New member/VFR owner - R/R evaluation, Suggestions requested

Hi all, New member from Columbus, OH.

Recently bought a well maintained 1998 VFR800 with 16,700 fairly easy miles, in excellent condition. I've been reading many of the posts, and in particular many of the threads related R/R problems, fixes, and beefed up wire harness fixes, to see if I should make some kind of pro-active changes.

I visually examined the R/R, the nearby wires and connector blocks (that were visible, some had the original black tape). There was no discoloring, corrosion, dried insulation, the black tape was still flexible and intact, or any other indication of heat damage.

The original battery was replaced at 15k miles, and the replacement is in good condition and seems to be charging well. I put a meter on the (relatively new) battery and got 14.5v @ 1.3k idle, 14.5v @ 2.5k, and 14.0 at 5.5k. Those numbers sound pretty good (I think), although I expected less voltage at idle, and there seems to be no problems. Please advise if not so.

Do ALL R/R's burn up unexpectedly? If not, what percentage do? Would you recommend pro-active modification on a bike with no apparent problems? Thanks, I appreciate any thoughts.

 

you will find that you will get all kinds of "helpful hints" about how to maintain your RR...from "Just replace it and be done"..... to "I have my bike on a trickle charger for 29 years and I am still on the original RR AND battery."... I would say keep an eye on it... check it periodically and if you want to do the replacement ....go ahead and do it...

 

Greetings from Ohio! Im in Reynoldsburg. If you need parts, or wanna see what your bike looks like with all the junk out of the way, I got one of those ready to view.

Anyway, I dont have any empirical ideas to help, other than the guy above me gave sound advice. If it makes you nervous, replace it. I go by the old saying, "if it aint broke..." But there is something to be said about preventative maintenance.

 

" I would say keep an eye on it... check it periodically"

Of the endless posts I've read about this, my $.02 is that the above from Crustyrider is the best advice of all. People ignore the R/R & charging system until they notice a problem (usually in some very inconvenient location) - then it's already too late. Consider your charging system a maintenance item like oil, chain lube, valve adjustments, etc. Check the connectors closely and voltage as you did at least annually or at every 1 or 2 oil changes. It's not a bad idea to have the battery load tested while you're at it. If anything is suspect, correct it before you're stranded. My '99 started toasting its stator connector at just 7,500 miles. The voltage dropped from 14.3 at idle to 13.5 at 5,000 rpm. The stator checked out fine so I figured the R/R was already failing so time to swap it out. I put some Oxgard on the connector blades and all grounds to keep the corrosion to a minimum. It's no guarantee against a failure, but it puts the odds in your favor.

 

Thanks Crustyrider, Nightviper, Cogswell, for the input.

I think I will keep an eye on it for a while. I have a charging system base line for future reference. And although the tape still had resiliency and no apparent excessive heat damage, I ought to untape and examine those wires and connectors that I didn't the first time.

Thanks again.