Intro and a few questions on some odds and ends

I've been a lurker for a year now and decided its time to say hello.

I bought an '83 750 a year ago as my first bike for $1,200 from a former bike mechanic(2nd owner). It was mechanically very well taken care of with somewhere around 23,000 miles on it. I put just over 5,000 miles on it in my first season. Longest ride was about 190 miles in a day with zero problems. Cosmetically it's overall in great shape, it's been set down a couple times with no speed, the left side engine cover looks slightly scraped, but everything else is just minor nicks.





When it was originally bought it was fitted with a 4-2 Kerker exhaust system and rejetted. I repacked the baffles immediately since it was running with them taken out :crazy:

I replaced the tires last summer with Dunlop gt501 that are a huge improvement over the ancient worn Lazers that were on them.


I've just gotten it out for the first time this season this week and have a few questions.


I'm getting a little bit of backfiring when rolling off the throttle with it still in gear. Is there anyway to lean out deceleration slightly? It could possibly be a product of the jetting and exhaust.

There is some valve noise that quiets down after warming up, but it's not terrible yet. Does adjusting the valves help that?

I've been looking for the odometer reset knob, just the plastic piece. My roommate stepped on it by accident when I had the instrument panal taken apart. Anyone have one they could send to me, I'd be willing to paypal a few bucks for one.

I'm going to pull the exhaust and have the pipes sandblasted powdercoated satin black, they're almost completely rust covered. Will I need to replace the exhaust gaskets when I pull the headers?

I've been looking into some light camping from the bike with a passenger, anyone have any input on luggage? I'm thinking possibly a tank bag, and a backpack on my girlfriend. Are there any sort of saddlebags that would fit on 1st gens with a passenger?

edit: Also when you have the key in the on position/running, should my front side lights be on constant like almost every other bike? My front and rear side lights are off until the turn signal blinks them. Also might right signal blinks faster(sometimes that's a dead bulb but they're both working), is that some sort of grounding problem or an issue in the circuit.

Thanks for any info.

 

Front running lights should be on when the ignition key is turned and when the bike is running. Could be a problem possibly with the signal relay? You would have to test it to be sure.
Whenever you take the headers off you should replace the exhaust gasket.
Don't know about the luggage, I was wondering about that with my '86.

 

The front running lights should be on. It looks like those are aftermarket lights put on, so they could be 2-way rather than 3-way lights. My lights are like that too. As for the faster blinking, it could be the bulb that is in it too; it could have lower electrical needs. My lights look similar to what you have on there and I had the unfortunate experience of breaking one of the bulbs that came with them, only to find that I cannot buy the exact same bulbs in a store here. So I had to replace both front bulbs because one was blinking faster than the other.

 

Your backfiring is most likely due to improper jetting. If it was fine before the repack then the bike probably had the jetting adjusted with the packing out. If your jets are adjustable by moving the location of the clip on the jet, this could be an easy fix. If not, new jets will be in order to stop the popping on deceleration.

Early VFR's had problems with oiling on the cams. There are mods for this. Others will be better suited to point you in the right direction for this than I will be. I'm pretty sure that improper/ proper jetting won't affect this.

New gaskets should be used any time you remove the headers though you can sometimes squeak by with reusing the old ones and tightening them down a little more. As old as yours are, replace them. They are usually only a few bucks.

You should be able to find some soft bags that go under the passenger pillion but across the rear cowl. I think that Cortech makes some and there are many others as well.

Front lights should be on all the time and blink when turn signals are on. Rear lights should be off and blink when turn signals are on.

Welcome to the forums and enjoy your stay

 

Thanks for the info. I've never been too sold on the lights myself as even my friends say they're harder to see when I'm signaling because they're so small...so cars seeing it would be even worse. I may look around for an OEM pair and solve both blinking, running and size problems at once. My friends '06 CBR600 has the same style stock lights that the vfrs have stock it seems so it should be easy to find.

I'll definitely replace the exhaust gaskets, got the front headers off last night and the gaskets are pretty well shot. Is a dealer a good place to find engine gaskets?

Before I repacked the baffles and put them in the bike ran like crap. There was a huuuuge dead spot in power when accelerating from 5k-7k rpm. I was reading that without the backpressure it can cause it to run too lean.
Now with the baffles it's slightly too rich but has good power through the whole range. I'm not too familiar with carburetors...too bad there's no fuel mix screw easily accessed. I may deal with the slight backfiring until I have a reason to get down into the carbs if it's extremely involved...everything I read about working on those ends badly it seems.