Someone tried to steal my RWB VFR, help me fix it!

Hi guys,

A week or so ago (Christmas eve!!) someone tried to hotwire my RWB vfer in my garage. Security walked up on them and chased the off but not before they cut my ignition wires. We patched the wires back together but there is no power at all to anything on the bike....

Where is the fusebox on this bad boy? I see one larger fuse coming off the battery but is there another box with say an ignition fuse? I know the cop said when he walked up the wires were hot and sparked. So where would this fuse be located?

Thanks!

-k9maniac

 

my guess is under the seat, you may even need a new battery if it was sparking when the guard walked up. for what its worth I hate sloppy car thieves, come on, to steal a bike you roll up slide it in the back of a truck then drive off. strip it later and be done with it. sorry to hear about it hope you figure it out.

 

Here's my second attempt at this (stupid website always locks up on me).

The only thing I hate about the 6th Gen...I just had mine off today so this process is still fresh.

The fuse box is located to the right of the dash in front of the right grip under the fairing panel.

First remove the plastic fastener aka dammit on the bottom right corner of the black dash panel. To do this push the middle of the head in, then grab the circular edges of the head and pull out with either your fingernails or needlenose pliers. Yell "dammit" everytime they slip off or when you peel your nail back.

Next remove the allen bolt (5mm?) which is on the fairing directly below the right grip. Then remove the other allen bolt that is about 6 inches to the right of this one but it faces down and out (directly back from the turn signal).

Once the 3 fasteners have been removed the panel is free....except for the tabs holding it in place. Pry from the bottom to work them out (work the whole fairing around while wiggling the panel). Once the bottom tabs are out the upper tab will easily slide out.

Walaa! There is the little black box of fuses. Look for the "OPEN" sign which is in the front and wrap your sore bloody finger around it and push in to fold the cap back.

Once you get it the first time it will only take a minute to do thereafter.

Sometimes its better when they make off with the bike and completely trash it so you can get a new one. Sorry about your bad luck. E'rybody wants a RWB...

 

great! Perhaps I'll be riding sometime soon after all....walking is for the birds.

Although some have argued that the RWB belongs in a display case where as I prefer to ride it!

 

ok bad news....I made it in to the fuse box and it does not appear as if any of the fuses are blown....so where to go from here?

Let me better explain the problem so that maybe the problem will be clear.

The thief cut the ignition wires. When I locked the bike after the incident, the bike had power but the ignition wires were still hot and sparking if they touched the frame etc. Shortly thereafter I disconnected the battery.

When I returned from the holidays we decided to splice in some small wire sections to reconnect the ignition and see if we could get it running.



but now, the bike is totally dead when the battery is hooked back up, and the battery has good charge....plus I tried with an external charger/starter connected and still nothing.

So I checked the fuse right next top the battery, the 30amp one, and it is fine. The other fuses look good too in the box up front.

So at this point, I have no power to anything and no idea how to fix it. I'm about a mouse fart away from taking it to the dealership but don;t really want to shell out $$$$ to fix it.

Any ideas what could be going on? Any other fuses I don't know about that could kill everything?

I also have read that this wiring harness has wires meant to burn out if too much power went through them, basically making them pain in the ass hard to find in line fuses.....could one of those broken and made my bike into a paper weight?

Could I have fried the computer? Someone PLEASE help me, and save me from the dealership $75/hr labor rates.

 

Ken,
I just remembered. If you haven't conquered the problem yet, check with KWR8728 on VFRD. He's a bike mechanic just out of school. He is always tinkering and modifying. His name is kevin Robinson. I know he'll be helpful.
wrestler

 

Hmmm...Get a shop manual. Only takes a couple days to get off Ebay for around $35. If that doesn't work I would consider an insurance claim. Not sure if you would have to pay your deductible, but probably so. Perhaps you could go to a dealer and get an estimate, I'm sure they've fixed problems like this before and know where to look. It may only take them an hour to fix, maybe 2-3 if they replace a wiring harness. Either way that may be a better solution than the risk of damaging something trying to fix it yourself.

On my RC51 I had to bypass one of the connector plugs for the ignition harness because I failed to secure the wires when I rebuilt it (got it as a wrecked restoration project). The wires fell down and rubbed the front tire for a while before I noticed and completely destroyed the plug. Rather than replace 2 harnesses for ~$200 I cut out the plug and spliced them like you did. Everything was fine. I did the whole measure twice, cut once thing while doing it though (6 teeny wires with similar color stripes). Except I checked at least ten times before connecting each one- some wires connected to 2.

Where you stand right now I would go to the dealer and talk to them about it if there is anybody there that is worth their $8 hourly pay.

 

well I found the manual on vfrd and there was another 30a fuse by the battery....blown to sh*&t. So I'm headed for a spare and praying that all will be well shortly.

 

That's good news. Hope it works well for you. If not see my man Kevin. Good Luck

wrestler

 

Before ya plug her in make sure all your connections are safe, solid and secure. Last thing ya want is to juice it up and cook something. Good Luck man, hopefully she's back up n running soon.

 

As CrustyRider alluded to, this was most likely the work of inexperienced, sloppy, and stupid rank-amateur thieves.

They are most likely young criminals who are often in your neighborhood for one reason or another. Whoever did this has most likely had their eyes on your motorcycle for a while now. Indeed, you may know them, or maybe they've approached you and shown much interest in your new bike while also being very chatty and inquisitive.

At any rate, those who tried to steal your bike knew exactly what they wanted, they knew exactly where to find it, and they thought they'd pretty well figured out the best time to try and steal it.

On the other hand, a professional crew would've expertly snagged your bike in the blink of an eye, without any screw-ups.

The perpetrators most likely live near you. They likely know something about your comings and goings, and they may be right under your nose.

 

Redrover has good advice!

Keep that 3rd eye open K9maniac.

BZ

 

For what it's worth... Splices in wires increase resistance so if you get some "funky happenings" that may be the culprit.

 

So was that all it was?