03 VFR800 Coming Soon

That's correct.

Just for a little help, the maintenance manual is available for download on VFRD and has pics of some of this stuff folks are describing here.

 

Thanks, I'll download that.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6mZk_k2dtKuYkxTNFlPbTNSaXc/view?usp=drive_web

It say oops but still worked for me, thanks ta Lint aka Frank


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I doubled up with my wife and the clutch was indeed slipping. I'm almost thinking car oil was used in it and the friction modifiers make it slip when the oil is cold. Well an oil change and clutch are on my list now.

 

You might also have some crud in the fluid return port in the clutch master that is holding some line pressure when the lever is released. A strip and clean might fix the slip.


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The fluid is quite a bit lower than my front brake reservoir, I'll have to look into that. Either I have an air bubble, or my wax unit needs cleaning. I was riding today before I noticed my coolant reservoir spraying water, and it cold idled correctly then dropped to 1200rpm when warm. After I got home and messed with the cooling system I lost a bunch of water, I filled it back up and it sat for a few hours until my wife and I took off. Started up idling at 1200 or so, then after getting on the road it was idling at 4k like when I didn't have a radiator cap. Got to our destination and went inside for an hour or so. When we left it was idling at 1200, arrival back at the house it was idling at 2k. My thermostat is opening at 7-10 over 200 degrees, according to my temp gauge. Seems like I need a new thermostat, bleed the system, and go from there.

 

Yes you must have the reservoir tank with a sealed cap on top with hose connections. It's a closed system and if there are ANY leaks or places to suck air in then the motor will over heat for sure.

 

I do think the plumbing to the wax unit has a blockage. The wax unit is also exposed directly to engine heat, so if you riding in cold temps the wax unit will stay cold/high idle, but when engine heat soaks in when you are stopped, it will drop the idle speed down. I'm not familiar with the 6G coolant plumbing but if you can you may be able to blow or suck through the wax unit hose where it connects to the elbow on the rear cylinders left side.
If you look at the service manual 6-2 you can see the layout of the system.

I would not pay much attention to the coolant temperatures until you know you have a functioning cap and reservoir so the radiator stays full and pressurises properly.

You can do a basic check of the thermostat by starting the bike from cold and checking the radiator temp with your hand. If the thermostat is healthy, coolant stays circulating in the block and the radiator stays cold, until the thermostat opening temp. Then the now-hot coolant reaches the radiator and it suddenly gets too hot to touch. If the radiator slowly heats up from the time the engine starts, then it is jammed open.

BTW, the coolant expansion hose should be connected to a port on the bottom of the tank, not in through the filler cap.

 

The coolant tank had what seemed to be remnants of stop leak additive. Most likely because it was blowing coolant out of the reservoir, so whoever had the bike at the time decided to try stop leak. So maybe the wax unit is plugged from stop leak. After work today it warmed up and idled properly, no complaints there. Coolant temp read around 225 or so degrees and the fan kicked on, then coolant started bubbling out of the reservoir because it wasn't capped. Im going to order a reservoir cap and thermostat just to rule them out. I'll look into the wax unit if my idle is irregular again.

 

Jake it is your money, but I'd shoot for a new OEM cap before the thermostat (also, that latter is a giant PITA) to extract). Coolant should not be bubbling into the reservoir at 225, it should be seeping slowly out as the volume expands due to heat. Bubbling suggests steam which tells me the radiator system is not pressurised. Also, I assume you have a water-glycol mix in the radiator, not plain water???

Why isn't the coolant expansion hose plugged into the BOTTOM of the tank? Any cap or even a plastic bag and a rubber band will do to keep the coolant from splashing out of the reservoir filler neck, the cap is just to stop it slopping out while riding, the overflow is there so it is never pressurised.

 

I'll get an oem cap, and I did have just water in it. I didn't have any antifreeze at the time, and it did cross my mind I should use a 50/50 mixture earlier today. Just been overwhelmed with all the little problems. I went to see what my speedo problem was, and there was nothing to grab the sensor tit and drive it, it's missing the coupler. When I went to reinstall the sprocket cover and slave cylinder, the slave cylinder would not compress no matter what. I loosened the banjo bolt on the master cylinder, nothing. I loosened the bleeder screw, and nothing. I loosened the banjo bolt on the slave cylinder and a bunch of pressure released. Reinstalled everything, bled the clutch hydraulics, and now my clutch is slipping much worse. For some reason all the pressure isn't getting past the slave cylinder banjo bolt, leaving the clutch slightly separated. I don't have a 10mm socket (it's complicated, don't ask lol) so I can't seperate the sprocket cover from the slave cylinder, nor can I remove the speedo sensor, so I can't pull the slave cylinder banjo bolt all the way out and inspect whats going on. Tomorrow I will buy a socket and go at it again. I don't understand why the slave cylinder isn't retracting, if the banjo bolt allows fluid into the slave cylinder why won't it allow fluid out? If the master cylinder wasn't allowing fluid back in, I get that concept...but how come when I loosened the slave cylinder banjo bolt, all the pressure was released? I loosened the bleeder and master cylinder banjo bolt first, so that narrows the problem down to the slave cylinder banjo bolt? Or I guess even the hose banjo fitting itself could have an issue, something in that area. I've never encountered a problem like this, seems a bit ridiculous.

