New owner, long time admirer.

Ok, first of all, the feature that displays existing threads similar to the title you type in is awesome. My car forum desperately needs that to help with the obnoxious repeat topics.

Anyway! I've long admired the VFR line, my favorite being the 98-01 800's. I do like the way the tail pipes come up under the seat of the VTEC models, though. I've long been searching for "the one", and have yet to find it. It's like these bikes are rare, or something

Fate threw an interesting opportunity at me this last weekend, though. I hopped on Craigslist at about midnight, and just happened to see an ad that was only posted an hour or so prior. It was a listing for an 84 Interceptor, a VF500F. Normally, I look right over anything that old, but there was one thing that caught my attention: the $500 price. To make a long story short, I now own a 1984 VF500F that has a blown engine, and a brand new engine. Yup, seller had both the bike and everything to fix it, as well as about 6 other Interceptors of various age and size. The guy was moving out of state, so it was a fire sale of all his stock and projects.

Score, if I do say so myself.

So, I will be picking up the bike in about 30 minutes and trailer-ing it to my garage to do the swap. If all goes my way, I'll have it running Monday.

As said, I'm very new to actually owning an Interceptor, and anything this old. Aside from the obvious things every bike should be inspected for, what should I check that is VF500-specific? Any help and pointers would be great. I got a service manual for it, too, by the way.

Pictures will be coming very soon, too!

 

:welcome: There are no shortage of VF500 experts and enthusiasts on this here site, you're in good company. I'd say you scored for $500 even if you had to go find your own engine for it. Good find :thumbsup:

 

Well, that's the best part! It came with the engine in the deal!

Here's two quick pictures I snapped right after unloading it. I didn't have a real chance to clean it, so it's dusty and the wheels have a little grime on them:





I took the tank bra off, and both me and my pro-racer buddy's eyes got wide. It's literally factory fresh on the gas tank. As far as we can tell, this bike has never been crashed, or possibly even layed down.

The only real problems besides the engine, that I have noticed so far, is that the exhaust isn't right, and the front forks have a little bit of scuffing on them.

One of the PO's decided, for whatever reason, to put Kawasaki exhaust on the bike. They made their own "custom" bracket to attach it all. Needless to say, it wasn't perfect, and the right side bracket actually dug into the swing arm. There's a small gouge there, which is disappointing.

The front forks sort of stumped us for a bit, as it looked like it was layed down, but the marks were perfectly symmetrical, and on both left and right sides. Finally, it occurred to me. I hopped on the bike, squeezed the front brake, and pushed the bike down hard. Sure enough, the tops of the front forks hit the blinker light brackets. So, it turns out the scuffs aren't from impact, but from a long period of scraping.

All in all, a lot of very easy fixes. I'm very happy, and very anxious to hear it running.

 

Dang that's a purty little thing!

 

Great find, you definitely scored on this one. Keep us posted on the progress.

 

Nice! This bike just became available when I was fresh out of High School, long story short, my dad bought a 750 Magna that I rode more often than he did and I bought a Mustang GT. Always wanted this bike though! Good luck on the engine swap and on your "restoration". I hope to see more post about it.

 

Engine swap should be easy. I did one with a buddy on a 750 Interceptor in one (albeit long) evening. Did the swap at his place (he had a garage), and rode it home. Piece of cake lad.

 

Should I follow the manual's recommendations for fluids, or are there any "secrets" that the VF owners know about? Also, I need a battery. Any recommendations? I believe in the philosophy of "Do it right, do it once" as well as "Pay once, cry once."

 

You got that for what price? I hate you...


Nice find!!!

 

So, I got the new engine in, but I noticed a few differences. The water pump was different, as were the upper coolant hoses. There was a little vent in the left rear cylinder on the old engine, and just a screw in the same hole on the new one. The crankcase covers on the old were black, and the ones on the new were just regular metal. Another thing, the old motor has an oil sensor with just one wire coming off it going up into another harness. The new motor has a two wire plug coming off it. What's the deal with all this? Different years? I also noticed one said P12 and a bunch of numbers, and the new engine said P13. A later year/revision?

I basically took everything that was different between the motors and swapped them over, except for the oil sensor. I'm not sure what to do about that yet.

Also, much to my frustration and rage, I broke the carburetor when I was trying to get it to fit back into the rubber keepers. It's a crack on the front edge, up by the handle bars. I'm going to attempt to super glue the two pieces back in just to keep going and get it running, but for long term, does anyone have a VF500F carburetor for sale? I also need the stock mufflers.

Other than that, I got it about 65% done. New engine is in, and I'm just starting to put all the cables, tubes, and hoses back together.

I worked right until it got dark and the mosquito's drove me inside. I apologize, again, for not having pictures to show, but hopefully I will tomorrow to better show what's going on.

 

What year is the new engine? The '84, '85 and '86 had different carb configurations. If you can get the ID # off the afflicted carb, it will help. BTW....you might want to move this thread to the 1st & 2nd gen forum, you will get a lot more replies & info.

 

HMMF2-AF is the only thing I could find on the carburetor plate. I took lots of pictures, though, and will be uploading them soon.

Also, I shall post in the other section if I meet a problem I feel I can't at least find a temp way around. The only thing left to do is let the QuickSteel on the carburetor plate dry overnight, adjust the drive chain, and re-install the gas tank, seat, and fairings. I bought a new battery, so that has to charge overnight as well.

 

The reason I ask about the carb ID is that I have a nearly complete set of '85 carbs for parts. The carb ID is stamped on the carb body and begins with the letters "VD". See if you can find the number, I might have the part you need.

 

Well, the bike is definitely an 84, and I just put the bike's carbs on the new motor. Are you saying that you can not interchange carbs on motors? All I really need is the "plate" that the carbs are on; the piece that the airbox sits on.

The only other marks I saw on the carbs was on each side, left and right. VD was over a logo with KEI on the left, HIN on the right, and JAPAN under it. Where should I be looking?

 

here are the pictures:

In this pic, this is the old motor. See the oil sensor with a single wire off it, going up into that harness?



Here's the new motor. Two wires, going to a plug.



(Also, that's the battery ground strap, right?)

Here's a picture showing the old motor's water pump on the new motor. Note the extra bolt for a drain hole.



Here's the new motor's water pump. No drain bolt, and the pipe angle is different.



Lastly, here's that vent tube I was talking about.



It was on the old motor, so I swapped it over to the new one.

Also, sorry for the double post. I can combine them if it's a problem.

 

Apologies....I misunderstood about what you need, it is listed in the FSM as "air cleaner base". I have one, if you want it, $35 plus shipping. Be forewarned that if you remove the carbs from the plate, a lot of things are going to come loose, the fuel tees, vent tubes, synchro springs, etc. It might be an understatement to say that it is a challenge to get it all back together. If your Quiksteel repair is successful, you might be better off to go with that.

 

Pretty much. Depending on the year and whether or not it is a California model, they all have different carbs and jetting.

 

Oh, my fault. The manual just refers to the assembly as a whole, and calls it "the carburetor", so I was just following suit. However, they also call one of the gauges a "speedomater", so maybe that isn't wise...

I'll give the QuickSteel a run, since the broken parts aren't pressurized, or holding liquid in any way. If it fails, I know where to turn to, first. Thank you for the offer.

 

Creaky is correct... it is a GIANT pain in the butt to get things back together if you pull the carbs off of the plenum. The fuel tubes (and their O-rings) are a particular problem, and of course a carb synch is a must once you've done that. Let us all hope the glue thing works.