Top Box Bracketry Installation

What an exercise in frustration & futility. After about 2 hours of struggle, my wife & I gave up before we had to call the police or start divorce proceedings.

The instructions say 2 people, but I can't imagine doing it without 4 quite strong people with amazing senses of how to align bolt holes.

I finally had to call the dealer & make an appointment to have them do the install. Unfortunately, I'll have to wait until July 3rd. :unsure:

 

What's causing the issues? Exhaust fitment?

 

Hm sorry to hear that. What gen viffer is this? It looks like the top box bracket just replaces the passenger hand holds. Now I'm nervous since I was planning on maybe getting a top box!

I just installed the hard bags on '07, and yah, those brackets were a bit of a pain because the holes didn't line up quite right so it took about 4-5 hours total before I coaxed the brackets on. I think one was slightly bent.

 

I haven't had any trouble at all mounting bag brackets for side and top cases with stock exhaust. The Lasers on mine were a little tricky and I had to spread and use the outer holes on the rear plate. My friends Remus pipes are being very stubborn and I managed to strip 3 of the 4 holes for the topcase bracket (rear handle holes) cause the brackets wouldn't line up due to flexing. Then I sheared a bolt off inside one of the 4. So that's where I am with that. :unsure: Supposedly only 2 bolts can be used on top instead of 4 with Remus pipes. I ordered a topcase for mine today, it shouldn't be a problem getting on.

 

Everything is stock. The side bags were already installed & I wanted to put on the top box too. Nothing seems to line up without using an emormous amount of pull that we just can't muster.

Before we damage the bike somehow, kill each other or start divorce proceedings, we thought it prudent to seek professional help. We are very willing to pay someone to do this, though both of us want to watch to see how they do it.

 

Mate, the only advice I can offer you is to make sure that EVERY bolt used to hold the entire bracketry is LOOSE. Then, once you (hopefully) have the bolts started, work from the top down, tightening the trunk mounting bolts progressively. You'll find that as you tighten them, everything else will move and change position slightly. Once the trunk mounting bolts are tight, next do the sidecase bracket bolts that mount onto the rear footpegs. Make sure that the link plate behind the number plate is loose. Next tighten the bolts for the support bracket behind the rear fender. Then finally tighten the link bolts and plate.

Although you have booked in or a professional fitting, the above info might help if you want to give it another go.

 

The side brackets were already in place from the previous owner. (It's a red '07 by the by.)

We couldn't even get the grab rails back on after we had the removed them in preparation for the rear bracket.

 

I am possibly making a faulty assumption here... Can we safely assume that there is no damage or distortion to any of the mounts? Also, have you removed the sidecase mounts and checked that the trunk bracket will bolt on or at least match up to the mounting holes?

Assuming that all is undamaged, and that the trunk mount itself fits, I'd suggest that you loosen the bolts in this order:

License plate bracket
Fender support bracket
Footpeg bolts
ALSO loosen the footpegs themselves
THEN loosen the grab rail bolts.

You basically want the whole bracketry arrangement to rattle and wobble around a lot. Then see if the trunk bracket will bolt on. If it does, tighten the whole system up in the reverse order of that listed above.

 

I'll give it a thought winaje.

I'm assuming since the side bags were already mounted, with the grab rails on, that everything did line up properly. But once the grab rail bolts were removed, everything shifted. Loosening will probably do the trick, but at this point, I'm pretty nervous to try. I don't usually do much of any work on my own. I am not in the least bit inclined to do so, mechanically or otherwise.

 

Thanks for all your help. It's getting late over here. Laters.

 

Hi, I just caught this thread. Did you get it all put together? I added the rack and top box to a VFR that already had the side luggage. I found if you loosen evething off (including the aluminium pag brackets) and piece it together slowly it will all fit together, then you have to work around the bolts tightening a bit at a time. if you force anything you run the risk of stripping a bolt/bolt hole.

Let me know if i can help some more.

John

 

Thanks pm. I'm feeling discouraged enough to let the dealer do their thing. Since they are the last Honda dealer still in business 'in town', (the largest city in Canada), I don't mind giving them some of my business.

 

I have the rack for the top box, but haven't put it on yet. I did put on the rack for the side bags myself, and I also found I had to loosen everything first including the brackets for the passenger foot pegs, even thoght the instructions did not say that. In fact, I just took them off and started at the rack on the hand grips. Once everything was loosened it went together pretty easily, but without loosening the passenger peg bracket I would surely have stripped threads trying to get it together.

 

Hope it all works out okay for you. let me know if you still need help!

It is truly amazing the decline of Honda representation in Canada's largest city. I have ended up using the Honda dealer in Wasaga for parts etc, because it is easier to deal with them on the weekend than trying to find support in Toronto.

John

 

I just noticed you are in TO too. Where abouts? I'm in the Yonge/Bloor area.

I went to Snow City for my parts. They seem very friendly.

 

I am close by (Mt Pleasant and St Clair). There are a few VFR riders (and board members) around.

Hope you get your top box sorted out. It is not easy to get on the first time, but at least nothing comes loose riding!

John

 

A friend also just got one. An '06 with zero on the odo from a Quebec dealer. He's in the Yonge/Lawrence area.

 

I just noticed you said 'first time', as if I was ever going to take it on & off on a regular basis.

 

I take it on and off a few times a year. I leave the side brackets and the grips normally. I tend to think the top box rack and plastic bracketry is ugly and spoils the lines of the bike. Also the top box (as you will undoubtedly discover) acts as a sail in cross winds!

John

 

It's my plan to leave the top box on most of the time. It's great for carrying stuff, but it maintains a narrower profile than the saddlebags.