Where to start with 86' VFR700F that hasnt been touched in over 5 years?

Haha. I had my doubts too. I had to get in one decent ride this morning but over the next couple of days, I'll be doing all of the maintenance and setting up the suspension and work on some other repairs. The blinkers don't work nor does the turn signal indicator so maybe they're related in the wiring? I checked the fuses a week ago and they all seemed good so maybe its a wiring issue.

 

I'm having a tough time figuring out throttle adjustments. I dont know how to remove the throttle cables to lubricate them. I know theres all sorts of little nuts and whatnot but some pictures would be extremely helpful if someone could point me in the right direction. The service manual doesn't show anything. I need some help here.

 

To get to the throttle cables, from the top, there are two screws that hold the start/stop switch housing together, accessed from underneath. With the top of the switch housing removed, you can get to the throttle cables. It's pretty easy to lube the cable, twist all the way open, lube the other, and then close the throttle. Repeating that many times will help work it down the length of the cables.

 

Thanks Woody, that helped a lot.

Here's me on the bike. What do you guys think of the sound? [video=youtube_share;RyBQXSC0stk]http://youtu.be/RyBQXSC0stk[/video]

 

Hard to say from the audio, would have to hear it in person.

 

Toe, do you ever come down to San Jose area? I hear youre a beer fan. Whats your favorite?

I'm also getting some heavy vibration when I apply the front brake. Warped/glazed rotors perhaps?

 

Or bad tires, or headstock bearings. If the rotors are warped, you should be able to tell by spinning the tire with it in the air, and checking the runout (if it's very bad, you'll be able to see it, otherwise a magnetic dial indicator stuck to the fork lower will let you watch the rotor. Also, a micrometer will let you measure the rotor thickness at a few different points (although if the runout is true on both sides of teh rotor, then it's going to be the same thickness all the way around).

When my front tires are old, I get lots of odd front-end virbrations, and when the steering stem bearings were going, I had some similar oddness.

 

It seems to ride around just fine. The issue only comes up when I'm braking. Could that still be bad tires?

 

I'd definitely go over the front brakes. There are clearance values in the FSM for the rotor in the calipers (basically just making sure that the rotors can't touch the caliper bodies). But I'd get the front wheel up in the air, rotate the front tire, and see what you can see. Maybe lightly apply the brakes and see if they catch somewhere. But a runout gauge stuck to the fork lowers is probably your best bet. I know you can pick them up at Winchester Auto pretty cheaply ($20 or so). "Magnetic base dial indicator". And about the same for a digital readout micrometer/caliper.

 

Just a quick update since I just bought my front stand: The front wheel doesnt spin freely nor do the handle bars while the front is raised. The rear wheel even moves easier.

I used a micrometer and just slowly spun the wheel around. I feel like this is innefective though because if the rotor is warped, wouldn't the micrometer just follow the rotor over the warped spot?

I'm going through the FSM and trying to see if my dad has runout gauges.

 

you don't need fancy dial gagues to find rotor runout as more primitive methods work fine.

Rember that you have a single-acting caliper so the ability to slide sideways on the pins is critical to optimum brake performance.

 

Can you make a recommendation for a replacement chain? The rear sprocket looks good, but I'm not sure about the front one...

I also dont understand the sticker on the radiator tank overflow the is supposed to explain how high or the tension on the spring should be. Theres just a dial that says turn to the right for "High" and turn left for "Low". The sticker has 5 lines and a dot on the second space from the top of the sticker. The dial doesn't have 5 specific closing points so I'm not sure.

 

I have a DID chain, seems to be holding up well (8K miles on it so far).

If you look at the top of the adjuster, you should be able to see a red dot through the translucent pastic collar, and lines that mirror the sticker. That's the current position of the adjuster.

Yes, a mic won't catch warp, but will catch un-even wear. But it sounds like you have bigger problems to dea with first. If the tire isn't freely spinning, I'd make sure nothing is catching anywhere (should be positional), and then if nothing appears to be binding up, pull the front axle, drop the tire, and look at the bearings, depending on mileage, they could be toast. I've seen "rideable" bearings where 1/4 of the balls were missing from the bearings...

