Cleaning up the (new to me) old beast!

Time for another update! Granted, I haven't gotten much done since I last posted, or at least not a lot done on the bike. lol

When last we left, I was waiting for my buddy, and all around VFR guru, Tony to come by to help me with a valve check. I'm confident enough to do the valves, but have never dug into this generation VFR and I know Tony knows all the shortcuts. ...waiting for him proved to be well worth it.

Though I had remounted the forks to facilitate removing the rear, there was still plenty of room to move around with the radiators moved out of the way. First though, you have to remove the two bolts that hold the oil cooler in place and allow it to drop out of the way. It will seem to still be an obstacle because the rigid oil-lines are resting on the coolant hose that crosses in front of the engine. Once the radiators are lowered, the oil cooler will also fall out of the way.

A trick Tony showed me, which requires removing the inner radiator brackets (which bolt to the engine just above the front exhaust ports). By removing these braces and the bolts which hold the rads to the sides of the frame, you can wiggle them free and drop them nearly to the ground. You need to disconnect the vent line from the right rad (as you sit on the bike), and be sure to cap it, but that's the only hitch.

With all this done, access to the front cylinder head is pretty much wide open, as seen here:



In the pic above you can also see the "cheater" bar I have with a 14mm socket (I think) on the crank. I don't necessarily go by the marks on the crank for checking valves, just ensure that the cam lobe is pointing straight up (away from the bucket) when checking clearance. For some reason the "T" marks make checking valves seem much more intimidating than it really needs to be.

If I needed to pull the cams to make an adjustment, a bottle of pink nail polish is sufficient to mark the gears to make sure everything goes in exactly as it came out. :smile:

There was a little surface rust on the cam-gears, but nothing too bad, probably from time spent sitting on the right coast in cold weather. :frown:



And here's Tony enjoying the fact that all the front valves were well within factory spec (not a surprise with just under 40k on the clock, but always good to check).



The rears are even easier, though a bit more wiggling is required to get the valve cover out.

By removing the ignition coils from the back of the air box, there is just enough room to wiggle and manipulate the rear valve cover free. The ignition coils don't need to be unplugged, just set aside and out of the way (they will only really fit back into place in one way, so don't worry about it too much).

Here is the rear exposed with the air box still in place (this saves a LOT of time from following the manual).



The rear (cylinders 1 & 3) were all in spec as well, so it was a quick process and time to button her back up.

A quick note about the reusable valve cover gaskets used on many modern motorcycles ...and this goes out to whoever did work on this particular bike prior to me). You do not need to use liquid gasket on these gaskets. And you should NEVER wet them with oil prior to installation. If you look at these gaskets they have 3 "wipers" let's call them, that comprise the sealing action. When they are clean, and DRY, you simply make sure they are aligned properly, and tighten the valve covers; these "wipers" make positive contact, and provide a triple layer of barriers that the engine oil is not going to penetrate.

...if you wet them with oil, they cannot compress into the open channels between them, hence, they don't form a tight barrier and will leak.

When you go to put your VFR back together, inspect these gaskets, and take time to thoroughly clean and dry them before installation. If you do this, you will never have a leaky valve cover and you shouldn't ever have to replace the gaskets! :thumbsup:

...ok, of my soapbox, but I was frustrated after spending an hour picking bits of hardened sealant off my gaskets!

So since that didn't take very long (it wasn't even lunch time) Tony helped me check out the electrical system and showed me the 3 points that must be kept clean and secure. These are the 3 main grounds for the bike's electrical and charging systems.

1. Right side of frame, general accessory ground.


2. "Main" fuse and ground, this is the ground for everything relating to the charging system (mine was in great shape)


3. Battery & main frame ground; this is where the battery grounds to the frame and it is tricky to get to, but very important!
...this is viewing it from the right side of the frame (the battery box is just to the left):


...and looking at it from under the tail, near the left side of the swingarm pivot, looking up:


For all of these I make sure the connections are freshly cleaned and free of any corrosion, then I use a smearing of dielectric grease to prevent anything getting in there (FYI, I'm told you can also use Vaseline).

