And she left me stranded in the middle of the road...
Went to the shop on the Ninja, swapped over to the '93 VFR (Betsy, since RWB, flag, etc... get it?) and my brother ('95 VFR) and I left for the zoo, so he could renew his family membership. After about a 10 minute ride, on the approach to the zoo, Betsy started sputtering, wouldn't rev past 8, then past 7, then past 5 and finally she shut'er down and I coasted to a stop in the turn lane on Poplar Avenue. No lights, no ignition, no elec.
Battery is brand new and this was the furthest I've ridden this bike since I finished it. I guess it's time to start troubleshooting stator and R/R. The seat did get hella-hot pretty quickly, so maybe R/R is toasted and just blazing along under my butt.
At least I figured out that I LOVE LOVE LOVE riding this bike! Fits me far better than the Ninja 250R. Posture is similar, but I'm 6'2" and the VFR is just scaled more to someone my size than the ninjette.
Getting stranded is a rite of passage for VFR ownership isn't it? I've been there also, no fun. Sorry you had that, but glad you had a ride back. Once you get her sorted, you will be fine (and love to ride it!)
I'm at the shop right now, getting a voltmeter so Ican make sure it's the regulator before I spend that kind of money...
Anybody have an oem on the shelf to sell?
Sent from my handheld-sending-thing...
I think you hit it on the head when you said the seat was hot....R/R would be overcharging the battery, I had that issue also on the way home from Laguna Seca.....Great Trip.....I was just glad that the battery didn't explode :beer:
If you haven't already done so, check all the connections on the starter relay - located between the battery and fuel tank. A failure of these connections means not juice from the reg/rec gets to the battery to recharge it. It only takes a moment to check and could save you some money.
Here's what my '92's looked like:
starter relay troubles This is the starter relay connector on my '92 VFR750 and it had overheated and failed. Charging current from the reg/rec goes through it en route to the battery, so when it failed my battery kept discharging. I didn't find this little devil till after replacing the reg/rec and the battery.
It is possible that the reg/rec was outputting too high a voltage but, imnsho, the fault was due to corrosion.
I think you hit it on the head when you said the seat was hot....R/R would be overcharging the battery, I had that issue also on the way home from Laguna Seca.....Great Trip.....I was just glad that the battery didn't explode :beer:
doesn't a failed RR mean that it just stops passing any voltage? I though the RR itself was what might be getting so hot. Bear with me, I know almost nothing about this stuff yetSent from my handheld-sending-thing...
BRad, If you haven't already done so, check all the connections on the starter relay - located between the battery and fuel tank.
I was looking at your post this afternoon from an older thread. :-)I will check that out tomorrow for sure. Thanks for the tip! Sent from my handheld-sending-thing...
if you're swapping R/R, DON'T get the old OEM style.. although I'm not sure the new are much better. if you're moderately handy, switch out to a R1 or Gixxer R/R... beefy heatsinks and cheap on ePay.
I looked over the starter relay and connections, and unfortunately, they all look fine. :)
Once I get a chance to do the testing on the R/R to determine if it IS actually faulty, I won't be going back to OEM. I'd rather upgrade while I'm already spending the $$.
I KNOW I need to upgrade the R/R type when I replace it.... but if I were to find a directly replacement for about $35, would it be worth trying it out? Mainly to see if that really WAS the issue.
Part of me says "no, that's stupid" and the other part says "Hey, it's only $35 and you can really know if a new R/R will fix all your heartaches or not... Better than $130 to find out that it's not the R/R".
In 2006 the failed reg/rec of my '92 VFR was replaced. It was original to the bike and had a plain tin housing. The replacement Honda part (p/n 31600-MY7-305) was a heavily finned, cast aluminum made by Shindengen (p/n SH701-12). This is an example of the oem part being updated/upgraded.
I KNOW I need to upgrade the R/R type when I replace it.... but if I were to find a directly replacement for about $35, would it be worth trying it out? Mainly to see if that really WAS the issue.
Part of me says "no, that's stupid" and the other part says "Hey, it's only $35 and you can really know if a new R/R will fix all your heartaches or not... Better than $130 to find out that it's not the R/R".
If your worried about price yeah $35.00 BUT if dont want to worry about it blowing up again.
I KNOW I need to upgrade the R/R type when I replace it.... but if I were to find a directly replacement for about $35, would it be worth trying it out? Mainly to see if that really WAS the issue.
Part of me says "no, that's stupid" and the other part says "Hey, it's only $35 and you can really know if a new R/R will fix all your heartaches or not... Better than $130 to find out that it's not the R/R".
If you were to decide to put an OEM back in and you can get it cheap then I would suggest that you get two of them. That way if one fails you can keep the spare under the seat as SOD's Law will dictate that WHEN it fails, you will be no where near home and no one will be around to help. Just sayin.........
Best option is to do the upgrade as if for any other reason, peace of mind goes a long way. My 97 VFR failed on me whilst on a ride with some buddies (thank god) and I was over 200 miles from home on a note so heavily used back road. One of my buddies was behind me at the time so I was not totally alone and thankfully I was able to bump start it a few times to the point where I made it a few miles from home, but pushing the beast the last few miles really sucked. These things are not light weights.............
Getting stranded is a rite of passage for VFR ownership isn't it? I've been there also, no fun. Sorry you had that, but glad you had a ride back. Once you get her sorted, you will be fine (and love to ride it!)
Chuck
I completely agree with this statement! It seems like you've been getting a lot of good advice so far and reasonable people can disagree on the best way to solve this problem. Here's my $0.02:
1) Follow the electrosport testing procedure previously posted. As mentioned here and elsewhere, replacing parts you don't need to is stupid. Alternately, neglecting to check your stator and just replacing the r/r or vice versa is just asking for trouble. One CAN kill the other. Also, be sure to fully charge then load test your battery and if there's any question about it replace it! You DO NOT want to get stranded again!
2) Sounds like you've already done this but check all the electrical connections you can get to especially the stator / r/r connection and the solenoid, fuse, etc. around the battery and the main ground from the battery to frame. When my r/r failed it overcharged my battery and fried it. A couple lights also blew out so check for blown out headlights etc.
3) Replace the components that need it. Possibly stator, possibly r/r, possibly battery. I purchased a Rick's Motorsport stator and r/r when my bike failed and I've been happy. As far as I can tell the reviews are favorable and they're not to expensive. As mentioned above they have larger fins for better cooling.
After that you should be good to go so button the bike back up and attack some twisties! Good luck!
Edit: I'm not sure what others think but a used r/r sounds like a bad idea to me. I personally wouldn't be comfortable putting a r/r with an unknown life on my bike. If it fails (and maybe takes a battery or stator with it) you'll be kicking yourself. Reasonable people may disagree...
So against my better judgement, I bought the used RR from fleabay for $35 shipped. To me, it's worth it to get in a 15-30 test ride to know if the old RR was really bad.
If I don't get more than 15 minutes of riding, I'll know the RR didn't solve the problem.
If I do get more than that, I'll know that at least the old RR was bad.
I DO plan on adding a voltmeter of some kind, even if it is my handheld unit, temporarily wired in place for the test ride.
I'm not in a rush to spend $250+ on this bike today, as I don't have the registration/title sorted out yet.
Charged my VFR battery and my Ninja battery, put the VFR battery in the bike and the Ninja battery in my backpack to try and ride back up to the shop. All my tools are there, and multimeter and everything I need... Hard to get a bike in gear when the clutch res is completely dry. Don't know how I rode it at all like this the other day... SMH
End of thread · 19 posts recoveredWayback Machine snapshot 1 May 2013
