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Well, I hope this sheds light on things and helps people with their electrical woes... hope it helps me too hahahaha. :blink: My bike's history: 2003 VTEC (Spain: so no wiring harness nor stator recall) Installed VFRness around 55000 km. 1st stator fried at around 65000 km Replaced with aftermarket stator. Short time later R/R fried (dead battery put me onto it... stator readings were fine) Replaced both 2nd stator fried at 75000 km Replaced with OEM stator and replaced R/R (aftermarket) and battery (YTZ14s) just in case. Few days later the stator-R/R connector fried. Cut out the connector from the equation and hardwired stator to R/R. 85000 km (just the other week) I was going over the electrical system and noticed the 3 yellow wires dowstream from stator-R/R connector (that is to say: between this connector and the R/R) getting very hot... disconnected it to take stator readings... fine... connected it back up and it started to smoke... shut off bike and curse Mother Honda and the horse she rode in on. Discovered that one of the yellow wires was so hot you couldn't even touch it... the others were relatively cool (they will warm up, this is normal, but usually you can keep hold on them for several seconds at least... even longer is better). So my question to myself and fellow VFR buddies was... R/R or Stator?? An engineer friend of mine who deals with this stuff all day long had the brilliant idea of pulling the hot one and taking readings to see if at least this might get one back home... it probably would work if you disconnected one headlight and were real smooth on the throttle as the rectification of the AC volts would no longer level peak voltage into a smooth DC wave... and if you're radiator fan weren't coming on all the time (i.e. cool ambient temps)... and you didn't spend too long with the motor idling.... anyway, this is just a long-way-from-home desperate-act-of-survival tip... So, in order to eliminate R/R or Stator as the culprit, we swapped the order of the wires around... let's call the female half of the connector (stator side) F and the male half (R/R side) M... so wire-wise we have the stock order of F1-M1, F2-M2, F3-M3. The M side wires are the ones getting hot and we had removed these from the white plastic housing and stuck them into the female housing in a different order... previously F1-M1 would get hot (well, really M1, but M1 connected into F1)... if we rearranged things, as in F1-M2, F2-M3, F3-M1... then if F1-M2 were the one heating up, the rpoblem would probably reside in the stator side of things... but actually F3-M1 was the one getting BBQ hot... so it was fairly certain the R/R was fugged... While we were at it, we decided to check out the (famous over here in Spain) BYC... bit like KFC... Big Yellow Connector (read "Kentucky Fried Connector")... this is a reasonably large yellow connector through which a whole bunch of ground wires run, in the front subharness... it's not really large in size, but there are 12 wires running through it... each of a different thickness (guage)... three thicker ones and the rest are puny. This connector seems to join all sorts of ground wires (seemingly from sensors and the like) but with the surprising effectiveness of an ashtray on a VFR. Nill, null, zero, ziltch, none and sweet f-a effectiveness. It's a piece of crap and hardly creates any decent connections whatsoever. So we eliminated the connector, twirled the ends together and wrapped another section of cable around this (to bolt the other end of this to ground on the chassis) and soldered the lot with a torch solderer... I can say my VTEC transition and Fi system in general is running smoother so this probably means the ECU is receiving proper readings from sensors now because the surging issues had been getting intolerable lately. I'm currently running a second hand OEM R/R a buddy lent to me for the meantime... Although I picked up, courtesy of Josh (Tightwad) at Wiremybike.com... the supposedly YOU-BEAUT mofset supercool R/R unit... so I'll be installing it this weekend to see how it goes... thing is it doesn't have the B&W feedback... so wondering if I should wire in the one from the VFRness (which I currently have completely disconnected) or not bother... I'm getting a stable 14,3 V with the 2nd hand OEM R/R... battery reads 12,9... Seems OK but it used to give out 14,6 V... before all this. Keen to try out the Mofsetter... 'cause I'm about to give up on the VTEC forever.... hope this helps people... Link to 5th gen equivalent: https://www.vfrdiscussion.com/index.php?/forums/topic/66045-urethra-i-found-it/&do=embed&comment=773553&embedComment=773553&embedDo=findComment#comment-773553

