Bike dies?

[Packman]

So this weekend I took a trip upto Victoria and Nanaimo BC and on the way up and back I broke down 8 times. Symptoms: Cruising at 70+ usually at about 80-100 miles on the trip ododmeter and I loose power then the power just suts and the bike dies. Let it cool down and it wont run unless I fill it too the brim with fuel even though I have around a gallon left in the tank. Heres the strange part. Upon inspection I noticed the battery had boiled over and the wires connecting the reg/rec to the stator were charred at the plug. Dont know if the battery and reg rec are tied to the dieing. Then I tested the charging system with a volt meter and everything looked fine, not over charging, the bat had plenty of juice... Im going to put a new battery in it and do more tests on the charging system as well as look at the fuel pump. Any suggestions are appreciated.

[VT Viffer]

R/R is toast. Need to replace the R/R, wiring, and the battery.

Sorry for the diagnosis.

[WhiteKnight]

Replace the R/R, check the charging system and check the stator to make sure it is not damaged, function-wise, either.

[Packman]

Ive tested the reg/rec and the stator per the electrosport.com fault finding guide and they both came back as fully functioning. All the tests Ive done point to a very bad battery that was probably fried some time ago by the previous owners attempts to jump the bike with a running car, and a faulty ground some where. So tomorrow Ill get a new battery and some wire and connectors to repair the faulty ground wires and Sunday Ill test her out.

[WhiteKnight]

Originally Posted by Packman

the wires connecting the reg/rec to the stator were charred at the plug.

The quote from your original post is the clue to R/R and/or stator failure. An R/R can test good, but still be bad. Meaning that the R/R sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. It will eventually fail. I went thru almost the same thing, except my battery didn't boil over. The three yellow wires burned thru twice. After splicing them back together a second time, I noticed that the caharging system was acting wierd. It would charge 13.5v at idle to 2K RPM, 2K RPM to 3K, it would charge at 14.5v, 3K to 5K it would drop back to 13.5v. I also added a Kuryakun voltmeter. I still had the odd charging issue so I checked the stator. It checked fine. I replaced the R/R at that point, as I should have done 4 months earlier as well as the stator. Problem solved. I suspect that the R/R was working intermitently during this time. I would replace the R/R at the very least. I just did the stator as well because I had been running a faulty R/R and did not want to take a chance on it having damage the stator. Note that the battery boiling over is a symptom of the R/R sending all the current to the battery and not regulating it to the 13.5v to 15.0v that it is designed to do.

[Packman]

Im very familiar with charging systems on bikes and the clues to a bad one and one on its way there, I delt with that a lot on my last bike. Replaced the battery, reg/rec, stator and fuse box along with various plugs and connectors. The reason I dont think my reg rec is to blame is both because of the tests and the fact that it is new. I failed to mention that earlier. I bought the bike about a month ago and the previous owner had put less than 100miles on the new reg rec, since then Ive ridden a little over 1k on the bike. Right now Im starting with the simplest, cheapest problems first and if fixing them doesnt solve the big problems then Ill move on to reg/rec and stator if needs be.

[DKC'sVFR]

I would like to get some input from you guys about my 86 700. I have been playing around with it trying to get it to start. I know you discussed probabilities regarding cause etc and that therewas another thread about much the same sort of "dieing" routine centering around the R/R. Let me throw some fuel on the fire and see if anybody has a word to say about what I am experiencing. I bought the bike for $500 from a courier who owned it 6 months before it started the dieing routine. I took off the tank and I was about to go for the regulator but I had to get gas to the carbs to see if it would light. No go. Took out the pump because the yokel I bought it from had lost the screw holding on the pump dust cap. wired said pump direct to Batt and it worked. Got out the VOM and started prodding at the harness for the pump. No manual. Been trying to down load one from the "Specifications forum" under "parts and manuals". No luck there. Tried to grab the 83-84 500 manual by waiting for about a day on two occasions only to have the download hang when it reached about 40-50%. in the wee hours of the morning. No luck with any of the the 750 manuals. The ones available for download can't be had off of the VFR site, even though they are PDF files and I have version 7.1. at least not by me. However it was glad to give up the Honda Common Manual and the owners manual that are available.

So I am trying to figure the pump wiring and I go to my local public library and pull out a CBR600 Haynes manual , which is the oldest honda manual they had, and the wiring diagram for a 99 shows a "fuel cut-off relay" with exactly the same wire code as the 86 VFR except for the control wire that comes out of the ICM. The CBR 's is black and blue, the VFR is yellow and green. I traced the yellow and green VFR control wire back to the ICM. When I turn on the ignition I get power to the Black feed line of the fuel cut off relay. In the split second when the key turns I get a blip of voltage at the outlet wire of the "Fuel cut off relay" and the pump make an attempt to click before the relay control wire coming from the ICM shuts down the flow of current through the fuel cut off relay. The relay is a 3 wire black box with Black/black and blue/and yellow and green wires going to it. The pump gets its power from the black and blue lead and then goes to ground on a green wire through the pump 2 wire connector. P.s. the 99 CBR has an additional "fuel pump transfer relay" that the 86 VFR does not have.

I am wondering if the entire starting/running problem is related to the yellowand green wire from the ICM.

Another strange thing that happened before I messed with the pump was that I did a spark test with 1 and 3 plugs removed. I got a nice yellow spark that I could see well in bright 100+ F soCal daylight. When I tried to light up the plugs in my garage later that night the plugs were dead.

I have not figured out the thread system yet. I am going to try to send this enquiry/thread back to Packman, VT Viffer and white knight if I can find out how. DeKC