My VF1000R Saga

Are you installing emulators & new springs?

Look forward to seeing the progress! Please keep us posted.

 

No emulators, just a rebuild with new springs. Jamie said all the bushings were really heavily worn, so I'm glad I had it done.

 

5x5, look forward to hearing your report on the difference. Keep us posted!

 

Very nice work so far, alway love following rebuilds of these classics!

 

My forks came back from Jamie today. All the parts (bushes, seals, springs) that he replaced were sent back to me as evidence of work done. I'm happy so far.

I also finally tracked down a local sand blaster, and the weather is getting warm enough to paint the frame in the garage, so hopefully I can get that taken care of in the next week or so.

 

I dropped the frame and radiators off with the media blaster today, they should both be done tomorrow morning.

I didn't have to work today so I decided to yank my starter motor and see what the manual had to say about it. I noticed last summer that the starter doesn't turn the engine over with the same authority as the starter on my Nighthawk. Maybe it's due to engine size, or being old and worn, or just not being as strong a motor, so I figured looking things over with a multi meter wouldn't hurt. Once I got it off the bike I opened up both ends and this is what I found:

Inside the case there were tiny balls made of what appear to be the dust of the worn down brushes.


On the commutator itself one brush had insulation on the lead wires, the others were bare. Did they come this way? Was it monkeyed with? Or maybe the insulation burned off from some sort of malfunction, who knows?

 

I had a typical starter that would struggle when the motor was hot, almost like the battery was dead. Once cool, it would turn. It looked like yours inside, dust everywhere. I got a rebuild kit off Ebay, new brushes, bearing, washers, etc. I put the armature in my drill press and lightly "turned" it with a piece of belt sander paper. It trued it up beautifully. New paint and a new cable and now along with my new MotoBatt battery, it turns the motor over faster than it ever has in it's life, hot or cold.

 

Are you going to fix up the Harley that's in the first pic on your deck?

 

Is that a reference to the lawnmower in the background?

Hopit: How do you get the armature out of the motor body? Remove the magnets?

 

The one with the big gray tank that looks like someone has converted to propane..

 

Very nice looking forward to seek.g the finished product.

 

It was last year so it's foggy. I seem to remember taking the top and bottom off and just pulling it out the bottom but not positive. Will it not slip out with the mags in?

 

It didn't want to come out, but I didn't want to pull very hard, either. There was a plate on one end, I thought it was crimped in place, but it may have just been pressed on. I may pull it back off before work tomorrow and tear it down again, then I can post some pics to clarify any issues I have.

 

This picture shows what is keeping my armature from coming out. There is ring that runs 3/4 of the way around the motor's circumference, it touches all of the magnets. I'm not sure what this does, but these attach directly to where the starter cable meets the starter.

Anyway, the armature can't make it past this ring. I'm not sure if it is because something needs to come out, or because the ring has been damaged.

 

On a scale of WTF would you do that? to WTF haven't you done that yet?, how would you guys rate emulators in VFkR forks? The damping system looks like it was hot stuff...in 1986. Worth the cost? I've got access to a machine shop, so I can make up spacers and what not, just curious if I "should".

 

Great thread.

That armature should just pull out, but it won't be easy. The permanent magnets should be all that is holding it in, and they are pretty stout.

 

Other kR owners will likely weigh in here. From everything I have read RaceTech's emulators are the bee's knees.

 

Magnetic fork spacers?

 

As far as the starter goes, I've had it apart and together about 6 times now trying to figure out what the issue is, it doesn't seem to wand to let the armature out. I've come to the conclusion that the motorcycling gods, and possibly the lesser electrical dieties (if not the starter demons themselves) do not want me to take the starter apart at this time. If at some point in the future it becomes pertinent to take it apart, and not simply a personal quest, I have no doubt that the clouds shall part, the angels shall sing on high, and the armature will easily be removed from the casing. Until that time I'm just going to seal it back up and be happy that it makes my engine turn over.

As far as emulators go, I too have read great things about race tech's special brand of magic. But I am curious about a couple of things. Specifically: The TRAC valve thingy is only on the left fork, so could I use only one emulator and still acheive satisfactory results? If that's the case, since emulators only control damping on the compression stroke and not the rebound stroke: could you install an emulator upside down to control the rebound damping? Or would that just be the dumbest thing ever?

I pulled apart my right fork just for grins the other night, and I don't think it would be too tricky to fit an emulator there. I'd just have to cut off the adjustment rod and gut the adjustable damper rod's internals. Later this week I'll pull apart the left fork and see if that one looks any worse.

 

Strange new things have been uncovered of late.

Today I was working on an adapter to fit a GSXR shock (which may or may not be a total failure, we'll see). Anyway, I wanted to get the rear suspension assembled properly so that I could make sure everything would fit together and all the peices would play nicely. I found that it was extremely difficutl to put on the swing arm. It appears that the right side of the frame is twisted slightly. Whichever side I screw in the axle bolt for first, the other side is out of alignment by about a half inch.

I finally found that if I screw in the right side, then through some creative torquing and body positioning I can get the left axle bolt to screw in, but this doesn't seem right at all. Also, once the swing arm passes about half way through it's travel there is a distince feeling like it is passing over a detent, this is obviously being caused by the axle bolts being out of alignment.

Any thoughts on remediation? I figure I could just install the engine, thread a rod into the right side axle hole, and twist the frame until both holes lined up. Good? Bad? Idiotic?