'06 Odd Electrical Issue - Fuel Pump?

Interestingly enough, this happened a few months ago now, but I figured I would post up anyways. I was on a 4 day camping trip with some friends/co-workers and on the first day the old VFR died on me. The first time it was just odd, engine cut off, I hit the kill switch on/off and started it right back up.

It did this two more times. I was already 100 miles from home by this time. Then the 4th time it happened on a 2 lane road with a mad truck driver right behind me. I ended up pulling over to the side, him pulling past me, getting the bike started again, then meeting up with my group directly behind the semi. That was UNNERVING!

The final kick was coming out of Monterey Bay. It died and did not start back up. Well, what happened was the harness fried itself. Nothing else, the connection was bad. Somehow I knew this before I got off the bike, found it within 5 minutes, tore the connectors apart and put it back together within 30 minutes. We went on our way with me praying nothing else would happen, and it didn't! So luckily it was just a bad connection. Fixed once I got home. I recommend pulling this connector apart and cleaning it. Or taking the plastic bit off the female connector and prying it to get a tighter connection on the male connector. layful:


Harness off - 30amp was fuse fine.


New harness

 

Thanks Northwood for taking the trouble to share your findings.:thumb:

However I rather doubt that section of fried wiring is the only issue with your bike.

You really need to find out why the amount of current flowing through that section of cable got so high that the insulation melted - as obviously they should handle normal current flows without any issues.

I suggest you find time to run through "the Drill" twice - once with the bike cold and then repeat all the tests after the bike has been for a good 20 minutes plus ride which should get all the charging system components good and hot. Why? Well sometimes components test OK when cold but once things like stator windings insulation get hot they may fail.

http://vfrworld.com/forums/showthread.php/39277-How-to-fix-common-regulator-Stator-failures

In the meantime, for peace of mind you might want to invest a few dollars to fit one of those cheap digital volt meters from TheBay to allow you to keep an eye of the system volts whilst you are riding. Obviously a volt meter won't prevent faults occurring in the charging system, but it will alert you if things are going bad and hopefully allow you enough time to get to a safe place before the battery is drained and you are left stranded. They are rarely very accurate +- 5% is typical, so focus less on the displayed volts - BUT what you are really looking for is stable volts once the bike is fired up, showing your RR is happy. Obviously if you spot the volts drop through the floor, or get stupidly high - it is a clear warning that you need to get the bike to a shop asap.

If the charging system volts drop too low when the engine is running, then the ECU will shut down and things like the fuel pump will cut-off.

As you will see from the thread linked above failures of the RR and/or stator on 5th and 6th Gen bikes is common, with a key weakness being the connector linking the two components which can melt and short one or more leg of the stator - so definitely one to check.

Good luck and take care




SkiMad

 

Northwood, welcome to the 50,000 other members of the charging failure club, take on board what SkiMad has said because you are close the the "I pushed it home club"

 

Interesting. It really seems as though it was just a bad connection, this type of thing happened on my old 75 GL1000 also. When I removed the melted bits and tried to put it the blade in the female connector it was really loose. I mean REALLY loose. I closed the female connector up and connected the two tight, since then I have gotten about 2k miles on the bike. 1k with my bad connection fixed and another 1k since I replaced that part of the harness.

I will check the charging system anyways. I have done the VFRness.

 

Some people just don't listen, fix it properly or it WILL fail on you

 

Fix what? Nothing has broken or has signs of being broken. Why replace parts unduly?

 

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink

 

Well I am glad you are riding your high horse. Stick with it bud. Thanks for the info, but, this ragged harping to get someone else to do exactly what you want because you had problems in past is not so fun. I do not appreciate it. Keep your bikes in the garage and you will never have problems nor any have stories. Good luck.

 

Time to join the club of the other 50,000 members who have also had their main fuse holder fail. Time to cut the holder out and replace it with a higher quality fuse holder of the same (30 Amp) rating. You really should do some research on the bike you own, as this exact failure has literally happened to over half of us and will eventually have happened to all of us... Just to save you some time, your rr to stator connection is probably right around the corner, followed by the actual rr and stator themselves. Maybe you'll get lucky and your big blue and big grey connectors will fail too. Anyways google is your friend. Search for vfr800 electrical and charging failures....

 

Mate I don't give a fuck what you do to your bike, if you don't want to listen to what you have been told, good luck

 

Lol its not just NormK, its literally 90% of long term VFR owners lol

 

LOL harsh, but you're not wrong...

 

That's what I want to hear. It is my bike. Thank you.

 

Okay guys let's start the pool on when northwood's factory main fuse holder will fail again? I got two years.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

I like this game. I'll help. I do about 5-7k a year. Usually 1-3k at a time. I give it...... till August 14 next year.

 

Sounds like a good guess.