Interceptor 500 Low Budget Project

In 1985 I had a brand new VF500. I drove it for four years and it was a great little bike, especially the handling and the looks. This was my last street bike. I raced motocross for several years after this, but have not had a bike for some time.

Until now! I decided I wanted to start wrenching in the garage and hopefully get a bike on the road this summer. Three weeks ago I picked up what was advertised as a 1986 VF500. This thread will describe my efforts at cleaning this thing up. However, it isn't going to be pretty like some of the great artwork that other have done here. This is a very low budget project.

As you can see, it has been repainted professionally, aside from the front fairing that was a replacement to the blue one that was smashed up (I have it). 4-1 exhaust, but see close up below.





Rear cowling is from a 750 and is elasti-clipped in place.



Damage to the poorly painted replacement fairing. The blue one looked really good but is damaged with cracks and gouges right though it.



4-1 pipe has a poorly welded slip on of some kind. I believe that the 4-1 can was demolished so he replaced it with this. If I keep it I may cut is off and have it re-welded cleanly. I have a second slip on of the same.



Now for more ugliness. He had these sliders mounted to the frame. They look kinda cool, I guess, but he or someone dropped the bike hard and it twisted the frame. So, from the onset I knew that I would have to find another frame.





The bike came with a spare parts engine, carbs and pretty much everything else.

 

Not sure why, but the photos did not come up. I uploaded to the gallery and then copied the photo url into the insert photo box. Hmmmm. If I click Edit Post, they are still there with what looks like the right IMG bracket bookends. Any ideas?

 

You gotta right click on the image itself and get the URL. For example, one of your images is http://vfrworld.com/photos/data/500/IMG_0041.jpg Take that url and put it in the photo item.

 

So, here is a bit more info on the bike:

The previous owner stripped the engine completely to rebuild it due to a bent connecting rod. He and his mechanic father-in-law rebuilt the 86 bottom-up by combining the best condition parts of the two engines, tranny on up (I have all the pictures of their work). But now the engine is was running poorly. That's how I got a good price on it. I brushed it off to the fact that he stored it in a log garage that has no door and he did nothing to winter-prep the bike. Keep in mind I am in Canada where it gets pretty cold. I pulled the carbs and cleaned them out, put it back together and it still ran rough.

I determined that the rough running was due to the bike running on three cylinders (sound familiar?) by checking headers for heat. I pulled the plug on cylinder 3 and was able to almost block the sparkplug hole with my finger on start up = no compression. Not good. I pulled the cover and the valve tappets and nuts were gone on all four intake valves! The valves did not appear to have dropped like others who have posted pictures here. I pulled the front cover and all the valves are intact. I am wondering what would cause all four intake valves on 1 and 3 to fail and no others.Why only the intake on 1 and 3? Any ideas? Misaligned camshafts / chain on re-assembly?



After further inspection of the motor in the bike and the spare motor, I determined that neither are 1986! The frame is a 1986. To top it off, the carbs are 1986 (smaller) carbs! What a mix and match bike (it will get worse when I am done).

I pulled the heads and was relieved to see that only one valve dropped and only gently, hardly wearing a touch of carbon on the top of the piston. I am disassembling the the four heads that I have and picking the best of each to make two decent heads. The four cams are in good shape. The previous owner swapped them out already from the parts motor. The old cams are in a box and pretty worn.

 

What year is the motor? And how did the carbs even fit? Mind you I know nothing of the 500's.

 

I needed a frame, so I picked up most of another bike from Montreal. He had already sold the motor. The gas tank was in brutal shape. It had been repaired at least once, but still leaked gas, stripping and bubbling the paint on the frame. I pulled the petcock and left the tank behind. The bike was already disassembled, so was an easy transport. Everything is dirty and in pretty rough shape, but it gives me options as I rebuild the bike. In most cases I have parts from three bikes to select the best from.

Here is the frame. I will need to do a major clean up, sand, prime and paint. This is a low budget project, so I am doing it myself.



Here are the various parts. Note the Gemini slip-ons. Unfortunately, most of the plastic is in bad shape.

 

The one in the bike is a 1985 according to the serial number and the parts motor is a 1984. I only made this discovery after I brought the heads to my shop. I have asked him to carefully inspect the heads and parts to make sure that a 1986 head didn't find its way onto the bike. I will know more later. I hope not because then I will have a real problem since the intake valves won't be interchangeable.

 

dude you cut the frame to install frame sliders!! :crazy:

the rear cowl is also for the 500 the 700's & 750's look way different ie.. look at the picture
take a grand for your project and address the suspension wheels shocks & forks

 

Matt when the hell you gonna change that front wheel? Slacker

 

Not sure what you are looking at or what you misread, but nobody cut anything. They are bolt on. The previous owner did this and wiped out, not me. The force on the slider twisted the frame member.

I am not convinced that the cowl was meant for the 500 due to it's size, but it could be. I am only going by what the owner told me. Either way, I am happy to have it.

 

already in proggress, twin's really take it out of yea, but i am a slacker lol

 

look at the frame of my bike and look at the bosses the hold the sliders someone has done that to this bike

 

Hey, I was gonna buy that bike! The guy kept stalling me though, I gave up on trying to connect with him. Got any parts you don't need want? I need a few very small things, I assume you are in/near Montreal?

 

I'm in Ottawa. The guy sold the motor to some student who wanted to take it apart to see how it worked. Blasphemy!! What do you need?

 

Yeah, that was the story he told me,a student who wanted to autopsy the motor! I was gonna pick up the rest of the parts for 100 bucks (all the boxes etc of the dismantled one). He told me he had another running bike, the painted one you got I guess, then he flaked out and could never be home when I was able to come over. Then I got a free Nighthawk so that took up all the space I was going to have for parts...

Ummm, well I was going to need those Slip Ons, but you will probably keep them I guess! Okay I need a clutch handle, a couple lower cowl bolts, and the little screw on fork caps if you have them.

 

No, they just slide over the frame, "U" shaped, and then clamp in place using the two allen bolts. What you see where I have removed the slider is the damage to the frame from the slider twisting. I can post pictures of the other side and the removed slider if you like.

 

ok it just looks like it is all are you going to reuse the sliders?

 

Actually, the blue bike that I started with was a separate deal from a guy in Hawksbury a few weeks ago.

I am not sure if I am going to stick with the 4 in 1 or use the slip-ons, so I will have to get back to you. I have three clutch assemblies, so I should be able to help you with one. I will have to check the boxes for your other parts. I have three pairs of forks, so I should have the caps. I will PM you when I get a chance to look.

I have no intention of reusing the sliders. I wouldn't have to swap frames if the guy didn't have these on when he dropped it. I learned from his lesson.

 

Yeah with no big body plastics there's no need for them anyway. :crazy:

 

Update: I have been stripping down the bike with the bad frame and have painted the replacement frame. I have not got my heads back from the shop yet. Here are some pictures:

Stripping down the bike




Replacement frame before cleaning and prep. It was worse than it looked due to the leaky tank on that bike melting a lot of the paint on both sides:


After prepping and priming. Because this is a low budget project I did not have it sandblasted. Sandblasting would have been better, but overall I am pleased.


Here it is after top coat and clear coat. I used spray cans for all three steps, a whole can for each. Several light coats for each step. If I had to do it again I would have used two cans of clear coat. Lessons learned. I am really happy with the results. It is amazing what a spotless frame does to freshen up a bike.


Starting to look like a bike again.