engine noise

i have a 1985 vf500f with 22500mi, and yesterday i started it up after installing now brakes and there was a loud ticking/clicking noise coming from the front cylinders, then later last night after i got home from work i started it up again and the loud ticking/clicking sound was no longer present.
right now im in the process of adjusting valve lash, but ive been reading up on similar issues and people have said that it could be the timing chain tensioner, if it is the tensioner, what do i have to look for to tell if it has gone bad?

to give a reference, it sounds similar to this
YouTube - ‪'85 VF500F Problem‬‏

 

From the video it looks like you own a well maintained '85. Kudos!

As noted set the valve lash (using two feeler gauges) and resynchronize the carburetors as a first step.

Regarding the tensioner, the Achilles' heel is here:



Wear on the rod can create a groove causing the tensioner to 'stick'.

Good luck and keep us posted on how you make out.

 

the video is not of mine, just one i found that has a similar noise that i put a link to for reference
but thanks for the info =]

 

5x5, I should have read more carefully as you did write 'for reference'.

Good luck with this and let us know how you make out.

 

I just did tensioners on my 1985 and I have pictures and information. My tensioners where just plain bad. The springs were shot. The area with the arrow from Invisible was fine on my. You might have a hard time finding new tensioners. I posted in another forum the dealer that had two tensioners for my bike. Look up information on the V45 and V65 bikes for more information on how to check the tensioners.
What to look for is the following:
Manually turn the crankshaft every 90 degrees and feel the tension on the chain.
You do this for two complete turns of the motor 720 degrees
Any 90 degree area fells bad the tensioners could be shot.
My cam chain would be real tight in a 90 degree area and than real loose.
To date my bike has no noise but will not run past idle. I'm cleaning the carbs and checking the seal on the air box.

 

Look at the tops of the valves for any damage. Its kind of hard to tell with the cams in but, Do the best you can. You want to look for mushrooming on the tops.

The bike sounds so rough poor bike!!!!!!
Good luck

 

Thanks for the post.

Interesting to note that on your bike the tensioner's rod was fine but the springs had failed. I hadn't read of this happening before, on a VF500F, but good it's good to know.

If I could ask, how many miles are on this engine?

 

Agreed.

If the tops of the valve stems are mushroomed it is time to taxi into the hanger bay for a rebuild or a used engine that is in better shape.

Here is a bit more intel on the stopgap 'fix', for mushroomed valve stems, that Honda proposed back in the day:

 

for an update:
we pulled the tensioner out, it was in good shape, no notch in the rod that you pointed out invis. but the issue was with that rod, it was getting stuck in the hole that it goes through so it basically stopped the chain from tightening further, to fix that we took some wet/dry sand paper and smoothed it out some so it could move more 'freely' to tighten the chain

the only issue that we ran into was when i was putting the front valve cover back on, one of the bolts broke as i was getting it snug


lucky we got the rest of the screw out and just got another set off ebay, we tightened down the other three, put everything back together to start it to see if the noise went away, fortunate enough the noise is no longer present, just the 'normal' engine noise

 

Good news!

The rod does seem to be the culprit in many cases. Glad the wet/dry sandpaper did the trick.

 

I'm sjona2011's dad and I first want to thank all of you for your input. This is the first time I've gotten this deep into a V4 and all I can say is what a pain in the a.. they are in regards to cam timing. I swear I read the procedure in the factory service manual at least 6 times to make sure I clearly understood what needed to be done. I've gotten too used to working on my '73 cb750 and '75 cb550 because cam timing on those SOHC motors is an absolute breeze compared to my kids vf500. Well anyhow valve lash was fine so the CCT on the front bank cyls came out. Nothing really stood out as being bad however once I had the CCT out and inspecting it closer I noticed the "slipper rod" in question had a rough finish to it almost as if it were sand blasted. I realize the rod is supposed to catch 1 way and allow the rod to travel easily the other way which may explain the coarse finish to the rod however the rod would catch period on not allow the rod to move freely when it should. Say for instance if I had the tensioner fully cocked back with a pin it to keep it from popping out as you would when first installing tensioner, this thing was grabbing so bad that it wouldn't pop out on its own once that pin was removed so I took some steel wool and polished the rod just a bit and BINGO it worked like it should meaning it grabbed in the direction it should but allowed the rod to easily travel the other direction. To make sure of it I then polished it some more with some 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper but took caution not to polish it too much because I was afraid if I polished it too much it might not grab at all.

Once everything was back together and cam timing set it was now time to pull the pin on the tensioner and once pin was pulled the tensioner immediately pulled the remaining slack out of the chain essentially working like it should. Once everything else was back together the bike fired right up and that loud ticking noise was no more. Now before you slam us for our backyard engineering please understand that my 18 year old is paying for all maintenance on this bike and so far this year the bike has new tires, new rear shock courtesy of a member of this site and he just ordered new brake rotors the day before this noise started, he also only has a part time job. With that said the kid is just plain broke right now and can't afford the $80+ for a new CCT and he might as well multiply that by 2 because the CCT in the rear cyl bank probably isn't in any better shape. What we did at best is a repair and not a long term fix so any of you who are following this thread keep in mind that the correct way to fix this is to buy a new CCT and just toss the old one.

Next weekend we'll be doing the same to the rear CCT and the bike will remain parked till that has been done.

 

Good deal, thanks for the detailed description JSB.

This is a great father and son project you have and kudos on all the work you and your son have put into this 500.

VF500F's are great bikes but as you now know wrenching on them isn't for the faint of heart ;-)

Keep us posted on the progress.

 

My dad (V65 and V45 owner) and I did the CCT together. We are both a little older. They are a complete pain in the rear. It took both of use to complete the project. I would describe my CCT as very similar. The rod would get stuck But, My spring seemed very week compared to the new CCT.
1984 VF500 with 10,000 miles purchased from younger college ago man with minimal mechanical ablilities.
Invisible, if you would like I still have both the old tensioners in my garage. I can mail you one for inspection? Do you have experence with the CCT's??


Now before you slam us for our backyard engineering
I think you both did a great job to get the bike running. If you both can do a project like this GREAT. You are both very skilled mechanically.
The project of adjusting the valves alone is extremely hard. GOOD WORK. Keep us posted on the rear.

 

I have a nephew in Illinois that is a shop manager for a Honda shop and he was chuckling while I was whining to him about cam timing on the V4. He's looking into seeing what he can do about getting us new CCT's but in regards to a long term fix he was trying to get me to consider converting our existing CCT's into manually adjusted CCT's rather than spend the money for brand new ones. I understood the modification that would be needed and had read about it during my research about our CCT problem last week but I just don't see how it would be feasible with our present CCT's because I just can't see how I would be able to get a wrench down to the rod which would have to be threaded with a nut and jam nut to make a manual adjustment. Even with the top chain guide removed I can't hardly see that rod when everything is assembled in the first place let alone get a wrench down there. Maybe the manual modification is feasible with other CCT's on other engines because maybe that rod is more accessible in those designs but I just don't see how it's going to work on a 1st gen V4 CCT. I'm open to all ideas so if any of you have successfully done this mod to a 1st gen V4, fill me in on how you did it. Thanks a bunch to all.

 

Thank you for the offer. I have a spare set of tensioners that look to be in good shape but I don't have a NOS set to compare the spring pressure to. I haven't read of springs failing before but this isn't to say it does not happen!