Found something in the oilpan of my 84 VF 1000 FE

Hi there,

Earlier this year I took the chance to buy a 84 VF 1000 FE from ebay with a more or less unknown history. My plan was to do a "slow rebuild". That means I will work on it whenever I have the time and feel like it. so It spent all summer standing araound and the only things worth mentioning were that I removed and cleaned and reinstalled the carbs, changed the oil, checked the cams (some are pretty bad), checked the camtiming and clearance, replaced the broken starter with one from a RC24 (which fits plug&play by the way) and gave it a first engine startup. Surprisingly, it worked, as you can see here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukAOJVoHDA8

By that point, I was affraid something could be wrong with the engine because of the smoke from the pipes. Today I believe it was just some grease I used to refit the carbs and the dirt of standing around for years. However, as I am a total sissy concerning the health of unknown engines, i've decided to remove the oilpan from my 84 FE model to clean it out and to check if there is any scrapmetal or whatever in the pan or in the oil strainer. The exhaustsystem came of of pretty easy which was a surprise for me. The removal of the oilpan was no problem as well. What really made me freak out, was what I found in the oilpan: Take a look by yourself:



I' pretty sure the nut is one of the valveclearance adjusters, which is funny because all of them are in place. So one of my preowners dropped it into the engine and just installed a new one... What threatens me much more is the piece of sheetmetal. It broke of on the right side (marker) and is about 15mm wide. On the left side is a little groove (see marker). These two things literally stuck into the strainer!

Now, I've done a little thinking and searching and I am pretty sure this thing comes from this part:



The groove on the left looks just like the one from the piece from my strainer. The mentioned part is No. 13 from here:

http://www.cmsnl.com/honda-vf1000f-1984-1000-interceptor-usa_model1117/partslist/E++04.html

I took a glympse into the engine flom below to see this:



I think the metal piece comes from where the marker points.

Can anyone confirm this? Can anyone explain what exactly this slipperblade does? I know something about engines but I just do not get the what this part is good for.

Unfortunately I found out that for replacing this part, the engine has to be removel and the crankcase has to be opened. Can anyone confirm this?

Can anybody give an advice on how to go on with this? As I do not fully understand the purpose of the slipperblade, I wonder if it is really nessecary to replace it. As you can her in the video, the engine sounds pretty well, so there is no chain slag or whatever.

Would be nice to get some advice from you!

Cheers!


PS: Sorry for all the spelling and grammar mistakes, I'm not a native speaker.

 

Howdy Hans, welcome to the world of vfr.

Looks like you are doing a good job of getting it sorted out.

i don't have the vf1000 manual, but the vf750 show a similar design and only the cylinder head must be removed to gain access to the holder part you have shown. You would need to remove engine from the frame, but don't need to open the crankcase. That bracket/holder is part of the cam chain tensioning system and holds the tensioner slipper rail in position. It may not be a critical function that the broken tab with the notch performs and may run fine as is. Maybe someone in the !st gen forum has more experience with this part and can determine if you actually need to replace it or not.

 

Had a similar problem with my first 83 VF750, dealer replaced cams and after I crashed bike and was checking engine, I found that about an inch of one the tensioners was ground off the bottom, the dealer didn't get it back into groove where it belonged. I would have engine checked thoroughly.

The engine ran fine and didn't notice any unusual noise! Maybe my V & H pipes were too loud.

 

VF1000F Manual

That part breaks a lot.
I have the same failure in one of my motors.
The Blade has has been welded back on, I just have to reassemble motor.
Its how it came (bought a Basket Case).
You should have the Manual;
http://www.vf1000.com/data/VF1000F_F-FIIHondaManual.pdf
Your broken blade may be left over,,.. the Previous Owner may have replaced that part and did not fish out the old blade.
Good Luck

 

Hey!

Thanks a lot for the fast and helpful replies. I messed up posting a pic from inside the engine taken from below:

http://postimg.org/image/u3jzx9s5j/

I think that the piece of metal I found comes from where the marker points. Is this correct? From the perspective in the pricture you can the the blade for the rear cylinders and it looks fine.

I allready got the manual, but thank you anyway. I think without it and without the explosion-drawing from CMSNL I would be totally lost....

I've planned a garage day for tomorrow and besides some other things like disassemblling the fork and unrusting the fueltank I want to remove the left engine cover and the camcovers again and gently turn the engine by hand and check if the camchains are slacking.


Why would you reweld the part if you can as well replace it? It's only around 15$ in europe. I also read this part breaking a lot...

I wonder how removing the cylinderhead can help me replacing the blade. Can I get to it's screw through the camchain-slot (correct word)? from above? As far as I understoud the drawing, the screw's heads are exactly betreen the two crankcase-halfes which requires splitting the case.

Can I be 100% sure it IS the slipper blade for the front cylinders? Looking at the shape of the piece and the picture of the blade it seams reasonable, but what do you say? Does the picture I've posted lately help to decide?

Thanks a lot guy!!

 

You have identified the Part correctly.
I don't know why they fail, my guess is an Engine Back-Fire and the Engine turns backwards a little putting strong tension on the Trailing Side of the Cam Chain, Tension Mechanism.
The Part I have was already Welded. So I thought I would use it.
It would be good to know if the new Factory unit is made stronger now.
I might order it anyway. If it is still weak, I might weld it stronger.
I just looked at the motor I have that is disassembled, and I see where it goes.
I have not performed an assembly there yet, but I plan to this summer.
Can it be accessed from the top of the Cam Chain Galley? Don't know.
Maybe someone here can Enlighten us?