V4 Rosso

That's good news. I hope you have enough spare time to finish her up and put some miles on her before heading back to HK.

Instead of a fan you can install an electric water pump that keeps the coolant flowing at a decent rate regardless of engine rpm.

With putting a resistor in line with the cop you not only decrease the current but also the voltage and the total impedance also changes. I am not sure by what amount a voltage drop influences the spark. You would need high power resistors like these. Again, starting out with just one cop and resistor might be worth a try.

Hard to say if the overheating coils were the cause of the ICM getting fried. After the roadside repair it ran great, didn't it?

The Pulse Generator tells the ECU what plug to fire,

The pulse generator is attached to the crankshaft so the (TCI) ICM only knows the crankshaft position, not what stroke it is on (in the 4 stroke cycle), for that you also need a camshaft position sensor or something similar and I can't find one in the wiring diagram. That means the ICM with one coil per spark plug is not a wasted spark type of system, but it does fire the plugs twice per cycle, not a big deal.

As mentioned before, when decribing the differences between TCI & CDI (reply #73),a TCI coil takes some time to charge: dwell time. The ICM takes care of this and uses the TPS signal to calculate engine rpm so it knows exactly when to start charging the coil so it reaches maxmimum current at the time of ignition. with a TCI system, ignition occurs when the charging current of the primary coil is suddenly switched off.

What can happen when you replace the coil for one that has different specs like a lower primary coil resistance and/or lower impedance is that the ICM will put more current through the coil and may overheat.

Below is a sketch of what the charging current curve may look like. Top is with the regular coil, bottom is a COP with the specs as decsribed above: less resistance and lower impedance. Due to the lower impedance the current will rise quicker and due to the lower resistance the maximum current will reach a higher level and possibly will reach that higher level "long" before ignition. This can possibly overheat both the coil and the ICM. The hatched surface below the curve represents the amount of energy the ICM has to put out.

I am not saying that you will fry your ICM, but when it happens you now at least know of one possible cause of why it happened

Isn't there a shop on base where you can work on your bike with maybe the assistance of someone who can operate a scope? You could swap one coil for a COP and then compare the currents between the two. Electronics can withstand higher operating temperature for some time, use that when testing the COPS by only using one COP at a time and swapping it between the cilinders.

Btw, are 6th gen COPS not an option? It looks like they have a very low profile which can be useful behind the radiator, and maybe they fit the 3rd-4th gen head well.

we discovered that the pulse generator was only sending .8v to the ECU. Since my ECU is dead, I wasn't able to find out what the output voltage was supposed to be.

0,8V is OK. If it is defective, nine out of ten don't produce any voltage at all.

and pressing the bearing in can (I've been told) crack the ceramic balls.

"builder didn't freeze the bearings and beat them in instead causing bearing failure".

Two examples of how improper installation procedures may cause premature failure. When the balls are under pressure while installing the wheel bearings, they put presure on the wrong race. Beating the bearing into it's (aluminum) seat can easily damage the seat.

I haven't used hybrids on the VFR but I have them (Si3N4) installed in my mountainbike. Yes they last a lot longer than regular bearings and when dirt does get past the seals it doesn't immediately ruin the bearings. They offer hardly any reduced friction as it seems most of the friction comes from the seals. I too always put some grease behind the the dust seals of the VFR front wheel, not to reduce friction but to keep them in a good shape for a longer period.

Didn't see this topic before. That is good to know that the compressor can be separated from the horn. I think this way I can find enough space for it to fit behind the fairings.. Thanks for the write up

So I'm riding the fence since my VFR is a '95 model? But since the same 4th Gen engine was used '94-'97, would that mean mine is okay?

Yes, all Honda motorcycles from >=1990 have no problem using E10.

Same for Triumph and Yamaha, HD: all models after 1980.

Ther is a VFRD member from Brasil (with a VTEC) and Brasil has had >20% percent ethanol for years. I never heard him about ill effects of using high ethanol mix fuel.

For winter storage E10 is better than E5 is it can absorb more water, of course ethanol free is even better but over here not available anymore.

I once tried to surf square waves...

No, that is one of the differences between CDI (Capacitive Discharge Ignition) and TCI (Transistorised Coil Ignition). CDI uses a charged capacitor (charged by an inverter) that is being discharged over the primary coil. A 'CDI spark' lasts not as long as a "TCI spark' but is more powerful, and is more suitable for high rpm engines. A TCI coil is charged by charging it with a current. It takes some time to charge the primary coil due to impedance, this is called dwell time. It also takes longer to discharge: the spark lasts longer.

Likely a low voltage (5V-12V) pulse/signal to a high (200V-400V) voltage pulse.

But is it really a problem?

Maybe, maybe not. But as I mentioned before CDI coils have a different step up compared to TCI coils. DCI coils have a lower step up and need a couple hundred volts on the primary coil to get the 30-50kV on the secondary required to get a spark. The primary coil of a TCI coil is charged with regular 13.8V.

I think it is highly unlikely you will get a spark (or one that has enough energy for ignition) out of a CDI coil charged by a TCI box.

Isn't this the one case where you can just measure the resistance across the terminals of the coil, and the result is indeed the impedance? I know all our talk about resistors in series wasn't right now, but isn't this measurement an exception?

No, impedance of a coil varies with the frequency of the AC signal. A regular Ohmmeter measures resistance using DC. Resistance only slightly changes with temparature.

Also a coil designed for CDI has a different step up compared to a coil designed for TCI so you can't mix them or you'll likely end up with a very poor spark.

I hope you found my posting of value?

I sure do. I never heard of adding baking powder, I have to give that a try.

Who said oil threads are boring? Very informative Larry, thanks

BLS, does Shell sell Helix in the US as a motorcycle oil? Here Helix is for cars & Advance is for bikes.

:+1:

Best tires for the VFR? Depends on the season:

http://youtu.be/W0xbtU8-mg4

Noticed it, nice feature

Except those LEDS will be shining through the stock gauge faces and changing colour anyhow due to the natural tint of the gauge faces, numbers, etc.

That's what I expected when I installed white LEDs (there was only one temp of white available at that time) and now the dash is somehat blueish

Here is shot of the dash with a stock bulb illuminating the speedometer and white LEDs behind the rpm & fuel gauge.

Maybe I'll swap 'em for some yellow LEDs

I'm thinking if a fella wanted to use white LEDs, maybe the "cool white" ones might be easier on the eyes at night??

When you often ride at night you better stay away from high kelvin white or anything blueish as your eyes are most sensitive to those colours. As a result your pupils will have a smaller aperture and that results in less night vision.

There is a setting in IPB that automaticaly removes nested quotes. It doesn't solve the 'problem' of people using the wrong button when replying, but at least reduces the amount of 'garbage'.

I can't find concrete proof but from what I have read your only allowed 4 keys per ECU but don't know if that's in total which means you have 2 programed from factory & your allowed only 2 more,

You can have a max of 4 keys programmed at the same time. When you program new keys, all keys besides the key that is currently in the ignition switch get erased from memory. So if you want to add an extra spare key you have to program all your keys again.

Attached is an excerpt from a Honda manual (in Dutch) that describes the procedure.

inleren.pdf

Ha, that clutch cover (SEBSPEED?) looks great. I hope the paint on the pressure plate will last, nice touch.

Looks like an effective way to keep the RR from overheating. I also like how the connector is enclosed by the fairing so dirt can not get in and cause corrosion.