Help......Overheating after replacing thermostat, hoses, & cap.... Solved

That's not right and suggests the thermostat is not moving. The thermostat should stay closed and keep the coolant circulating just around the engine and wax unit until it reaches its opening point of 78C. So no coolant should be reaching your radiators until that point and they should be cold to the the touch. When the thermostat opens it will release hot coolant suddenly to the radiators and they should go from cold to ouch in a few seconds.

Given your description I would say your thermostat is jammed part-open but not enough to allow any proper cooling.

 

Sounds like the water pump is working fine. BTW, this is exactly my VFR's temps this week on the way to work, without the eventual overheating.

65 degree morning while on the back roads temps were not going over 181. Jumped on the interstate I saw 210 then came back down to 185 to 195 and settled in there for the remainder of the ride.​

It's an OEM cap, the new AS3 hoses wouldn't be an issue, bike was ok before changing everything so I wouldn't suspect the pump or head gasket. The thermostat tested good out of the bike, a faster opening thermostat isn't going to cause the bike to go to 250F+, a bad cap might. Air in the system, bad cap or the lines may be crossed? My '99 doesn't have the wax idle unit, could crossing those be an issue, is it a one-way flow?

Lets go back to what changed on the system that I created this issue. I changed the hoses, thermostat, cap, and emptied the cooling system. Before I did all that I was not having an issue with overheating.​

 

The fight goes on without definite answers. I think I am crossing more things off the list that are not the problem than I am finding the problem.

As Vfrcapn has suggested, the water pump is not the issue. The pump looks good a little tight to turn but I would think that is normal. The passages look really clean. Which makes me think the passages in the block are clean as well.

OH ERIKA!!! Hold the phone!

While writing this up I was studying the routing in the manual and my pictures and you’re not going to believe what I found in my search…. Well maybe you will. Vfrcapn almost had it nailed.

I swapped the bottom large hoses going into the water pump. I will post pictures to make sure I am correct.

Boy, did I pay the stupid tax on this one. Next huddle is filling the system without air.
This just made my day!