Looking to put together a group buy for replacement 4th gen carb vacuum pistons. These are the rubber diaphragm that moves the needle up and down. You cannot buy OEM replacements, and I'm not sure if you ever really could. If you have a torn diaphragm, or yours are just old and dry from being 20+ years old, this is for you. I met with Paul from JBM industries. Paul manufactures OEM replacement parts for many carbureted bikes, including isolator boots. Mike Norman used them on his NC35, and if they are good enough for him, they must be pretty good. He is confident in being able to make replacements. Because these diaphragms are only applicable for the 4th gen VFR, he would need a full order to cover his costs to make the initial batch. If you know other bikes that use these same diaphragms, let me know. http://jbmindustries.com/ Only the rubber diaphragm will be provided. Read through JBM's page on replacement instructions, but these will involve clipping the plastic ring off and gluing the new rubber on. He will mold in extra thickness to have the rubber replace the ring, as he has done with over parts. If you are not confident on replacing them yourself, we can work on having someone replace them for you. I will be providing a sacrificial set of parts for him to do his prototyping on if we make the orders. For Paul to go through with this, he needs a commitment of 30 sets at $80 per set of 4. This does not include shipping. He normally handles production of new molds and products at the beginning of winter, but will confirm if we get sufficient orders. Sign up, ask around, lets see if we can make this happen. I'm starting off with 3. Order list: (8/1/2018) 1. YoshiHNS 2. YoshiHNS 3. YoshiHNS 4. COS_VFR 5. SamW 6. Marsman99 7. scottbott 8. burnes45 9. LauraM 10. rangemaster 11. magpie114 12. Smack 13. Smack 14.vfrgo 15. vfrg0 16-26. Billy C 27. COS_VFR 28. kevinmacdonald 29. 30. @kgsmotorcycles @Dutchy @mcrwt644

Hi everyone, I am trying to put a 1998 vfr back on the road and am having trouble bleeding the brakes. The bike has 17,xxx miles and was rideable as purchased but ran rough and didn't start easily. I have already done a tune up, added a VFRness, replaced and rebuilt the forks (bent in an accident), greased the head bearings, changed coolant, added speed bleeders all around and replaced all the brake pads. Clutch has already been bled and the lever feels very firm. There is also a long list of missing bits and broken plastic to deal with in time. Unfortunately the manual doesn't make much sense to me since I'm not using a vacuum bleeder. Bare with me as I try to explain. I have already used a few bottles of brake fluid attempting the bleed the brakes and all fluid is coming out clear. I'm attempting to bleed in this order: Front right caliper top bleeder (pump at hand lever), front right caliper center bleeder (pump at foot lever), front left caliper top bleeder (with caliper removed and tilted to help air escape, pumped at hand lever and secondary master cylinder), front left caliper center bleeder (pump at foot lever), rear caliper front bleeder (pump at foot lever), rear caliper center bleeder (pump at foot lever), and then bled at the proportion valve (foot lever). The rear brakes feels strong but the front lever is weak. I repeated this procedure when I continued to see air bubbles rising from the proportion valve bleeder, but I believe this is related to the secondary master cylinder. With all bleeders closed and pressing the rear brake lever firmly down I can hear some gurgling or squeaking in the lines up front. I can also hear something strange with the system closed and pumping the secondary cylinder manually. It feels like it's not moving much fluid, and appears to be moving barely any fluid at all out of the proportion valve bleeder when opened. However, pumping the secondary master cylinder appears to add air to the lines, because when I pump the secondary cylinder by hand and then press on the foot lever I get a lot of air out of the proportion valve. I have repeated this ad nauseum with four bottles of brake fluid to no improvement. The secondary master cylinder continues to feel like it hasn't been primed and just sloshes fluid back and forth, and whenever I pump the secondary and go to back to the proportion valve air bubbles still come out. Any advice?

