kaldek

OK, bike is running. Won't speak for how well it's going - I'll wait until I've ridden it before making any calls. Couldn't fit the Motad headers back on though, as the downpipe gaskets were all chewed up and the fitment was always tight to begin with. I'll need new gaskets so in the meantim I fitted the stock headers from the new bike, which kinda sucks because they're so darned quiet!!

It's alright. Only took me 5 minutes in the end! I even left the shock connected.

Of course, I forgot to put the chain back on when I installed the swingarm. Do I bother taking it off again or just buy a new link? Decisions, decisions....

Gah, nobody has any link pins in stock. Looks like the swingarm's coming off again.

OK new engine is in the old frame - did it myself without a jack! The bike is now slowly being put back together.

Of course, I forgot to put the chain back on when I installed the swingarm. Do I bother taking it off again or just buy a new link? Decisions, decisions....

The only way to know if engine was swaped which is unlikely is do a full registry check which will cost you & see if engine number matches VIN number on record, if it does it will tell you original motor or there will be a listing motor changed, if it doesn't match then motor was changed but not recorded with registry.

Yeah, I did a vehicle status check - the engine number is registered to the VIN so either it's the original motor or the previous owner (prior to the smash) had it swapped out. Unlikely given the low kilometres on it.

I must just have misplaced them!

Righty-o, I've got the old motor out of the 2002 frame. I even did it by myself, without a jack. I just knocked the forks up through the triple clamps and lowered the bike down, then took the last bolt out of the motor. It was a close thing - much harder with the wiring harness in the way!

I did notice though that either the new bike was missing some engine mount spacers, or I forgot that I took them out. If not, it appears that the new bike has had the engine out before, or it's a different engine than what I'm expecting......

Hmm, I wonder if there's an easy way to tell if the engine number is the original one that came with the frame?

How did we know that you would come out on top through using perseverance And blunt force???

I am the king of percussive maintenance!

YOU LOSE, HOMEBOY!!!

HACKSAW FOR THE WIN!

I had a good think about this and decided that bashing it with a sledge was only going to cause more damage. Why? Because the left-side collar was stuck fast to the pivot bolt and is too big to exit through the swingarm bracket. Repeated hits were just stressing the aluminium bracket, so I hit the mutha with a hacksaw and cut off the left-side end of the pivot bolt between the collar and the swingarm bracket.

Once that was done, it was a simple matter of dropping the swingarm bracket down and away and off the bike. After that, the pivot bolt and collar came out nice and easy.

You hear that, you STUPID swingarm? I WIN, YOU LOSE.

Now I can happily drill out the bolt on the spare bracket at my leisure. Ahhhh, time for a beer.

Righto, seems Murphy is kicking my ass. I got the motor out of the new bike no problemo - we just lifted the bike off the stands, lowered it to the ground and loosened the mounting bolts before lifting the frame and fork assembly off it.

However, whilst attempting to remove the swingarm from my '02 it seems my swingarm pivot bolt has rusted itself to the spacers. The pivot bolt and spacers spin nicely in the bearings, but I have bashed the F*CK out of the bolt to get it out and it is NOT moving. The pivot bolt nut came off nicely, and the pinch bolts are of course removed.

I would just give up on it and use all the stuff from the new bike, but I currently HAVE to get the swingarm out because I need the freakin' swingarm bracket. Why? Because the other one from the new bike has the sheared-off centrestand bolt stuck in it! RAGH!

Anyone got any advice for getting this little shit out? Right now it's practically soaking in WD-40 to see if I can get it to free itself overnight.

Anyway I've given up for the evening as I have an early start tomorrow at - of all places - Honda motorcycles head office Australia. Is there some irony in there?

Alright, alright.

New '06 stripped-right

New '06 stripped-left

Dude your funny - every mod turns into a reality show saga....

Keep watching! I've got the new bike set up on chasiss stands and have only one bolt left before I drop the motor out of it. It's game time.

I use this web site to look up parts & also buy from them as there prices for oem parts are very good, look at this page part number 13

http://www.powersportsplus.com/parts/search/Honda/Motorcycle/2004/VFR800+AC/STAND/parts.html

Ahhhh, somebody has added to that after the fact! I have an offline copy (PDF) of the fiche created by one of our members and it doesn't have it listed as left hand thread.

Not that I would have looked at the fiche first, mind. Maybe I should start doing that eh.

It is listed in the manual as left hand thread & parts fiche

Eh? All I got in the parts fiche was "BOLT, FLANGE (10X35)". The Haynes manual didn't mention it as being left-hand thread and I couldn't find a page in the manual that even referred to the centrestand!

Oops. You mean it's lefty tighty righty loosy, even when viewed from that side???

Ahhh FUGGIT, I just checked the bolt head and sure enough it's a left hand thread.

WHY, MR. HONDA? WHYYYYYY!!!

They must be DAMNED paranoid about that centrestand falling off!

Note: you can also be caught out if you don't relies the RHS bolt is a left hand thread.

Oops. You mean it's lefty tighty righty loosy, even when viewed from that side???

