Flavor Flav is making monthly child support payments for his 3-year-old son, but he's still got a pretty big balance owed to his baby mama.

According to legal docs, obtained by TMZ, Flav found out in 2019, shortly after little Jordan was born, that he was the dad, with the help of a DNA test.

Fast forward to 2021 ... Flav and the baby's mother, Kate Gammell -- his former manager -- were hashing out a child support agreement and agreed he would pay $3,000 a month going forward. No problem here .... Flav's been making the monthly payments.

Thing is ... by the time he started paying, Jordan was already 2 years old, and Kate had incurred various expenses, including medical, that she wanted Flav to pay. As part of the child support agreement, Flav said he would pay the baby's expenses for the first 2 years, totaling $78,704.

He was supposed to make his first payment of the $78k last month, but according to Kate's family, the deadline came and went and she didn't get the loot.

Flav tells TMZ ... he fully intends to pay the $78k, and is working with an accountant to straighten out his finances. Flav makes it clear ... he's making the $3,000 monthly child support payments. He's also paying down her $100,000 in attorney's fees -- he's paid $40k already.

FF adds ... he's doing his very best to provide for and be there for the son he loves.

We're told Flav has been with the boy at least 6 times and plans to continue to have a relationship with Jordan.