My free 1990

Discussion in '3rd & 4th Generation 1990-1997' started by gcvt, Oct 10, 2018.

  1. MechTech

    MechTech New Member

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    As you mentioned in a previous post, its like having a second job. It will be worth it however. You'll know your bike inside and out and you will be confident in its its capabilities and not be worrying about some little maintenance item that you haven't done. Its looking great so far. Let us know how that Rustoleum paint works out. A lot cheaper than automotive paint and will probably look as good or better. Give it extra cure time before any wet sanding or polish.
     
  2. gcvt

    gcvt New Member

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    Haven't been spending too much time out in the garage due to the smoke from the wildfire up North. Just a couple of small projects and then more bodywork inside. Also waiting on the new thermostat and valve cover gaskets to arrive.

    Ordered up a new horn and some LEDs for the license plate, and finally got all the bodywork primed and ready for color. Now I just need some favorable weather conditions so I can paint.

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  3. ridervfr

    ridervfr Member

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    body work looks good, upper half fairings are fun to take apart huh? over-kill with screws etc. Should have replaced the t-stat when you did the initial carburetor service, since its easy to access (don't ask how I know this. :frusty:) I got a free bike twice. First one I passed on to a cousin, second one I ended up canabalizing for my current ninja high-5. Peace out. Nice pictures :thumbsup:
     
  4. bk94si

    bk94si Member

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    Stuck float is a good guess or just a bad float valve. I bet you will need to pull and clean the carbs anyway.
     
  5. ridervfr

    ridervfr Member

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    I get OEM replacements when its my stuff. K&L is ok in a pinch, maybe a bowl gasket, but nothing else carb related, brake overhaul kits are good though.
     
  6. gcvt

    gcvt New Member

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    ridervfr - you're not kidding about the upper fairing! I hope I've got all those little screws/nuts/bolts when I go to put it all back together, haha. Still waiting for suitable weather to paint.

    Got back at it today. Rear wheel didn't want to rotate freely so I needed to look at the brake. I just bled it, worked the pedal a few times, and everything was good. Then the carbs came back off. Gonna go through them again and do a more thorough cleaning. Then the new thermostat went in. I was gonna get the front off the ground and go through the front end today but had to finish things up in time for the UFC fights tonight :)

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  7. ridervfr

    ridervfr Member

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    They "Honda" want the weep hole in the t-stat to face a certain direction. Let me be the super - uber nice guy and go look right now and tell you the straight poop. They want it forward facing, so basically lined up with the front hold of the housing. If you already buttoned it up, I would not sweat it. My 93 bike I got off CL for cheap needed a donor set of carburetors, between the time I took of the original ones and tuning the donor set. I would say I must have removed and replaced them 6-7 times. Set that came with the bike were buggered up with heinous attention to detail ie brass jets mauled by pliers etc etc etc.

    Good luck with the bike, they are worthy of keeping on the road and will probably out last me for all I know. Older but not farting dust yet :loco: Peace Outtie. Oh overhauling master cylinder on my 91, what a PITA. K&L let me down and I went with a Honda OEM brake rebuild kit. Despite having MightyVac air assisted system, could not get a bleed out of rebuild. What a FUc*. :mech:
     
  8. gcvt

    gcvt New Member

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    Thank you for that info Sir! I'll be back in there again many times. I just put the weep hole where I found it originally. Thanks again!
     
  9. ridervfr

    ridervfr Member

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    New brake lines to replace 30 year old braided steel brake lines which I just felt like replacing since I was doing the master cylinder and I have them on my 93 so WTF. Came out nice, first shot was with a K&L kit I had kicking around in a drawer, I think I fuked myself because my prep work was not exact and I kind of screwed up, (so, I can't say K&L sucks because I have used them in the past and the brake kits etc work good - No carburetor stuff except bowl gaskets though.) Devil is the details, bench bled new re-build to get pressure and carefully installed, had a water mist bottle close by and finished with the proper torque on the banjo bolt, 25 foot pounds, you feel it slip when you hit the poundage. Usually I rely on my feel, in this case its a critical torque for proper brake operation. Peace Outtie
     
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  10. tinkerinWstuff

    tinkerinWstuff Administrator Staff Member

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    I once got a free horse. Within days it ran through a barbed wire fence and cost me hundreds in vet bills.

    Hope this story ends better!