¡¡HOLA!! Would anyone happen to know the password that Adobe Acrobat asks for when accessing the 6th gen workshop manual (offered in the download section, which is the same one offered in my signature) with pdf editing software?? I'm trying to add markers and run it through text recognition (OCR), so it's easier to use and look for certain key words or points in, etc. using Adobe Acrobat Pro... but it asks for a password, which whoever created the pdf file must have programmed in.

One more thing: On this new-to-me '07 model, if I fill it up right to the top, when I start it up naturally I get the full range of bars on the gas gauge. However, within only 7-8 miles one bar disappears already. Normal? Thing sure doesn't stay full long. And lo, she is THIRSTY! Not wanting to start a MPG thread, but man.....about 150 miles till the last bar flashes and I start looking? For at least one tank I should carry a small 1 gallon gas can in a saddle bag and see EXACTLY how far I can get, just so I'll REALLY know.

When I turn the ignition on, the odometer displays 188888 or something similar, then goes completely blank after the bike finishes 'starting up'. Running or not running makes no difference with it. Trip meter works, speedometer works, tachometer works. Back of the dash has no burnt connectors or wiring. What should I look at next?

I want to establish that this is not another 5th Gen vs 6th gen thread. Well, at least I don't want it to be one. I think we can all agree that popular opinion states that the 5th gen was the pinnacle of VFR's. The perfect balance of sport and touring. And again, popular opinion is that the 6th gen was more refined and more touring than sport. I have found that most of the pictures that I have saved on my computer are of 6th gens rather than 5th. I am still a relatively new rider. I have only had 3 years of riding experience. I started on a 250, moved up to a 750 Nighthawk and finally my 99. The 250 was great at learning the basics of motorcycling. The 750 was perfect at letting me discover what kind of rider I wanted to be. The 5th gen VFR is almost the perfect bike for me. There were many factors on the reason I purchased my VFR. Primarily because of the popular opinion that the 5th gen were "the best". The rest of the reasons apply to both the 5th and 6th gens. Now that I am getting more serious about riding, I am finding that some of my notions were based upon opinion and not fact. One thing that bothers me is that if the 5th gen were truly the best, why was it only made 4 years and the 6th were produced for twice as long? Yes the sound of the gear whine is cool, but I find that I am more attracted to the sound of the exhaust. And speaking of exhaust, I think we can all agree that the 6th gen is just sexy as hell. The undertail exhaust helps show off the SSSA too. Accessories for the 6th gen are also far more accessable than for my 5th. The 6th also has some advances technologically speaking that are compelling. I would really love to have ABS. And from what I have read, maintenance is about the same level of difficulty for both generations. I have come to the conclusion that the VTEC issue is not really an issue at all to me. If it was really so bad, it wouldn't have been used for 8 years. That and Honda makes a quality product. I am seriously considering attempting to trade my 5th for a 6th. But honestly I don't know if I am just pining for something I don't have. Sometimes wanting something is better than having it. I am not an agressive riding really. Sure I have hit 100 mph, but that is rare. More often than not I just cruise around if I am not taking trips. What do you guys think, does it sound like a 6th gen would be a better fit for me, or am I just wanting something because I don't have it?

SO after my regulator went in my 99 vfr and fried a few things Ive got it back after some unfortunate honda dealership hourly labour charges. I asked them to leave as much as possible alone to avoid further costs and some left over problems (aside from a few bulbs being burnt out which is a nice cheap fix) are that my running headlights don't work. The highbeams work fine though. And also the right side turn signals are acting funny. Its blinking really fast and the rear right turn signal wont come on at all. The bulb is good cause it works when I pop it in the brake light. The front one goes on but blinks fast and the blinker on the dash goes fast to. The left side is all good, normal blink speed and both front and back work fine. So no running headlights but fine high beams and weird right side turn signals.... I think in a car there is a part that controls the speed that turn signals go but no ideas about bikes. And wondering if the headlights could just be in need of a bulb replacement but thought Id ask before buying anything I might not need.