kaldek

It's done. I've ridden it, and she's OK. Mentally, I'm shattered. In 9 days of my free time I have completely disassembled two VFR800s and built one back up with all the electrics and mechanicals (swingarm included) of the new one. The new motor has a much better clutch - I've had to adjust my lever out for the first time in four years. It may also have a stuck open thermostat - not fully sure about that yet as it's a warm day.

Hells yeah. There's the new fuel tank, the ECU and keys from the old bike, a whole bunch of stuff to hit eBay. Roy already claimed the ducktail too.

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.

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....

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?

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

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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!

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