Successful conversion/upgrade

[andyb]

Interestingly enough, my one buddy and I have talked about this some.  He's read on various forums that this may not be true.  He tells me that he's read where folks that have relocated and/ or even hooked up a fan, have had to replace them eventually. 

For his part, he basically sees a new R/R every few years (+/- 6-10) as the cost of doing otherwise good business.  For my part, I'm not sure what to believe.  On the VFR, it's already located fairly far away from the motor heat/ exhaust.

Couple years > couple weeks, that's all.

Beats the old GS habit of eating stators...

[junkyardroad]

That's not just a VFR thing, it's a Honda thing, IMO.

The VN750 Kawi will easily beat out the excellent VFR for eating R/R. And they regularly like a stator, = engine pull.

I'm a Honda guy with a Yamaha perversion.  Never had an electrical problem on a Honda. Or any other problem.

I bet ol Dave won't want nearly as much seat time on the cruiser after getting used to the VFR. Good call.

[pdxfj]

oh... I'm fully aware of the R/R issues..  

The bike has the upgraded harness built by the guy at www.wiremybike.com installed but there are deeper issues.  Appears to be a grounding issue, and the cooked connector from the stator to the R/R is a common thing.  Others have cut the stator wires as far back as they could then solder a heavier 12awg wire and that helped the overheating problem.

I am in contact with the person who made the "VFRness" wiring harness and he's sending new connectors and pins.  Stator seems to be ok, but the state of the R/R is unknown.  The ground wires on the R/R are very stiff and not all that flexible, but the A/C in and D/C out are fine.  To think I rode it 3+ hours back here, and the PO did a multi-day trip on it and it was still running.

[simi_ed]

" To think I rode it 3+ hours back here, and the PO did a multi-day trip on it and it was still running."

I'd call you "Lucky" 

Ed

[Dan Filetti]

Damn.  A ground issue for sure.  Lucky is right.

If the bike did have the R/R issue, and the guy you bought it from was being dishonest, he could have put a brand new battery in it before you picked it up, that would hide the R/R issue for perhaps many days.

Not that I think the worst of people or anything.   

Dan

[Firehawk068]

If anyone can work out the electrical issues.......it's YOU Garth   
I always loved the sound of those VFR's.......Never got to ride one myself, but I'm sure it's quite fun in the curves.
Nice going!

[pdxfj]

When I went and looked at the bike the PO didn't set off my scumbag alert.  Just an average Joe who needed to pay the tax man.  He had an Aprilia Falco before and sold it because he wanted out from under the payments.  Then bought the VFR with the profits from the Falco.  He's an active member of a forum dedicated to riding in the PNW.  I didn't get the impression at any time he was being at all dishonest.  Only had the bike 9 months and put a tad over 3k miles on it.  This sadly is a common thing with these bikes and sometimes takes a bit to get it all sorted.

I can fix this, it's just a matter of tracking down the root cause.  I already plan on beefing up the connections from the stator to the R/R and the grounds.  I've been doing a lot of reading on the VFR boards and upping everything to 12awg wires helps a lot.  Many have used a late model R1 R/R as a replacement and report it runs much cooler and the overheated connectors and wires are no longer an issue.  Plus the R1 part is way cheaper on ebay than a new aftermarket one.  It's looking like the grounding inside the R/R is bad.

It's a fun bike, and Dave thinks he will still have a need for a cruiser but I do agree that once he gets use to the VFR I don't think he will go back. 

[pdxfj]

Things are much happier now.  I used a newer mosfet R/R off a ZX-10, and got the factory connectors for it.  All connecting pins are crimped and soldered.  No melted connectors or wires and very stable charging.

Dave has ridden the bike and loves it.  Just need to make a couple of adjustments to the bars to fit him and I doubt the Shadow will see any road time at all.

[Marsh White]

VERY clean and nice work Garth!   

[RichBaker]

Nice job! Where'd you source the connectors?