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

I see four different flathead screws. Am I messing with the wrong ones?

I have a synch kit that I'm using. I'm not doing attempting it by ear.

 

they should be spring-loaded screws at the joints of the linkage.

 

Like those? I dont see springs from my angle. And there's four of these...

Also, what about the brake pad spring? Did anyone know what I was talking about with the little metal pieces that stick up? And I thought of something else too: The shim. Should the pad shim fit snuggly against the pad? Because on both from calipers, it barely latched on to the pads.

 

if your having trouble turning the handle bars.. it sounds like your steering head bearings( bearing that are in the triple tree) are a bit tight/worn out/ need lube... check those and you'll probably fix your wobble and steering problem in one swoop.
in regards to the bleeding of the brakes.... what was the order you bled them? left caliper first the right?.. you should be able to bleed them till pressure returns especially if you had good pressure before you should be able to get it back

 

I haven't started on the turning issue, but I will after I take care of the brake and carb synch.

I didn't bleed them in a particular order. I kept jumping back and forth to make sure I got all the air out. I would center the front wheel while the bike was raise up on a rear stand. There is pressure, but I still have to put the brake handle really close to the handle bar to get it to stop completely, and I even adjusted the brake handle so its as far forward as possible, and honestly, its a necessity in its current state to stop the bike.

Before, I believe I had a lot of brake drag due to the pads not sitting as they should have - this (speculation) caused the front wheel to not spin freely when it was raised. So I took out the brake pads and reseated them and now the front wheel spins much more feely, and I no longer have the front end shake issue that I did before.

Here's a video from the carb synch
[video=youtube;Xzj5-0Ml9jQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzj5-0Ml9jQ[/video]

 

For syncing the carbs, you want to adjust the linkage between the 4 carbs, not adjust the pilot screws which control the idle mix.

By syncing the carbs you're ensuring that all 4 are flowing the same amount of air.

From the video, they are definitely off. Does your sync tool come with restrictive pills that go in the lines to the intakes? Mine did, and that makes it far easier to read the gauges. It doesn't swing nearly as much that way.

 

something is up cause those guages shouldn't be jumping around like that......

 

Mine does come with tiny little white valves, that are meant to control that... I forgot to put them in.

Is there a picture in the FSM that shows the linkages and pilot screws? I dont know what they look like.

Whoops, I meant to put up this picture. Are these the pilot screws? Can you tell me if the linkages are in this picture as well?

 

your linkage is in between the carbs in the valley so to speak .. here is a picture of the screws you should be concerned with

side note: These carbs are upside down so the carb you see that is on the bottom left is actually the front left carb (the carb you will sync to).. good luck...

 

Awesome. Thanks so much.

Now, what exactly did I screw up by adjusting the other screw in my picture?

 

Okay, so I turned the linkage screws a half turn, starting at the front, then the rears, then the bike died. This is where I got up to roughly. I don't know what to do from here.

From the FSM, I'm reading under "Pilot screw adjustment", even though apprently I'm not supposed to adjust the pilot screws. Whatever I did adjust though were the screws in crustyriders pictures.

 

So, I think you were first turning the pilot screws for the carbs (which are used to adjust the idle mixture), and are part of the "idle drop procedure" in the FSM. They're under covers that need to be drilled through (carefully), on new bikes.

With the linkage screws, what you want to do is:

1) put the restrictor valves in the lines for your carb-sync tool, so that you can more easily read the needles
2) adjust the front linkage screw until the front carbs match each other (only one will move, the other is the reference that you're syncing to).
3) adjust the rear screws to line up the rear carbs. IIRC, one of them impacts both rear carbs, the other only adjusts one.

What you're doing is adjusting the throttle linkage so that at idle, all 4 carbs are flowing the same amount of air. Once you have them flowing equally, you can do the idle drop procedure to set the mixture correctly.

 

Ok. I think I understand.

So before you posted that, I actually went back out there and tried again and I feel like I got them synched. Seeing the steps that you put up now makes sense because when I adjusted the front linkage, the front right carb moved a lot on the dial and the front left one did not so much (I also installed the restrictor valves and those helped immensely).

While the bike sounds better and actually feels smoother, I feel like it has less low and midrange power. Is that because I now need to do the idle drop procedure? Also, the FSM mentions that "The pilot screws are factory pre-set and no adjustment is necessary unless the pilot screws are replaced". Whats that about?