     
  11. gcvt

    gcvt New Member

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    Looking damn nice!!!

    Haha! I'm hoping so as well.

    Got back at it on Saturday despite the wet and cold garage. "Cold" is relative in California, of course. It was over 50°F.

    It was front brake and axle day. Got her up off the ground, with the leftover rain water...and a random paint can opener on the ground? I have no idea where that came from...

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    Once I had the front wheel off, I discovered that the compost recycling bin made a pretty decent wheel stand...

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    She might look sad here, but she's getting so much love. Like taking a puppy to the Vet - she's worried but she'll come out fantastic :D

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    Took a little steel wool to the axle, spacers, rotors, etc. Just wanted to clean things up and ensure proper function. Things look great! Need to order up some new pads, which should be SuperHawk pads...since it's F4i forks with VTR1k wheel and calipers.

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    I thought I had sorted the rear, but I was wrong. Just when I thought I was done for the day, I went to spin the rear wheel again and it was like "Yeah, Fuk you!" I felt like I was gonna be featured in an Ozzy Man youtube video haha! Lot's of hammering to get the caliper to move. After getting the pads out (huge PITA) I found that the caliper wasn't moving well horizontally. I took EVERYTHING apart, greased everything up and I might be good now. The caliper was seized and was unable to move horizontally.

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    I'm still having fun with the project. I'm obviously in no huge hurry, and would rather not do this in the winter but at least I'm in California and not in the midwest or on the east coast where they have 7 feet of snow on the ground. Yay! :)
     
    Last edited: Jan 14, 2019
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  12. ridervfr

    ridervfr Member

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    Fun Yes.jpg carb 011519.jpg
     

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  13. ridervfr

    ridervfr Member

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    I been busy with two different bikes as of lately, just when you utter to your-self, "wow - I am all up to date with my maintenance and I don't need to do squat." what happens? Boom, stuck float bowl, stinking Kawasaki is still pressurizing its over flow tank. Ok, well, since about all the parts on the Kawasaki have been swapped out with a complete willing donor cycle, the only part of the equation left was to install the ratty radiator. I already did the t-stat as an effort to control the over flow tank. Anyway, simple install, removed 4 bolts and dropped chin spoiler, drained coolant out of water pump 8mm drain bolt and installed the kit on the bike. Took it out on a shake down run where the old set-up would pump up the rez by the end of the 50 mile ride and low and behold, coolant was at the same level I set it prior to ride. One problem solved, now the Interceptor.

    Stuck float valve on front right cylinder, no tapping would cure it so great! Parts shopped for it on the internet, got bowl gaskets and oem float needles, I had spark plugs on hand luckily cause I changed those too (even though they had 4000 miles on them.) When all was said and done, parts cost around $150.00 and hours of my labour which you could not buy for money. Tidied up some stuff/cleaned some stuff. Upon start up of course the front fuel tube was weeeping. This bike you have to remove the gas tank to really get a good look at whats going on. Not a major PITA so upon inspection, the rubber o-ring swelled and no more weepy.

    Its fairly fast to remove the carburetors, the devil is the details really and being organized and taking your time to blow out things and clean them with wires and other tricks. 15 minutes to remove carburetors - two days total, when I went to synchronize them its a breeze cause I have these extended nipples on the plenums, normally they are plugged when not using the manometer. Pluck them off and install the hoses. Start bike and see what you got. Helping to know what part of the bike to peer through so you can see where to use your fancy right angle screw drive helps immensely, bike lift is a must along with some good flash lights.

    I made a few adjustments and took bike out for a 40 mile high speed ride. Had it up to 140ish without its mid fairings. When I got home and checked the synch they are perfect.

    I liked the line about a free cow btw, You know I had something I never had happen to me working on this bike, my 91 I had for 25 years. The fuel mixture screws and have tamper resistant caps that were glued on by either dealer or factory. In the past I just swapped them around so I could turn them appropriately. Seems one of them when I was turning the mixture screw in to turn it out got stuck. The cap just spun on the end of the needle jet, I was like FUC* :mech: what I ended up doing was breaking out a small dremmel tool and grinding a slit in the cap and pryed the bugger off. Problem solved.

