Rode Hard & Hung Up Wet: My 1986 VF500F

Been some lot of years I've been wanting to take a ride. I hope that day will come soon. It's been a long long time.

 

I have the carbs cleaned up, floats adjusted, waiting for the o-rings to arrive. In the past I have used Honda gaskets so I have to see how it goes using o-rings. I have scrapped the in line filters for now, but do plan to have a look at the screen set in the fuel tank.

 

O rings will work fine.

 

Hey man, coincidentally I just finished up my rejuvenation on my 1984 rig yesterday. I just need to throw the plastic back on.

Usually, the first thing that gets clogged is the pilots jets (#38, #40, #42?) I'm guessing you have #38, I found sets on ebay for only about 20 bucks, they're just keihin style 21 series, the ones I got worked great. You can get cheap mains too, completely new, just search. It's much better (for me) than trying to jam wires through the old crusty ones, trust me on that. Also, the fixed jet in each carb for the choke is a complete PITA to try to clean and then it gets clogged up quickly again... anyway, that one really isn't critical as long as everything else is clean.

 

Your rig is looking good Jrod

 

If I had the right size...to confirm -041 o-rings are much to large for a VF500F. Really almost thought I was finally going to ride this again...

 

OK I went back and did some checking apparently I have o-rings for a VF700 (size -041). Anybody wants them let me know. I have found a post similar to my own mistake, and the poster ended getting -040 o-rings for a 500.

 

OK I went back and did some checking apparently I have o-rings for a VF700 (size -041). Anybody wants them let me know. I have found a post similar to my own mistake, and the poster ended getting -040 o-rings for a 500.

 

Got the carbs back in, had some difficulty getting any life out of it, but using a fuel-moistened air filter I got it running well enough to spit a sluice of D-Con pellets out of the exhaust, filling the shop with a noxious smoke. Runs pretty good on a funnel, and idles, think I am gonna put the fuel tank back on...and reset the mouse traps!

 

did you go with the 040 orings for the bowls? they should work or you can trim and glue them... good job on getting it to idle, that means you probably got the pilot and or choke jets cleaned out... sometimes you get just idle then it'll die when you give it gas, that'll mean the pilots are still clogged up. did you get new pilots or just clean your old ones?

 

Thanks for checking in JRod...the -040 are perfect fit and don't even try to pop out whilst manipulating the bowls back in place (that happened a couple years back in this thread, swollen Honda gasket popped a hernia and held the float up in the closed position). Revs freely, without hesitation. I was able to clean all jets in a carb cleaner bucket, and did not require any mechanical cleaning.

 

what kind of magic do you use to get your carbs back on? I went with really flexible gas filler hose (gates brand about $15 for about 15 inches), same inside diameter and I can pop em off without any effort and pop them back on in about 10 minutes. You do have to get smaller clamps though because the stock ones won't clamp down far enough. Just a thought for you in case you've been wrestling with some old dried up stock ones.

 

Petroleum jelly & patience.

 

So now I have this somewhat running, i still believe only on two cylinders. A squirt of fuel into the center two carbs straightens it out, so it has spark at all four, just have a significant problem in the carburetors.
EDIT/UPDATE: Well most of the problem is that I am missing some critical steps in the cleaning process. Sorry for the long drawn out thread.

 

Parked it. Rear cylinders are running, bupkus up front. Very disappointed in how well this ran when I started this thread four years ago, and I have ridden zero miles. Considering a part out, especially after browsing eBay and seeing the atrocious condition of the parts available there.

 

what about your vacuum slides? You can get pretty cheap ones on ebay (about 18 bucks) but they're slightly taller than stock so you won't get full lift but you can shim the needles a little bit to compensate. Maybe the float valves are stuck closed? Those are fairly cheap too. What critical steps missing are you referring to in the carb cleaning process?

Oh, when you cleaned the pilots, did you get something all the way through? A small stiff wire? If not, they're clogged almost for sure and you won't get any fuel through those... mine were clogged rock-solid and I ruined 2 of mine trying to clear the stupid super tiny little holes try buying new ones...they're Keihin type 21 series ... you can find those really cheap too.

You could also have a clog in the connecting tubes, I haven't messed with those yet but you might be able to substitute some small plastic fuel tubing of the same size. The only issue there of course would be separating the carbs from the plenum which can get messy.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Keihin-Genu...006-/231577384644?hash=item35eb1676c4&vxp=mtr

 

Thats why I like this thread. Its like a time-lapse or slo-mo view of a vfr rehab.

I also like it because I bought a project vfr way back in 2011 and ALSO haven't ridden a mile yet so...I'm feeling your pain brother.

 

Jrod the slides are working good, and I believe I have the passages in there clear. The slow jets are perfect, just like new you can see right through all of the holes in each jet. What I know I missed was a brass tube adjacent to the main and slow jets. I cleared two of those with wire & cleaner. Also the chokes all are clear, I run fluid through to confirm. As you pointed out the lateral passages I have not properly studied the internal circuits. BTW I did end up adding the two fastex visu filters at the wye. Thanks for the help & encouragement everyone.

 

The front cylinders have spark? Are they fed off of the same coil? This happened on my GPz. Two cylinders were not firing and were on the same coil. I found the loose wire and that was that.

 

It's really vexing to me, because at first I had dead cylinders LF & RR...now both in the rear work fine. I could check the spark again, thanks for the tip.