 

Honestly, the carb sync shouldn't have much impact as you open up the throttles (they make a big difference at idle, but almost none when WOT). And the same goes for the idle drop procedure, the pilot just doesn't flow much vs. the main jet.

Although if you had a carb that was more open than the rest, then I could see it having "snappier" throttle response, as it was already hitting the transition ports. So that may be what you're experiencing. But that's all WAG on my part. I know fuel injection better than carbs (embedded systems are more my thing).

The whole "no adjustment necessary" bit can be ignored. That probably held true 25 years ago. But the fuel is different, the carbs aren't pristinely cleaned, and since the covers were off the pilot screws to start with, someone's been mucking with them in the past. I'd turn each all the way in (very carefully), noting how many turns out they were (like 2.5), and then set them at the starting point for the test (2.5 turns out), and then going through the idle drop test.

Of course, this all pre-supposed that you don't have any air leaks, and it actually idles smoothly and consistently (no hunting). Mine hunts pretty badly, even when well-synced (I'm pretty sure I have air leaks I need to track down), so I haven't bothered with the idle-drop test.

 

I didnt even try it wide open, just rolling on quickly. It just didn't seem to pull as hard and wasnt accellerating as fast...

Is there more than one correct position between the idle stop screw and the linkages. Like if the screw is loose and the linkages tightened, then vice versa. Am I really just achieving the same thing?

The bike idle's smoothly to me and its consistent enough I think. It definitely doesn't hunt.

Also, I still have the problem with the engine quickly jumping rpms to 3k when I hit 2k. So like, roll on to 2k rpm and without more throttling line input, it goes up to 3k.

 

The idle screw (the one you can turn by hand), adjusts the front left carb, and then the linkage drives the others off of it. They should all have some tension on them. When you get the linkage sorted out, changing the idle screw on the front-left carb should move all 4 together, in concert, by the same amount. Then you know you have it right.

The rev jump, this is in N or with the clutch in, right? If so, mine does the same. I think it's just a matter of how the engine output increases with rpm vs. the engine's own internal drag increases, so that it comparably more power than drag for a bit, so it accelerates up to 3K rpm. Or something.

 

I'll work on the idle drop this weekend.

The rev jump happens while riding too. Its so obvious that its unsafe to ride the bike. There's literally no control from 2,000 to 3,000. I'll make a video tomorrow so you can see.

Also, any thoughts on my spongy brakes? I feel like they've been air bled enough; The pads don't look worn; The level just has to go all the way to the handlebar to stop the bike all the way.

 

Something a friend of mine said when I picked up my bike, and was complaining about how it rode below 3k rpm: "don't".

I always keep it up over 4k when riding, and about 3k when starting from a stop. Given that it spins at 5-6k on the freeway, and redlines at 11500, 3k is just way too low for happy running.

Others may contradict this, it's just what I do.

As for the brakes, you have air in the system for sure. The angle if the clippings means that the high point is the banjo bolts at the master.

What I did to fix it on mine was to squeeze the handle slowly, and repeatedly, trying to build up pressure. (2-3x slow squeeze, very slow release).

Then with the lever all the way back, crack open the banjo until fluid/bubbles/air seep out. Tighten the bolts, and then very slowly release the lever (very slowly, 10-15 sec). And repeat until you're getting no air at all.

Remember to put lots of rags/paper towels under the fittings, and to clean everything up with alcohol or lots of soap and water, as the fluid will destroy stuff.

 

I had a chance to test the bike again while riding and the 2k-3k jump was barely noticable.

Another thing I noticed though was at low rpm speeds, the bike did hunt a bit, but again, that was at low rpms.

 

your getting there..... you may need to replace.... you should replace your carb insulators... the rubber boots between the carbs and the intake on the engine... should have mentioned that in the beginning.. if they havent been replaced they are probably the original ones and are hard as rocks.... I replaced mine and the air leak went away and the bike idles really well.... and one more thing... when you reinstall the carbs make sure you set the boots on correctly yeah there is a right way and a wrong way... look closely at them and you should see what I anm talking about ... and don't loosen anything to get them back on no hammering on them with a rubber mallet just constant working back and forth and they will pop back on....