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New (to me) older bike! VF500F


jporter12

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so your the one ! I was going down to lancaster today to look at that but he called last night and said he sold it , i saw it on cl but was going to the races so couldnt get there till today was gonna pick it up for the wife she wants a bike to start riding

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so your the one ! I was going down to lancaster today to look at that but he called last night and said he sold it , i saw it on cl but was going to the races so couldnt get there till today was gonna pick it up for the wife she wants a bike to start riding

Yeah, I'm the one! I was ready to go Saturday, but he said that he had someone coming to look at it yesterday in the AM. It's definitely a project, but I think I can have it up and running soon.

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now i know who to tell my wife to direct her anger toward instead of me

Go for it! I can take it!

Now the Ninja's pissed about me getting a new bike, it wouldn't start this morning. Sounded like something MAJOR breaking apart. I went home at lunch and messed with it a little bit, got it to start and has been fine ever since. I think something was just a little off in the starter clutch. Can't imagine it being anything too major, the bike has less than 5000 miles on it. Ya never know though!

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I put in a new battery today, started it on starting fluid a couple more times trying to get fuel to flow. Verified fuel pump operation, then figured out the vaccuum line that connected to the petcock. Now it had fuel running out of several places on the carbs (where it obviously shouldn't have been!) They had been apart from each other and not put back together properly. They're now sitting on the bench, one is completely disassembled.

I ordered an o-ring kit for them, and will disassemble the rest of them, and go through them, and clean everything tomorrow, the reassemble them Thursday when I get the o-ring kit.

I just wish I had more time to work on them, or that the kit would be in tomorrow! I ordered them from the local Honda dealer. I found them cheaper online, but shipping came close to making up for the difference, not to mention that it would be a couple weeks before they would ship!

I need to pull a plug tomorrow and see how they look, and replace them if needed while I'm in there. So far, things are looking good!

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Yeah, getting them out was NOT an easy task!

They're actually not all that bad inside! There is definitely some varnishing going on in there, and a few holes are plugged, but most are ok.I forget what the tube is that is plugged, but the rest looks good.

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while your at it make that petcock a gravity feed instead of vacum.. the 500 is notorious for the vacum diaphram to shit out and leave you stranded

here is a how to

http://www.daughertymotorsports.com/howto/tankvalve/tankvalve.html

Thanks for the tip! It IS working right now, but I'll read into it a bit, and since it's common, prolly fix it now, before it fails!

I ran across that website yesterday! I found it on VFRworld.com, which I registered on, also. Those guys sure know there stuff on these V4's!

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Don't you just love working of V4 carbs, they can be a pain in the ass to get in and out though if you don't have new boots.

Not such a big deal, now that I've been through it a couple times to put springs back in the linkage that had fallen out from putting them in wrong! :lol:

The bike is now running! The carbs still need adjusted, and synced. I drove it home and back to work (1.8 miles each way) and I'm pretty happy, thus far! I now need to go over the bike and make sure everything is tight (I've found a few things that weren't!) I also had to fix the brake lights, the rear switch was just unhooked (mechanically) and the front switch is bad, and I have a replacement on it's way. Oh yeah, I still have some more straightening to do on the side stand that got bent on the trailer ride home!

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If anyone is following, I HAD the bike on the road, and it was running OK, but making a lot of noise. The noise got worse, and I decided to not ride it on the Utica FF poker run yesterday, and I'm glad I did! I started tearing into it today, and #4 rod bearing was spun. The engine had been apart before too, as evidenced by the "backyard orange" high temp RTV. I have the crank out of it, going to measure the big end of the rod, or maybe just have that pair of rods resized. I need to source parts next. I'm also contemplating tearing into the other engine (original from the bike) and just overhauling it.

Pics later for anyone interested.

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Have you checked the availability of a donor engine?

I haven't found one so far, and I'm not going to look all that much since I have a second engine here. The problem I may run into is finding gaskets and such for it. I'm going to talk to the machinist tomorrow, they're working on an engine for us right now anyway (car engine, but they do it all!) Maybe he'll have some good sources for the stuff I need!

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Love those little 'ceptors, but your right I think sourcing gaskets and such will be a pain. Hope you get her back together though, love to see one on the road.

Well, I tore down the other engine that I have tonight, and the crank looks good! I need to measure everything to figure out which bearings to use, since there are (I think) 4 different rod bearing sizes. Good thing is that most of them are still available, I think.

I found a web site that has gasket sets, but they're out of stock. I'm hoping they can get them back in! As for now, the heads are staying on, and I'm just doing the bearings, so that I can get it back on the road! The engine that I'm taki9ng the crank out of had an issue with smoking, and the oil has coolant in it, so I'm guessing that it has a blown head gasket. I can get a front head gasket, but I'm having troubles locating a rear, unless that kit comes through! At $76 I think it;s a good deal!

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Bringing this thread back to the top with another update, if anyone is interested! :lol:

I checked the clearances on the donor crank, and re-used the rod bearings from the donor (original to the bike) engine. Everything checked out ok, so I put it all abck together, and got the engine back in the bike and running yesterday. I got a few things straightened out as I was putting it all back together.

The bike is running pretty well now. Still needs some work, carb syncing, etc... I also now have a couple oil leaks... :(

I'm determined to get this thing right yet!!!

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Congrats on getting everything back together and working!!

Could the oil leaks be from the tubes that run under the carbs? Sometimes those o rings go bad.

I think it's coming from under the sprocket cover. I'll have to check tomorrow.

I took the bike for a ride tonight and it acted like it ran out of gas. I put it on reserve, then a few miles later, it did it again. This time it was right in front of the shop where I work, so I coasted downhill and only had to push it a little bit! I'm pretty sure it's the well known to these bikes vacuuum operated petcock issue. I'll be remedying that ASAP.

It has been quite a bit of work getting this old bike back in shape, but I don't have much money in it. So far, I actually only have abot $45 for a battery in it, and fuel and oil. Also, the cost of some hondabond sealer. Oh, I also have about 30 hours of my "spare" time in it.

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While you are checking for the leak check around the clutch push rod seal.

Those have been known to leak.

You are putting that bike back together like I did my V65 magna just a few parts and my own time.

Didn't even think about the clutch rod seal! Thanks for the tip there!

I just wish I had more time to work on it!

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While you are checking for the leak check around the clutch push rod seal.

Those have been known to leak.

You are putting that bike back together like I did my V65 magna just a few parts and my own time.

The clutch seal IS the culprit! Thanks again for the suggestion. The bad part is the difficulty in repairing it. I found a fix that may work until I get time to tear it down for a complete overhaul, it involves an o-ring insde the seal. It just might work, and get me by for a while. I really don't want to tear it down just for this little seal!

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