1992 VFR750F Rescue / Refresh

Well, I wasn't going to bother removing the PAIR hard lines until much later. I was in between some things and I decided to pull the Works shock and install the stock 92 I bought so I can ride it when it is road worthy. The Works needs a full service, but it is likely not going back on this bike. I have a Fox TC for it.

Anyway, I got the shock out and thought, well fuck.



Everything's right there. Might as well. So I pulled the hard lines today, cut off the tubes, sandblasted the fittings and the donor "plugs". Mated up with some JB Weld in the threads with some nice squish out.



Another set of block off plates nearly done, some light sanding and engine paint left. Finally going to rebuild the carbs tomorrow after breakfast and run this thing this week.

 

Smart... get it done while it's easy to get to

 

Did both of my gen3s without removing all that, when you look up the PITA that job is illustrated. Did it a long time ago, no regrets at all. I use my gen3s to go to verk weekly, they don't so much as fart or hick-up. Peace Nice write ups too btw

 

But I had the shock out... And that's what I was looking at. Why TF wouldn't I at that point?

 

Exactly, my shocks were in situ' Its like when you have the carburetors out and you don't service the t-stat. Flip side if its not broken don't fix it, in my case - the t-stat was never replaced, one was stuck open, the other well, I replaced it.

 

Taking my own advice and am going thru the cooling system while the carbs are out. I was going to wait until I ran it a bit, but I'm so confident in the engine I might as well get it over with. Very glad I did.



This is no longer an o-ring, just a smushed circle of goo. And what does still look like an o-ring, just crumbles.



Dropped the oil and filter. Very pleased.



It was dark, but not spent. No shimmery surprises or weird smells. Just good ol used oil. Cool.

This bike didn't have any corrosion on the hose to spigot fittings, I was very surprised by that. Coolant must have been kept up on better than most of the bikes I acquire.

 

Wow... this is one of the worst ones I've ever done. Everything just crumbles.

 

The silver part is the cross over for the water jackets? Looks just like the coolant tubes on my Kawasaki head. Those have to come out before you remove the valve cover, always, always replace those even if they look reasonable (don't ask me how I know this.) PEacE

 

I just pulled the thermostat assembly out of the 99 for new O rings and thermostat and you were right Capt. the O rings are toast and all the hoses look to have been seeping, glad I am doing this now instead of cursing about a coolant leak some day

 

Looks VERY familiar. Check the aluminum spigots carefully for pitting too. Most of mine that looked like that had some pitting from corrosion. I sandblast them, fill the voids with JB Weld and file/sand back down. Finished with some etching primer and paint.

Last night I ordered all the 0-rings in Viton from Orings n More. Matched up the dimensions for the ones listed by Honda and did some reverse engineering on the others. It was about 1/4 the price of going thru Honda, and when you do as many bikes as I am doing, it helps. A couple of them might need a slightly smaller / bigger size, but at this price and felt like I could experiment some. The only one I didn't try was the seal for the coolant tube coming up from the water pump to the cross-over cap, it's a double wide seal. I will probably try and use a single o-ring at some point as an experiment, as one of my VFRs it has been discontinued. It will likely be just fine.

 

Would you happen to have a list of what you ordered? I am getting ready to tear into my trusty 99 as well.

 

Last night I ordered all the 0-rings in Viton from Orings n More. Matched up the dimensions for the ones listed by Honda and did some reverse engineering on the others. It was about 1/4 the price of going thru Honda

Boy I hear ya on the cost of Honda O rings and parts, by the time I am done replacing the thermostat and associated O rings and short pipes to the water joints I will be well over $100 plus tax
I checked out your supplier site, impressive selection of O rings for sure, like you said it takes a little time to match up the O rings needed for a Honda but it may save a lot cursing down the road when Honda has no stock left
I wonder how well or how long Viton O rings would last sitting on the stock shelf in the work shop ?
Great restoration suggestions by the way

 

I will update this after I get them and match up to some hardware. There's a couple I might have to tweak the size on, but I think I'm really close.

I'm not concerned about shelf life, as long as that shelf isn't outside in the sun. Look how long the stock ones lasted going thru thousands of heat cycles and exposed to chemicals.

