Matt Tries – 1984 VF500F Overhaul

Nice workshop! Looks like you have plenty of elbow room to work.
Thanks for posting what you are doing. I have an 86 VF500 and just put in the rear YSS shock. I didn’t get a chance to try it out yet due to winter here in the northeast. I think I saw your video of the replacement. I recognize the bike and that screw in the left cover. I am interested in what you end up doing in the front suspension and how much it improves the ride.
Keep up the good work and enjoy that new floor. A friendly bright work environment makes it easier to spend an evening getting something done.

 

Yep, I've also got very limited (see: 1 day) of riding on the YSS shock, since that was about the last nice day of the year. I hear you guys are getting a beast of a snow storm now, but once you dig out of it in four months and if you play around with any of the settings on the YSS shock and find settings you like... let me know! I'm still pretty green at being able to actually feel the differences in compression and rebound. Especially rear.

I'll let you know how the front end goes. Likely going to be installing tapered steering bearings today or tomorrow. I've never done that before.

 

After removing the old races with a long drift, cut a slot in them and use them as the interface to drive the new races in.
Sometimes you dont have to slot the old ones because they dont go in the frame far enough to get stuck.

With them flipped over, you dont have to find the perfect sized bearing driver or large socket.

Put the new frame races in the freezer right now.

Do the same thing with the old lower triple clamp bearing inner. Cut a slot in it to use it as the driver interface.

 

It works really well if you put the outer races in the freezer for a few hours before you install them in the frame. also warm up the neck of the frame with a heat gun, easy to put in that way for sure. Use the old outer races to seat the new ones (unless you have tool for it).

U can also use the old inner race to seat the new bearing on the stem, make sure she's well seated on the stem or the steering will loosen up once you've hit a few bumps.

 

I guess we are typing the same advice at the same time. LOL

 

Totally would have forgotten about putting them in the freezer and wouldn't have remembered until it was time for installation. Thanks to both of you! I think I'll pack with the Lucas red first (since they're just covered in a thin film of light oil, and then toss em in bags into the freezer. Could probably also throw em outside... friggen cold right now.



I'll pull out the Dremel and get the cutting tool on to slot the old one. I think I've seen a video about doing that--will do some YouTube recon to freshen up on that.

It looks like the bigger race is 55mm and the smaller 47mm. I did buy this bearing kit recently since my first attempts at wheel bearings (a few years ago--haven't done one since besides a trailer) went rather poorly and involved much swearing and damaged new bearings.



Thanks for the advice. Either later today or tomorrow I'll get cracking on it.

 

Come on, man. Using the right tool for the job is cheating

 

La la la la... Can't hear youuuuuuuuu







I cut the old bottom race with an angle grinder to use as a driver as well as splitting a 1" diameter piece of PVC. This worked pretty well. Took me a while to clean all the pieces of plastic out of the grease... wish I could redo that brain fart and clean up the PVC first.

Actually the bearing replacement was pretty straightforward. I ordered a new lock washer though since the manual made it really clear not to re-use the old one (I did anyway on a test run, but... going to replace it). I ordered the rest of the materials I think I'll need for the front forks and some other bits, bobs, and tools. Mainly fork and caliper parts.

I wanted to scream at how much shit you need to take off to drop the steering stem, but I could only laugh. It takes me 20 minutes to have the lights and dash assembly off the SV650S. Took me over 3 hours on the VF. And I'm never going to figure out how to re-route all the electrical, brake lines, and control lines. I'll deal with that later though.

Definitely wishing I would have bought a 2-piece as opposed to 3-piece brake line system, heh. I was watching the Daytona 24 hour race and just kept hearing "And another hour of racing is set to begin!".


That bearing driver set really did make driving the races much easier though. For the 47mm top race, I used a 46mm driver so it wouldn't get stuck but it contacted the 47mm lip the whole way. It's given me some confidence to try doing wheel bearings again... maybe a curse in disguise.


And then I found something rather alarming when inspecting the front left brake caliper. This certainly seems like a ticking time bomb. When I put pressure on it, I can see it physically flex. Ordered a (used) replacement caliper bracket on ebay.



