My "new" project bikes

Hopit88, I really like the look of your vf1000r with the single-sided swingarm and the inverted forks. I have most of the parts including a 1993 VFR750 swingarm and rear wheel, and 2007 GSXR1000 inverted forks. Did you do any frame mods to fit the swingarm?

 

I would use boiling water. You cant melt the, that way or take them past 100c.

 

yep, thats how I do it too, could put just a little grease on the boots too. Either way works really well

 

After cleaning the carbs and putting them back together, I tried to remove and clean the carb boots. The rubber however was hard and a few of them cracked while I was taking them out. So I scrapped these and ordered some new ones. Hopefully they will be here by mid week so I can get this puppy started.

I placed a fresh battery and all the electrics work - luckily. The starter works well and appears to turn the engine over.

 

Nice find!

 

So far I have cleaned the carbs twice. I cleaned out the air fuel mixture needles and set them and 2 turns out from seated. I cleaned out all the passages in the carbs including the choke. I fixed one of the electrical leads going to the right ignition coil as it was frayed. New plugs, battery, oil, and oil filter are in place. I tried to start the engine today and it ran for about 20 seconds and then died with full choke. I tried to give it throttle when it was running and that caused the engine to die faster. Any suggestions? Fuel pump appears to working. Gas in all the carbs. Spark to all the plugs after fixing the wiring issue, but still the engine cuts out after a few seconds of running.

Also I was wondering what battery you guys would suggest. I bought one from cycle gear and it seems to loose energy after 5 minutes of trying to crank the engine.

 

Buy the v4 carby book by Mike Nixon and go through the carbies following the book to make sure all the jets and passages are clear.

 

Thanks for the tip. Just bought the manual. I may just have him clean and rebuild them. His prices are a bit steep but you can't beat his experience. These bikes are keepers so I'll try to put the best into them.

 

can you guys give me any advice on the air/fuel mixture needle? I just wanted to try to see if this will make a difference. Its currently at 1 3/4 turns out from seated. thanks

 

There is a idle drop procedure, but I run most of mine around 2 1/4. But it also depends if I have stock pilots or 1 size up like I usually automatically do when I have the carbs out for the first time.

 

So I've cleaned the carbs pretty thoroughly via ultrasonic cleaner and flushing all the circuits to make sure they are patent. I removed the fuel pump and have been feeding the fuel directly to the carbs. The engine starts up with choke only and dies quickly after trying to back off the choke. Also giving just the slightest throttle, causes the engine to die. I have fuel mixture needle at 2 turns out from seated. Also I set the float heights at 7.5 mm while keeping the carbs at an angle as the manual recommended. Any suggestions on the possible causes for the engine to die the way it does and how to properly set the float heights I would greatly appreciate it.

 

Sounds like you still have some dirty/plugged circuits in the carbs to me. Also, did you have to "adjust" the floats much. I rarely come across any that needed any adjustments unless they were really jacked by somebody. I've seen the wrong reference points used for adjusting the float heights resulting in some way off settings. Keeping the carbs at an angle so as not to depress the the little button when checking the heights is correct (as you have done).

You had the pilot screws completely removed and verified those passages are clear? When I think I am done cleaning, I spray some carb cleaner in each orifice. You should be able to see it come out the little hole that passage goes to (most of the time just from the squirt from the can, but for sure you should see a nice mist when you blow everything out with compressed air - a must do).

Kept track of the tiny o-ring and washer on the end of all 4 pilot screws next to the spring?

I'm just running through some of then things I've missed in the past.

Mike.

 

Thanks Mike. I'll try going through them again. Also I'll try to get the float height at the correct heights. I'll take a photo of the float heights.

 

I think the reason why the bike is running this way may be the float height that I changed. Today I had the bike running with an external tank (Gas in a plastic container). At first the engine would die quickly after starting. I then raised the secondary gas tank to increase the pressure that the gas goes into the carbs. This caused the engine to stay running, so i'm thinking that the carbs need a little more gas than it is getting currently which I think means that the float pin is closing too early. I'll take out the carbs and remeasure the float heights. The good news is that the engine sounds pretty solid. No extraneous noises luckily.

I was also inspecting the radiator. I flushed it with 50:50 mixture of vinegar and distilled water. I ran the engine. I got it to run for a good 15 minutes, however I did not feel the radiator hose returning fluid to the top radiator getting warm. I think the thermostat may not be functioning so I removed it and inspected it. It was covered with rust deposits as well as the thermostat hosing. In addition, the hoses felt "crunchy" when squeezed. I'm thinking of replacing the hoses with silicone radiator hoses. Any recommendations.

Picture of thermostat housing

Picture of the thermostat

The VF1000R as it stands looks pretty cool without the fairings. Just got the front wheel for the 2007 GSXR forks I have that I was planning on using for this bike.

I'm hoping that since the GSXR front end has a piston driven clutch control, that it will be compatible with the VR1000R

 

Acruz good progress. ...
Keep up the good work

 

I appreciate it Duccmann! Trying my best. I'm gonna try to find ways to lighten this project. Since this will be the restomod bike, I'm gonna do away with the bulky gauges and rewire the harness. I'll keep what is necessary and use the rest for the other VF1000R. When I was running the engine I did notice some oil leaking so I'll have to take out the engine and replace some of the gaskets I suppose. I'll have to see where it is leaking though. I'll post more pictures as the project goes.

 

I moved the VF1000R into my "work area" i.e. next to the tool cabinet and started the deconstruction. I'm amazed by how much wiring is used on this bike. I probably can save 5 pounds just on the wiring. I'm gonna try to take it apart section by section, take pictures and bag all the screws and bolts. I still have the other bike for reference as well. Some of the parts that I am removing will go to that other bike.

Heres some pictures of the radiator tubing. It looks like there are rust deposits inside them. View attachment 34339 . I plan on replacing all the radiator tubing, but any thoughts on cleaning both radiators or should I consider buying aftermarket ones? Can you put chemicals like Metal Rescue?



Stored the fairings in a safe place. I need more room!

With the fairing off and the bulky front end, the VF1000R looks pretty nice as a naked bike.

Any thoughts on cleaning the radiators and where I can buy flexible radiator hosing. Thanks

 

I got a little work done today on the disassembly. I worked mainly in the rear of the motorcycle. I had to modify a engine stand to hold up the rear. . After taking out the swingarm from the VF1000R I made a few measurements. I could not find anywhere the pivot width of the VF1000R. Anyways it measures 9 3/8 inches. . The 1991 VFR750 single sided swingarm that I was planning on using however is about 5/16 too long at 9 11/16 inches . In addition there are two additional problems that I see with this swingarm swap. The first problem is that the SSS uses a straight shaft that goes from one side of the frame to the other. The VF1000R has an opening in the front of the swingarm that allows the headers to go through. This means that you couldn't run the headers downward with this single sided swingarm. You would need to fabricate a header for and an underseat exhaust. The other problem I see is that the holes in the frame that are made for the original bolts are different sizes and one side is threaded. In order to accept the SSS shaft, you would need to remove the old openings and fabricate new ones and weld it back to the frame. Just a few thoughts

 

Wow nice progress. I'm in the same boat with my radiator. I'm going to flush it with a water hose and see if i can get it to come out clean, otherwise i'll take it to a place that does car parts and have it boiled by the pros. I can't seem to find any oem hoses for my 86 vfr700, but it turns out samco makes pricey nice silicons replacements if i end up needing em, not sure if you can find someone that makes em for your application you might get lucky.

 

I saw this video about thermocure which is a rust and flush product for radiators. I may use this product for this purpose. check out this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzmgPYqjXd8