Little Help needed from a Honda driver from Germany

[Donnerboxer]

Hello Guys and girls,

Hello to all of you!

My name is Floris and I am a 56 year old Guy from Holland, now writing you from Solingen in good old Germany, my home base since 15 Years.
I am a member of the Honda NTV650 Forum , a community of nice honda riding people in Germany, some deavillriders in there too!

Now, I am not exactly riding a Deauville, but I own a stripped NT700V for a special reason!

For 35 years, now and then, I pick my Bike and travel around the world on it.
My first Dream: I started a trip around the States and into Mexico and Guatemala in 1987, on an old, ridden off Beamer.
Because the Thing was quite hard and loud, I rebuid it as a sort of Baja california Enduro racer, once in the States I bought myself a 1100 Goldwing Interstate and rode the tour all around the states in 6 Month time.
Had a damn good Time with you folks and saw a lot of your beatiful country!

1993 I took my Beamer, completely rebuilt from Germany to India and Back, 30.000K in 6 Month time.
Than in 2001/2002 I rode my Beamer from Florida right through to Buenos Aires in 7 Month time.
My girlfriend, now my dear wife on the back and, we didnt know it then, our first daughter in her tummy.
Two years ago, I had another winter- breakout, and took a Daddy- Brake, another time 3,5 month and 20.000 K. on my own through Argentina, Chili, Bolivia and Uruguay.
The old 1973 beamer is a vast member of my family, but with 375.000 k it is time for a new Travelbike!
The last 15 years I also ride two transalps for nearly 120.000 Kilometers, I Just love em!
They are lighter an easyer to drive than my old beamer, and have everything I need aboard!

My dream though, was a Transalp without having to care about these bloody chains. I needed one with a driveshaft.
So the last 6 years I screwed around on a european model of the NTV 650 Hawk, the NTV650 Revere.
A Hawk with driveshaft, Honda sold heaps of them in many countries in europe.
Therefore today these Bikes are cheap, you can get a good one for 600 - 1000 USD, parts are cheap and this Honda has a lot of things I like.
So I mounted the complete front of a transalp 600, a tank and seat of the Honda Varadero and changed a lot of other things on it.

here he is, my new Travelbike, the "wildNTV"!

Front: Honda Transalp PD10

Tank and seat: Honda Varadero, rest Honda NTV650

Now this 650 engine has an enourmous endurance but I'm not quite happy about its torque and Power.
So it is my idea to mount the perfekt engine of the NT700V in the NTV650 frame, it fits plug and play!
In june I bought an accidented NT700V, a nearly complete driving bike without all its Plastics (lookin funny) for an engine- transplant in my "wild- NTV".

Now, I slowly come to the point why I am here.
I have some Question to you, that my Honda dealer here in Germany can not answer.
I hope on some technical informations from you guys in America.

Here inEurope, all the NT700V are equipped with the Honda HISS immobilizer. And exactly that is it what I like to get rid of!!
I Dont want to stand in the middle of a burning desert or somewhere in the middle of nowhere just because I lost the chip out of the key, or the HISS system has a problem.
I read in another Forum that a lot of the USA- Hondas dont have this immo-system.
Honda racing- bike-riders ( like the Fireblades) in Europe buy used ECU in the States for their racingbikes to get rid of the system.

So my Questions to you are:
1) if you have a Model without HISS Immobiliser, could you give me the exact numbers or a picture of the ECM ECU CDI Computer Control Module
You can find under the left side cover below the seat
The thing is looking like this:

and you find the ECU there:


2) Does one of you have the Possibillity of sending me a good copy of the wiring plan of the Models without HISS or do you have a kink where I can find one to download it in the internet?
I need these Informations, so I can figure out if I have to change something else in the Wiring system.
Hope some technical orientated Guys or girls can give me some Informations on these questions!!
Thanks a lot in advance for your Help!
Greetings from Solingen,
Floris

 

[Phil Tarman]

Floris, Welcome to the NT-Owners Forum! I am blown away by your riding history. Man, you have been some places!! My longest journey has been my 2013 "Epic Post-Retirement Ride to Alaska, the Four Corners of the US, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Labrador." I was gone for 80 days and rode 21,000 miles on that trip, and have put 140,000 miles on my two NT700VA's. I just traded #1 for #2. #2 is 13 serial numbers older than #1, but I had put 138K miles on #1 and #2 only had 22K miles when I bought it at the end of September.

I love your WildNTV. If nobody sends you the picture you need today, I can do that tomorrow. I have the wiring plan, and can take pix of it and send it to you tomorrow, too if nobody beats me to it.

 

[RedLdr1]

Floris, welcome to the forum. Check your Private Messages.

 

[Hondafan]

Hi Floris,
I really enjoyed reading your post. Your custom bike makes a lot of sense and also looks very good. Hope the new engine gives you positive results.

 

[DirtFlier]

NONE of the USA-models were fitted with the Honda HISS system; in fact, I believe no Honda USA models have ever had it fitted.

Motorcycle thieves here target Harley-Davidsons or some high performance sport bikes because parts for those bikes can be easily sold. There is no market for used NT700V parts.

 

[Donnerboxer]

NONE of the USA-models were fitted with the Honda HISS system; in fact, I believe no Honda USA models have ever had it fitted.
Motorcycle thieves here target Harley-Davidsons or some high performance sport bikes because parts for those bikes can be easily sold. There is no market for used NT700V parts.

Nope, fact is they hardly break down and are not very popular for thieves, even in Europe! Honda simply builds very good bikes, thats what I like about em!!

I bought a american ECU + a main wiring harness at Ebay, it arrived yesterday.
I mounted the american ECU but unfortunately it does not run with the european Wiring harness.
tomorrow I will mount the american harness to see if it runs with that...

