Peer Pressure 1986 VFR700

^^ excellent! Thanks ColdD!

 

Good news on the valves and cams. The cam lobes look great, and none of the valves were more than 0.001" out of tolerance.





Very cool to see the gear driven cams. Those two rear exhaust 10mm tappet locknuts are a bit of a bugger to get to, but these were a lot easier to set than the smaller VF500. Might as well get the valve covers and radiator back on and find out if I have adequate compression.

 

Whelp. Probably going to be some deep thinking time because I'm popping the ignition fuse the moment I press the starter button to try to get it to roll over. I'll give that some thought and get back to it another day.

 

What used to be a wiring harness looks gnarly. Looks like the carb guy was also the electrical side guy. Moon launch temporarily delayed due to technical issues.

 

OOOF. Mission control indeed. I like Honda wiring. I was impressed how easily my harness was to remove and put back together after 9 months.
YELP says the carb guy and the electrical guy swapped for a week, maybe you got that model. Check your VIN.

 

I printed off a wiring diagram and started racking my brain a bit on the ignition fuse blowing. Don't have that figured out yet, but I went for the easy one first. I'm glad I did because I now understand why the headlight will stay off if the starter button is pressed and doesn't fully return back out. Captain explained that to me when I was troubleshooting my buddy's VF500F, and I'd just accepted it as magic before. With how dirty it was, I figured this had a shot, but alas--I still popped the fuse after cleaning.



So I was removing the starter solenoid so I could test it and accidently bridged the circuit with a 10mm, it sparked, the starter turned, and I pissed myself a little bit. So why not do the compression test?


The #2 and #4 cylinders were at 150PSI, but the #1 and #3 were at 125PSI and 135PSI. I put a shot of oil from my new Rotella squirt gun into each (probably not the best idea if I don't want to foul plugs up.... but I really want to just know if I'm wasting time), and the compression raised to 140PSI and 150PSI.


I'm considering buying another wiring harness because mine is just so knackered. Some things look burned. Others look... wrong. Like the silicone rectifier--I'm not even sure what it does (it's connected to the neutral light and starter solenoid), but it looks melted on its casing in two spots.

It's annoying because all the electrical is out of my depth--but the engine does seem like it will probably work. Might as well learn something and keep going.

 

If the battery is sulphated, that will show a good charge, but not carry a load, blowing the main fuse. Try a different battery.

 

This battery is a brand new Motobatt AGM and cranks really strong when I bypass the ignition. The main 30A fuse isn't the one that's blowing--it's the 10A ignition fuse that's popping the moment I hit the starter button on the right hand control.

 

My first thought was the starter relay. You know everything after that is good now after jumping it.

You might be able to borrow one off of the VF500 to test, I think the config is the same.

But that harness is nasty looking too.

 

Not a lot going on there, maybe, just bite the bullet and start working through the circuit. I would pay close attention to the harness at the frontof the bike, as that part is constantly being pushed and pulled. Old wires get brittle.

 

Subscribed....Good luck there Matt!

 

during storage a fuel pump might have a stuck or sticky moving core, which will fry the ignition fuse from excessive current draw. i've seen junkyard pumps that blow a fuse when they're first plugged in.

 

I'll swap over the VF one to test that out--good call. I ordered a harness today on eBay as well that came off of a running bike since I think this current one will be a constant source of frustration with the amount of frayed and exposed wires.

It'll get there. Thanks Jim.

I hadn't considered that--thank you for the heads up. I've had the fuel pump relay disconnected during this whole time since I didn't want it to be running dry. But who knows what's happened in the 8-9 years since this bike was last at the shop according to maintenance records. I'll try out the fuel pump test procedure from the manual to confirm whether or not the pump is functioning. I should probably do that regardless as a matter of course. Thanks Squirrel.

 

Definitely a good call on the replacement harness. You're gonna save so much time and frustration. And as a bonus, you now have a bunch of Honda wiring and connectors for accessory and repair projects.

 

+1 to the spare parts, they have saved my ass several times from old proj bikes.

 

Very interesting and informative read Colddevil. A few months ago I picked up an 86 VF500F at an auction in Wisconsin and had it shipped to California. I spent more than it was worth and shipping cost a pretty penny. It needs a LOT of work, much more than the auction pictures showed, but I'm all in at this point and have started sourcing parts, at least those that are visibly in need of replacement. I hope to tear into it soon even though I'm upside down on it. Your parts list spreadsheet is similar to mine, although mine is way more extensive but it was nice to learn of a few more sources I wasn't aware of, Billy's Outback and V4Dreams. I'll be writing a restoration/build thread on it soon.

 

^^^ Ahh dang! 3 x 500s in process

 

Usually we try to find bikes from outside of the rust belt to bring here--not the other way around, hah. Actually you've simplified your life by not getting a CA model--so that's good. Man.. someone posted that parts bike for like $250 near LA not long ago. That would have been awesome to jump on.

The parts lists can be pretty daunting when you're putting them together. And they inevitably grow--seemingly forever. Just focus on a section at a time. Looking forward to following along with your thread. If you need pictures or anything, let me know. I think it's pretty inevitable that anybody buying a VF500F is going to end up upside down on them with how prices have gone nuts. But for a handful of people, it's worth it. They're just really, really cool.

 

I believe the cat still has the 500
https://orangecounty.craigslist.org/mpo/d/buena-park-1984-honda-vf500-interceptor/7563539032.html

 

If that thing was near me, I'd have bought it immediately. But that's because I want a spare tank, motor, and frame in the unfortunate event that I have a bad oopsie. My hesitation towards telling Sandman to go buy it is that it is a 1984 and he's got a 1986, and there might be enough differences to make it not worth it depending on what he needs. Different carburetor being the primary one. I think you can swap the motor from one to the other,
̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶l̶e̶t̶ ̶d̶i̶a̶m̶e̶t̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶d̶i̶f̶f̶e̶r̶e̶n̶t̶.̶

If space isn't a concern, it's really nice to have a reference bike when you're working on another.