    Peace and Love. You can accomplish alot of chit with patience and maybe a little luck. Don't drop stuff on the garage floor, makes your life hell. Mission Successful, Now I gota relocate a fuk*ing hanging light, no swag, gona go up into attic and use a box and romex etc. FUN? nope
     
  14. Hingley

    Hingley New Member

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    What a great thread on rebuilding the early 90's VFR750. You guys got me motivated to restart the process of getting my 90 VFR750 ready for the road this spring, I bought it two years ago and since there was no safety inspection system in the province where I bought it I didn't want to put it on the road until I had gone through it. The bike itself is in very good shape and shows 15,000 km ( 10,000 miles ), not sure I can believe this but so be it. So far I have installed new plugs and steering head bearings, cleaned and freed up the dragging brake calipers etc. In the process of changing the front forks I found they were starting to have rust pits so I swapped them out with other set. Next will be changing the fluids and perhaps consider installing a new voltage regulator as the one on it is a cheap looking unit ( tour master ) I think.
    So I have a question or two
    I see you have primed the fairing parts and are getting ready for paint. Do you use a special type of primer? or paint, when the time comes.
    Do you really have to remove the carbs to replace the therostat.
     
  15. ridervfr

    ridervfr Member

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    Geez, sometimes I ask myself, "why" one of the best nick-name handles I saw in this here Web-Site was "VFRHUSBAND" man truer words have not been spoken, my 91 is my First Wife, real wife must get perturbed but F it. Its the all around sweet-heart really. Let me down with a melted r/r one night at 70,000 miles but thats aboot it.

    93 I just replaced the plastic fuel tubes with metal ones as I had a leak on the front cylinder and think that exacerbated my problem. So far so good. #3 cylinder fouled out and filled crank case with gas so more money spent on dumping a fresh synthetic oil change, decided to replace spark plugs with new ones as I did not care for the quality of old ones when I media blasted them. Thankfully, I had old o-ring gaskets for the velocity stacks because when de-rack the carburetors the old ones will not conform to the program. They came in the carburetor kits from Honda which I never used. Some things just never cease to amaze me really. Have seen flooded out cylinders before etc, customers leaving the prime on the petcock filling the crankcase with gas, just not on my chit. :mechanic:

    So, what was learned? It helps to have a scrap/donor set of what ever your working on to help you through your project. In this case the manual would not lend a helping hand. Take your time, and don't be afraid to take that leap of faith. Also helps to talk to some people on this here forum. One doode comes to mind who shall remain nameless, "thanks Ice-Hunchin" (sic) I can remove a set of carbs of this bike in less than 15 minutes, seat, tank, air box, insulator boots, throttle cables and choke. Devil is the details really. I do a bench synchronization with painstaking attention to detail, this helps when you finally get everything back together and get it properly heated up to do the real synch with your carb-TOOL. Air table is a must really, you get the bike high enough and have adequate illumination on the subject and your cherry. Ok, enough now, I got a date with an excercise bike, going no where fast.........
     
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  16. gcvt

    gcvt New Member

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    Been a while since my last update! Northern California weather has been the suck all winter! Cold weather, rain, flooding, mudslides, etc. aren't very helpful when you need to work on a motorcycle in a "garage" that is open to the elements.

    Anyway, I've been back at it lately. Ordered Michelin Power Pilot 2CT's from Rocky Mountain ATC/MC. They are great but they shipped via OnTrac so everything arrived two days late. A week prior, I dropped off the rear wheel at the powder coater. Had the tires mounted/balanced yesterday...

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    Then, despite the cold and rainy weather today, I ventured down in to the 'garage' to get back to work. I took the brakes back apart to grease and Loctite all the important bits, and then got the wheels mounted up again. All things related to brakes and tires are finally done! Along with the tires came a new DID XV chain. Called local shops today for sprockets, but no one had them in stock. I'll have to order those online this week.

    Anyway, here's a few photos from today's work...

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  17. scottbott

    scottbott Member

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    looks like you are slowly getting there not the most comfortable looking 'garage' by the look of it, I thought everybody had huge garages with all mod cons in America !!!,just joking!
     
  18. gcvt

    gcvt New Member

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    Haha...you are correct. It's a shared garage in a small apartment building. It obviously gets wet and cold. Makes it tough to make the decision to go down there and work on the bike in bad weather. Oh well, bit by bit, she's getting done.
     
  19. jorgescar69

    jorgescar69 New Member

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    i remember when I did that!
     
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