Peer Pressure 1986 VFR700

Title is in jest.

This is the 1986 VFR700 I posted a Craigslist ad I found here back in July. I bought it for $920. I’ve been trying to ignore it until I’ve got my VF500F and SV650 sorted—and for the most part, they are. The 500 just needs the painting done. The SV got a bunch of track/race related stuff done.



Anyway, the reason I’ve been holding off on this thing is the few times I’ve looked at it, I just see a cornucopia of “Previous Owner” nonsense everywhere. It was an abandoned project a car guy bought an just didn’t do anything with, so he wanted to move off of it. There is some paperwork that the fork seals and rear brake disk were replaced in 2014. Amazingly, the fork seals actually seem to hold fluid still. I haven’t actually checked to see if there’s any fluid yet to hold though.

I got license plates for it in the mail a few weeks ago which was a gamble since… of course I bought a bike from a person without a matching name on the title.

The bike has 45k miles on it and came with most of a spare motor. I cleaned up the fuel tank a few months ago with Evapo-rust and surprisingly it is in really good condition—all things considered.

The clutch didn’t work at all and was a muddy and sticky mess. After cleaning, I rebuilt the master cylinder and slave cylinder with K&L rebuild kits, and I’ve now got the clutch working. That’s good!

When I was walking around my basement, I kept looking at that rear tire thinking… that friggen thing looks just as wide as my SV650’s. It shouldn’t, but it does. Well the tire that should be a 130/80 is actually a (lol) 160/60-18. The profile looks ridiculous. Idk how they got it on there—and I’m not sure how I’m getting it off.



Now I really shouldn’t have put any money into the bike until I know it’s running. But I figured that I’d just do one of the necessary things I dislike doing while I poke around and learn about the bike—the brakes. I rebuilt the front master. I rebuilt the two front calipers and rear caliper with new seals. The pistons in the fronts must have been fairly frozen since the pads’ wear was diagonal on both. This is when I asked about the wooden plugs in Stray’s thread. I put new EBC HH pads in the fronts. I kept the rears since they looked… brand new for a Ford F350. They’re the thickest pads I’ve ever seen on a bike.

I haven’t hooked up the front brake lines yet because I’m an idiot and bought a set of Spiegler 2-piece lines for a 3rd or 4th gen 750. Idk how I managed that… must have had too many tabs open researching. If Spiegler can’t give me credit towards the right set, I’ll buy some Galfers and maybe someone might be interested in buying the Spiegler’s at a good price.

Anyway, I think buying this bike for anything other than to immediately part it out was a mistake. It either belonged to a child learning how to use his father’s tools, a meth head, or a meth head learning to use his child’s tools. FFS I found a gremlin bell tied to the brake line up near the master outlet. Fairings held in by wood screws---and yea, all the fairings are broken and there’s some fun tabs that appear to be held together with elmer’s glue and spare milk carton plastic.

The biggest issue is that someone took to the carburetor at some point. I’ve disassembled everything and started cleaning to try to take inventory/discovery on what’s going on with it. Surprisingly, the intake boots are still soft. And it actually seems like someone must have replaced the rubber bits not too long ago because the float bowl gaskets seem fine, and everything inside was “clean”—though smelled strong of varnish.

But then there is the evidence of some hammerfisted frustration.

• One of the air vent tubes was cockeyed and somehow not seated correctly and idk how it isn’t broken.
• One of the fuel tubes immediately broke (it was glued) when I pulled them apart
• I think someone didn’t know how the linkages with the sync screws were supposed to work, so the plate was completely bent and I’m not sure if this is something I’ll ever be able to fully rectify—I was able to bend it back close to where I think it should be
• The enricher circuit pickup shows plier jaw marks which I’m sure someone tried to rip them out—luckily it looks like they stopped in time.
• One of the brass air ports on one of the one carb appears to have been ripped out. I’m worried about whether or not it’ll work in this state.

This is the bent piece.


This is how the vent tube was sitting in the bike when I pulled it.


This is the damaged/missing brass air port.


So I’m at the part where I need to determine if I’m going to throw more money and time at this thing to determine if it is going to run. If the damage to the carburetor isn’t too much, then I’d like to give it a shot. If it’s never going to work without getting a new carburetor… idk if it’s worth it. I’d like to give it a shot though if it can work with the damage to the air port.

