Is Low RPM Hesitation Normal?

To add to the existing subject,

I have a 2000,

Sometimes, when launching in first gear ( I have tried it both with high and low revs ) and slipping the clutch, the bike seems to hop forward, have a noticeable hesitation (from the noiseard, the rpm seems to drop in that particular moment) and then continues on. This all happens in a second or two.

 

Pop off the front sprocket cover and clean it. Then pop off the clutch slave cylinder. Dont squeeze the lever while its off. See if it needs cleaning then slide out the clutch rod and clean that. Not sure if it needs to be dry but I a very light coat of lube on it with my fingers.

 

My 2000 VFR also ran poorly at low rpm but felt fine above 4k. I found 2 spark plug caps Open electrically. They are supposed to have a 5000 ohm resistor in series with the copper plug wire. I ohmed the plug wire and found them open. Corrosion on the connection between resistor and its contact inside the plug cap. I tried to clean the connections but could not get them clean enough to be reliable- so you can buy replacement caps from Honda. The resistance is important. Noise suppression so the sparks don't mess with your ECU. I switched to Magnecor carbon plug cables and they have a cap that will seal the plug hole. Resistor cabling or resistor caps- doesn't matter. I felt that if 2 failed on a 10 year old bike, New ones would too. However, now that I have 4 good wires the bike pulls nicely from a stoplight without revving and sliding clutches etc. So, pull the plug wires from the coil, then stick your ohmmeter probe in the end of the wire- its copper. then unplug the cap for the sparkplug and stick the other probe into the cap. 5000- 7000 ohms is good. other than that, get a new cap.

 

Thanks for the info. Gonna check mine out today.

Trying my best to remember how the coil stick conversion did at low rpms. Gonna have to put them back in and see how they do since I cant remember.

 

I just posted on VFRD that she is running more rough, especially worse today. Engine temp at 215 to 220. Rough all the way up to 7K. Have been running regular gas, premium seemed to help a bit but still rough. Maybe it's electrical?

Thanks for the info above on the plug caps.

 

It was a bit of a job to convert to 7mm Magnecor wiring. The cabling is a black carbon style wire with insulation small enough to fit our coil towers. Bike wires are skinnier than car wires. But the wiring is actually the resistance needed. So no additional resistor is needed up in the cap. The wire just passes through the new plug hole cap and has a crimped on connector that connects to the end of the plug. The guy at Magnecor helped me quite a bit. The cap part number was SP468 in their catalog. They sent 4 wires and 4 caps. I bought some heat shrink and put some on the cable where it plugs into the coil. Tighter fit and gives something for the coil cap to bear down on. Honda does it on their wiring so I did too. I also applied some RTV as the wire goes into the SP468. Now Honda also applies shrink tubing to stiffen their wiring and you may want to follow along duplicating it. This company was very helpful - I worked with :

Steve Brown - Magnecor (Michigan, USA)
Telephone: 248-471-9505
Fax: 248-471-9506
WWW: MAGNECOR Race Wires: WELCOME TO MAGNECOR!
mag@magnecor.com

 

I did just that and it solved the problem. Thanks a lot. The procedures are discussed in greater details in this post: '98 VFR800FiW to '01 VFR800Fi1 Lurches When The Clutch Lever is Released - Honda VFR Club