R/R replacement

[WhiteKnight]

A little background is in order. Last September I found the 3 yellow wires to the stator burned thru at the connector by the engine on my 93 VFR after I rode to a friends house and the bike failed to start. I checked the voltages, battery was dead, charged it, started the bike up, checked the charging system and saw it was not charging. Then I found the wires were burnt thru when I was inspecinting them, following the procedures in the service manual. I spliced it back together and the bike started up, charging like it should.

In December, during my trip to FL, the wires again burned through. Spliced them again. This time, the charging system was acting odd, at idle and above 2K rpm, charging was 13.5 volts, between 1K and 2K rpm, charging was at 14.5. I ended up replacing what I thought was a bad battery just before my return trip home because the bike left me stranded in Daytona. Good thing dad was not far away. With the new batter, bike appeared to run and charge fine.

Now it's March with some good riding days appearing. Battery is fully charged, charging system appears to be wokring as it should, I ride the bike all day a couple of Sundays ago, no problems. I have had the bike out between then and the 21st with no apparent charging issues. On the 21st however, my Kuryakin voltmeter shows the system is not charging like it should. Eventually, at idle, it is charging in the 11 - 12 volt range and only at about 13 volts at road speed.

I check the bike out yesterday to find the connector to the stator melted and slightly burned once more. I promptly order a new r/r, but also call a dealer to confirm my suspisions, which the service guy said, "Yep, you have a bad r/r". So I had ordered my new r/r from Ricks Motorsports, great people, sent it overnight like I asked. It got here a little after 7 AM this morning. Price of the r/r was $120, and $30 to ship it overnight. I can live with that.

I have since come to the conclusion, that and r/r on it's way out can be hit and miss, meaning it can work fine one moment and not the next. Some may disagree with this statement, and thats fine, but it is my conclusion after my experiences between September 1, 2006 and March 21, 2007. Ok, now on with the meat of this:

After removing all the plastic to be able to get to the r/r, I removed the it from the bike. As you can see, the new one (right) is larger than the old one. I do not know if the old one is a Honda unit or not. It does not say Honda anywhere on it.



The old r/r is mounted on the outside of the subframe (at least on mine, check your bike for the r/r location closest to you) as seen here:


Remove the mounting bolt and nut, unplug the r/r and you can now remove the old r/r.
At this time, knowing that there is a heat issue with these, I decided to relocate it. For those who saw my 3rd gen undertail thread, you probably know I have no splash guard. Take the seat off and HOLY COW, you can see the top of the tire. So I rerouted my wires and mounted the r/r to the inside of the subframe. It should get plenty of air there.


Since I have bypassed the harness with regards to the r/r and even though I have heat shrink tubing and black tape on my terminals, I took the rubber splash flap and zip tied a portion of it around where the reminals connect to the r/r to add a little more protection from the elements. After installing the new r/r (I had to actually go get a longer bolt, a 6Mx10, about an inch and a half long, I think the number 40 was on the package. With a fully charged battery, bike starts up fine, Kury is showing 2 green lights, digital voltmeter shows 13.5 at idle and above idle 14.5 +/-. Now to see if I burn thru the wires again. Now you can put all your plastic you took off back on and ride!

[reg71]

good luck with the new unit... hope that takes care of your issues, now come out here and find the short on my VF 500!