 

Nor sure I should be putting comments about my 1999 restore here but I think it flows right along with the Capt's work on 1992
As Capt suggested I pulled the thermostat housing and hoses to replace the O rings and even the thermostat, even though the bike seemed to warm up ok and the fan came on at the right temp
Well first off I found a chunk of alum. shaving in the housing

And secondly I found that the old thermostat sure looks stuck open to me


This sure has proven to me that even a VFR needs to be maintained more than we sometimes think, or I my case I did not want to spend the $100 plus on parts and time to dig this deep, but I would have been so pissed to have put this thing back together and than have coolant issues next summer.

 

That's what drives me to do all this shit and not wait until there is a problem, especially when everything is exposed and the easiest time to take care of it. Problems rarely rear their ugly head on my lift or in my driveway.

 

I've certainly seen worse. At least they don't smell from bad gas, just a little corrosion from when the guy had it parked out in a car port.



I'm getting kinda sick of restoring cooling systems. The radiator had me nervous (wet from a quick initial bath)



But I think I caught it just in time


I have since sand blasted the side tanks and the upper and lower mounts and there weren't any terrible surprises. Whew.

 

Oh, what fun.


Everything was about what I expected. Maybe a little more "apple butter" in there than I wanted, but it should be a fairly easy clean up. Nothing is plugged.

2 pilot jets wanted to be difficult. When they didn't want to turn and I saw the brass starting to deform, I started soaking the threads with PB Blaster for a couple days. Still didn't want to go. So I started stripping the carbs to be able to apply some heat without melting something expensive and important. When I got the main jet holders out, I had a little better angle for some small needle nose vise grips. Was able to get a good grip around the flat blade slot... and they moved! Whew.


Time for some fun with gas, tooth brushes, carb clean, compressed air, beer, music.

 

My 93 I took home on a trailor had these buggered up brass jets, some Neanderthal used pliers! Farking fark, I ended up doing a donor set of carbs as I was having problems with them. Everything worked oot well in the end though. Also, bought a gas tank for said bike. Nice work, I took my 91 to work all week, just came back from a spirited ride aboot 45 miles, highway, everglades riding, some spots 135mph, others just kinda lopping along at 85-90. These bikes wana use 6th gear at 85+. Peace out

 

Here's what is confirmed to be good:

Water pump to engine Qty 1
91302-MB0-013 O-RING (32.95X2.62) (ARAI) 2.58
FKM O-ring 32.99 x 2.62mm Minimum 5 pcs sku: 3299262MMV *good* .22

Coolant cross over tube Qty 2
91301-147-023 O-RING (18.3X2.3) (ARAI) 1.77
FKM O-ring 18.3 x 2.4mm Minimum 3 pcs sku: 18324MMV *good* .60

Coolant fitting to head Qty 2
91331-PC9-003 O-RING (21.2X2.4) (ARAI) 3.05
FKM O-ring 21.3 x 2.4mm Minimum 2 pcs sku: 21324MMV *good* .66

Thermostat housing Qty 1
91311-KE8-000 O-RING (47.5X2) 2.01
FKM O-ring 47 x 2mm Price for 1 pc sku: 472MMV *good* .98


Here's the misses:

Cross over caps Qty 2
91301-MB0-000 GASKET, CONNECTING CAP 3.76
FKM O-ring 47 x 2.5mm Price for 1 pc sku: 4725MMV (not ordered) 1.11
FKM O-ring 48 x 2.5mm Price for 1 pc sku: 4825MMV *LONG* 1.13
could be thicker too, 40 x 3.0 ?? sku: 403MMV

Water Pump Cover Qty 1
19226-ML7-000 GASKET, WATER PUMP COVER 4.37
FKM O-ring 78 x 2mm Price for 1 pc sku: 782MMV (not ordered) 1.75
FKM O-ring 82 x 2mm Price for 1 pc sku: 822MMV *long* 1.82
76 ?? sku: 762MMV


I will update again later. I need to go thru my o-rings and find some more stuff to order to make shipping worth it.