Proper full servicing on a 4th Gen

Hey guys. I need your expertise on servicing my beloved 4th Gen.

As I'm writing this there is nothing seriously wrong with the bike, but after a few years of going to various Honda shops who never left me fully satisfied that they did a good job, I feel the need to make it all up to her by doing a full service on her. And I mean a FULL service.

I have most of the tools and the space to work on her and I also have the service manual but it is not very detailed on its procedures.
Also I have a few small issues that bug me and which I would appreciate your help in solving.

So now here are my questions:

1. What would you say that a thorough service -save from taking the engine apart- would entail?

2. When I crack the throttle very slightly in low gears and low revs (2-3K) and try to keep the speed steady the bike is surging/lurching. This is not very pronounced but it is enough of an issue to bug me. If I start accelerating even slowly, then the problem goes away.

3. When the bike gets hot the clutch is slipping/shuddering when taking off from a standstill. The problem is much more pronounced when riding 2-up or fully loaded. When the bike is cold the take off is instant and smooth, but when she gets hot the problem is always there, but ONLY on starting from a standstill.
I had the clutch disks & springs changed with Honda OEM parts 20.000 km ago and apart from a few of botched upshifts I haven't abused the clutch.
Also note that the bike hardly ever goes around the city in stop&go traffic; she is used for weekend rides and touring 99% of the time.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that recently I have noticed that the clutch has been getting increasingly heavier and the gears are harder to get into. If I synch the engine they engage smoothly but on quite a few occasions they go in rather harshly with a loud clank.

4. The brake lever is gradually softening up, or rather the initial bite point is moving further down.
I took out the calipers and squeezed the lever bringing out the pistons enough to clean them as well as I could and then pushed them all the way back in. That sorted the problem instantly and gave me a very firm brake lever, biting down very high up in the lever travel, but then it gradually went soft again.
I repeated the procedure and again I had fantastic brakes for a while but now it goes again.

Sorry for the lengthy post and big props to all who can help out!

 

#1 Drain, flush, refill all liquids. Measure and record valve clearances, noting that there is a tolerance of + or - .001" from standard. Flush cooling system with a commercial product OK for aluminum radiators.

#2 The idle circuit is running too lean, causing surging. Try opening up the D-shaped mixture screws about 1/2 turn........if you can. Slight surging like yours is the first problem i had to fix on my '97, and idle screws fixed it..........or maybe the jetkit i installed did.

#4 Maybe a leaky seal in the brake mc. Rebuild kits are available.

 

Thanks for the hints there mate.
I suppose you are referring on the idle mix screws on the carbs. I haven't done any work on the VFR on my own so any clues as to their location and how to get to them?

As for the brakes, the MC is taken off a '06 CBR600 RR and it works on a pair of Nissin 4pots taken from a '01 VTR Firestorm. I checked it over before putting it on and it seemed to be ok. I didn't strip it down as I thought it should be ok for its age & mileage, but it looks like I may have to do so eventually.

 

You may need a slightly larger master cylinder bore for those brakes taken from a different bike. Compare bore diameters CBR vs. '01 VFR.

KM's on the bike ??

 

The bike currently has 128.000 km. According to my maintenance log, the last time the valves needed some adjustment was at 61.000 km.
The last time they were checked was @ 88.000 km where the Honda dealer claimed that they were fine.

Before putting on the bigger calipers I did quite a bit of research. The pots themselves are the ones fitted to early Fireblades and the VTR1000 F.
I went with these because they have slightly smaller pistons than the latter calipers used on the SP1 & SP2 models and require smaller MC.
The MC used on the Firestorm has a 15mm piston (whereas the VFRs all came with a 12mm MC, including the VTEC if I'm not mistaken).

I purchased the 15mm MC but I was still unhappy with the bite of the brakes. They were braking fine but I had a bit more travel than I wanted.
As a result I decided to go with the MC from the '06 CBR600RR because it keeps to the OEM VFR reservoir shape (I didn't want to go with the round type on later models) and it has a very respectable 19mm piston.
Bearing in mind that the Firestorm calipers are using a 15mm MC and that full-on superbikes like GSXR and R1 use 21mm MCs, I should in theory have quite powerful brakes.
Which I do, but only for a while.

 

In Greece flushing the cooling system is not a common procedure in bike shops I'm afraid. Any pointers as to what kind of brand & type of fluids I should be looking for?

Re #2 I could be wrong but I didn't remember the bike surging so much in the past. Could it be something that deteriorates with time?
I've read somewhere that the chain might be too tight, causing this issue. How do I give the chain some slack? The C spanner only works tightening the chain and not the other way around. Should I be kicking the tyre?? :lol:

 

Not just the tires, I'd just kick the VFR to the back and ride the Duck ! VFR's sweet, smooth, comfortable but essentially so old-tech. Ride Italian if you have it. U got ABS ??


#2 Yes, something that potentially deteriorates is the cleanliness of idle jets, partially blocked by cosmic black energy and mystery accretions. You probably don't have ethanol in your fuels there as the Agricultural Industry requires in the USA ??

Seems you may not know how to measure and set your chain tension ?? You need to study up or take it to a shop. Too tight is much worse than too lose, but it must be done properly, correctly, and it's not that hard. Yes, a very wornout chain that's overdue for replacement WILL cause a type of surging.

For the flush, ask at an auto dealer what they use. After many years, some really nasty things can build up in the cooling system like the many cc cups full of dark brown sludge that i've drained from a few bikes.

Best to include wheel removal and wheel bearing check on maintenance list. Lube shock linkage, swingarm bearings if you're that ambitious. See if you can find the so-oft-neglected place for lubing the fan motor rear bearing; keep looking. !&*!^&?? Keep her greezedup !! You could use your superb olive oil i'm sure.

It's great that you have records of work done. Keeping a notebook of maintenance work, oil and filter changes, and parts replaced with dates and mileages on every bike should be mandatory................if you wanna do it all proppa like !!

 

LOOOL! :lol: I like the way you're thinking mate, kicking my VFR to the back and taking out the Duc? That's a bit harsh, innit? I love my Viffer way to much to do this and besides, I had to let the Duc go a couple of years back. I do miss the beasty sometimes but it's so much more fun to beat seven bells out of shiny new superbikes on a 16 year old 100hp bike!




Seriously now, re #2 we don't have ethanol in our fuels here but the fuel quality leaves a lot to be desired (a better way to say that it's crap basically).
I have a checklist to go through on the VFR when I can find a bit of time and the chain tension is one of the items.
I've done a few things already this summer (plugs, oil, filters etc) but I feel that all the services have been patchy and erratic to say the least.
I want to take some time and go over the whole bike thoroughly and get her up to scratch.

Regarding the rest, on my 82K service among the other items I put a new front wheel bearing, took out swingarm and lubed shock linkage & swingarm bearings.

I just wish there could be a website like the f650.com which covers even the tiniest details of servicing an F650 GS. (My other bike now is a 1994 F650 Classic which I rebuilt with the aid of that site)
Don't get me wrong, the VFRW has troves of info, but its all scattered around.
(My poor brain lacks the firepower to process anything more than how-tos and clearly numbered steps )


If anyone has a suggestion of such a service guide feel free to chime in; I'm sure other owners would be interested in such a guide.