So with the valves checked, and the electrical cleaned and sorted, it was lunch time, and I had other things to do besides work on the bike this weekend.

Lastly, there was a bulb out on the dash and since I haven't put anything back together, now was the perfect time to pull it and go shopping for a replacement! ...with the bike in this state of disassembly, it's pretty easy to get at these:


I still have to rewire the marine fuse box under the seat through a relay, and rewire my heated grips and Datel volt meter, but that will happen this weekend. :biggrin:

As for the rest, well. ...my exhaust should be back from Jet-Hot next week sometime, along with my new (heavier) spring for the Penske.

...and there's all of this still to find a home for on the bike somewhere:





...ah the joys of 10 year old bikes! :thumbsup:

 

I would only add to check the battery connections and pugs from the stator and to the r/r to complete your wiring check out.

 

Ah yes. I forgot to mention those, but they have been thoroughly checked and cleaned.

...now I'm just getting antsy to ride the thing again!!!

 

Still within spec at under 40K? Well you know the previous owner didn't ride it hard! :lol:

 

very impressive

wow is all i have to say. i recently picked up an 86 vfr 750 and was planning on doing a minor scale down on your work and just being happy with a solid relatively clean bike. Seeing the work you have done on this bike has definately raised the bar and has me second guessing my rebuild. if only time, money and desire were not a consideration... great pics and explainations of how and why

 

Thanks guys. Divehobo, good luck on your project!

D

 

Part III (The final [I hope] Chapter).

So when last I left you, I had just finished up the valves (with the help of my buddy Tony) and needed to get some additional wiring taken care or while waiting for my exhaust to get back from Jet-Hot. ...well, Father's Day weekend was as good a time as any to wrap up my project! :thumbsup:

It started Friday with a call from my girlfriend that I had "missed" a delivery from FedEx. "Crap! ...that's my exhaust!" After a couple calls to FedEx (the first being a very rude lady telling me I would have to wait until Monday for their next delivery attempt) I found I could drive the 30 miles to the Ventura, CA sort facility and pick up my package as long as I made it before 8pm! ...that's more like it!

So while, chronologically I saw the exhaust before I did any new wiring on the VFR, you're going to get things in the order work was done, so let's flash to the bike. It needed some new wiring for both the heated grips as well as the Datel voltmeter in the dash. I decided to just run 2 pairs of 14g wire from the fuse box forward.



With both pairs run and labeled I wrapped the whole mess in wiring tape and ran it along the main wiring loom to the back of the bike; overall it gives it a cleaner look, protects the wires, and makes future repairs a bit easier (since you can reuse the wiring tape).





Here is the wiring where the two pairs split up; the toggle is for the heated grips, the other pair goes further forward to where the previous owner mounted the volt meter in the dash (a location I hate as it's unreadable, but I'm not ready to buy a new dash panel yet).



The next issue involves the fuse box itself. It's a quality, marine grade, fuse box, but it was wired directly to the battery (bad if you leave your heated grips on over night in the middle of South Dakota, for instance).



I don't have pics of my relay install (so sue me) but I wired in a relay at the rear of the bike, operated off the license plate light as a switch. ...hardly a critical light should something go wonky with the relay etc..

Knowing that I finally had the exhaust, I took a moment to work over the back of the engine case with my Dremel and a small brass wheel; with my DMV inspection coming, I wanted to be sure the engine serial number was clearly visible.



...it's a far cry from the corroded and caked in pounds of dirt, oil, grease and tar that it was a few weeks ago!



...so just to annoy you, I'm going to flash backwards slightly to the work week prior to getting the exhaust. There were a couple things I needed to take care of, and luckily, we have an old lathe at work. :biggrin:

If you remember the beginning of this thread, there is a broken cross bar on my subframe, so I wanted to turn a steel bar that would fit in there vs. trying to weld the broken bit back into place. Also, I was missing one of the steel bushings in my left passenger grab-handle. Rather than spend $80 buying a new handle from Mother Honda, I decided to spend a whopping $5 at the Do It Center on a 3' length of "weldable steel" rod; this would be PLENTY for both projects.

