All Activity

This, 100%. They look like aftermarket HID ballast connectors.

Where theft is a problem (like in the UK), you need a garage, a cemented in-ground anchor, a massive chain and lock, and some means of detecting some miscreant buzzing away with an 18v battery powered angle grinder... Out in the wild, your bike is always in danger if it's within van-distance of two blokes carrying it/rolling it. Even carrying a chain with you which is big enough to be worth carrying with you is always an issue. For the garage I have some serious Pragmasis stuff--16mm I believe it is. But there's no way around the fact that carrying a 16mm hardened steel chain on a bike is a huge pain by itself, not to mention using it properly when there are no proper ground anchors. I have a smaller chain I used to carry with me, 13mm, I think it was. If you park at work, you can sometimes leave the chain there to avoid having to carry it on the bike... Ciao, JZH

Some sorta LED or HID wiring, looks like. They look vaguely like the sealed connectors between the xenon igniters and ballasts on my van. Are those non-OEM wires coming out of the headlamp unit? I'm not familiar with the VFR1200X. Ciao, JZH

My impression is that many of the PC units themselves are identical (at least within the same manufacturer's line-up), but the wiring harness connectors differ by model. Safest thing is, therefore, to only buy one intended for your exact model VFR. I have a PCII, a PCIII-USB and a PCV, so I know they all fit. The PCII plugs in at the PGM-FI unit; the others plug in close to the throttle bodies. My PCV was not intended for the 5th gen (I think it is for a 6th gen), and it did "sort of" work, but not properly. I have read elsewhere that DynoJet has released or enabled a fix to allow it to work properly on the 5th gen, though I have no experience with that so far. The PCIII-USB does work fine, however. The old PCII also allows ignition advance to be manipulated--the others do not. My PCII came with the bike, and I'm not even sure I could make it work anymore--doesn't it use a serial connector? Who has a serial connector on their computer these days? Software could also be an issue. Ignition advance is probably not enough of a reason to buy a PCII, unless you're really into tuning. I've kept mine, though, thinking it might actually be possible to run both a PCII and a PCIII-USB... The PCV can work with an Autotune (which is why I bought it), but as I said, I have not played with it since the "fix" has become available, so I don't know for sure if Autotune can be made to work now. Good luck! Ciao, JZH

It's not clear to me what voltage the bike was charging at (at 5,000rpm, per the manual), but if it was a high voltage (anything over 16v), the only possible cause would have been a bad reg/rec--the one part that wasn't already replaced. The reg/rec may have been already damaged before you zapped it--that's why your battery was dead in the first place. In any case, a new MOSFET reg/rec should fix the issue (assuming the wiring is not damaged). Ciao, JZH

Where did the plastic spacer/washer go? The one described in you first post and shown on the photo. If you tighten the axle around the inner rings it should propably not be between the bearings. Inner rings need contact. At least as far as I understand the function and the issue. If the original bearing is angular contact type and replacements are 2 x deep groove type bearings the original may be slightly better for angular loads which would matter if you have a sidecar attached or race. For common use and good quality bearings rather insignificant.

So after putting back the old sprocket bearing in place and playing around I may have found the culprit. The dust seal on the bearing carrier is sticking out by 1 or 2mm. BUT : It seems that there is no need for a dust seal on the left hand side of the bearing carrier, as it is actually not shown on the Haynes schematic nor on the CMSNL one and even the part picture on their website shows the carrier without dust seal on the this side, when the other side as one fitted on. Does anyone had noticed this ? There is one in the kit I bought and I know I took one out, which makes me confused about the "no seal" thing.

You’re right, it was a fleet charger, and I 100% agree in hindsight. I work afternoon shift and it was 1:00am so I really wanted to get home. I figured if I hook the charger negative cable to frame ground, the starter would only draw what it needed. But the aftermarket voltmeter on the bike that is wired to the harness, not the actual battery, was smacking the max voltage needle. So clearly something bad happened, I’m no scientist though. The lights were very bright and the bike immediately fired into high idle. I disconnected it after 5 seconds of it running. Seems to have cooked the regulator anyways though. It tested fine when cold but probably couldn’t handle much heat after what I did.