 

As far as the chain goes, I dont need to replace the sprocket, correct? Only if its worn? And should I count the teeth of the sprocket or something to see what chain size I need. I'm not sure if its the original chain/sprocket set on there.

 

Some say replace chain and sprockets together (I did on mine), but others just replace the sprockets if they have visible wear. FSM just says to replace based on wear.

 

Took the front wheel off (I dont know why FSM says to only remove right brake caliper as some piece of the left got in the way of removing the wheel) and the bearings look good. I haven't performed any sort of technical analysis yet as I'm next going to remove the left caliper and see how it looks.

I bought some handgrips today. Those were a pain in the ass to install with glue, and even made a quick attempt without glue that was also impossible. So we soaked the grips in almost boiling water and that made all the difference in the world.

Also, just for anyone whos never done it before, reinstalling the throttle cables was a huge pain as well. What ended up working was loosening the adjusters as much as possible, getting the ends of the cables in, then slipping the carb side adjusters into the cable holders (as the FSM calls them).

Still having fun working on this thing though it is a little tedius. Once this front end shake problem is taken care of, everything else should be minor maintenance issues. For now though, the bike just feels unsafe. I think I mentioned earlier in the thread that I'm a brand new motorcycle rider, so I've been working on brake tests in a parking lot, trying to brake as soon as I can, and I'm just not comfortable not knowing what the hell is up with the front end.

I also need to diagnose why the forks dont turn very well. Raised up off the ground, how freely should they be able to move. This is hard to describe over typing, but basically it takes effort to turn the handle bars.

Woody, thanks for all your help thus far. I was able to see the red dot on the adjuster. As far as the wheel bearings go, it spins with ease with my finger, but not so fast then I can flick it and it spins on its own. I dont think thats expected though as theres grease all up on it.

Still waiting on carb synch kit from a friend...

Squirel, what do you mean sliding sideways on the pins? Just that the pads move consistently?

 

Cleaned up the front brakes and reinstalled the pads. By the way, on the brake pad spring, there's two little pieces of metal that are sticking up - I positioned the outer brake pad behind it. Is that how its supposed to be done? They were smashed down before.

After reinstalling the wheel and pads though, theres no more front end shake, but now the brakes don't work as good. I feel like I air bled them really well and since I dont think I have any other options, I think i'm going to have a professional look at that one. I mean, how many times can you attempt a brake bleed. From research, it appears that I'm doing it correctly. Using a mighty vac; no vacuum leak; etc. etc..

Still haven't messed with the handle bar turning issue. One project at a time.

Lastly, the carb synch. One of my carbs seemed to be performing differently than the other 3 according to my synch gauges. I attempted to adjust the pilot screw and blipped the throttle after each turn and it didn't seem to make a difference. After a few trials of that, another of the carbs seemed to be affected by my adjusting the one carb, so I called it a night, and am now posting here following that. I did a search on the boards and according to some people, in the FSM, theres an order of operations for carb adjustment but I didn't see that in my FSM.

One last thing: When I hit 2k rpms, the bike automatically goes up to 3k. I dont think its a throttle issue as I was moving the throttle wheel (thing on carb) to see if it was just a handlebar throttle issue but it wasnt.

 

On the carb sync, the linkage between the cylinders has 3 adjustment screws. The no2 carb is the master (if I remember the numbering right).

The no4 carb has its own adjuster, between the front two carbs. But the adjuster between the banks adjusts both no1 and no3 together, with the last adjuster balancing 1 and 3 against each other.

It can take a bit of practice to get the desired results.

 

You MUST follow the exact sequence from the FSM.



The carb with the idle adj screw is your master carb and all must be matched to that.



First, balance the 2 front carbs by turning the synch screw on carb 2 to match the master carb set at about 1200 rpm. Next balance both rear carbs as close as possible. Third step is to match the rears to the fronts. Sequence is vitally important, and no synch screw should need more than 1/2 turn.

There are 3 synch screws + the idle adjuster. Just to make things interesting, each screw adjustment slightly influences the others.



engine at operating temp.

 

I have the motion pro carb sync tool:

Motion Pro - Syncpro Carb Tuner

It makes this a much more manageable task, and lets you see how each of the adjustment screws effects the vacuum on the various carbs.