Need Urgent Help!a

Hey guys, so right now just about the worst possible thing happened. My gf bought an '85 VF500 about 5 months ago that just needed a little tune up and TLC. For 5 months I've put too many hours into learning about this bike and fixing it up all for today. I bought it a new battery last night and let it charge all night so I could try and run the bike for the first time in the morning. I could barely sleep I was so excited. Woke up this morning, put the new battery in, got some new gas for the tank and buttoned everything up. Tried starting the bike, and it worked! You have no idea how happy I was for about 10minutes. I rode it around the neighborhood and just basked in the happiness that is working on a bike for 5 months and having it work, not to mention the VF500 is a nice step up from my ninja 250. Then I got back and noticed a tiny leak of oil near my kickstand. No biggie I thought. After all, one of the last things I'd done was change the gasket on the alternator cover. Thought I'd go down and re tighten the bolts then BAM a giant amount of oil just comes out all over. I took the cover off and my stomach sank. This is what I'm looking at guys:

Am I as fucked as I think I am? Is there anything I can even do? I feel so defeated after spending so much time, money, and effort to get this thing running just to have a taste and it blow up in my face.

 

JB weld is your best friend. Many have used them on RTW trip.

 

I have a perfectly running '86 engine that suffers from the same problem. I plan to use Permatex high heat epoxy to bond the piece back on and see how it works out.

 

DO NOT waste your time with JB weld or any of those "over the counter" epoxies from autozone or wherever. If you are going to do the repair do it right . There is a marvelous little product called Belzona that is like jb weld on steroids. Used in the marine industry to patch engine casings and all kinds of stuff. I've personally used it on pipe work carrying boiler steam.

The 1111 or 1121 (extended life formula) should work fine.

The success of the repair will depend mostly on the prep work.

 

Leave it to the Puddle Pirate (just kidding man nothing but respect) to know how to McGyver a cracked block.

 

Thank you, that stuff sounds awesome looking it up. Where is the best place to purchase it though? I'm more than willing to do all the prep work that would be needed. What would be all the necessary steps to make sure it's done right?

 

Your best bet would be to contact them directly and find a local distributor if possible. Prep work mostly involves getting the bonding surfaces as clean as possible. There's directions on their website.

 

I searched on their find a distributor page and my location isn't recognized it says. I seem to actually live pretty close to you, maybe who do you use to purchase it?

 

I haven't had a reason to order the stuff for a few years now, but I punched in a PDX zip code with no results. I would wait until Monday and call their corporate offices in Miami. Should be able to put you in touch with closest west coast distributor.

 

Duct tape.

 

Belzona Technology Washington, LLC
12428 Highway 99 Suite 50
Everett, Washington, 98204, United States
Telephone: 425-610-4902
Fax: 425.610.4909
http://belzonatw.com/

 

Duct tape and gorilla glue

Also, if you're expecting a jb weld price point with Belzona... well let's just say you get what you pay for. The stuff also smells horrible so work in a well ventilated area, I would even consider wearing a respirator.

 

OK, so that's how to stick the bit in place, but what caused it break off ??

 

My dad bought an inboard, 4cylinder boat once with a cracked block. Cracked from top to bottom, two pieces from being frozen. I pulled it, tore it down, cleaned the brake with brake cleaner and used an epoxy putty called magnum steel on the crack and clamped it back together. I let it cure for 3 days and put it back together. We ran the snot out of that boat for 4 years before we traded it for a deep vee for bigger water.

I don't like JB weld for stuff like that, never had any luck at all. regular two part epoxy has been stronger for me, the 2 hour cure stuff. just make sure the parts are clean and pressed together well so that any excess is squeezed out and the bonding agent is a VERY thin layer. The way cast aluminum brakes it provides thousands of little grippy spots for a very strong bond. do not sand it, if the broken parts line up and fit together it will be stronger just cleaned well.

 

Find a "No residue" switch and contact cleaner. This will get it super clean and evaporate very quickly. Sometimes if used in humid conditions the evaporation can cool the part to the point of condensation. Let the condensation dry before you make any repair.

CRC, Techspray and LPS make some great switch and contact cleaners.

 

You may want to consider drilling in a couple if small steel dowel pins for added strength.

 

i would skip the dowels unless you can get it in a milling machine. you'll end up with things out of alignment. been there done that.

 

It looked like it was snapped off from an over abundance of torque. That is a pretty fine area in the casting. My guess is someone used gorilla hands on it, maybe trying to stop a leak?

I hate JB Weld. I have never found an application for it except for filling holes and that would be limited to a temporary repair.

 

I personally wouldn't use any glue type product especially on the engine casing which expands when the engine heats up I had a piece like that break off my clutch basket on my cb and I took it to a local welding shop and its now as good as new that was about 6 years ago

 

Just put the pieces together so they're nice and flush, set a wrench on top and then SMACK the wrench very carefully with a sledge. If you do it just right, the two pieces will weld back together by the power of Thor.