 

I guess if you had a plug of crud inside the slave it could allow fluid in but get jammed back in the port on the way back. Maybe pull the bleeder right off and see what you can flush out by pumping the master and refilling when needed. Wash spilt brake fluid off with water or can damage paint.


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Did a little "overhaul" on the clutch hydraulics. I ran to the store and bought the tools I left behind in my cross country move, so I wasn't trying to make tool A work for job B. I pulled the slave cylinder off, back flushed it, dried it out, then lubricated it. Pulled out the actuator rod and took some scotch bright to it, then lubricated it. Cleaned out the master cylinder, inserted a needle in the return hole and it did have a little crud in it. Re-installed everything, bled the master cylinder banjo bolt, bled the slave cylinder banjo bolt, and then used the bleeder. I ran a few extra squirts through the bleeder just to make sure if I didn't get it 100% dried out it helped flush it out. Too late to test ride in the apartment complex, but I can tell a huge difference in the clutch pull. It's much longer of a pull, indicating that it's not already starting to disengage the clutch. Thank you all for the help and what not, she's still not perfect yet, but for the most part I think I have it narrowed down. Couldn't have gotten this far without you guys, well I could have, but it would have taken much longer and a lot more cussing of the previous owners. I'll report back with my progress of the cooling system, probably be just a matter of shipping time on the correct parts. Thanks again! There's a few riders in my apartment complex, and they all see me, a 19 year old kid, ripping into these bikes in the parking lot, and they sit back and watch while having a beer, or they walk up and try to tell me how to use a screw driver. Why don't they offer to help? Lol

 

People don't take care of their fluids, so I'm hoping a good cleaning of that clutch system does it for you.

Rebuilding that slave cylinder can't cost but $20 in parts, too. It's just a spring and a seal for what I can tell. I'm tempted to rebuild my own soon, in fact, since it was fussy when I bought the bike. I know you'll get that nailed down, it's not a huge problem.

I'll be interested to hear how the cooling system goes when properly bled and sealed. Not sure if the previous owner was mechanically inept or what, but there's something mighty weird in not replacing a radiator cap.

 

The slipping is still worse than before I touched it. I don't get it, I'm not sure what to do next. I was pretty confident, but something is still wrong.

 

Did you disassemble the slave cylinder fully or just push the piston back in? Maybe the bit of crud is still hanging about in there.

Did the clutch work OK without slipping when you first got the bike? If so it seems unlikely that the clutch itself is worn to the point of slipping. More likely the hydraulics still aren't releasing fully.

 

I have a slipping issue when the clutch is cold. I may have to do a rebuild of the hydraulics soon.

 

At lunch and the clutch is slipping horribly, this morning it wasn't nearly this bad. In 1st gear anything other than a slow roll of the throttle, it slips like crazy. I pulled over and pulled the slave cylinder off. It's working 100% correctly. I'm back to my original theory, the wrong oil was added causing it to slip. First time I had the bike, that morning the front end would come up no problem, that same day after work, is when i first noticed slipping. It's progressively gotten much worse over the past few days. I'm thinking it has to do with heat cycles of the clutch plates, and more shitty oil getting in there. Idle seems to be flawless, same old B.S. with the coolant. Of all bikes to have problems with, a VFR was last on that list.

 

On the way home the clutch was better, still slipping a bunch though. I ordered an OEM radiator cap, reservoir cap, thermostat, and thermostat housing O-ring, Barnett clutch kit, clutch cover gasket, speedo senor coupler, Honda GN4 oil, and a K&N oil filter. Should all be here in a week or so. Until then, my old ZX9R is going to have to do.

 

Can't fault your parts ordering EXCEPT the K&N oil filter. Don't use these. More than one member here has had one split while riding, dropping the engine oil on the road/back tire. Use OEM.

I'd still suggest you repeat the clutch line clean out before attacking the clutch pack. A clutch that works/doesn't work/sometimes works still points to the hydraulic system rather than the friction discs. To me at least.