86 vf500 diy

Well I'm gonna start off with some braggin... Some of you may remember the carb mess I had when I purchased the bike. (see photos) Anyhoo, after many hrs reading up on this very site I learned some things... like remove the air plenum only if hell froze over... or how I need a cheerleading squad and a small fat kid to help with placing the carbs back on the bike. Bench tests. Mad kudos to all who mentioned bench tests. I think it took me over an hour to get the plenum back on. Well today I did a bench test to see if they leaked. I did not replace the o-rings on the bowl tubes nor did i replace the float bowl gaskets. Someone said here in a thread somewhere that they would swell up and dont need to be replaced. Well I gotta say its true. Cleaned the tub so there could be no doubt about a leak, Carefuly poured gas in to not spill into the tub... and BLAMO! Nothing. Not one drop from anything. I even shook a bit to make it do something, but nothing. I kinda feel lucky. But I would rather be good than lucky. So next on the list is to do a bench sync with a piece of paper, retrive the last ever motorcycle anything I'm gonna buy from EDS CYCLE rite here in Spokane, (carb holders) snap on the carbs and hit the "oh please god" button! Valve clearance is good, all fluids have been changed, cooliing sys. checked out good. I'll post on here about my running bike sync too. Thanks for ALL your help and knowledge VFRW.

 

Nice looking bike.

 

Letting fresh fuel sit in carbs for an hour or so should make starting easier.

Good luck !

 

Good luck and good work.

 

Good deal!

Thanks for the post and please let us know how the carb sync goes.

It is always nice to see another 500 being well cared for by a conscientious owner who likes a bit of wrenching.

A perfect match for any vintage bike.

 

Very clean bike. I'm in the process of the same thing on my VFR750. I took the carbs off and had Billy C do a rebuild. I have the carbs back on the bike after some help from that same fat kid! Is the next step to just throw the battery in and start cranking? Do I need to get fuel into the bowls first?

 

Thank you! Yeah I think I did ok... 750 bones and the plastic is in great shape! Anyhoo, here is a pic of my latest DIY. 5 bucks for 40 feet of 1/4 od tubing 5 bucks for the 2 tees and the clips, a piece of wood that was just layin around and 3 bucks for the drink bottles. 13 dollar manometer. Anyone have any thoughts about it? Feel free to let me know if i just wasted time and money!

 

Installation

Well, the carb install went well. Thanks to reading up here and learning the tricks. Tip the boots up, seat the rears first, watch CAREFULLY that the boots are not being crimped, and just apply some leverage and in they go! Just some stuff I learned... the trick of using a strap to pull the carbs to the rear of the bike like how the guy shows on the Magnas did not work. I think it was a waste of time. 2nd, secure the throttle cables before putting the carbs in. I just hooked up the ends and let the cables float around in the cable stay. After I seated the carbs, the push cable (the bottom one) came out of the throttle wheel. I was able to reinstall the damn thing with carbs on, but unless you have surgeuon like skills, just keep them clamped on the cable stay :wink: And thats what I learned.

It did start. It did run. However, it needed full choke and a squirt of gas staight into the carbs to start. It also needed full choke to stay running. Idle pilot screw adjustment (not the idle drop but a half turn in and out) did nothing. Too little on the Idle (to set idle rpm) and it died, too much and it died. Ripping the throttle instantly kills it. After the temp guage started to show she was getting warm she wouldn't stay running. Squirt some gas in, full choke, starts, hits 2 grand, and then founders to nothing after 2min of idle. I feel that bench syncing the carbs was good enuf and I am a machinest so i had a good feel with the piece of paper. (couldn't keep her running long enuf to sync em anyway.) Pulled plugs (all 4) and they were bone dry. In fact looked good. but with full choke they should have been full of gas. (new plugs to start with) I think I know what the problem is, but I would like some opinions first. I think the carbs need cleaned. All plugs looked equal. Help please!

 

I may have missed the post but did you inspect and clean all of the carburetor circuits when you had this set off of the bike?

 

I had the carbs sent out to a shop here in spokane. No I didn't visualy inspect the carbs. I sniffed em. A different shop told me that a smell test is as good as visual. Ok kinda hoaky but it made sense to me. After some thought I think my mistake is in the float adjustment. I measured the distance perpendicular to the bowl face, where as it should have been parallel to the needle valve inlet. Im not 100 percent right now, its late and the info is on the other computer. by the way sorry for not getting back to this sooner.

 

Smell test? Not sure I understand what they are referring to.

If I could recommend, remove the carburetors and carefully check all the circuits. Using a can of pressurized brake cleaner is a good method. Taper the end of the 'straw' to allow for a tight fit. Spray the brake cleaner into one part of a circuit and check to see where the spray comes out. You should be able to tell if the circuit is open.

