Okay Vman, I started taking apart the little VF. I'm going to try to link a couple pics in the footer of this msg. You've gotta see this wheel. I thought it was black until I got at it with WD40 and elbow grease! Im not sure if you can see it in the pic, but I think the chain is shot. And take a look at that sprocket. Is this a weird setup or what? Okay, beside some cleaning I hooked up the battery charger and got nada. The neutral light is on and the oil light, but no click, nothing. I may have to just strip this bike all the way down and start from scratch.
OK. I gotta say, what the hell kinda sprocket it that? Maybe its just the point of view. As for the chain, its hard to tell but if it were me I'd replace it. At the very least yank that sucker off and soak it in 10W30 for a few days. So, you have power and thats a good thing. As for the no click, I presume it has glass (buss) fuses and not the nice bayonette fuses. Are the fuses in tact? Sometimes glass fuses are hard to tell if they are blown or not. You can check them with a multi meter. On my radian, I replaced the glass fuses with bayonette fuses. The fuse block has a common ground, so I just wired in fuse holders I got at Advance Auto Parts. If the fuses are good, the next step is to make sure you have power to the relay, then to the starter. If you have power to the relay, but not the starter, I would suspect a faulty relay. You can jumper the starter by running a hot wire directly to it from the battery, but I ould not make this a permanent jumper as you just want to see if the starter turns over. This is like running a jumper wire from a car battery to the fan motor of a car to see if the fan motor runs. If the motor runs, the relay is bad, if not then the fan motor is bad and it needs to be replaced. In this case, if the starter turns, then the relay is bad, other wise the starter is bad. have I lost you yet? I'll stop here and let you get bearings. Keeping it simple, check the fuses, then the relay.
Ok. Now you can school me. how the heck did you get those thumbs in the footer? When I try it I have to link it to somehwere else? is that what you did? I think I figured it out. I had to switch editors but after a few minutes I got ig figured out. DOH! lol
Thats a stock chain has a oil splash guard on the sproket, from what I can see is okay, you'll have to get it rolling down the road to be able to tell for sure. Now for the starter thing is this a new battery? if not, go get one at least you tried to get it charged, or take the old battery to the shop for a load test to see, takes a bit to get things going, those little lights take nothing in the way of power to lite up. Does the horn beep good and loud? what about lights? brake lites? turn signals? all things to check, also make sure the kill switch is on. haha ask me how I know that's one I've caught a lot of folks with.. hehe, anyway hope that helps if all those things check out then you'll need to dig deeper make sure theres juice throuch the key switch then on to the starter IMO thinking first off it's something simple good luck let us know how it goes..
Ok, turns out the battery was just way....way dead. After sitting on the charger overnight, it works. I started her up. Doesn't sound too bad. Not crisp on the throttle response, but I didn't warm her up much as I haven't done all my fluid changes yet. I just wanted to her her run. I definitely detect some kind of tapping noise on one of the front cylinders. As for the chain, It has some definite wear and doesn't sit centered in the rear sprocket. I haven't taken the guard off the front to look at it, but more than likely the chain will go. I was thinkin about changing to a normal looking sprocket, too.
Again The sproket thing is just a guard go with new chain and sprokets in the stock size. Good to hear you got in running good to hear you didn't run it long either good idea to change that oil asap that tap tap is probably a lose lift fork on the cam No Vman no lifters here either haha let it get goosd and warm then follow up with that later dang were'd all those 500s go, nice bike... have fun
Yeah, put some new lifters in it. While you're there, the thingamadoodle might need to be lowered closer to the thingamabob. and don't forget the lift knife while which is opposite the lift fork. lmao. ok I am done with bad jokes for now. lol. Glad you got it running and that is something simple. I hate troubleshooting electrical problems. I agree the fluids, both oil and coolant, should be a one of the next items on the to do list. look, only been married less than a week and already you have a to do list. lol ;-)
I know and it is all self imposed stuff. When I told her I got the bike running, she said 'aren't you so excited?' Oh well, I think she will enjoy it when I get it going well. If not, I know lots of people that would enjoy going for a spin on it.
Thanks RVFR. So far I am having a good time with it so it's all good. I would like to tear her down and rebuild it more or less. I think it would help me with wrenching skills and such. I have done minor maintenance all my life, but no full on rebuilds. It would be nice to see if I can do it.
Reg, DFIAB Don't fix it if it ain't broke. You can find plently of legit really broken stuff to practise on if you must tear something down. I understand the motivation but the cost in terms of parts and time will quickly render this functional machine, a basket case. It will cost more than it is worth. It sounds like this one simply needs some basic maintenance (fluids and valve adjust etc) and a really good cleaning. Then you can ride er like she is stolen. That is a stock sprocket so just get used to the appearance as it will work fine as long as the teeth are good. Chain is probably seized up due to age and lack of lubrication. It may loosen up with some TLC or if not order up a new set complete and you may get rid of the flange in the process. Of course, this is just my humble opinion. I'm bored, I think I will change my steering head bearings. Later............
I missed Jethro's first reply on this one. Don't worry, I'm not tearing it all apart, but I do have to get the clutch working. The master cyclinder is dry. The seller said he noticed leaking at the slave and there was no pressure when you pull the lever. The bike actually will ride down the road and back and shift so it's not far from running condition. The front forks have a prob, though. So my list so far is make clutch work, tune up and fix tapping noise, change fork oil (hopefully that will be enough), clean up as we go. Then ride the hell out of it. This bike feels so light I can't wait to throw it around.
Sounds good Reg! These were very popular back in the day. We sold more of these than we did the 750 and they were relatively trouble free despite the abuse that they generally took. If I recall, they would run around 130ish wound out and handled nice. I was riding a CBX550 at the time and the VF500 was a good match power wise but had a better handling package. It was fun to run against them with an air cooled four! The CBX was no slouch and could be ridden around the VF if the rider was less experienced or failed to bring their A game. Have fun!!:tongue:
Way to go reg. Sounds like a slave cylinder rebuld might be in order but that should not be a difficult task.
