Brother graduates from OSU in 4 more days bought him an 84 VF500

While a noble effort, the risk-reward considerations are not favorable to bother splitting the carbs. For every success story like Creaky's there are a dozen failures. Stories of people having to spend big money to have a professional put it all back together or others that bail on the whole project and the bike are too common. If it isn't broken, don't fix it! Sure, some o-rings may be deteriorated, but if it isn't leaking it just isn't worth the risk, IMO.

 

I'll add,,,if you are going to separate the throttle bodies I would recommend adding Mike Nixon's tech manual to your Honda library shelf...found here:

The Motorcycle Project Book Nook

 

I'd recommend sticking to the stock sprockets: 15-44. I went up a tooth in the rear on my old 500 and it pretty much made 1st gear unuseable. The stock sprockets make for a very nice setup for any kind of riding. If I remember correctly my 500 redlined @ 60mph in second gear with stock sprockets.

I have re used many of valve cover gaskets without much of a problem. I also let a 500 sit for about 3 years and it fired right up with no problem. Shit i bought an engine off ebay that had been sitting for god knows how long and it fired without much coersing.

Before you dive in too deep fire it up; you might not have to do much of anything

 

You can get your gaskets and most anything OEM here: Honda Yamaha Suzuki Kawasaki Sea-Doo Can-Am Ski-Doo Motorcycle Parts ATV parts Scooter Parts personal watercraft parts Accessories

Seeing your in Toledo and they are in Grand Rapids the shipping will be fast. I get my stuff from them in 3-5 days. Set valves at .006 (.13mm).

 

Thanks for the link, i'd much rather use a gasket than RTV gasket maker or equivalent. Perfect.

 

Not going to fire it up just yet. Have a couple problems I need to track down.

1. When I turn key to on position and flip the kill switch to on, I am hearing a click sound like a have a bad ground or something somewhere back by the fuel pump area. Need to check and see if I have some loose wires somewhere.

2. Happened to glance at the old spark plugs that were hand spun tight in the bike. 2 of them are NGK DPRE7, 1 DPRE8, and 1 a champion plug. WTF! Thats not the bad part though... One of the plugs I hadn't noticed when I pulled them, has a mangled electrode and a small piece of porcelain missing from underneath where the electrode is supposed to be. I really don't know what to think about this one.. The broken one is a DPRE8 which is definitely one of the part numbers mentioned in the manual for this bike. Not good.

Sounds like I need to do that compression test and see if a piece of that spark plug damaged/scored one of the cylinders. If compression still checks out i'll need to inspect the valvetrain for SURE now to see if a piece of that plug damaged a valve. Had to have gone somewhere, maybe I got lucky and it welded itself together on the plug but that's pretty slim. Either way I should have enough parts between the two motors to make a good one though, just gonna be labor intensive

 

The click you are hearing when you flip the kill switch to "ON" is the fuel pump relay, normal situation. The broken plug doesn't sound good.

 

+1, the broken spark plug paired with the extra engine, included in the sale of this bike, doesn't sound too good I'm afraid...

Please keep up posted.

 

Let's be hopeful that the damaged plug was already damaged when the PO put it in. He did install four different plugs afterall so clearly had no idea what he was doing. I can't see what may have damaged the plug, especially since you said it showed a nice tan burn and wasn't lean....unless of course there is a dropped valve that has somehow mangled the plug after an impact with the piston. We keep going full circle to the need to inspect the valvetrain. I'm glad to hear that this is in your plan before you go any further.

 

Well me and my bro started getting to the carbs today. Removed the ignition coils, airbox, and heatshield. Loosened up all the clasps on each intake boot. Went to pull the carbs up and off and... NOPE. Those suckers didn't even budge, UGH. I damn near picked up the front end of the bike wrestling them. We're gonna try a method I read the other day with the PB blaster and a heat gun/prybar. Man what a bitch!

 

Take your time with this.

They will come off but they most likely will need a bit of persuasion by using a small pry bar.

To avoid damaging the throttle bodies, carefully use the pry bar only on the areas noted below:

 

In addition to the above, I found that grasping the plenum and doing heavy force rocking back and forth in every direction helped. It's a killer on the hands so put on some gloves or a rag on the plenum.

 

....and you think that is a bitch, wait till you try to get the throttle cables off and then back on again. And then there is the grand-daddy of them all (often), putting the carbs back on.

 

+1

New boots, still available from Honda, will make the installation much easier.

On the install: angle the boots, align the throats on the throttle bodies and then push straight down. This is the Factory method.

 

Thanks for the tips guys, i'll try this next time I am over there working on it. I damn near lifted the front end off the ground pulling on those SOB's. Didn't budge at ALL I remember the first time I took the carbs off of my bike how fun the throttle cables were to get back on. I have that down to a science from taking them on and off a bunch of times. I'm sure these V4 carbs will be even more difficult. Should be fun for sure.

 

Take your time and when frustrated take a break. Heating the boots is a great idea. Use the leverage of the pry bar and you'll be successful.

Remember though you are dealing with a soft metal so be mindful of the throttle bodies.

 

If you have a helper with a 10mm wrench to hold the throttle bodies open and to hold the carbs up it would be pretty simple. Trying to do those things and getting the cables off by oneself is another story and requires patience.

 

Get some new boots on order cuz those are well past any practical re-use.

It usually helps to concentrate on getting the rears to pop loose first.

Prying--if necessary--must be done with due caution.

 

I agree with purchasing new boots. This will make the install much easier.

If I can add, the photo in post 58 is a bit of a concern. I would only use a lever (a small pry bar) on the points noted in post 51.

Use your hands (with gloves) to rock the carbs back and forth. This in combination with the pry bar on the carb pry points will do the trick.

 

We're gonna try again tomorrow morning using the above methods... Pry points noted, we will be careful there.. boots will be on order shortly, thank god their not as expensive as mine were ($150/set plus $50 hand porting). Hopefully i'll be posting a success story this weekend. After the carbs come off i'm gonna take a peak at the valvetrain as well. Thanks for the tips once again.