Refurbishing my '99 5th Gen

The next thing I tackled today was removing the fuel pump assembly from the fuel tank so I could replace the high pressure fuel filter.

Removing the fuel pump assembly was very easy. Once it was out I was able to inspect the inside of the fuel tank...



The Fuel Pump Base Gasket was pretty hard, felt more like it was plastic rather than rubber. Once again, 18 year old rubber parts just aren't going to be soft and pliable, are they? I replaced it with a new one.



The inside of the fuel tank is in beautiful condition, it looks like a brand-new tank. Very happy to see this:

 

I found an extremely dirty K&N air filter inside the bike's airbox. For now I'm going to replace it with an OEM Honda paper air filter element.

The K&N filter was so dirty I didn't recognize its trademark red cotton air filter element. I have a cotton element air filter cleaning/re-oiling kit so I'll probably clean and refurbish this K&N filter element, then I can switch back and forth with the OEM Honda filter to see which one I like better.





While I'm not too concerned about which of these two air filter elements is better for air flow, I am curious to find out which of them is better at transmitting/allowing/amplifying that wonderful VFR intake noise.

 

Man this is some top tier stuff. Don't worry about air filter CFM, the kn flows no more than oem. I didn't see starter valve sync on your list. Everything else looks great.

 

+1

Made a huge difference on mine. Really surprised it isn't listed as scheduled maintenance. At least when valves are checked or something.

 

Wow you are on a mission, nice to see the results. keep it going.. ha ha like you won't

 

Cleaned swing arm.



But more importantly I cleaned and re-greased the swing arm bearings. It was pretty obvious these bearings have never been serviced since the bike rolled out of the Honda factory.

 

I've always wondered what the tab was / is / does there in the filler port. Interesting. splash protector for the fuel sending unit? thanks for the photos.

 

I've seen that bar or tab on other motorcycles. A long time ago I was told that on level ground if you fuel up until the gasoline reaches that tab you will have the amount of fuel equal to the OEM specification in the owner's manual.

 

The bike's prior owner was a fan of wax-based chain lube.

I won't deny that wax-based chain lube works well, but have you ever tried to clean the residue off of the rest of the motorcycle? Yeah, I know that the label on wax-based chain lube claims it resists slinging off the chain, but that doesn't guarantee that every bit you put on the chain will stay there.

Bottom line: it was everywhere on the rear end of this bike and it tenaciously resists removal and when it does come off it sticks to and gums up the brush you're using. What a pain in the ass.

Glad that battle is over...

 

New rubber... it's gonna feel so good when I get this thing put back together.

 

Mice in the airbox, grit in the V, chain gunk everywhere..... I thought you were talking about mine. You left out the rusty header pipes, and the rusty chrome oil lines. How do the insides of the lower fairings get that nasty?

The great thing about gunk, is that its a great preservative. Not quite cosmoline, but close.

Ive never had a Bridgestone, that I liked. Even their semi tires suck. Maybe they're better now days.

 

Plus one on Bridgestone being terrible

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That's funny, all my "terrible tire" experiences have been with Dunlop tires. Through the years I have purchased several used motorcycles and each time they had old, hard, worn, scary-as-hell Dunlop tires on them. Worst experience ever was having to ride a '93 Suzuki GSF400 Bandit from Portland, OR to Spokane WA at night, in off-and-on rain showers with ancient "Dunrocks".

Usually I've replaced the Dunrocks with Michelin or Pirelli tires, but this time I wanted to try something different.

I'm optimistic about giving these Bridgestones (Battlax T30 EVO) a try. They've been reviewed very favorably here on this forum and on other motorcycling forums.

Also, maybe I should point out that I was specifically looking for a tire that was toward the "sport" end of the "touring" category. I wasn't shooting for pure "sport" or "trackday" performance.

 

Ask Lint about those tires? Think maybe OOTV went for a set as well.
But anyways, LOOKING GOOD


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I tell ya, you're making me envious, That wood frame support cradle is pretty smart too.

 

I went with the Bridgestone S21 set on the 5 Gen this time around. With the rebate they were less than $150!

So far great sport tire, used them in the canyons and on the track and so far no complaints. That being said not expecting long life out of them but I'll be happy with 3-4K miles. Although less than what I would normally get out of the Michelin PP3s, I can't complain considering the cost.

 

That simple frame support has me wondering why I'd not thought of doing something like it myself.
Fortunately, I can be pretty good at copying someone else's great concept!

 

Actually I was copying too. While I was reading through the Honda VFR800 Service Manual and I saw this drawing on page 7.1



I figured that if it was normal for the Honda factory mechanics to support the bike this way I would just do the same thing with cheap wood, two really cheap furniture dollies, a really long ratchet extension and some Thule bike rack tie-down straps.