Near Firey Mess - Need Help Please!

Well - looks like my electrical woes will continue. So - I installed a VFRness two weeks ago and that seemed to help but to be sure I installed a Ricks R/R last week. I've only rode the bike to the shop and back since and yesterday brought it home with my new tires on it.


Took it out today and 15 miles into the trip I lost power riding down the road. The speedo and all dash lights went out except the clock. My throttle choked and then died out completely.


Got it to the side of the road and my volt meter read 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 when I turned the key on. I borrowed a set of jumpers and got it jumped off a buddy. Cranked right up, took off the cables and about 30 seconds later (volt meter at 10) I got a huge pop, bike shut down, and then a bunch of smoke from underneath the tank. Smoke got bad enough that I thought the bike was on fire and almost called the fire dept, but it died out after about 10-15 seconds.


I towed it back to the house and pulled off the plastics expecting my new VFRness and everything to be smoked but it all looks great. If I didn't know any better I wouldn't have guessed anything was wrong with it at all.


SO, any ideas on where to start on this? New battery, new VFRness, new R/R - I mean could the stator really cause all those problems if it went bad or was going bad and went?


Thanks for any help you can offer!

 

I would not turn the ignition on again until you figure oot where the smoke came from. You are going to have to do a visual inspection until you locate it, should be pretty easy to find given the amount of smoke described but you may have to disassemble a bit of the bike to gain access. Good luck. Keep us posted.

 

Did it smell more electrical fire related or more Fuel. Do pretty much what Toe said. Go over the bike with a fine tooth comb and check every connection and every wire lead. Last drain the fuel system and replace all lines just encase they were hit by heat. Yeah its kinda over kill but nobody wants your home made roasted nuts for the holidays. From the likes of things your were starting a batch.


Good luck and pictures help if you have questions.

 

Where I'm at right now is:
Pulled all the plastics off the bike including the battery and went through the wiring. Surprisingly everything looks good, no charring, and all looks okay visually.

I did find my Fuse B holder at the battery had a burn in the insulation (original issue) that I thought had been fixed with the VFRness. The insulation had worn through and it's possible that the bare wire had touched the frame shorting out the whole bike.

I'm guessing that was the first issue that shut the bike down. Once I jumped it and everything was going nuts - 30 seconds and shut down, I guess it was just a combination of vapor in the air box that was not being combusted and the short that caused the pop and the smoke.

I removed the charred wiring, bypassed the stock charging line and sent everything through the VFRness. Bike cranked up and voltage stabalized.

Ran tests on the stator, starter, R/R, battery, harnesses, and all checks out okay.
Ran the bike for a while and throttle etc, everything was fine.

I checked the harness under the tank along side the frame also expecting a charred mess, but again found no holes in the wire insulation or harness.

It's either unbelievable luck that there is no damage or I just haven't found the extent of it yet!

 

Sorry to hear about this. I agree with others you need to find out where the smoke came from, before thinking of using the bike again. Normally fried wiring has a very distinct and long lasting smell - so if it was electrical you should be able to track it down.

I am not sure if you have spotted this thread - http://vfrworld.com/forums/6th-generation-2002-2009/36591-toasted-charging-system.html It looks/sounds sort of familiar. So possibly the same question is appropriate - was there a wiring loom recall on your bike?

Over in Europe all VFR800 models from 2006 onwards all came with an upgraded wiring loom (and the changed vtec thresholds), and so far I have not spotted any post 2006 European models with charging problems. So I was surprised to see that you are having problems with a 2006 model. Is there any chance that your bike is a late registered 2005 model or is it definitely a 2006 version with the revised vtec thresholds? If so I think I will be following this thread closely.

Good luck

skimad4x4
6th Gen Militia #218

 

You have had a lot of good advice. Don't ride your bike until you have it figured out.

You have a short in the system some place. A wire is rubbing the ground. You mentioned that installing the harness helped some. Has low voltage been going on prior to your modifications? Your voltage seems to be indicating that. Should be over 13 volts unless the starter is engaged.

Typically air boxes don't pop back past the filter unless you are not running a filter. Do you have a fuel leak?

 

Thanks for the advice everyone. I've got it scheduled to go into my local shop and the insurance adjuster is going to go through the wiring with the shop to make sure it's all fixed and working okay. It's definintley a 2006 and I agree, it's odd to have this problem on an 06, especially since I added the Vfrness to it, but the OEM fuse holder B line should have been replaced when I saw the original browning to it. I thought I would be okay with the reduced load to the wire but I was definitly wrong!