For sure. Thanks a million for the help so far. I definitely couldn’t have figured it out without your help. The voltage dropping with the brake light was a red herring. The volt gauge was plugged in to read voltage on the green return path. So any load caused that branch of the circuit to drop voltage. Verified this through tests. With the new CBR500 regulator and 10ga charging wires it’s handling loads when hot at idle. Like a champ, not dropping below 13.6v with rad fans kicking in. I ended up hooking the R/W wire from starter relay directly to B+. Did a lot of reading on the bike circuit diagram. From factory the R/W wire comes from RR positive output. Seems to work fine after a spirited ride, if this will make the bike spontaneously combust at some point please let me know haha. But as I mentioned before, the previous owner had the RR positive output wire spliced to hook up to the R/W terminal at starter relay, and act as the charging cable at B+. Which is a LOT to be asking of a 16ga wire, basically charge at upwards of 25a if needed and send power to the fuse box for any loads. In short, redoing the wiring with 10ga wire and the FH020AA fixed the issue.

This afternoon was unexpectedly sunny & dry, so I hopped on my VFR for a ride up to Mill Bay and around Shawnigan Lake. Mt Tuam on Saltspring Island is in the background. It was too late for a longer ride, but still totalled about 100 miles. I'm still quite rusty from the long layoff of riding, gonna have to practice to regain my skills.

@VFRscrub ----- I cant really figure waht you got going on there. I am to the point of gotta be there.. That said, someone may chime in on this, but me, I dont wanna mix the starter relay harness with the R/R harness if I got that right of what you are doing. Also, any harness work, I prefer using 12 ga at a minimum.... Maybe someone in the peanut gallery can chime in to help....

Are you sure you dont have a short circuit in the brake light circuit ? It also sounds like you used a 24V truck battery charger. Something labeled 350A shouldn't be connected to a motorcycle battery.

1965... First bike I purchased was a Honda S90 at Bar-B Marina... 1965... Honda S-90... I'd wake up in the morning and just ride... anywhere was good... across the Bay Bridge it didn't matter... just racing at 60 mph was enough of a challenge out of 8HP... it helped to have a tail wind... 1966... Honda CL160... wow real power for two up riding and romance... in fact Mary and I first kiss happened on a ride... 1967... After we got married and moved to San Bernardino... Mary felt daring enough to take pics of my CL160 as it jumped over her... First competition was a USAF sponsored gymnkana or skills test... I was surprised to take 4 of the 5 trophies... I'm never 100% happy with my riding skills... I thought the Honda CL160 was a dirt bike... it was good on jumps but poor on landings... taking 3 bounces to settled down... 1969... Busy Little Shop #1 was the living room in our first cottage... our Land Lady wasn't happy with bike parts inside her spot less rental... so I used the lamp shade over the frame trick to hide the fact I was building a motorcycle... never the less she swore I was a member of the Hells Angel... 1970... Kawasaki 350 BigHorn... I was asked to perform movie stunt work for a Air Force Now film but after my wheelie crash the USAF enlistment board denied my request for enlistment based on their initial perception that I had "no personal concern for my safety"... My film director had to set the record straight... The balance of the camera to one side combined with the weight of the battery belt around my waist was really strange but I was determined to get some footage of the front wheel getting air and landing the jumps... the quicker I rode the more excitement I became into the riding 1972... CR 250 Husqvarna that I raced in the CRC SoCal Motocross and enjoyed the sandy beaches of Ensenada Mexico... Busy Little Shop #2 was in the spare bedroom of our Land Lady's second rental... she never gave up the notion that I would move the bike outside and make room for kids inside... little did she understand that some of us like motorcycles better... 1976... WR250 Husqvarna... my version of a street legal dirt bike... 1979... While stationed in Japan I bought a CR250R Honda direct from a Honda factory worker who must have pilfered some extra parts... I recall that the Japanese government turned me down 5 times for a street legal license plate... So I raced the CR in the black sands of Fuji MX park... 1980... Busy Little Shop #3 was inside our home in Japan... P5 Ushihama Heights Tokyo To... 1981... I'll never forget meeting Hirotoshi Honda #1 son of Soichiro Honda 1980... Z400FX Kawasaki... Japanese 4 unique to the home market... I painted the wheels School Bus yellow and installed a Honda fairing and tail cowl... It was deemed the Circus Wheeled Kawasaki by the Honda factory workers at the Saitama Honda Plant they christened the frame with a sticker "Made by Honda Motors LTD"... 1981... While stationed in Wichita Kansas I ordered a new GPz550 from East Side Honda... 3 days later I was off for a 1500 mile round trip to New York and back... next summer I rode home to California and back... I got the 3 spoke magnesium Dymags direct from Harris Performance while on a TDY to England courtesy of the USAF... 1986... XC400 Husqvarna... another Husky I made into a street legal dirt bike... I mainly rode Little Sahara State Park... the Park Rangers would check for your steel whip antenna and orange flag at the entrance... I didn't mind the flag but steel whip antenna would give my helmet a nasty whack every time I stopped... it got so that I'd jettisoned the antenna and then ride out of sight from the rangers patrolling in their dune buggies... 1984... 84 VF500F Interceptor... my first love affair with the V4 begins... 1988... 86 VF500F Interceptor from Golden Gate Cycles... I engineered this into famous Belt-0-Ceptor... I racked up 98,000 trouble free miles... 1998... 94 RC45 found in Tijuana Mexico for 8K... The Homestead Ranch yard where I first rode a 55cc Honda step thru in 1965... From a Honda S90 to an Honda RC45 in 57 years worth of riding and racing... Same yard 43 years later on Mr.RC45... Mr.RC45's prior owner Juan Riuz... http://home.comcast.net/~netters2/pics11-3-03/bigimages/JuanRuiz.JPG

