistance - mine - minus 174 and infinity for the other one

White/Black to Red = Continuity (-53.0 at 200K and if I reverse the electrodes and I get infinity) - mine - I get -240 and infinity for the other one

White/Black to Green = No Continuity - mine - I had continuity here, I think, but I can no longer repeat test

White/Black to Pos Batt Lead = No Continuity - mine - same

White/Black to Neg Batt Lead = Continuity (-153.2 or infinity if leads are switched) <---Diode? - mine - minus 270 & infinity

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Before I disassembled or snipped anything, I turned on the engine and of course, I could feel the fuse holder starting to warm up immediately. I tried to measure voltage between the black/white wire and the positive terminal and I was getting a reading of about .75 volt and when I put the high beams on, the voltage went up to approximately 1.25. I don't know if that number is any way significant, but I took it any.

After I change the fuse & holder/wire and put in the positive terminal/black white monitor wire connection, I sure hope life will return to normal. I am going to do the green wire/blue connector correction too.

At some point on monday or tuesday, I will be going thru as many stator checks as I canntoo.

I hate electrical crap

Edit - after thinking about it, I concluded that the black/white wire in the RR must be an input to the RR as KKKen's was monitoring the voltage in the red/white wire and the RR part numbers haven't changed from the 02 model to the 03 model year. But as seems to tbe the case, the monitor wire seems to have a different attach point from KKKen's to Talus's version. However the part number hasen't changed, so the wire's purpose into the RR shouldn't be different, should it?

/Edit

I would be curious to know where your black/white wire goes. With a multimeter it's a fairly quick check. Just unplug the RR from the harness and check the continuity between the red/white wires and the black/white wire.

Been a hectic day, but I just got finished the multimeter test and I DO have continuity between the monitor wire and the red/white wires. This, I assume suggests that I have the monitor wire crimped onto the red wire in the harness similar to KKKen's 02 harness. This means that I can positively go and put a fused lead from the battery '+' post to the monitor wire.

I will report back after I do that, but it will likely be Monday. One of the things that is slowing me down is the fact that I will have to replace the 30 amp fuse/holder AGAIN. I had used 12-gauge inline fuses as a replacement. None of the electrical shops around here seem to carry any 10 or 8 gauge 30-amp inline fuses. I went for a short hop today and my rad fan was on enough to cause the RR problem to keep producing more and more juice. My fuse and holder were deformed due to the heat. Why did it not blow instead of melting itself to death.

Hopefully, the replacing of the fuse and the monitor wire mod and the t-stat change will correct this problem, once and for all.

So, I am confused. Assuming that the monitor wire is not attached to the red wire out of the R/R but goes up to the ignition etc, then is it still correct to do the mod by interrupting the old thru-harness-to-ignition-to-RR circuit and replace it by attaching a wire from the positive battery side to the back/white monitor wire.

If the old circuit was going up to the ignition and so on, there is certainly the potential of some voltage drop and have a false reading at the RR. I am just trying to understand Honda's logic: Why would a monitor wire need to be anywhere except to the positive battery post?

Is it suggesting that this wire is not an 'input wire to the RR but rather an output wire to feed the ignition circuit. If so, then this is why I am confused and I can't really proceed with clipping the monitor wire. Is it to detect ignit AND to measure its voltage if it has any?

(yes, I find wiring 3-way circuits difficult in older houses)

Edit - after thinking about it, I concluded that the black/white wire in the RR must be an input to the RR as KKKen's was monitoring the voltage in the red/white wire and the RR part numbers haven't changed from the 02 model to the 03 model year. But as seems to tbe the case, the monitor wire seems to have a different attach point from KKKen's to Talus's version. However the part number hasen't changed, so the wire's purpose into the RR shouldn't be different, should it?

/Edit

Thanks folks

A steel flat washer can be a shin, nothing special !  Using washers or shims with a hole in them requires you to remove the bolt to get them on. As mentioned by Beck here, you can just loosen the top nut and slide in the U shaped body shims availible from most auto parts stores.

AS HS mentioned you could slide your fork tubes up in the trees 5mm instead. :thumbsup:

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Thanks. I have used washers as spacers etc in other things. I just assumed that these had part numbers etc.

I think older post have pics deleated to save site space ???  This post is from 2002 !

:beer:

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I have never seen shims, so I was hoping to see one and how they are used etc.

Is there 1 kind of shim for VFR's for multiple places or many kinds of shims?

Is it just me; I can't see any pics? If it is not just me, are they recoverable?