Curious: Having purchased a VFR 750F that has been layed up for many years I am suspicious of everything. Motor has been started and run for about 30 minuted plus over a period of about 4 seperate occasions. I added an engine flush to the oil, ran for the prescribed 10 minutes, dumped the oil and filter and replenished with fresh oil and filter. The compression had been down on one cylinder by about 30 percent but resolved itself after the oil flush so presumed to be stuck compression rings, (com now about 140psi on all 4 cylinders when hot) There had been smoke on initial start up but rapidly resolved itself and now shows no signs of smoking. So, engine now out of frame for a fresh coat of paint, it being rather "tatty" but deemed worthy of a refresh before she goes back on the road. I removed the clutch cover only to find on removal of the clutch plates that someone has previously been here: A "foreign" hex fastening nut has been used on the basket presumably because they did not have the correct tool and butchered the original nut removing it. It was obviously too long so had been shorted with an angle grinder which was a bit of a wory in itself, not to be hung up here (fix that later) I moved on. The clutch damper springs are "loose" with a very small amout of backlash decernable in this area. Should this be replaced? I am thinking yes. Moving on, I found something else which I had not anticipated. The amount of backlash in the transmission itself. When in top gear and with clutch plates removed I find about 20 degrees of backlash when I rotate the inner clutch hub back and forth and hold the output sprocket stationary. Without measuring, all lower gears appear to have an increasing amount of backlash which would seem logical due to the gear ratios. I understand some clearance is necessary to facilitate the gear shift but is this excessive? The last thing I want to do is split the casing "just for a look" however I have not previously witnessed this phenomina so seek the understanding of those "in the know." Also, having found the quality of previous tampering it leaves me wondering just what else they might have done???
