Rogue's VF500 rebuild or part out!!

^^ I placed my order last night and picked up a couple extra bolts and copper washers. Tired of piecemeal and shipping these days.

 

How do the steering head bearings feel? ;-)

 

Gotta bring up head bearings! Every time I look at my 750 I cringe that I need to pull it all apart to do the work proper like.

Need a pr0per test ride to tell on the VF.

 

ummmm.... when the forks are off and the triples are empty is the perfect time to assess. Moves smoothly and freely, without notches, especially in the center?

 

Unsure. I did ride it and it did not feel notchy. It is currently living on a steering head Pit Bull stand, so rotating it doesn't give a true estimate of condition. I will jack it by the engine case on Saturday and see what we have.

 

Aaaahhhhhh. Got it.

 

I hung mine from the frame to the ceiling cause I didn't have a real jack and it worked pretty good! Easy to feel the head bearings.

 

Excellent bike hanger. I have a finished ceiling so my wife might be mad if I hang it from there. lol. I am going to get a moto scissor lift for under the engine. I left my car jack under the engine right now because the bike already came off of the pit bull (wholly shit moment!). I have now strapped the pit bull in place, but I still want something underneath.

FYI, forks went pretty good. I had to use 120psi impact on the second fork bolt. Now I am waiting on new hardware and the forks will be complete. bushings looked great and everything is cleaned out. Thanks for pushing me to learn. I now feel way more confident about forks just by messing with these. Spent the 3 bones on the seal driver! hell yea! 1.5" PVC FTW! One fork took max hand pressure to install, and the other took a soft hammer to the PVC. Lock rings are not corroded so yay!
Photos soon.

 

That statement gives me a lot of confidence after having just removed the rear wheel on the VFR, lol. Harbor Freight is a bit more of a trusted swingarm stand manufacturer than Pitbull though, so I should be fine. I just had to do something with my hands while watching the Daytona 200, so I figured why not be useful, hah.



Glad to hear you got through and did the forks and it was mainly uneventful. You'll feel a lot better throwing a new damper rod bolt and crush washer on it as opposed to reusing old ones. It's a bitch getting the whole thing done, all bolted back up, go for a ride, and realize a minor drip coming from the bottom of the fork since the old crush washer isn't sealing anymore. Learned that one from experience.

 

I don't know if they are a common size but Joe at V4Dreams has the proper crush washers. I just got my forks together and they seem to work. Fingers crossed. Thanks for all the info here. Super helpful.

 

^^^True dat. I am going to measure and see what McMaster car has as well for crush washers.

Picked up front turn signals. It was really the one item I over looked and actually didn’t have. They are both damaged from the sun and scrapes. Should I just repaint them both in semi gloss? Anyone actually work on the old plastic sits?

 

The plastic on the winker housings is very fillable / paintable. I've painted quite a few white over the years with zero issues.

If the stays are not too far gone, switch sides so the sag is "up".

Also, front VF500F stays are the shortest of that design, a nice choice for the rear too.

 

There are companies that sell new version, not OEM but surely look like it. That path sounds like a lot less work.

 

If he wanted "less work", he wouldn't be rebuilding 86 VFRs and VFs! ;-)

But yeah, I hear ya. I think the newer ones are CBR600F4 / VTR1000F style. A little more streamline looking, I've used them on a couple friend's bikes.

 

yeah, yeah, yeah... Less work, but I don't want to hear "why are these signals not OE?". I am trying to keep this 100% OE minus seals and such. Called in sick today...so some VF business will get done. shhhhh pouring buckets again, but lets see if I can complete anything.

 

Before you paint, clean up scrapes with a file, as smooth as you can, then Scotchbrite rub all over... if uneven finish, hit it with a heat gun, it will restore gloss without affecting any finish... be careful, too much heat and it will distort. Quick passes waving at it..... worst case, you'll paint them later.

 

Just in case you're interested.

>>
The company is K&S. Their website is ghastly. Parts Unlimited list them as 25-1111 and 25-1112

http://bit.ly/3yGqZrf

You can probably find them from a number of parts catalogs -- an online sources.
>>

 

Good find. Thanks for the hook up.

 

"I'm here to help, despite my actions."

 

Before I reinstall I thought this was pretty cool. Most likely the guy who built them from Honda. Sakai is written on each fork inside of leg.