4li3nVFR

OK thanx for the info guys. bmart how much did Thermosman charge you for the rebuild?

Once again I find myself consulting the forums in search of a better solution, so thanks in advance for any advice/pointers. My left fork has decided to puke its contents after letting the local Honda Stealership replace the seals less than one year ago. I've probably only put 600 or 700 miles on the bike since then under normal driving conditions so I don't understand why it's leaking. Anyway the stealership has informed me that the bushings are worn and that is what is causing the leak. I asked why the bushings weren't replaced 10 months ago along with the seals and all I got for a response was a shoulder shrug since it is a different service manager now. In addition to the shoulder shrug I got a wonderful estimate of $1200 to fix the forks and bleed the front brakes to remedy too much lever travel. $1200....😕 ? I checked my calendar and it wasn't April 1st so I guess he was serious. I have worked on my bikes in the past but have no experience with forks/suspension repair, so can anyone point to a comprehensive how-to vid or guide for a dummy who has been riding for almost 40 years but never messed with forks? Thank you my friends. Oh yeah I forgot: 6th Gen '05 VFR800 with ABS barely broken in with only 11K miles 😁

This in-flight photo was taken over White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. NASA has the White Sands Space Harbor there where the pilots would do touch and go's on its really long runway. As an Air Force Firefighter I worked there in '92, '96, and 2007. We would be on standby there while they practiced approaches for 3 or 4 hours at a time. This runway was also the tertiary (third) official landing strip for the actual shuttle. We had to stand by for that as well whenever it went up. I went through a training course on how to gain entry and power down the Shuttle and extract the aircrew if it landed there under emergency conditions. Good memories.

UPDATE #4: Three tanks of 93 octane have come and gone through my VFR fuel system and the bike is performing flawlessly. No more dying when tank is low. YAY!👍 Added benefit: recently we've had a couple of 51 degree mornings and the VFR is loving the extra power...seems like 30 more horsepower....🏍️!

UPDATE #3: Got the bike back today with OEM fuel pump plus all new innards of the tank installed. The Honda shop took it for two separate test rides on different days with the tank near empty and had no probs, said it ran great. I tested it personally with the tank near empty and NO dying when decelerating or coming to a stop. Yay!😁 Tank is full of 93 octane now so we'll see if it continues to behave correctly when the tank gets near empty again. Wish me luck. Will update again in a few days.

UPDATE: My local Honda shop installed the replacement tank and it now has all new innards according to the diagram that Grum so nicely provided. Unfortunately when taken for a test ride the dying issue remained with <1/3 tank of fuel. And to make matters worse (by throwing gasoline onto the fire)😆 heh, sorry.....the non-OEM fuel pump that was recommended here in the forum has shorted out and melted its wires. Rather than replace it under warranty and risk having the same thing happen all over again I have decided to bite the bullet and purchase an OEM Honda pump at a slightly discounted price. Hopefully this will abate all problems and I can be back on the road soon. Wish me luck or offer alternative advice. Either would be greatly appreciated.

Grum, sir, you ARE the GOAT!👑🙏

Awesome! Thank you Grum for the pic and text. That definitely helps me see what is going on in there. I'm gonna show it to the Honda guys in case they don't have it.

That is a possibility but I doubt it because I can continue riding for another 40 or 50 miles or so without running out. The problem may be the fact that this is a replacement non-OEM fuel pump. Maybe the fuel pickup mounts differently to it and is raised up a little too high? I have not personally laid eyes on this because my local Honda shop has done the work. I will ask them about it. Thanks for the info.

Update: After removing the Power Commander 3 and the problem disappearing, it began to resurface 3 or 4 days later. I started keeping track of when this problem would occur and under what conditions. It took quite a while but suddenly one day I had an AHA moment. I knew the culprit. But to be sure I started predicting when it would occur and when it wouldn't. And I was right every time. It is a fuel pickup problem happening inside the gas tank. Only when I have 1/3 of a tank or less and as I come to a stop the remaining fuel is thrown forward to the front of the tank -- away from the fuel pump and its pickup -- and the injectors are starved of fuel and the engines dies. After coming to a complete stop the remaining fuel in the tank sloshes back and levels out and the pickup can get fuel again. The bike restarts easily, idles fine, and accelerates like a demon. Until I come to a stop again and the problem reoccurs. Fill the tank up and the problem completely disappears until it gets back to the 1/3 full level and it all starts over. Removing the PC3 fooled me because I filled the tank up at the same time making the problem disappear. I broke the cardinal rule of troubleshooting and made 2 changes at once.🙁. So then after taking it to the dealership to let them confirm and possibly fix the problem they discovered that the tank etching and lining process to remedy 5 years of storage with bad fuel left in the tank did not take and is already beginning to bubble and separate from the inside of the tank. The rust damage was just too great. Sooooo I've got to replace the tank. ☹️. I have located an '04 tank in pretty good shape for an excellent price (😉🙏 thanx Curt) and posted the question of fitment to my '05 and (🙏 thanx to Cogswell) he has assured me that the fitment will be the same. As a side question, is there anyone here who has seen the inside of these tanks and can tell me whether or not there are baffles welded into the bottom and/or sides? That seems to me would prevent my problem from happening but maybe mine got rusted out during the 5 years of storage? As far as I can tell there is no way to change the height or level of the fuel pickup to fix the problem so I am hoping that just replacing the tank will solve my problem. If anyone knows different please inform me and have my gratitude for the education of a VFR dummy. 🤪

OK after second test ride the issue has completely disappeared so obviously it WAS the PCIII. So since I am removing the PCIII I'm guessing I need to remove the O2 eliminators as well?

OK I moved this to a new thread so I wouldn't hijack some else's.😐 To recap my VFR was dying most of the time whenever I came to a stop at red lights or stop signs and occasionally just decelerating into a tight turn. It would always start right back up no prob but the same would repeat at the next stop. Idle is where it's supposed to be, new fuel pump, cleaned and balanced injectors. plus I could find no loose vacuum lines or loose connectors. To me the simplest and easiest troubleshooting was to unplug the Power Commander III and see what's up. I did exactly that and took it for test ride #1 this afternoon and could not get the bike to repeat the problem. Hmmm. I will repeat test ride tomorrow to be sure but so far it is looking like the PCIII may have been the culprit. So my question is does that mean the PCIII was defective or could it have just been a bad map? I have zero experience with the PCIII's but have found an online manual @ DynoJet's website. Also another question is does the bike even need this PC? It is my understanding that the stock ECM is pretty capable of adjusting to changes such as my Two Brother's Pipes. Does the PCIII actually improve HP, Torque, or MPG? Or does it just give you controllability? Thanks for any advice or sharing experiences with this.