Wow, the Honda manual doesn't even list the centrestand as a serviceable part!

When removing your motor, do NOT remove your centrestand from the stand bracked unless you REALLY need to. Those fecking bolts are thread-locked in there TIGHT and I snapped the head off one from the new bike. I don't think this bitch is even Ezy-out capable!

Luckily all these parts are interchangeable so I can keep the stand bracket from the old bike and NOT remove the centrestand from it. Geeez.

Kaldek - I have to ask you this - the high idle at start up - could that be the wax unit acting up? From what I know of the wax unit - it can get clogged and restrict coolant from flowing through it which causes it to high idle. Might be coincidental - but maybe that the cause for your high idle start.

Don't know if that would then cause bad data to be read into the ECU and then mess up the ignition? (pinging that you mentioned).

Member DUDE and I swapped his wax unit out of his 5th gen - and then learned that the unit could be flushed out - versus replaced. YOu've gone this far - might that be worth checking out?

Yeah already checked that. It was the first thing I thought of, but it wasn't extended. Basically with the 02 ECU it starts OK but exhibits the same issue it aways had, but on the 06 ECU (Aussie or american) it idles at very high speed when warming up and has fluctuating rpms at any given throttle position.

Anyone know if it's critical to remove the throttle bodies for the motor swap? The best I can tell is that it's removed so you can get to the coolant hoses connecting to the thermostat.

Well, you're nothing, if not methodical and doggedly determined.

I think I'd have fixed the problem with a half-pound of C-4 a long time ago!!!

Tempting. Very tempting. I will be a good boy and try the spark plugs from the new bike in the old engine first. Not that I can see how they'd make the engine rev to 3,000rpm when I start it up, but at this point it's worth eradicating everything, motor swap or not.

OK folks I have moved ALL the electrics from the new bike to my old bike. Started her up, and.... SAME PROBLEM as with the USA model 2006 ECU.

Time to put the new motor in as well. Something inside my 02 motor is totally stuffed!! If it was an electrical part, surely it would have to be the ignition pulse generator?

On the upside, it seems I have a perfectly good wiring harness and 2006 model ECU for anyone who's interested!

My Mistake the spare key I have doesn't have chip epoxied you can remove it.

I guess the eBay specials are fairly "aftermarket" and that the HISS transponders are off-the-shelf RFID technology which is easily replicated.

It is much easier to remove chip the key where the honda logo is on one side is a removable panel that is just glued on, once you remove that with a small screw driver the chip is just pushed in a slot you can remove it. Then when finished you can put chip back in & re glue panel on key, that seems easier than jump wiring the ignition.

Huh? Last time I looked at one of my '02 keys the chip was epoxied into the key under that sticker and not removable. UPDATE: They're only sealed in using silicon and pop out easily.

HISS chip epoxied siliconed into OEM Honda VFR800 key.

I think it must be those aftermarket eBay ones you're buying which aren't sealed into the key.

Picked up my 1W 100R 5% carbon film resistor and some alligator clips today. Grand total was like four dollars or something.

Eat THAT, Honda.

To do a new barrel you would also need to temp remove one chip from a key so you can use that barrel with the system to switch bike power & have original ECU linked HISS key next to transponder, then once in program registry mode you can replace the chip & move the original key away from transponder.

It's nowhere near that complicated! Since you have confirmed that the keys themselves are static, here's what I'm gonna do:

• Move ECU and HISS transponder from 2006 bike to 2002 bike
  
• On 2002 bike, disconnect ignition switch connector block (under right-side fairing)
  
• Hold 2006 ECU key against HISS transponder
  
• Connect up the ghetto reprogramming tool so the ECU will go into programming mode
  
• Jumper the ignition block so the ECU boots up and recognises the 2006 key
  
• Remove jumper, plug the ignition barrel back into the connector block and move the original ECU key far away.
  
• Follow your procedures above to program all 3 of my old keys into the new ECU
  

I'm definitely going to video this sucker.

Hey do we know if existing keys can be programmed to another ECU? That is, do the keys themselves have flash memory or is it just a unique ID for each and every key?

With my new bike, I'll probably move my lock barrels over to it as I've got three keys already. If I can code my existing keys into the ECU on the new bike, I'll save myself the cost of blank keys and having them cut.

It's really much less of a motor swap, and much more like a frame swap.

Remove bodywork & complete exhaust, place support under motor, remove forks, remove frame. Install your good frame and replace other bits in reverse order.

Rob's got a good pictorial of this in his "Get Bent" thread where he documents rebuilding his 5th gen with a new frame.

ps, I'm with Roy on this one.

SOLD. I'll swap frames. Probably even use the swingarm from the new bike, but keep the shock on mine (since it's an ABS model with remote preload), but that's a 30 minute job.

Thanks fellas. I was going to go for a ride this weekend but I think the better option is to stay home and work in the garage on the two bikes.

Actually first thing's first - I will try the new bike's tank and pump on my bike, see if it changes engine behaviour. After that, there's not much left except the engine and the stuff inside it that could be toasted.