'96 VFR that sat too long

When I look in the fiche, it shows two different foam filters. I need to replace both?

 

I use the Ron Ayers fiche: Ronayers.com Fiche Desktop Motorcycle Honda 1994 VFR750F AIR CLEANER

 

The URL doesn't point to a useful place but the parts list PDF I have does indicate #6 on the air cleaner page. On my 4G the sub air filter housing is located under the gas tank between the rear carbs and the right side frame spar. The piece that pops off to reveal the foam actually faces down but you can twist the thing up enough to remove the cover without removing any bolts tubes or anything. Just make sure you order the correct filter - the 3G and 4G are two different part #s. <- That should also answer Rev's question.

 

I got to the sub air filter and as expected is was a pile of orange goo mess. I cleaned the casing out, and will order a new filter. Thanks to BadAndy for the tip, I hope to pass that one along to someone else someday.

Here's the latest problem (which I posted on the maint. board, too):

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?

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 for any advice. I'm trying to hit the road Thursday night for a 5-day trip, so hopefully I can order some parts, overnight them, and have this sorted by then.

 

no power on the bike, except the clock

For anyone still following this saga, here's the latest, as it's still not powering up:

- tested the battery with the bike on and off, and I get 12.7 every time. I've checked it a few times for the past few days, nothing much has changed there, maybe a minor dip
- put in a new starter relay since mine was corroded and two of the four tabs were coming off.
- put in a new R/R since it sounds like most problems with 4th gens are the R/R
- cleaned the connectors to the battery with steel wool and some baking soda / soda water mix (they're nice and brassy now)
- cleaned the connectors to the starter relay
- checked the ground wire, cleaned it for good measure
- checked the fuses up front, all were fine.

Am I missing anything short of going through each wire and checking for shorts? Someone on the mechanics board said that even if it's reading fine, my battery still might be shot, but I got it in April. Would a component dying make my battery read incorrectly? The clock lights up, but dies when I turn the key to on.

it's been 9 days since I've ridden, I'm going through withdrawal.

 

Three weeks here...

 

Been awhile, eh? I was teaching summer school, so there was a short repair window followed by lots of grading.

Here's the latest:

turns out the electrical issue was the starter / relay and its connections. Replaced the S/R with an OEM part, and then ordered
some nice wires / connectors from a man in Texas. Pop those on, and the bike lights up! I start it, let it run for about 5 minutes.
But I'm running late, so I turn it off and leave it to be reassembled later in the week. I go out, put on the plastic, but this time when
I try to start it I get nothing w/o the choke. If I choke it fully it sounds like it's about to start, but won't catch. I feel like that's a symptom
that someone here might recognize, but my searches came up empty. Thoughts? The battery is fully charged and tested. I replaced the
plugs in April when I bought the bike. Had the carbs cleaned then, too.

almost there...

 

It works!

Sorry, I'm learning, I really am. Slowly.

All the vets were saying "check the obvious first, like fuses" with my electrical issue.

In this case, as I started to go over the fuel system, I find that somewhere along the way I turned off the fuel valve. Yep, turns out these motorcycle things need gas flowing to start. :redface:

So I'm a dummy, but a riding dummy at this point.
thanks for all the help along the way, I'll be back before too long.

 

Good to hear, Don't be to hard on yourself,Some times the school of hard knocks is the only way to know, it's all good and it's behind ya, enjoy.

 

After riding in heavy rain the past two days (with a rain suit / boots), I wanted to check back in here and say that the above suggestion about the sub air filter was right on the money. I put in the new filter back in July, but it's been mainly dry here in DC and I forgot that I even had this problem. I've been riding in the rain, the bike's been parked in the rain, and so far (fingers crossed), it fires up no problem each time. If anyone's doing work on your bike, take a quick look at this filter, might need to change it up.

thanks BA.

 

I still haven't replaced the subfilter on mine. Lol i forgot all about it.

 

yup im going to check mine

 

HAHA, I still haven't done this. But I do have a bunch of new goodies showing up for it in the next couple weeks so time for a teardown. W00T!

 

change the gas filter, clean out the gunk in the carbs, sounds like the main jets are blocked!
It happened to me

 

thanks for the sub filter info....never thought about it..gotta love this board. and thanks for keeping another 4 running..