New to the forum, just an into and my 1985 VF750F...

Thanks God you made the right choice!!! I thought the passion had died for a moment - that was a suspense written post!

Good luck I'll be keeping an eye out for the re paint

 

+1 :thumbsup:

 

Time moves on, glad to see you're giving her one more shot! Definitely a nice rest-mod project with your own twists to it. I'm always torn when it comes to vintage iron, how far from stock can one stray when clean complete original examples are getting so hard to find.

 

Today I pull the old girl out into the driveway and get read to throw fresh sparks and a new battery in it.

Pop off the seat and......Grrrrrrrr! Mouse house!

So the little bugger had found his way in somewhere in the past, dragged all kinds of fluff and crap up there and proceeded to munch away on the ignitior box wiring.

Of all things, why the ignitor boxes! Those a darned near impossible to replace....

Out comes the tools and garden hose. I start by blasting the little SOB's bedding out of the tool kit box. Oh for the luva.....mouse pee and crap has corroded the bolts.

I'll spare you the multiple explicatives that went on for a while and get to the wiring. Turns out, he had just munched on the tail light wiring. Stripped a bit of insulation and left it alone. Easily fixed.

The battery slots right in.

Next are the sparks. Yup, I'd forgotten they can be a pain all on their own. Well, slow and steady get them swapped out.

Ah yes, how convenient memory is....

I was then re-introduced to the joy that is working on a V4 and carbs.

A quick memory jog and I remember what a true PITA they are!

I'll spare the gory details that we all know so well an start at the point of carbs on the bench.

Yup, showing the years of neglect. Dull and cruddy on the outside, rust pocks starting on the diaphragm covers.

Flip 'em over and drain the fresh fuel from yesterday. Spin the bowls off and....holy mutha! It's green!

Near as I can figure, the fuel left in the bowls turned into something akin to diesel and algea started growing in it.

That's a first for me.....

carb cleaner, brake cleaner, spray 9 and simple green get the bowls, the jets, carb circuits and float needles/seats cleaned up and ready to go.

Some of the jets and circuits were so badly blocked (algae) that I had to resort to an old trick to clear them enough for the chemicals to do their thing. I pull a couple lengths of different gauge stranded copper wire off the shelf and strip 'em. I pull one strand out of each bundle. this becomes my "chase" for the jets. Since the copper is softer than the brass jets, it's relatively safe to run them though. i select a gauge based on one carb that has an open jet and then start working the rest until the hole is clear. The carb soak does the rest.

So that's wher ethey sit; on the bench and soaking to get the last bit of crud out.

No wonder it ran like crap.

Tomorrow, I get to be reacquainted with the wonderful task that is getting the bloody carbs back into the bloody intake boots.

The more I think about it, the more "megasquirt" becomes a very attractive word.....

 

It's been 22 years since I had my VF-500F, but I don't recall the carbs being all that big of a deal when I pulled them in/out after winter storage and to ck jetting.

Fuel these days is truly crap (not to mention the arse raping you take paying for it), stuff won't hardly burn a couple months old. Gotta love the algae too, ridiculous.

 

Well, got called out a 0200 to search for a fellow that fell off a sailboat the day before around 1200.

Well, we found him 20 hours later and he did not survive.

So i got home around 1700 and fell asleep since that was the first sleep I'd had since the night before.

After a couple hours I wake up and feel the need to accomplish something positive. I head out to the garage and pull the bits out of the cleaner. Then I blow them all clean and start rebuilding the carbs. 20 mins later they're ready to got on.

After a suitable amount of struggling and forcing the carbs are in the boots.

Looking for something positive, I pop on the temp fuel tank I use for balancing and gravity fill the bowls.

two turns and it catches.

Ticking over smooth and clean with a fair bit of smoke from the pipes. I swap the tank over to the fuel pump inlet while it warms up.

Once on the pump pressure, it runs very nicely. Carbs aren't even balanced and it's ideling great. Probably better than it ever has and that's saying something as I used to had it in top fighting trim.

Warmed up it stops smoking and the idle is super smooth.

Not bad for about an hour and a half of work.

After a good night sleep I'll clean up the rest of the carb install and maybe get on to some other things that need attention....

 

Slept in late this am, needed it after yesterday's mission and my iphone getting roached.

Had a nice brunch and then out to the garage.

Started buttoning things back up on the bike and fitting body parts so I can shape/fit the VF1000F side covers I've had on the shelf waiting to be installed these last 3 years.

Bike starts right up on 2nd tick over from dead cold. I should have gotten aggressive with the carbs years ago since it's never been this well mannered.

I let it run and warm up as I tinker away.

I notice my leg is getting "spit on" and check the pipes. Yup, rust hole on the LH underside. The muffler I didn't replace when I bought a new one for the other side 4-5 years ago has rotted through.

Well, that settles it; the factory system comes off and goes up in the rafters this winter. The Hindle 4/1 comes down, gets refurbished and will be fitted up. I've got a stock GSXR aluminum muff that will get installed. A bit of high mounting will happen since the bike will only ever carry one person. I sure would like to build that vf750F superbike replica exhaust I've been wanting, but time and personal finances are set against me for that. Passenger pegs will be coming off and I'll fab up some custom rear sets fabbed. Probably chuck on the SP1 rear caliper and master while I'm at it...

As it idles, I note the headlight is off. Fuse is popped. No big.

Then the neutral light is gone and no tach.

What?

With no spare glass fuses around, I pull a single strand of copper from a piece of 12 gauge and touch the contacts. Yup, neutral light comes on and tach springs to life. Need a fuse......

Then I see a whisp of smoke!

Jeebus!

Quick flick the key off and start searching for the offender.