Unfortunately the wiring plan RedLDR1 send me had a too low resolution.
If you happen to have a better one: donnerboxer@arcor.de is my email!!

I'll keep in contact if I have better news!!
Greetings from Solingen,
Floris

 

[Donnerboxer]

Perhaps it is interesting for some of you,
I found the good usable Wiringplans for the NT700V america here!

 

[Phil Tarman]

Donnerboxer (first name is Floris) and I have been having interesting side conversations. We both have owned VW campers. Mine is long gone, but he and his family still use his. That is at least partly because his didn't have the engine out of mine!!

 

[Brillot2000]

Welcome Aboard and Greetings from SoCal.

I love that bike.

You did an outstanding job on that custom job. I do not think that Honda Engineers could have not done just as good of a job. (y)

I had to rebuild my NT after having an accident in early September. Here's the video of her rehab:

Be sure to adjust your volume down before starting the video. I had many complaints regarding that.

 

[DirtFlier]

Donnerboxer - nice work and I'm surprised they let you do that in Germany because of the TU regulations?

 

[Donnerboxer]

Hello Guy, thank you for the nice feedback on my bike.
It is possible to rebuild bikes with other parts, but you need a lot of mony and a good engineer to make the report.
The TU regulations are very harsch, and even if you did a fine job and the bike funktions technically perfect or better than in original state, they make a hassle of it!
Most of the parts I used are parts of other Hondas who fit nearly plug and play. That is why I have a good chance that I may get everything licensed in two weeks time. I have an engineer who knows my projekt and will write a good report.
On the other hand, we have unridable Harlys and other chopper that are accepted on our roads. Including bad brakes and annoying loud exhausts.
I dont understand that they are able to legalise those bikes in germany.

So, I am working on legalising my wild NTV!!

Having an accident with an NT is allways an expensive happening. I bought mine completely stripped, all the plastics were broken, it must have made more turnovers.
But technically all the "hardware" exept for the handlebars, and the footpeg- holders was in good condition. even the giant exaust only has small scratches.
I paid 500 Euros for it, perfect for my project!
Until now, I invested about 4000€ in this projekt, plus about 500 for legalising it!
Therefor I hope to be able to drive another 150.000 k without problems on this bike.
The NT engine is allso good for 200.000K or more.


What I dont know until now, that is perhaps also a good question to you NT drivers, especialy to those with high mileage:
what are the weak points of the NT700 technique, what tends to brake down first??
I woul be very happy to get some information on that!

 

[Phil Tarman]

Floris, with my first NT, which I rode for 138,000 miles (220,000 kilometers), my most expensive issues were due to neglect by Honda dealer's mistakes: namely, forgetting to use the proper grease on the splines after replacing rear tires. The first one happened when I was on my 2013 "Epic Ride." I bought a tire in Gainesville, FL, and about nine months later a friend and I were replacing that tire when we found that the splines in my final drive were destroyed. I had purchased a four-year extension to the original 1-year factory warranty, so Honda paid for the repair. Then in '16, I had the same problem and had to pay for it myself. The dealer where I had bought the bike did both repairs and this time they gave me a break on labor costs and sold me the final drive parts at cost.

In 2018, with 130K miles, I replaced the fuel pump. The mechanic working on the bike thought that maybe there could be a cheaper repair, and volunteered to work on the bike between other jobs. I was in no hurry, so he kept the bike for about 3-4 weeks. Finally, after trying other fixes he flow-tested the fuel pump and learned that while pressure was reasonably good, close to the 50psi expected, but the flow was very low. After the pump was replaced, the bike ran great.

In 2019, I had a major service which turned out to be more major than I expected. Two valve cover bolts had stripped and the dealer told me that I needed two new cylinder heads! I convinced him to use heli-coils in the old cylinder heads and that worked just fine.

Early in '20, I replaced a water pump. When I traded the bike for my "new" one at the end of July, it was running great and still hadn't used any oil.

 

[Donnerboxer]

Hi Phil, thanks for your Answer! Didnt Know of the splines problems, but they don't concern me much, because I use the Mono- swingarm of the NTV650, it has no Splines but 6x 10mm fingers.
The Pump problems are not very interesting to me either, first of all because you made so many miles that a worn out Fuel and waterpump is normal, and second of all,
I will brobably use another, outer laying fuelpump and fuelfilter. At the waterpump, most of the time the seals go dry and the earings get destroid.
The cylinderheadproblems with the Threads are known too, if a good mechanic uses a bit of grease before turning in the bolts, and use a dynamometric key, you will never have those problems.
And as most clients don't know what heli- coils are, the dealer can sell the client two new heads plus the enormous amount of paid labor.

I once worked as a motorcycle mechanic (BMW and Moto Guzzi) and my boss was like that. I left him, because I coulndt stand how he cheated the clients! Told people they needed a new engine while the only thing wrong was that the ignitionchip was lose and hung on the hot engine... Moron!
I will chanche the seals of the waterpump and need to put new Seals under the Headcovers, allso I will change all the waterpipe seals, they usually are dried out.
I'll have a look at the bolts and threads of the cylinderhead.

Question: How often does the engine needs a review of the valve clearance? Honda says every 12.000, but I know on my Transalps and the NTV, once the bike has about 40.000 it is rare that the valve clearance changes. I used to look every 30.000 Km and them I need to revise only one of three a tiny bit.
What are yout experiences with the 4-valve engine??

 

[Woodaddict]

each cylinder head has 4 valves. after i kept creeping up on longer inspections, i have 40,000 - 45,000 miles. there is a thread on high mileage valve checks. you will have to convert miles to Kms if needed. even after extending the interval, most are still in spec or at high or low of spec. a good honda engine

 

[DirtFlier]

As far as I know, the water pump shaft seals (internal) are not available separately.