Here's my newly turned bushing (left) next to the OEM one from the right handle.





And pressed into the grab handle. ...fits like a glove!!!



Next would be the insert for the cross bar.



I needed to tap it (kinda useless if I can't bolt into it).





...that should do it.

It fit's just a little snug into the existing cross bar.



And the length looks good.



...a little JB Weld and she'll be good to go!!!

Ok, fine. Back to the exhaust. You remember this mess:



...well, how do you like me now?







Thank you Jet-Hot! ...I even had them coat the heat shield since it was all marred up.


I also got my 1300# Hyperco spring in the mail from HRP World. :smile:



Installation went pretty good until I actually had to connect the main header pipe to the pair of connector pipes from the #1 & #3 cylinders. I just didn't have enough muscle to compress them down over the new gaskets. ...luckily, I DO have ratcheting tie down straps in the garage! :thumbsup:



Yeah, that's what I'm talking about!



They look pretty damned good to me!



NOTE: If you're doing your exhaust, don't forget to slip the clamps over the pipe and up out of the way before compressing them down onto the gasket! ...no I didn't forget, but forgetting would suck, so I bring it up as a little reminder! :wink:

Then I cleaned up all the shock linkage, and flipped the dog bone so if it continued to rub, it would at least rub on a a new spot giving me a little more life from the current dog bone. ...I have no doubt I'll have to replace this piece some day.



Penske is installed, along with a new chain slider. ...time to stake the new chain!



Chain Staking

Slip the new chain around the drive sprocket and rest both halves on the rear sprocket with the bike in gear to prevent anything from moving. ...this makes life a lot easier!

Here are the two halves with the master link in place and the "X-Rigns" on and packed in the supplied grease (I love DID).



I also love my Motion Pro chain staking kit (it's also really handy to have a 14mm deep well socket and largish socket wrench).


Place the master link cover plate where it belongs (the grease should hold it in place just fine).



Line up the chain tool so it lines up with both posts and slowly add pressure using your wrench until you feel it start to really press into place.



The key to staking a chain is to go slow, and recheck your alignment with the chain tool over and over. As you add a lot of pressure (it takes quite a bit to force the plate over the posts) it will often slip slighly out of alignment.

Once it finally seats over the posts it will suddenly feel much easier to press; be careful not to over press the plate, you only want it flush with the surrounding plates, you don't want to crush the O (or X) rings.



To stake the chain, you need to change out to a pin and anvil in your tool (you stake one pin at a time).



You don't need to destroy the pin, just slightly deform the ends. Remember how hard it was to press the plate on? There are no heavy forces acting on the plates to push them out, so the slightest deformation in the pin will keep the plate in place forever.

Here's the completed master link.





At this point, all that remains is to button up the bike. I have a box full of new hardware to replace all the either rusty / corroded, broken, missing, or just plain wrong hardware that was on the bike.

I got lazy on pics at this point because I just wanted to get her put together. :tongue:

So here she is, done at last!



...ok, bike porn time, here's the VFR with her garage mates:







So with her all together it was time for a little test run before cleaning up the garage and putting all the girls back to bed for the night.

A romp into the Santa Monica Mountains (my back yard) gives me a good chance to shake her down. ...first note, the suspension is bOuNcY BoUnCy, especially in the rear.

I brought some basic tools along to help make any needed adjusttments, and after dialing in a little preload into the front, it settles down a lot. I added some preload to the rear, and it helps, but I really need to reduce the compression damping a little and add some rebound damping. A run down Mulholland to PCH and back up gets the rear more in line, but still not quite enough rebound damping.

I suspect a day of tweaking the suspension while running the same sections of mountain over and over and over will be in order. ...damn, that's tough work!!! :biggrin:

Here's the old girl parked in front of the Rock Store in Malibu while I cool off in the shade after a hard days work! :thumbsup:



I hope this little thread helps someone out down the road!

Cheers,
Dale