I spent the day cleaning up the carburetor and polishing a bunch of the parts to make it easier to stomach when looking at it. Mighty shiny now. If you ignore the broken parts.

I emailed Billy from Billy’s Outback, but not sure if I’ll hear back. I will email the guy from V4Dreams since he seems to have some good parts for these carburetors. I’ll also need to source fuel pipe replacements which I know aren’t cheap.

I'm trying to pretend I don't see what is happening back here with the electrical. I can see that the R/R is from a 1988 CBR600 and there is an aftermarket primary ground line. I did check that the turn signals work before. And I think I tried bumping it forward on the starter, but now I can't remember if I'm making that up.


Why would you guys do this to me?

 

Just trying to get an idea of where I'm going to be cost-wise. Bold has already been purchased. I think I can actually use the existing intake boots. I need fuel pipes. I probably don't need a screw kit for the carburetor. I need the right brake lines (ugh... dammit me.).



Oh, anyone have a battery recommendation? Yuasa or otherwise?

 

> anyone have a battery recommendation?

Never had a problem with Yuasa. Motobatt MB12U (AGM) is performing very well in the 500.

fyi...BikeMaster Superbike GX 4.5 mirror is decent and cheap. RockyMountain might save you a few $ on BT46. Have cut a tire off with a large cutting wheel on the drill (make sure you're upwind)

 

I like that you can flip the terminals around on that Motobatt battery--I may go with one of those this time around as opposed to Yuasa. Especially since I'm not exactly certain which terminal orientation I'll require. My 500 battery fits which (I think) is a YB12A-A, but it won't actually work correctly.

Curious about the mirror because the fairing has some weird cage thing that the mirror sits inside of and then through to the mounting points. I was briefly looking at it yesterday to see if any of the spare mirrors I have would be long enough. Kind of tough to explain without pictures.

Luckily I think I can work with these manifold boots. I just expected them to be wooden when I first typed that out. I can't find cheap ones for the 700/750 like I could with the 500 though. Kind of like how the 84/5 500 boots can be had for $20, but the different diameter 1986 boots were like 4x the price. If I come across cheap ones though, I'll probably buy them just because it makes seating and unseating that carburetor so much easier.

If it comes to taking that rear tire off with a cutting wheel.. hah. We shall see! All I know is that's going to suck. I'll worry about that if/when the bike fires first, hah. Thanks Phil

 

Motobatt has been good for me on multiple bikes. Curious, why won't the 12A-A work for you, that's the battery I always used. The only difference compared to the AL-A is which side the vent is on. I would much rather have a battery that I can swap between bikes. Obviously, the Motobatt won't be a problem there.

The mirror mounts are kinda unique. They also serve as a fairing mount, so the spacing is somewhat critical. There are some Euro NSR mirrors that use the same mount, but with a different style mirror.

Because I want this project to succeed, I have some CA carbs I will sell you for a good price if you are interested. I would hate to have one of the issues with those carbs be a constant source of runability problems. CA carbs just have some vent tubes that need to be capped, they are the same otherwise. Let me know.

 

Regarding the battery--It seemed like the terminals were in the wrong orientation to be able to work correctly on the VFR. I couldn't say with certainty if that was the same for stock though because the primary ground terminal looks to be aftermarket. When I was checking to find the OEM battery, I kept coming across YB12A-B 'B'-variants, which is why I was hesitant to buy one. The Motobatt would allow me to swap it between bikes no problem, so that's going to be the easy choice.


I ordered a set of fuel pipes this morning. I think I can at least give it a shot at running without having to put any other money into the carburetor--and those would be transferrable to another set if these prove to be toast.

I appreciate the offer and may be taking you up on those CA carbs. Thank you for the offer, and I'll let you know soon enough.

 

My mistake. A-B. Looking at the battery, positive on the left, neg on the right. Vent on the right. Only difference to A-A is the side the vent is on (left).

I would just notch the battery cover to allow the left vent when I used to run vented batteries. Also, if you are in a weird town, A-A are very common, A-B are not.

 

Also... HACKS!!!! Stop thinking you can work on carbs!!!! JFC!

I won't read a fucking thing and just get out my shitty pliers and get to "work". ugh

 

Hey. I likely have some fuel pipes t00.

But seriously consider what you time is worth regarding those carbs. That missing brass and associated damage is bothering me.

 

The phrase you gave in Rogue's thread of "Carb Guru" helped me laugh through quite a bit of this.

