86 VF500F Clutch has small friction zone

Just called my "local" Honda dealer. They have the seal and are open until 8...heading out to get it now.

 

a gravelly sound usually means bearing is FUBAR. try and wobble the shaft to see if it has any freeplay. f it does, you need a new bearing.

 

Not great news.

I agree that his may indeed be a bearing issue. It sounds very similar to the bear that ron.ciere.313 encountered.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

Where abouts do you live codeinvb?

 

It's definitely the bearing, I honestly knew it as soon as I touched the shaft. I was able to wobble the shaft all over the place and it had in/out play as well. I got the email about your post as I was pulling into the dealership. I bought the seal anyhow since they had it. It was in an old box that had about 30 random old parts in it. I'm going to check with ron.ciere.313 to see how much money he has in parts for the repair. My brother in law (whom I trust with all things with engines) has offered to do the labor for me. I was talking to the guy at the dealership about a brand new (leftover) 2009 FZ6...less than 5 miles on it...fuel injected...so tempting... I told him about the issues with my VF including that the bearing was bad. He offered me $500 for it for his personal collection without seeing it...

Matt, I'm about 15 miles from Corning, NY.

 

Well I was to ask the question of how much you would let it go for but with you being that far from me I doubt it would be cheap enough.

 

Is the 85 countershaft compatible with an 86? I'm guessing no since they aren't the same part numbers.

 

Hmmm that sir is a excellent question you'll probably have to look a the micro fiche.

 

Countershaft bearing replacement parts list

after re-reading the thead by ron.ciere.313 it doesn't really sound like he had to spend that much on the repairs, it was just the time. If he had gone with the new replacement countershaft it would have been quite a bit more though. I found these parts in the thread

• Gasket kit A
• Gasket kit B
• Counter shaft seal
• push rod seal
• push rod
• miscellaneous bolts
• Counter shaft bearing (or a donor shaft with the bearing on it)
• assembly lube
• assembly oil
• a couple of specialty tools, 27mm socket, universal holder
• tappet tool and two long feelers (adjust those valves!)

Anything else?

 

Go for it! Like you said its going to be more time consuming than anything else.

 

What's the history of this vehicle?

The Valvetrain and Cams are in good enough shape to make it worth the repair?
Compression is good.

 

Slowbird's post above is on the money.

Best to inspect the valve train as a next step before deciding to rebuild.

On question I have, more of a hunch, would you mind removing the oil pan and inspecting the screen on the oil pump?

Good luck!

 

FSM says that you need to remove the exhaust assembly to do this. Is that 100% necessary to do?

 

You don't need to remove the rear exhaust pipes (which is not easy to do) but you would need to take to mufflers, collector box and front headers off.

This is very straightforward but I certainly understand if this is more than you would like to take on right now.

 

ok, so how much of a pain in the arse is it to check the valve train out?

 

Fair to middling.

You'll need to remove the cam covers, front and rear. The FSM will give you all the details on this.

 

...and you'll have to know what you're looking for. (and how to check the valve clearances)

Checking the condition of the Cams, lobes, and valve stems. These bikes are known to have issues in the valvetrain.

 

ok. parts are on order. FYI oldbikebarn.com sells Athena full gasket sets for VF500's. OEM Gasket set "B" is on backorder from Honda until 11/1.

 

Bike is running again, now back on topic. I bled the system to start, that didn't work. Then I replaced the brass bushing in the lever, that didn't work. I finally got the rebuild kits for both the master and slave cylinders and put them in with fresh fluid. The clutch now works perfectly.

 

Success!!!!

Huzah!!