95' VFR 750 electrical issues

Dennis Kirk | Frontpage

You can buy an Electro Sports or Rick's Electrics...

Many say go with the Rick's!

BZ

 

Here is another one...

eBay Motors: Honda VFR750 voltage regulator rectifier VFR 750 (item 300230279019 end time Jun-09-08 14:29:22 PDT)

 

Whatever you do don't spend a bunch of money on a new or aftermarket one. I bought one off ebay for $20. It's for a GSXR 1100 but can be easily wired up and works great. It's much larger and is covered in cooling fins.

 

After some research, I found the following aftermarket brands:
- K&L (~$140) + CA tax
- Rick (~$120) + CA tax
- ElectroSport (~$100) + CA tax

Which one should I go with? Do you know any other place in San Jose, CA or websites with better price?

Many thanks.

 

I bought the R/R from this guy:

eBay Motors: HONDA NEW REGULATOR RECTIFIER INTERCEPTOR VFR 750 90-97 (item 150252198819 end time Jun-05-08 17:06:21 PDT)


hope it works out.

Thank you all very much for your help.

 

Another owner bit in the wallet by the "Shindengen" monster!

 

I was bragging that only my 95VFR and Harley had never broken down, then Dec.07 I was about to make the jump to warp when my VR died.

It's pretty common with this generation VFR.

But 12 years taint bad!:strong:

 

Lots of good stuff on this thread which is helping me with my new found electrical issues. I'm in the process of trying most of the above, but here's where I'm at (note: this is a 1996 / 4th Gen):

rode for a few hours on Wed. night. Thursday afternoon I go to start the bike and it's dead. Put it on the tender, read through some threads on the R/R, figured I'd get it started, ride out to get some parts and voila. I go out this morning and even with the charged battery (tested it and got 12.89), none of the lights / meters come on. I take out the battery, go to the starter relay to check the main fuse - but it's not blown. Looking around the starter relay, it looks pretty corroded. The red plastic part looks somewhat melted, the green plastic part just looks pretty beat down, and there are two tabs where connectors / collars slide on (opposite side of the fuse, still part of the green plastic section) and one of the metal sides is loose / off. If I'm not describing this well, imagine the two tabs are separate, but connected together by a bottom piece that is held in by the side of the green plastic. The right side of the bottom is no longer connected to the green plastic housing.

Does this point to anything? If I need to fix this, do you just replace the whole unit or are there smaller parts to be dealt with? I'm going to go borrow some tools from a friend now (mine are in storage...long story) to pop off the tail and check the R/R while I'm at it.

In another thread I'm working through an air cleaner / won't run in the rain issue. Definitely getting my VFR education this month! I guess it's better here, at home, than somewhere on the side of a road.

 

sorry for the double post, but I'm trying to sort this out so I can head out of town on the bike Thursday night for 5 days.

Went back out, put the fuse back in, re-installed the battery so I could try to check the R/R. First off, if I'm having power issues elsewhere, does it even make sense to check the R/R? Just in case, I did. My multimeter only has 200 and 2K for the lower settings on ohmage, the manual says to set it to 100 or 1K, even so, when I try testing the red/white, yellow, green plugs on the R/R, the meter didn't even blink. For what it's worth, the clock on the bike is working. But when I turn the key to "on," the clock shuts off.

I guess my questions are these:
1) do I need another multimeter / ohmmeter to test this properly?
2) do I need to sort out what's happening with my starter relay before I try to test this?

the cables going into the R/R plug seemed dirty, but not melted together or anything.

thanks again in advance. Hoping to order some parts tonight and have them overnighted / two-nighted so I can fix this all on Wed.

 

eadc...

1) Diode testing RR's isn't that reliable with the best of meters. Often they test good even when they are causing problems. It's better to eliminate the other possibilities (stator, battery, power supply, ground and wiring), as this is relatively quick and easy. If you still have a charging problem, it's probably the RR. I use a fluke meter with a diode tester...sometimes it can spot a bad one, sometimes not.

2) The starter relay on Honda's usually supplies power to the RR and the ignition switch through separate wires. The RR operates on VDC from the battery. I would focus on fixing your starter relay problem. You could test the diodes on RR as the test for this "isolates" the component anyway...however as mentioned in question 1...not always that helpful to do anyway.

 

turns out it was the starter / relay and the connections to it. Replaced both and I get power again. Problem now is that it doesn't want to turn over.
Back to the manual...

Any ideas on what it means if with no choke nothing happens, with full choke it almost starts, but then doesn't?

 

LOL let me throw something new in the mix. ok my first ever RR problem came last year in Sept. This last week I smelled something not right, took a look at the RR, yep, toasted, so much that I'm wondering why it didn't catch fire. Good thing for warranty's, so I called Electro got the return number off it went. On to the next hurdle was the plug. Ha right only comes on the wire harness, me being who I am didn't want the ole jerry rigging thing, so started to look into my options and whats ya know, Our good friend Bubba sent me a part # and a link Wa-La new plug in hand, only tricky bit was soldiering the new clips that came with. Once that task was accomplished it was ready for a working RR. so to scratch my itch I just happened to save my old OEM RR so figure nothing hurt I'll give it a try. Guess what? it works, good voltage, does what it's suppose too, used a temp gun to check temps, old RR was spiking at 192 degrees, this one saw 121-150 so figure why not give it a try. The short of this is now that I've seen whats what, the plug may have been the problem child all along. I know from my work that a good connection is necessary other wise it will cause a load of sorts which would cause heat. therefore yea it would fry, which it did. Next is do I trust my old OEM RR? LOL Hell no. so far so good but I'll keep the Electro one if it shows up, as back up and I'm now ordering up the Ricks unit as I like the build quality on those. Moral here is CHECK THAT PLUG TOO.

 

""Any ideas on what it means if with no choke nothing happens, with full choke it almost starts, but then doesn't? ""

it means your carbs are running low on fuel......

 

I replaced my regulator/rectifier 3 years ago with a Ricks unit, but now I am having to charge the battery every other day, even riding 60 miles a day it is too flat to start the bike in the morning.
How do I check the alternator itself to see if it is actually producing enough juice?

 

Alternator test are clearly outlined in the FSM. You'll know and remember more if you read it for yourself.

You test AC voltage between any two yellow wire pairs, and the reading needs to be between about 8 volts at idle and 60 volts at around 5000 rpm.