I suppose it is at least a little fun having some experience with carburetors and getting to play forensic detective. Because I'm pretty damn sure I know how and why those marks were made on the enrichener circuit. They only touched one of them though.



My favorite is probably the gremlin bell tied up top though. Aren't these supposed to be located at the lowest part of the bike to help stave off the Skid Demon's attempts to take the bike down? It makes you wonder how much time this bike spent upside down. I'll re-gift the bell to somebody that will think it's funny.

 

for that broken off brass tube (air corrector), i'd suggest finding or making a tube to fit, with similar hole diameter and jbwelding it in place, could be plastic.

those carbs were butchered by woefully clumsy and inexperienced hands. that tube will only get broken by idiots who use too much force and cram things together in ignorance, like the illiterate who tried removing the long choke pickup tube.

 

I laughed out loud reading this.

I'm trying to find something of similar 4.5mm outside diameter (looks to be 2mm ID--caliper can't quite measure it fully). Best I'm finding in cursory search is this which has too big of an ID. Only junk carbs I have to pilfer are from a CB360, and nothing worth ripping off of it.



I'm missing a thrust spring (I think I have all the sync springs) as well so also going to have to find something on McMaster Carr. If I find something that works, I'll let ya'll know.

Besides the parts I mentioned as damaged or missing(that missing brass plug and the bent throttle sync plate), everything else in the carburetor appears fine. I think it's worth giving it a shot at trying to fix it first.

 

Maybe cutting off the thick section of a pilot jet and drilling it out to the correct size?



I'll take a couple measurements later this week and see if something looks close. I have a shitte-tonne of old pilots and two sets of 86 carbs on my bench.

I can also take some carbs to work and use my pin gages to tell you exactly what size the ID is.

 

That makes my project look like a normal service. My 500 carbs leak like a broken house main. Fuel tube o-rings that I tried using my handy dandy o-ring kit are too small. I guess it is a race to get carbs rebuilt now.

 

Have you tried to source a set of carbs via a forum member?
The ones you have look to be a NIGHTMARE.

 

We choose to go to the moon...in this decade and do a rebuild on a set of destroyed VF carbs, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.

You have to be one of these 4 things to work on these old V4's:

1.) Passionate
2.) Have infinite amounts of money and patience and willing to waste them
3.) Delusional
4.) Masochist

 

Ask NOT what the forum members can do for you
Ask what can I do for my forum members

It’s cool to see what people do with little here… the members just kick ass


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I find it highly coincidental that I'm wearing my Rice Owls sweatshirt while working on the bike now and reading your post. I think it's just because I enjoy owls, but maybe it's a little bit of #3 and #4 from your list. Definitely isn't #2. #1 gets tested fairly often.

And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon... We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. - JFK 1962 at Rice University.

Not yet. I'm stubborn and I want to give this a shot first--If I strike out though, yea. I will. In talking with Joe at V4Dreams, he'd mentioned he'd seen this type of ham-fisted damage on a few occasions. He was able to get a bike running alright that had two of those 4.5mm inserts broken. I still want to figure out a repair. Once I get the fuel pipes in delivered (they're sitting at a USPS station like 3mi from my house grrrrr), I can see if I can get alignment and a basic bench sync done. If I find that's impossible, then yea, that's another show stopper. Got them about as clean as I can and did a lot of wire brushing as well to clean them up. Diaphragms are all good. New A/F orings. Glad I checked the float height level because 3 of them were at 7mm, but one of them was only at 5mm. That's sorted now.

I wouldn't even consider trying to work on any of these things if VFRW didn't exist-I'm very thankful for all the help I've gotten from members here. It sucks that the proliferation of facebook/tiktok/whatever else has killed a ton of the useful and nuanced discussion of bikes. Glad this little pocket continues on though.

Just rebuilt the petcock with a Parts Unlimited kit. Required drilling out the rivets holding the assembly together. There was so much crusty bullshit inside of it, I don't really think I had a choice. Assuming it holds fluid now, the fuel tank (one of the only good bits of this bike) should be all ready to go.



I drained out the coolant and I'm getting ready to crack open the valve covers to check the valve clearances and hopefully find no surprises inside. The Motobatt AGM battery showed up as well. So once I get the clearances set, I'll check compression and hopefully that checks out.

 

I was wondering if people removed the petcock rivets.. now I know it is another avenue. Sweet!

 

I didn't really document it, but the included instructions were easy to follow.