Also it would be best to verify what the slow jets, jet needles and needle jets are in this set and to visually inspect the pilot screws.

Regarding the float bowls here is the FSM method (please note that this is for an '84, the '86 has a different height)

 

yup! Right on the money cities. The smell test is to smell bad gas. there is a difference in smell. In fact when the carbs have been cleaned, you shouldn't smell anything. However, when done cleaning and the smell of gas or old gas is still there, clean again. I wouldn't suggest this to anyone else though, gas is bad m'kay. I know for a fact that the jets are stock. (38 slow, 90 main) and the pilot screws look good. But I just really don't trust the guy that cleaned them. Yeah I need to re do the float level that is for sure, and I'm gonna shoot the passageways with brake cleaner like you suggested cuz it just should happen. Its extra work but if it was easy and fast its not worth doing. Thanks again cities!

 

One other thing to check while you there, the pairing of emulsion tubes. More info can be found here:

http://vfrworld.com/forums/1st-2nd-generation-1983-1989/32795-vf500f-1984-carb-specs-main-slow-jets-emulsion-tubes-jet-needles.html

 

Thanks! Everything checked out like you posted. the pilot jets were clean everything was clean on second look. The float level was wrong. I adjusted them like in the pic u sent and put the carbs back on. Having new boots made the difference big time! they just popped right on! And she lives!!!!!!!!!! started up with some gas squirted in the carbs and stayed running. idles ok (needs some fine tuning) stab it and she lites off while coming back to idle smooth. Now I'm about to try my homemade manometer. then the idle drop. Then I need to address the fuel petcock. Leaking from the non serviceable place. (yuck) If anyone has expiereince there let me know cuz im just gonna pop the rivets and take a look. It leaks now and if i destroy something I needed to get a new one anyways. Cheers boys i'll let you know about the manometer!

 

The DIY manometer is junk. completely junk. what a waste. The RPM Guage i used was garbage too. So I just set the pilots out 2 and a half like the book says and used just a double manometer (home made) and set all carbs to the #4. That was a waste too cuz I completely liked the way it ran before. So lesson learned is to pay for the proper tools. But Mable lives to race again!!!!!!!!

 

I am a fan of the Morgan Carbtune. It is worth the scratch. A manometer is really the only way to dial in the carburetors. No shortcuts here, IMO.

http://www.carbtune.com/

 

Ok, thats a bit much, but oh well, just gotta wait. What I'll do is fix the petcock or replace it.

 

Checked the No. 1 plug today. It is dark tan to light brown ish. Clean, no gunk and definitly no black stuff. I don't know but is that a little rich? or is it just right. A harley guy said that a little rich is good. Keeps some gas on the plug for take offs and a little rich is better than lean. Any thoughts?

Today I drilled out the rivets on the "non sericeable" side of the fuel petcock. There is nothing there that is irreplaceable. It consists of a face plate, a plastic ring with 2 nubs, a spring washer, (kinda like a belvile washer) the boss that turns with the outside knob, a "quad ring" and a rubber piece that seperates the 3 fuel passages. (IN FEED, ON, RESERVE.) I did take pictures but I left them at work. Anyhoo the Quad ring is what went. That I believe is harder to find than a reg. o-ring. But a regular 1 1/4" by 1 3/8" o-ring fit perfect. Yes it is not a quad ring and i'm not too sure on why they went with a quad, but I'll probably find out when I assemble it and gas goes everywhere! As far as a DIY, I wouldn't suggest just going to your home drill press and going to town. There isn't alot of material there and one mistake will be the end of it. crack the wall and JB weld wont help. After the rivets come out the holes must be tapped and the holes on the face plate must be opened up to accept the bolt. This is a job for someone confident in machine shop. I never did look up a price for a new petcock, hell it's probably not worth the trouble im going thru, but for a quarter (the o-ring) a dollar for the new ss screws, and an hour of time, screw it. Tomorrow I'll post up the pics and hopefully some more of the drilling and tapping.

 

Not enuf room to tap the case. just drilled it out .165 ish and put in 2 6-32 screws with nuts. Gotta grind the one side of the nuts to fit. Anyway it doesn't leak from there anymore. It does leak out the sides and every spot of bubbling paint along the right side as well as the left. More holes than the Iraqi navy!

 

For reference, more information on the steps involved in rebuilding a VF500F petcock can be found here:

http://vfrworld.com/forums/1st-2nd-generation-1983-1989/29316-1986-interceptor-500-fuel-petcock.html#post267354