My VF1000R Saga

Get on it! Best of luck with finishing the build.

 

Man, just back from getting married and already every night in the garage after work? That usually takes a few years.:wink:

Can't wait to see it together. Congrats on the nuptials.

 

she already kicked you to the garage eh? Typically when one gets married, more time is spent not in the garage. Congrats on the exchanging of rings.

 

And work continues.


DSCN2970 by aplaceinspace42, on Flickr

Current condition: Brakes are on and bled, hydraulic clutch is hooked up and bled, catch tanks are on, fairing subframe is on, headlight is on, wiring harness is on, radiators and fans are on. I still need to charge the battery and fill up the cooling system, attach the carbs and air box, and mount the rear fender. Then comes the body work.

As it so happens my wife has an uncle that restores old cars and tinkers a bit with old bikes. He's removing the dents from my tank and repainting it as my wedding present. Once I get all the fairings squared away and fitting right I'll take them to him for a paint job.

 

I can't wait to see the out come of this build. Looks good so far. Nice work.

 

I've been gradually fighting a series of coolant leaks. The first was at the water pump during the initial fill up, it started leaking right away. I had to drain it all and pull the pump apart to put hi temp gasket sealer in to get it water tight. The next came at the thermostat housing after filling the entire system. Once again everything was drained and hi temp gasket sealer went in. After finally thinking I'd beaten all the leaks I found that the connection tube at the top of the cooling jackets was leaking at both junctions. Once again, drain everything, pull it apart, out comes the hi temp gasket sealant, etc. The real fun will come when I've actually got it running, then I'll get to see if the sealant can hold the coolant when it's under pressure.

 

Picture 355 by aplaceinspace42, on Flickr

And so it goes. New gaskets are in there, but the fight continues.

 

I can only imagine how frustrating this has got to be for you. How bad is the leak? I'm sure the picture doesn't tell the whole story. Is it continuous when the bike is running? Are there any other leaks or is this the last one?

 

Today's investigations have shown that the gaskets are holding. The leak is from the water pipe that feeds directly into the front cylinder head. I haven't had the bike running since August or September of 2010, I wanted to get the leaks stopped before putting the carbs back on for the umteenth time, ya know?
When referencing the shop manual for how to remove and work on these pipes is just says "remove water pipe, remove O rings". Really helpful stuff.

Ten minutes with a great big flat head screwdriver later and it's off.

 

I feel your pain. It sucks to chase after stuff like that but when bikes sit, this sort of thing happens. I'd almost rather have a daily driver with 30k miles than a low mile bike that sat for 20 years. I know you'll get it, hang in there.