Shopping Cart for today looked like:

• Steering stem lock washer
• 0.85 springs from Sonic Springs (to pair w/ the RT emulators)
• 15W fork oil
• Damper rod bolts with crush washers
• Fork bottom studs
• Slider bushing (right fork)
• Guide bushing (right and left forks)
• Fork seals
• Rear wheel bearing set
• Front wheel bearing set
• Left caliper bracket (the eBay purchase)
• Steering stem spanner wrench
• Left caliper pin

Now it's the waiting game on more parts to arrive.

 

Don't think that's supposed to be there.

 

What's not supposed to be there? The old bearing race I split to use as a driver (I pulled it off the stem after seating the new bearing), the crack in the caliper bracket, or something else I completely overlooked?

 

I reuse the lock washer no problem. I bend the tabs up just enough and bend em right back down at assembly. I don't think I could go thru enough sets of steering bearings or make enough changes to ever be worried about breaking a tab.

 

I think NB means the crack in the calliper mount (?)

 

That 8mm-head bolt looks wrong for that location. The correct bolt is a round hex that is flush in the bracket when installed. You may have excessive play that contributed to that failure. Unless there is a custom sleeve for the bracket, you need to address that.

 

Ohhh---yea yea, I realized it was the wrong piece as well yesterday when I compared it against the other bike I was working on. I probably put the wrong piece back in when I had the bike apart for a long time two years ago. The highlighted item is the replacement that's coming.



This is what it's supposed to look like.


I probably should have just kept that a secret...

 

Oh and you certainly don't HAVE to remove that much to do steering head bearings. I don't even take off the upper cowl when I do them. I just drape a big blanket over the cowl, gauges and tank, let the bars with all the controls lay on the blanket off to the side, and remove the forks. If the lower clamp can come out the bottom and go back up, so can new bearings.

 

Nice post there! Keep the fire burning!

 

I really like the 3 piece front brake lines...But I am an OEM "look" guy for restorations.

However, a 2 piece would make it much easier to work on/bleed for sure.

I still don;t have all the air bled out of my front brakes on the VF500. But it is good enough for now.

 

The crack, man. THE CRACK!

 

Just a reminder Cap'n, im still waiting for you to box that interceptor up and send it to Canada.

 

This is brilliant. I will absolutely be looking to do something like this in the future. It has the added benefit of making the bike look rather cozy as well!

____________________________________________

So... I removed the old wheel bearings last night, and I was going to install the new ones when it dawned on me that there probably would be no better time to get the wheels powder coated than right now. The paint on this bike is really quite terrible, and it's all falling off. At some point, I need to address the gas tank as well because it's not looking good, and everyone here knows how difficult it is to find a good condition tank, and I don't want this one to fall into the bad category.

Look away if you're squeamish.



This bike isn't a candidate for a stock restoration. And I'm partial to this one being yellow and unique. While I'd like to keep the wheels yellow, I know it will be damn near impossible to get a decent match between powder and liquid. Yellow is particularly difficult. Through work connections I potentially have the resources to pull it off, but I also wanted to explore other options as well.

This is how the bike looked in the summer. The yellow only looks good under sunlight and looks pretty dreary pastel easter awful yellow otherwise.


I fired up my crude photoshopping skills and wondered if it could work with powder coated black wheels and spraying the bodywork, tank, and forks with a more robust yellow.


It doesn't look good. It looks unfinished and cobbled together. Realistically, I think I'd need to match the frame to the wheels. A few things on there I've already powder coated black while working a trade show (lol), like the foot control and peg mounts. They look great, and take serious abuse. So, what if I committed to a much bigger project and actually pulled everything off the frame to have it blasted and powder coated gloss black. Along with the swingarm. And then I can finish other bits like the caliper mounts and other odds and ends with liquid gloss black.


I actually think that could work. It needs the 3/4 belly pan (which I don't have yet), but I think that could work.

Anyway, I've been pacing back and forth quite a bit today trying to decide if I actually want to commit to pulling the engine and everything else off. Realistically, I know it'll take me anywhere from... 5 to 25 months before it's riding again. But I also think it would be a fun project.

I've left myself in a terrible position to try to actually pull the motor by not having wheels with wheel bearings in them. I just checked to make sure I could get a headlift stand under it since I never removed the exhaust since I was never intending to pull the engine out. I wanted to see if it would be possible.


Those are my ramblings for the day.