hard time with 85 vf500

so i am having a hard time getting my 85 vf500 to run.
i bought it "running" but the tank was FULL of rust and the gas was horrible.
so i pulled the carbs and gave them a good cleaning. but when i put them back in today, i couldnt get it to fire. im a noob at carbs. and was wondering what the black rail is that connect the top part of the carbs. there is a lower fuel rail but im not sure what the black one is.

also, any tricks to these? im very frustrated with these carbs.

 

Location ?

why you people don't put where you live is beyond me.:unsure:

 

There are no tricks, it takes a deliberate and thorough approach.

Start at your tank and move down. The rust must be removed and sealed. Take it to a radiator shop and dip the tank, then have them redkote the interior.

Put a clear plastic fuel filter in the line between the tank and the fuel pump so you can see if there is still crud in the tank coming down. Check that the fuel pump actually is pumping fuel. Replace all the rubber fuel lines with fresh ones. Now you are at the carbs. BTW, the black tees are air vents tubes, the brown are fuel.

Where are you located, maybe someone close by can give you a hand with the carbs? i clean lots of carburetors and this is from my CL listing in huntsville under Services / cycles: (Carburetor Cleaning + Specialty Motorcycle Services)
"All the internal metal parts [inlet needle, pilot jet, main jet, emulsion tube, needle jet, mixture screw, etc.] are removed and soaked in solvent in order to loosen up the solidified varnish enough that a thorough mechanical cleaning can be done using secret specialized carburetor cleaning tools. Then all fuel and air ports and passages for all circuits are thoroughly cleaned, checked and VERIFIED to be open [choke/enricher, pilot, main, transition ports, decel enricher,etc]. The mixture screw covers are drilled out, removed and discarded, and the screw o-ring is replaced. Also any main jet o-ring is replaced in any of those carbs that have that design flaw (Yamaha/Mikuni). The vacuum slide and needle is cleaned by hand with no solvent on any rubber. Testing is done that the floats actually do. Synchronization of the carbs is done mechanically on the bench, and checking/setting the float level is done on the bench if the drain plug has the port for a gage."

So what did you do to clean your carbs?

 

did the tank cleaning with acid/water and about 3 hours of shacking around with nuts and bolts in there.
then replaced all the fuel lines with clear ones and 2 in-line fuel filters.

i took out the carbs, and took off that top plate that holds them all together. and immediately lost a rubber o-ring when one of the end carbs swung away from the others. took off float bowl covers and took apart carb and used 3 cans of "professional grade" carb cleaner on all the jets needles and bowls.
put them all back together. put them in the bike. and hung an auxilery fuel tank on my handlebar, because my fuel tank still had a little water in it, so i was still trying to get that out. run the line to the carbs and tried to start it. it started to sputter about 3 seconds into it, then just sounds like it wasnt even close.
with the choke on, the fuel rail connecting the two middle carbs, started to leak. so i said acouple curse words, and came inside to make an account here.
i have a clymer manual, but that thing sucks in the carb section.

 

What about all the little springs between each carb and on both sides of each carb synch screw--did you find all them? The brown fuel tees are almost 100% guaranteed to break if you remove the plenum plate and separate the carbs. i have cleaned dozens of VF carbs and never, ever remove that plate. Obviously the orings are necessary to keep it from leaking.

The pilot fuel jets are very tiny--~0.013", as are the choke enricher fuel jets. You will need to go to the electric guitar store near you to buy a number 12 (GO) and a number 14 or 15 (NO GO) string to rod out those jets and VERIFY that they are clean and open to the proper diameter--i have not found any chemical spray that will do the job reliably, and unless you know for sure that they are open to the right size, then you will forever cuss the day that you ever started messing with those things.

 

ok, so the carbs seperated, what should i do about the fuel tees?
and i will get some string tomorrow and continue cleaning.

 

Inspect and look for cracks, replace orings with fuel-rated rubber (some is not).

New fuel tees and orings can be bought from honda, or maybe ebay.

Good Luck it's a lot of work but will be worth it when finished...

 

If I could suggest a bit of book learning on V4 carburetors. Check out Mike Nixon's tech guide on rebuilding these. Jumping in without proper guidance isn't the way to go here.

The Motorcycle Project Book Nook

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

Try to avoid getting carb cleaner on the diaphrams, rubber don't like some solvents.

 

^ True enough. Best to remove the slides.

 

Why did you decide to remove the airbox baseplate ????????

Because you didn't do any reading of the service manual and just started loosening screws and bolts ?????

Like K-B says above, almost every carb cleaning operation can be done without removing that part from the 4 carbs.

Photo: cleaning idle jet with wire