Help me with my VF500!

I don't mind working on the bike, and if I can find a gasket i will be more than willing to take the motor out and replace it... my girlfriend's dad has a compression tester so i'll probably just haul the bike home and do that stuff this summer, i'm gonna keep working on the rest of it while i'm at school here...

 

Actually no... the 500's are known for this problem. There is a TSB that outlines some adjustments to the idle screw settings that help.

 

www.Bikebandit.com
www.oldbikebarn.com
www.cheapcycleparts.com
http://www.z1enterprises.com/catalog.aspx?pid=VF500F-1985

That should be a good start to find what you are going to need for that project. I am interested in your yoshis tho if your getting rid of them. You have any pics of them on your bike?

 

That may be.....But my hard starting issue was cured by cleaning and replacing that gasket along with the cover. My gasket had some parts missing on the front half when the PO opened that side up and never replaced the gasket after it broke.
I know that the cover did not fit properly because I actually had a crack in it just behind the oil fil cap and in front of the raised section for the clutch. When you tightened down the front set of bolts you could see the crack expand. Once you unscrewed the front bolts and put them hand tight everything moved freely. When the cover was tightened down the starter would not even turn over......

either way, that is just my experiance with the issue.....

 

My 500 is leaking on the left side cover but its not anywere near that bad its just like a drip every once and a while. Unless it gets worse I'm going to wait till this season is over then take care of it while it down for winter.

 

anyone got an idea of where this tube may have come from?







I found it when I pulled the bike out of the garage a few days ago and it was somewhere around here the center stand sits I believe...

 

Bet it's the coolant reservoir drain hose.

 

that could almost explain the loss of coolant right? Although there is coolant sitting in the reservoir still...

 

Battery vent tube perhaps?

 

pretty sure my bike doesn't have the battery vent tube, i'll check it out after practice...

 

my bike use to run fine in the drive but run like poop going down the road, it was a 45 minute fix for me it was carb issue. What I did was pull carbs, pull bowls, pull floats, pull jets (there are three I don't know the technical name for each) one takes a flat head, one takes a wrench, and the other is the one that the float needle sits in. I took a strand of wire and went in one side and out the other, then took that niftyt red tube that comes with a can of carb cleaner and shot though each piece as well as into the carb itself. then after all four were done I did a quick bench sync put it back together and wala she is running great 20k on my engine, don't really know if thats a lot but I sure do like how its oing now!! Hope that may help ya????

 

oh ya the jet that takes the wrench also takes a flat head on the end and it comes apart. Just make sure each piece once removed is clean so that you can see through it.

 

as small as that tube is I would almost put money on that it is from a battery vent tube, when I got my bike it had three of them from previous batteries I guess not used so I tossed them

 

The main jet has the seat that comes out with a socket. The slow jet is all one piece that comes out with a flat head.

 

Okay, here is my update...

I figured out that my bike hasn't been firing the rear 2 cylinders... I (stupidly I know) had pulled the spark plug connectors off by the wire, causing it to raise up into the cover somehow... So I fixed that and got to thinking...

If the rear 2 cylinders weren't firing, then all of the gas that was being shot into those cylinders would fall right down into the oil correct?

So could the mix of the gas and the oil be the cause for the discoloration? The only other thing I could think is that because it was only firing 2 cylinders when I reved the engine up to 8K it was the same as redlining the bike because it was only have of the power, and that could have caused the blown gasket... If that is the case would it more likely be the front or rear gasket to blow in this situation?




And yes yes, leakdown test leakdown test leakdown test, i don't have my tester yet so i'm working on other things, I am in love with this bike already...



and the tube fit on the battery, it has never been on there and must have been stuck down in the bike somewhere...

 

Do you have a white smoky sweet-smelling exhaust? That's a sure sign of coolant in the cylinder(s). A blown head gasket could be the cause. It could be caused by something worse.

If I were in your position, I would take the bike to a mechanic - not a Honda dealer - and pay for a diagnosis of the problem. Take it to someone who has the equipment to perform a compression test and a leakdown test. Have the guy pressurize the coolant system.

Maybe it's just a blown head gasket. Maybe yours blew when the engine overheated repeatedly before you got the radiator fans working. After I had a mechanic pinpoint the problem for $200, I replaced the head gasket on my 1984 VF750F last winter. It was a significant amount of work for a backyard mechanic like me, but I did it successfully. I replaced the cam chain tensioner too. The parts came from eBay. It wasn't my idea of fun, but it might be yours.

Oh, and buy a shop manual.

 

$200 to look at the bike is nearly half as much as I spent for the bike, and I deff don't have that to spend... I'm getting a compression tester tomorrow, there is no white smoke out of the exhaust, everything seems pretty normal besides the loss of upper end power and the oil being weird...

 

No, the vast majority will get pushed out into the exhaust pipes. A little will gather and could get into the oil, but not to the degree (or amount) that you show in the previous pictures.

I know you are worried about a leakdown test, but a much more simple check that you should do first is to check the plugs. Has this been done yet? This will give you very clear clues as to what is going on. A wet look will be flooding or misfiring, white crusty plugs will be the signs of burning coolant. This will also clearly identify if it's both cylinders on that bank or just one.

 

What a mystery!

All 4 plugs are dry with black carbon buildup. I wonder if the plugs are the proper heat range or whether they're burning an overly rich mixture.

All four cylinders are firing now. I guess.

Engine won't spin up into high revs.

And about all that coolant in the oil! The exhaust isn't smoky and sweet, but that coolant in the crankcase came from somewhere. The oil shows it and the coolant level in the radiator has dropped.

Where did all that oil on the engine/lower frame rail come from? That's a lot of oil!

What did the engine sound like? Any knocking or clicking?

A compression test tells you how tight/leaky each combustion chamber is. A leakdown test can help you pinpoint compression problems like intake valve leakage, exhaust valve leakage, ring leakage, or a blown head gasket. Consider it after the simple compression test.

 

may be i'm too late...but, after all this work...did you check if your silencer (the final part) has a little "hole" ? Is it clear ? Sometimes the hole is dirty and completely shut. Air condensation returns back to the carbs and they can not have a good air/gasoline mix....it means irregular idle, no engine performance an high consumption...
Lamps, Carmine.