The Gen-Mar bar risers on my work 5th gen came from the 4th gen I had. Same fork diameter. I just had to round off the heads on the locator bolts so they would sit flat.

Just so I’m getting this right… do you want me to take the red ig Ok I’m about to finish up the wiring, put in a OEM just one last hiccup. As I mentioned before the previous owner completely changed the harness. I believe all my issues are coming from a highly resistive charging cable to battery, causing the regulator to overheat as well as the cable, eventually sending a very limited current(due to heat) from the old diode style regulator through my starter relay, and trying to find the path of least resistance, which seems to be through my brake light circuit. The previous owner had spliced the regulator positive output wire to connect to both the starter relay and the battery ring terminal. It was a good soldered splice but with 16ga wire and sharing lots of current. The insulation near the wedge pin at the regulator was slightly melted. Hope I’m making sense so far. Now I’m trying to match the wiring to the suggested schematic you attached. I’ll attach a photo of the back of the relay plug. The wire that was spliced to the B+ ring terminal is on the top right. He seems to have labelled the one on the top right R/W and top left R. My question is this… am I OK to attach the top right wire with a ring terminal to B+? Does it double as a starter cut out signal wire and should I just delete it from the harness? I’m thinking no since it was spliced to B+ but I want to be sure. Both battery charging cables are separate and accounted for, 10ga with a 30a inline fuse. Please let me know as soon as you can. Thank you!!

^^^^If I was a DIY welder guy, yeah, I would have definately gone that route... For me, a new part was $8.xx.. good enuff... A very good thought about waht parts from other generations fit 5th and maybe others.

I recently purchased a VFR and, reading around, I read that a Power Commander control unit could work with the maps. I'm very curious about this. I'm not familiar with the Power Commander, but I know there are several models available—2, 3, 4, etc.—and they can be found used at a reasonable price. I'd like to test them out, but I'm looking for your advice on which one would be best for a 1998 VFR800FI. Any advice you can give me would be invaluable. Please explain it to me in a simple way so I can fully understand. Thanks in advance.

For those of you who missed it, we had a great weekend at Cumberland Gap. Just a few pics for now... We had a pretty good turnout and the weather was great. MiniCarver and family surprised us on Saturday night. We got to ride a lot of new roads in southern Kentucky. This was in Breaks Interstate Park on the VA/KY border. Random food pic for Dutchy. Parking lot tire changes in preparation for the PostRide. Rabaconda is a one man operation but in this crowd they will push you out of the way so you can watch. Can't get easier than that. Loading up after ten days for early departure. We are all getting old but not too old to take pics of our older friends. Or Canadian friends. You can't take them anywhere. I've got about ten hours of video to edit. I'll drop some of it here when I get it done. Y'all should think about joining us because this group is aging out about as fast as they ride. 😉

This discussion is very interesting. Maybe there are also parts from the fourth generation that fit on the fifth? The broken ring could have been repaired with a little welding, or at least that's what I would have done.

The Partzilla picture is showing the underside.

There was nothing wrong with your advice Gaz.

following this link the product doesn't appear to have any markings on it-no "VFR" just plain black plastic. Not the one shown in photos in posts below.

I didn't realise when I replied on this thread that it was relating to a copied post, my dyslexicretardedduggybrain aint what it used to be, hence my reply has been edited. I'll get mi coit.😞

I have one of these guys who rides with me...always bad info. Never stops talking.