Rogue's VF500 rebuild or part out!!

Throughout the week mr VF started to leak fuel slowly. Turned out to be the strainer on the underside of the petcock. Checked it out and sure enough it had no strainer or o-ring. Grr handy o-ring kit to the rescue! I also decided to redo the fuel lines. Reworked, takes 3 minutes to install the tank and even less to remove. Includes a new in-line filter now as well. Yewwwww!
1 hour and not a drop. Yes!
On to caliper poo.

 

These were all black…everything. Sonic bath I love you.

 

What do you use in your sonic bath ? ( please don't say Mr. Bubbles )

 

I use dawn dish soap and a hint of Mr clean. 90/10.

 

Calipers stripped, cleaned and rebuilt minus poo.
on to forks, which I always farm out. Still on the fence about farming out or trying myself. Only purchased dust seals and upper seals. Again this is a budget rebuild, not an all expenses paid euro trash holiday like the 750. I would not have even touched them if one wasn’t leaking.
So while I wait for decisions on forks, I decided to mess with bodywork and front fairing stay. The F2 bodywork has seen better days and is more than I feel like taking on. Luckily in one of the bins was both the original headlight and fairing stay in great shape.
On top of that the best bodywork by a country mile was the ‘ 86 front so f yeah! With windscreen decent paint and rubber friction guards still intact.

 

Nice work Rogue! I need to get an ultrasonic cleaner.

 

This is what I picked up a while back. For the price, it has saved me hours of relentless scrubbing, tired hands, and nasty chems. Dish soap does the job just fine, unless it comes to straight up packed grease.

https://www.amazon.com/Ultrasonic-Professional-Mechanical-Stainless-Eyeglasses/dp/B08SBW53YZ

You will want the 14-20 liter size. Anything smaller than 10-12 is a waste of time for moto parts. I fit both calipers and hardware in one tank. Just change out the water every few weekends of use and you will be stoked.
Jewelry bonus, when you put in fresh soap and water throw the signicant others gear in there and they will be stoked as well. Just need 5 min.

 

I am missing one of the front fairing rubber mounts. It is the large solid grommet (?) that keeps the upper fairing lined up to the fairing stay. Does anyone have one of these laying around?
If not, I think I found what I need on the micro fiche, but I am uncertain since the description says "RUBBER, FR. FUEL TANK".
Judge for yourself if you have the time.

https://www.hondaparts-direct.com/o...6c8c86/e008ddfc-84dd-4550-b105-d9228b816afe/y

#1 , 17611-028-000

 

I'm pretty sure that 15L is the same one I have. The 15 is nice because you can fit a full set of carburetors in it as well. You could accomplish all the same things with a 10L--it's just going to longer doing more batches. I usually just use some Simple Green and sometimes a final run with just water.



Rogue--if you do end up doing the forks yourself, the Motion Pro long nose snap ring pliers is really useful and really the only style I could get to pull the circlips out that keep the fork seals in. It's also useful for master cylinders as well.

https://www.amazon.com/Motion-Pro-0...fix=motion+pro+snap+ring+pliers,aps,84&sr=8-1

 

Motion Pro long nose snap ring pliers....... YES GOOD!!!!

 

Correct part number. Originally used on older Hondas that the tank sat on the frame backbone like a saddle.

Install them on the upper cowl stay with a dab of black silicone to keep them from wanting to travel across the floor into another dimension.

 

Be careful with aluminum parts in ultrasonic bath.

 

I don't use one, but please elaborate on this.

 

You can mess up aluminum pretty bad in industrial strength ultrasonic cleaners. You can make things worse by using certain detergents/degreasers at a high enough concentration. The consumer/hobbyist level ones that Rogue and I have aren't really powerful enough to do any damage to aluminum. Though this was a concern for me at first with using Simple Green. I actually bought some of the Aircraft-grade stuff since it's softer on aluminum, but now I just use very dilute standard formula.

 

What I thought, just wanted to know if there was another aspect I wasn't considering.

 

my buddy's HF unit crapped out after about 6 uses.......typical junk from china.

 

Yeah SM, I didn't put much faith in the unit lasting long, but we are over a year down the road with no issues.
A lot of people leave the heater running and burn out the unit.

 

Here's the Simple Green FAQ re. AL at https://simplegreen.com/faqs/15/#:~:text=Is it safe to use,successfully used to clean aluminum.

Is it safe to use Simple Green All-Purpose Cleaner on aluminum?

When used with caution and according to the instructions, Simple Green All-Purpose Cleaner has been safely and successfully used to clean aluminum. Simple Green All-Purpose Cleaner, Crystal Simple Green Industrial Cleaner & Degreaser, and Simple Green Pressure Washer Concentrates have been used on aircraft, automotive, industrial and consumer aluminum items for over 20 years. However, caution and common sense must be used: aluminum is a soft metal that easily corrodes with unprotected exposure to water. The aqueous-base and alkalinity of Simple Green All-Purpose Cleaner can accelerate the corrosion process.

Therefore, contact times for unprotected or unpainted aluminum surfaces should be kept as brief as the job will allow - never for more than 10 minutes. Large cleaning jobs should be conducted in smaller-area stages to achieve lower contact time. Rinsing after cleaning should always be extremely thorough - paying special attention to flush out cracks and crevices to remove all Simple Green product residues. Unfinished, uncoated or unpainted aluminum cleaned with Simple Green products should receive some sort of protectant after cleaning to prevent oxidation.

Simple Green has also developed break-through water based cleaners that are safe for use on metals, plastics, rubber and high tech alloys. Extreme Simple Green Aircraft & Precision Cleaner and Simple Green Pro HD are available on both the industrial and retail markets, respectively. These products were initially developed for the aircraft industry and extensive testing shows that they are safe and effective on a variety of metals and other sensitive surfaces even in the most extreme circumstances.

 

I use a mix of about 50-50 Simple Green and water, then add some Dawn dish soap. Never had a real problem with aluminum in there at all, but best rinse off. Water, then isopropanol will take care of the water and dry things up.

 

Jeezus ColdD, I nearly spit out my coffee watching your fork rebuild video. Love it. I have already learned 100% more than I knew 20 mins ago about forks. Thanks!! I might just do these myself so I guess I will order up the tools.