'86 VF500F Valve Adjustment (success) and Valve Cover Bolts (fail)

'86 VF500F Valve Adjustment - Big SUCCESS

My lovely '86 Miniceptor has 30k miles and just got a valve adjustment. Last year it emerged from 12 lonely years in a storage locker and now it's back to full-throated life. I'm not sure (or at least can't remember) if the valves were adjusted in the past - 29 years is a long time - but now they're in spec.

As I'd hoped, the cams are as smooth as a baby's butt:



I bought new gaskets for the valve covers and new seals for the bolts, but damned if I can get the bolts out of the existing seals. Take a look:



That little "washer" spins with the bolt and until I can get the thing off, I can't extract the bolt itself. I tried putting it upside down in my vice and tapping the bolt (well, kinda hitting it) with a hammer, then gripped the ring in the vice and tried to unscrew it, but failed. I don't want to gouge the shouldered bolt and sure don't want to harm the threads, so I'm hoping someone here might have the solution.

It's taken hours to get to this point and I'm ready to take it for a long ride. My wife is looking forward to being able to park her car in the garage. We'll both appreciate any help.

Thanks!

 

Cut the rubber length wise with a Stanley knife.

 

The rubber part kept spinning, but a combination of a soft-jaw vise, pliers, and a pair of side-cutters made short work of the job. Once it came apart the rest were (relatively) easy. Thanks!

Say hello to Luh3471 for me.

 

I recently adjusted mine as well, I have a 85 with 32,xxx miles and under the valve cover it was clean as a whistle with really smooth lobes on my cams as well. I have been pleased with mine as I have been going through it.

 

Got the little girl running tonight. Sounds silky smooth. It was far more of an effort than I'd feared but definitely worth it. Next time I could do it in half the time - hopefully that won't be for many years and many miles. I'll give everything a second going over tomorrow, then take it for a ride.

 

Acemon, thought I would share a photo I took when I removed my valve covers on my bike. I have similar milage and a non line bored '85 model.

 

Second photo showing cam lobe.

 

Those cams are in very good condition. A sign of a well maintained bike. Well done and give yourself a pat on the back. I am guilty of blindly assuming the non line bored engine was in some way inferior to the later variant but I have seen plenty of high mileage 84/85 bikes. I think the earlier engine had marginally more power too.