VFR800 6th Gen. 2006 in Sarasota FL.

Hello VFR Peeps! I picked this up early last year. I spent 6 months finding a good one. I haven't had much time to spend riding but I'm looking to fix that this year.

I'll be on the look out for a top box and carrier.

I fell in love with my VFR back in 1990 when I had an 87. Man.... I was SO cool. (you can tell by the stone washed jeans)

Recently I had an electrical problem (EFI light on and lack of ignition) that was diagnosed as the "PGM-FI fuse", which was melted down to the fuse holder that was installed as a replacement, poorly and cheaply. Seeing a fuse block that didn't look stock and 3 blade fuse holders, it was then that I decided to tear the bike down and REALLY see what I've got here. Now that the plastics are off, I've got some questions I'll throw in another thread.
For now though, I've got to go through "the drill".

Me? Been riding for over 30 years. (1976 Honda XL70 was my first) Former MSF instructor. I'm a small business owner. Low voltage electrician specializing in home theater and home automation with lighting/shading. OH! And a newly made grandfather.

 

Welcome the World. Beware of antics of some of the mods. I think some have a big drinking problem. One for sure. He keeps bribing me with Tequila and beer when I ride with him.

 

Great first post! Welcome to the frey. Having done "the drill" myself, it should be no problem for a person in your line of work. I'm sure that you have a good multi-meter!

 

Thanks Randy and RllwJoe. Multi-meter shows all good but I did find some loose connections from the VFR-ness with the accessory fuse panel kit. I don't understand why all the relays either.
Dyno today to get a post flapper and pair valve mod base run before doing any further modifications.

 

Hi SlicRic and welcome to the MadHouse

If you are reading up on "the drill" you will probably have spotted that those tests need to be done twice - one with the bike cold and then again straight after a 20 minutes plus ride - by which time the electrics will be good an hot and any heat related issues may become visible. Sometimes bikes test fine when cold but once warm insulation on the stator can start to fail or diodes in the RR suddenly become flaky and start draining the battery rather than recharging it.

Hopefully your bike is fine, but given the frequent reports on here, it seems the charging system on most if not all 6th Gens will eventually let go. At which point fitting a decent Shindengen RR (Roadstercycle.com) is the way to go for future peace of mind. As for the stator I would stick with OEM as they seem to really only fail when the RR starts playing up or perhaps you can get it rewound for half the price.

Take care ATGATT


SkiMad

 

SO here is what's up. All tests are good. But I'm curious about what has been done by the previous owner. This aftermarket "VFRness" has multiple loose connections. Are these generally known to be of good quality? I wonder if mine is old. Or maybe was just mishandled. Will create a thread.

 

With hindsight the rationale for fitting a "VFRness" is only relevant to earlier VFRs which had undersized charging system wiring. At the time some people "concluded" thin wires were the main contributory factor in charging system faults. However by the 6th gens, the OEM charging system wiring had been improved making the VFRness basically unnecessary. Sadly Honda still choose to supply 6th Gens with crap RRs which ensured charging system failures have or eventually will affect pretty much all 6th Gens - its not an if, but a when!

I seriously doubt the VFRness is needed on your bike - however I think if it was installed correctly it effectively bypassed sections of the charging system wiring which would be simply left disconnected (and hopefully taped up) to avoid any risk of stuff shorting out. That sounds like what you are seeing, so it may be nothing to worry about.

If you really want to understand what tends to fail on the 6th Gen charging system the real cause of problems is extensively discussed in this thread

https://vfrworld.com/threads/how-to-fix-common-regulator-stator-failures.39277/

Whilst the thread was started in relation to 5th Gens - basically the same issues continued to plague the 6th Gens

See perhaps post # 48 and post # 69 and post # 184

However rather than continue this issue here, I agree that opening a new thread to deal with this is a good idea.