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Hay D. Small bore pipe from left side of rear cyl head pipe union feeds the lower port of wax fast idle unit, this is "INLET". Small bore pipe with tight U-bend from stat housing feeds upper the upper port of fast idle wax unit, this is "OUTLET". Both pipes route up thru centre of throttle body assembly direct to wax unit. Ensure wax unit water flow is not blocked (common issue).

If I needed the services of a Dealership and these were my (never good) experiences, pretty sure I would just resign myself to the new reality that my town doesn't have a Honda Dealership and carry on as such. I think I would start looking for a cool Gen8 owner in my county that might be willing to offer a very brief test use of their PGM for a lunch and a beer. Good luck, you'll get it figured out.

Yeah, i’ve never had a good experience with them but they happen to be the only Honda dealership in town…

They may as well have been oval. Would have made more sense than simply moving them onto a different PCD... Ciao, JZH

That's a good point. Thinking about it, probably just a chamber versus any kind of flow dependent architecture. Kicking myself for not labelling things better....

I have no dog in this fight but I'm sure the wax unit won't care which port is connected to which hose as it just acts as a chamber for the coolant to pass through.

Both hoses are routed up through the middle of the throttle body to the wax idle. The thermostat hose is shown being connected to the forward most port closest the handlebars. Flow direction is from left most elbow fitting, into aft side of wax idle, out front most port and returning to the thermostat housing. They are illustrating the hose going up through the middle by using the dashed interruption of the solid arrow to signify it being obscured by the back half of the throttle body.

I have the manual, but I am having a hard time understanding it, at least some of the sketch diagrams. To me at least, I have a harder time 'reading' a sketch diagram versus a photograph. In the diagram above I am having a hard time seeing which tube goes where on the wax unit. It appears as though the tube from the thermostat housing goes to the upper left port on the wax unit. But, from the sketch diagram I simply cannot determine the routing of the rubber tube from the thermostat housing. I guess it will be a bit of trial and error to figure it out....

You doing all this and don't have a "1998 - 2001" version of the service manual laying around?

WTF? Babbitt's is just an actual dealership that has a very good online presence. "Your" dealership sucks balls.

I looked at the fuse holders when I pulled each fuse and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but I 100% could have missed something. The bike is stuck with them and has been for almost a month and change (due to me having to source parts through Babbit’s since the actual dealership can’t order anything because everything is on back order for 3-7 months, so I haven’t had a chance to review most of the things i’d like to. Depending on how the conversation goes tomorrow i’ll probably take the bike back and try to isolate the problem over the winter.

Does the hose from the thermostat housing plug into the top or the bottom port of the wax unit? And how does that hose route? Completely around the throttle body unit, or in-between it somehow?

I spent about 5 years split between a 5th gen Goldwing and a HD Ultra Limited. After those bikes I ended up on an FJR 1300. Lots of people complain about the size and weight of the FJR, but to me it felt like a middleweight. And the power kick after riding rolling sofas was intoxicating! 🤪 I'm a little worried that the VFR will feel a little underwhelming after the FJR when I get it back on the road.

All this talk of fuses.. has anyone been looking at condition of fuse HOLDERS and CONNECTORS? Either one of those super crispy will bring high resistance, stuff will conk out, stupid voltage drops etc.. Resistance impedes current so there's no reason for a fuse to blow if the current path has been dammed to a trickle. Start looking at wiring condition up into fuse blocks. Look at pull apart main connectors. etc.

Yeah, im going to speak with the tech himself tomorrow. The service advisor ended up not speaking with the technician. I repeated my question asking: “How can the starter be a factor if the bike won’t bump start? Especially if the bike died while in gear and running?” And he proceeded to explain to me how difficult it is to bump start a motorcycle. Which is ironic considering I was ONLY able to start it via bump starting for a full year due to a faulty starter relay which was trapped under my seat due to the lock on the rear failing… Anyways, im going to see what they say tomorrow. But so far it’s looking like they aren’t heading in the right direction, i’ll just take it home…

Really is. Not just the VFR, anything I ride now feels lightweight. I was able to take a modern Indian Scout for a spin this summer (VFR weight class). My first impression righting it off the kickstand was "awwww.. it's wike a wittle Webel 250 🥺" Test riding truly old machines on rare occasions like a MB5 have been really challenging. Feel like I'll toss them into the stratosphere.

Ah reminds me of the Chicken Chaser Honda ANF125 (modern C90) I had as a winter bike once, weighing naff all I could get it into a two wheel power drift on a greasy day on the roundabout on the way to my work. It could change direction faster than a cat under threat of castration & made my CBR600F4 feel lime a bus come spring 😳 My super light VFR now feels & rides like a CBR600 bus 😂

Get off my land 😂😂😂

Nowt like a little bit of Ti bling 😁👍

That was also a benefit of riding my ST1300! It is all relative.

Rapid Bike Racing VFR 800 2002 full system K&N View File Map for Rapid Bike Racing VFR 800 2002 European model with black widow catless headers, leo vince exhaust cans with dB killers in, K&N air filter. Ignition map stock Fuel map developed with thousands of miles of wideband data logging through bluebike 3. Targeting 13.6 AFR at low throttle, 13.2 mid throttle, 12.8 at high throttle. Submitter gropula Submitted 11/17/2025 Category Power Commander Maps  

I love the RS4's on my Tiger660 and loved them on my VFR. On the Tiger660 they tend to wear out the front before the rear. I'm not one to track mileage but will say they are lasting a lot longer than I expected. As to straight line performance, I finished off a set at the tract and they were awesome. Repeated runs to just over 120mph followed by 40mph corners and they felt great even though they were well into the wear bars. The front had patches about 1.5" peeled off on the sides and I didn't know it until I went to change the tire the next week. The RS4's are really sensitive to pressure adjustments on the TIger660. I can fell the steering change from cold morning starts to running temps or if I neglect to check them after sitting.

Switched from Angel GT and Road 5 to RS4's. Made the Multistrada feel almost twitchy for a bit, but adjusted my lazy touring style and now way happy. Just made the VFRs, 4th and 5th gens, more responsive and more enjoyable. Using my own tire machine, they do suck more to mount.....

So it turns out the most effective way of dropping that 500lb heavy feeling isn't swapping exhaust and going with a lithium battery. It's to weight train by daily'ing a 800lb Honda couch with stump pulling torque for 100K whatever miles and then fire up a VFR. Fifth gen weight now feels like the 10-speed I had as a kid. 😆

I use the SportSmarts all good done track days extreme lean & speed. Great tyres, I'm sure the RoadSmarts R 2, but more road biased as opposed to sport biased. Good write ups from tests. Enjoy.