Early '86 VFR 700 due today or tomorrow.

35K miles, spindly 37 mil fork tubes, near-new Bridgestone tires, and a Yoshi slip-on. The good thing is that my wife has been looking forward to this thing almost as much as I have (unlike the '94 883 Sportster I'm slowly bringing back to "life").

Fact service manual should be here within a few days as well. Meanwhile, I've been searching and learning all I can from vfrworld. Can't tell you how thrilled I am to find out about the charging system issues on these things (lost my shirt on same with a '71ish Yam DS7 250 twin back in '82 or so). Oh well, I've got a more than a few shirts that don't fit me anymore.

Will post pics when it gets here.

Gotta mention that I've never been a huge fan of beige w/lime green and blue stripped bikes...

 

35K is nothing on that engine if it's been maintained. Bought my 86 with 35 as well, closing in on 45 soon. Doesn't burn a drop of oil between changes. I actually think the charging system isn't as bad as some of the later ones. The R/R on mine was replaced in 2K11 with no issues since. Just pack a spare. No subharness recalls to worry about. Be careful with the air assist on the forks, I wouldn't even recommend adding air if it's the original seals. But if you do add some air DO NOT use a compressor. A hand bicycle pump, I think the psi is like 3 max. Valve adjustment is also tappet, as opposed to shim under bucket with the later ones. I'd also recommend a full braided stainless line set from spiegler for the clutch and brakes if it's still got the original rubber lines.

 

Thanks for all the advice CB-1!

I happen to have an accurate hand air pump for the rear shock on my mountain bike. Should work I suppose.

The good news is that she's home with no noticeable shipping damage. Dropped the old fuel out, trickle charged the brand new looking battery, and checked all the fluids (which were full and plenty clean enough for an initial test run up). Air filt looks pretty new too. Noticed that the starter button was hanging up and was able to free it up for now with plastic safe contact cleaner/lube (DeOxit). Definitely going to disassemble and clean the switch in an effort to save it. Otherwise, I'll need to replace it.

The next issue was a "dead" fuel pump... What a surprise (well, not really). Had power to the pump, but no go. Pulled the points cover/cap off and found the points in pretty bad shape. Cleaned the contacts up with an ancient ign. points emery board which did the trick (for the time being anyway). So, I proceeded to prime the fuel system by running the pump directly with a 12v 2amp battery charger. Checked for fuel leaks and found none.

Ok, so now she's running, but the idle is kinda rough and boggy. The next step will be to adjust the mixture screws as per the FSM (which should be here in few days). I'll no doubt be going through the carbs and the rest of the fuel system (which I've been truly looking forward to...). I'll need to buy a carb sync stick this weekend. Ah... the fun of bringing a 28 year old machine back to good running condition. Meanwhile the good news is that charging system is working well. Now I need to take a look at the RR and the stator. I'm keeping my arms and fingers crossed...

And man, is this thing loud! Way way too loud. Ear splitting actually. Guess I'll have to look into re-packing the Yoshimura slip-on, or replacing it all-together.

 

I've got a full Yoshi system on my '84, no matter
how much you pack it they do not get quiet. But I
love the sound.
Post Some Pics!!

 

And it may seem quieter at first... Doesn't last long. Oh... And.... Pictures!!!!

 

Great find !! Don't ride in traffic until you've confirmed that thermoswitch for fan kicks in at about 2/3 temp scale, something that often fails on our older bikes and will cause serious overheating if not working right.

 

Thanks for the tip squirrelman! The fan switch is working. However, the temp gauge is not, so I'll need to troubleshoot that before I ride it. Bike is a bit rough and will need a fair amount of work (which, of course, is typical for a machine of this age). All-in-all not too bad though. Still waiting for the FSM...

Here's a pic (kinda blurry tho):

 

Good looking bike FMB42. Best of luck to you and have fun.

 

Thanks svandekidft!

Received the FS manual, so that's good news. First thing will be to replace the fuel lines, f filter, and f line clamps and the eng oil and filt. Then I'll go after the cooling system. Then, if all goes well, I'll go through the rest of the fuel syst. (carbs, fuel valve, new fuel pump contact points, etc, etc). As you can imagine, every component and system on the bike needs to be checked out. So... it could be mid to late summer before I get a chance to ride it on the street (need to take the BRC in order to get my license back).

 

If the pump is working, points are in good condition, no need for new part$.

Test for temp gauge is in FSM: with key on, touch the green wire at the thermostat housing to ground--very, very briefly !!--and meter should go to top of scale if gauge and wiring is good.

 

Pump wasn't working due to badly fried points. Cleaned the points up and got the thing to work. So, I ordered a set of new points just to be safe.

I "slipped" the Yosh RS-2(?) muffler apart only to find very new looking packing (you were right Lobotomy, these exh systems are probably going to be loud no matter what). Not a big fan of loud exhaust systems, but for now it'll have to do. Meanwhile, I'll keep the Rs down in and around residential areas.

 

Keep in mind that the fuel pump only receives power when the engine is running. There is a rectagular block box next to it that recieves a signal from the tach output on the ecm. This is so if the bike crashes and the engine dies, the fuel pump will stop pumping.

If you ever need to prime the carbs, you unplug the 2 main wires from the safety fuel pump relay and connect the wires together. The pump will run with the engine not running, but key on.

You can easily upgrade the Regulator/Rectifier if you want. There are some units from later model bikes that use mosfet's internally so they run cooler and more efficiently. The stock units tend to overheat. Used units are about $50-$75 and you can even buy new electrical connectors to make installation easy. I wouldn't worry too much about right now, just install a voltmeter or one of those jumbo led's that indicates voltage through color.


Oh yeah, you'll probably need to pull the carbs to clean them. Don't seperate them from the upper aluminum plenum. They come off as a set. If you seperate them, you can easily break the plastic tubes between them and loose sync springs, etc...

 

Yep, I'm going with a single multi-color LED charging system voltage indicator. Haven't looked at the RR, stator, or wires just yet. Still got a lot to do before I test ride the thing (R&R fuel lines, fluid and filter changes, cooling system tests and repairs, inspect RR/stator/wiring, check steering head/swing arm bearings, chain adjustment/wheel alignment, tire bead seating, throttle cables, etc, etc).

Thanks for the heads up on the tubes! Bike looks like it sat for a while, so I plan on going through the entire fuel system.

Meanwhile, I took another look at the extremely loud Yosh slip-on and realized that it had been re-packed with what seemed to be way too much material. Pulled the stringy Yoshimura(?) stuffing out and then re-packed it (as per the Yoshi instructions) with about half of what I removed (the stuff looks pretty new btw). Hopefully this will quiet the thing down a bit. However, it'll probably take some trial and error on my part before I get it to where it's not too tight and not too loose.