It's down near the regulator so I get in close for a look.

And there it is; my startor connector is now a blob of semi liquid plastic.


Mumble, mumble, mumble.........bit by the high resistance connector problem like so many before.....

For now, I'll solder the stator field wires together and make sure there's no other problems. I've already metered the stator winding and they check out good with the OEM service manual. Next to check the regulator.

This winter I think I'll grab the 100ft spool of 12 gauge wire and go at the bike, replacing all the lower gauge wiring that had to be a Honda weight and cost cutting measure.

Metripack connectors will be used everywhere.

I also think I'll ditch the resistive style regulator for a mosfet F011 type reg to increase reliability and shed some of that heat build up.

I've always liked Honda products; well built and reliable. But there's no saying you can't make a good thing better......

 

hey guys, new to this forum and have an 86 VF500 F2 ... bought it a couple of days ago and I must say ... IM IN LOVE !!

 

Kewl, start a new thread in the main forum and throw some pics of your bike in it....

 

Change of plans I think.....going back to a concept I was working on 3 years ago:



Time to get the fiberglass and mold making stuff out.

Keeps the flavor of the VF series with a touch bit extra.

Gonna be a "fiberglassy" winter season this year.....

 

I didn't read the whole topic, with that said. I have a set of Lockhart lowers if your interested.

 

I may be.

I was thinking complete custom fairing build, but would be willing to consider a "short cut"....

Shoot me a PM with particulars.

Cheers

 

When you first posted the pic of the orange bike, I completely missed the customized bodywork as the orange color really turned me off. So are you after the color or the flowing body work?

 

Well, pretty po'd today.

My Hindle pipe has a large crushed section. I was considering simply cutting it out and welding in a new piece.

I came across the "freezing method" for removing dents and thought I'd give it a try. Sounds easy enough and won't damage anything if I give it enough expansion room. I left the ends open and only filled the pipes to where the dents were and popped it in the freezer.

Pull it out this morning and it's frozen solid. No movement that I can see on the dents and crushed parts. So I melt the ice and start to refill to try again when.....leaks.

What?

Leaking from the rear pipe into the collector up against the upper pipe. Maybe 1/8 of clearance between the two.

The ice split it in the worst possible spot!

Grrrrr..................Sonovamotherlovin........

So, the pipe goes back on with it's dents and flat section and the split will have to be brazed. There's no way to get in there to weld it, but braze will flow.

I should have known better......very mad with myself right now.

 

Stock exhaust if off and starting the hindle resto and install.

Started pulling off the foot pegs and mounts for a set of hand fabbed rear sets.

Also bought a cbr600rr unit pro link swing arm setup.

Lots of work to do this winter......

 

So, here I am racking my brain thinking about how to retain my speedo and install a cbr front rim so I can use the SP1 brake rotors.

I could do a complete front end swap, but oh boy is that gonna get expensive and I still won't have a speedo drive.

A special bracket and a sprocket drive for the speedo is a possibility (more so now that seb and the bunch are looking at building one), but there's more price involved there also.

Then it hits me:

iphone.

I've got all manner of apps loaded up on the iphone that do gps (tom tom) speed, altitude, lean angle etc, etc that hangs off my windshield in the truck. The phone is also already in a water proof case (lifeproof) after a nasty encounter with salt water destroyed the last one.

I've got an extra dash panel lying around out in the garage.

Why not just swap on the wheel, ditch the bike speedo and graft a holder into the dash for the phone?

A charger would even keep it fresh for when I get off the bike.

I'd get speed and gps mapping all in one. Speed trap warnings too....

Basically, I'd have the cost of the wheel and a bit of fab work to bear and then it's all done and ready to go.

That damned phone is an integral part of my life now anyways, so why not have it on the bike too? At least this would be a useful purpose for it instead of the ex wife being able to hassle me and my calender running my life. I suppose there could be an upside; i could watch the ex call go to voice mail or I could answer it and she could listen to the v4 screaming in her ear...... :tongue:

It's something to think about for now, still not sold on the idea....but I sure do want to get those rc51 brakes on there.......

 

Teaser:

 

Well, I have a plan for the speedo.

Thanks to the previous work done by others so far (seb, vfrcapn, etc) I'm going with the vfr750 primary sprocket drive speedo.

I have a drive from a 91 VFR and a motion pro 02-0126 cable on the way.

When it gets here, I'll be modifying my OEM cover to accept it all.

I'd like to go with Seb's bracket, but I would rather not have an open chain cover. Plus, I have to spend that 130-150 bucks elsewhere ATM.

A little work with the drill press and fabbing up a nice bushing will get things all mated up and ready to go.

I do believe I'll still make an iphone holder on the bike though. My fuse cover suffered punched hole when something fell on it. Seems a good location for a big of fiberglass work and an iphone spot....will help to back up the speedo on the dash since it may be "off" a bit with the mix match of parts.

 

High mount concept for the can looks good, but I think I'd opt for something much smaller than that unit. Curious to see the speedo setup, never realized the VFR used a sprocket pickup. Did you have to modify the VF1000 side panels?

 

Hold the phone!

NC24 rotors are floaters and fit the F2 wheels!

If I can source a set when I'm over in the UK at the end of the month I can use the SP1 calipers on the VF1000f forks with the F2 wheels and keep the stock speedo gear.

On the far horizon plan, I can use them as templates to make adapters for the SP1 rotors to the F2 wheels and "upsize" to 320mm discs from the NC24/F2 275 mm discs.

The caliper brackets are a piece o' pi$$ to make with floating discs and rigid calipers so no worries there.

Time to make a few long distance calls to "a couple o' me mates".......