VF400F info

you keep the speedo drive but it has to be modified to work. The front wheel also has to be machined, the rotor separation on the 500 and 600 are different. The sprocket carrier also has to be modified to work with the 600 wheel.

 

Sounds like a fair amount of work.. I hope Jamie replies soon

 

If you are interested in doing the mechanicing then fine. However, 1000 euro sounds an awful lot of money for what many would consider nothing more than scrap. There is no running bike here. 1000 euro buys you a running bike normally. The VF400 was not a popular bike. It competed at the time with the RD350LC and was found seriously wanting. However I liked them and bought one new in 1984. I sold it a year later as I found it a bit small and underpowered. It handled OK though. I now have a 1986 VF500 which in my opinion is a far superior bike in every way. However despite what others say, it will never see 130mph. Buying a bucket of bits to assemble a running bike is a money pit in my opinion. Far better to buy a running bike in poor condition and upgrade that. If you have missing parts (almost certain) you are looking at a very difficult task (ie expensive) to find replacements. VF400s are very rare, just check out Ebay for proof.

 

You have two options with head gaskets. If they are multi-ply steel they can be reused if removed carefully & cleaned up properly. I have stripped them to 3 parts, polished them then apply VHT paint to the top & bottom faces that contact the head/cylinders, then reassembly. Has worked on many bikes. The VHT paint acts as the bedding layer. Only use one thin coat of paint.

The other option, is to send the old gasket to Cometic Gaskets in the USA, they will make replicas, it's not expensive & then others will be able to order replacements at will.

 

I had 130mph out of mine on the clocks, may have been with a tailwind, but I'll take any advantage I can get

 

In my case it would need a hurricane :courage:

 

If you bid on this, 1000 is to much, offer half that & work up, what is he after ?
Put a CBR600F4 or 4i front end on it & if the swingarm is the same as the 500 then you should be able to fit a 140/60-17 rear tyre on another wheel from a more modern 250 etc. Just jack up the rear to compensate for the smaller 17" wheel. This will give you the brakes & access to modern tyres ! Have fun.

 

I think he's after 1200€,but maybe you are right. I might start looking for a running vf500

 

Sorry to be in late.
I got two vf400f, one vf500f, two vf750 rc36, two vfr750r rc30... I made a lot of experience on honda vf bikes! I also drove many other bikes, but mothing is comparable to vf hondas, so on february 2016 I decided to buy another one of the bike that cut my heart deepest. The winner is......... vf400f! Not a rc30 engine nor frame, but neither an rc30 balls cooker, and a sofa bike for your bottom and knees on long trips. Now I'm fitting nc35 front end, and nc30 swing with nc35 wheels, yoshimura stage 2 cams, fcr32 carbs, and engineered full exhaust with 413cc pistons and programmable ignitec ecu. pheeeww, a long list!
To come to your question, vf500f forks and yokes are a direct swap. Cbr400f3, vt250f and vf400f integra have 35mm forks so that you can directly swapping into vf400f yokes obtaining a very noticeable braking power improvement. It's an easy job, you can use vf500f front wheel and calipers, but need custom made spacers (not a big issue though), on the rear side vf500f wheel, caliper and brake pump are a direct 5 minutes swap with no mod.
Hope to be of some help.
Best reguards
Pietro

 

One hell of a necropost

Thank you very much for the info.. I'm not building a 400 now. After first looking at the 400 (too little info to be found, too little parts availability), then looking at the 500 (don't like the tail section of that bike too much, then at 750 (almost a winner, but I got afraid reading about oiling and "chocolate cam" issues), I finally pulled the trigger on a 1000. Reasoning: if I am doing this, why not go big or go home.
Ran into countless issues (still am), but over the course of 2 years I have been painfully slowly disassembling, cleaning, modding and building my "dream bike".

I really hope to get it running somewhere between february - april next year.
More and more "modules/components" are getting together (rear end, suspension), but I first need to build up the engine itself before I can put the bike on it's wheels and really start building it up.
For now, it's a 95% complete bike in various closets, while I await the arrival of the last parts for the engine. It will go very, very quickly after that,

Highlights:

All fasteners, brackets, ... stripped, cleaned, galvanised, most parts powdercoated black
Suzuki DL1000 forks (modified) with jamie Daugherty cartridges
VFR800i yokes (modified)
Hyperpro 461 custom shock
CBR600F2 wheels, EBC 320mm floaters up front
Brembo P4 calipers
LSL clipons, Galespeed master cylinders
Built and blueprinted block, with lightened crank, arias pistons, fully balanced underblock, undercut gearbox, flowed heads, VFR1200 COPs, ...
upgraded cooling system with lasercut fan bracket and hi perf Spal fans
Ecko motos 4-2 system
Ignitech ignition
...

Major hurdles to take:
design fork brace and have it made
strip paint off block and repaint (ongoing)
find o-rings for cylinder sleeves, place back cylinder sleeves in block
build block, mount block in frame
build up bike
create wiring loom
start bike, tune bike
???
profit


Some impressions:

 

where did you get those front brake discs?
i'm looking for taht kind of discs aswell!

 

You're in France, you're in luck

These are EBC MD629X 320mm disks.

I ordered them from britishlegends.fr, received top service from the shop owner;
After initial research into which disks would fit the CBR rims, I first ordered EBC MD601 310mm disks (these are the same as fitted on some Triumph Thunderbird or Thruxtons, hence why I ordered at britishlegends), but the brake band was not wide enough (25mm).
After I failed to find a 4 pot caliper that I could use with these disks (most fixed pot calipers need a 30mm brake band), he swapped them for a pair of EBC MD629 310mm disks without issues. Would highly recommend the shop!

 

thanks mate!
that's some golden info you gave me.
i keep it on my list for my project.

thanks again!!!

 

Uhuhuhuhu you are facing a bank account stripping, at least mine. Is it a vf1000f or vf1000r?

 

Maaaaax!!!
i've been searching for this story of the 4 pots calipers fitting on a 310mm disks.
found out the suzuki 1000 Sv got 310mm disks and.... tokico 4 pots calipers...

 

AND!!!! the 600 gsr...

 

Lol.. well past that point.. I never imagined I would put so much money, time and effort in this kind of "useless" thing, but it's either "do it now" (no kids yet) or "do it when I'm old and fat and the kids are out of the house"


It's a VF1000F "euro", so black/red/white.
Will have a black frame/swingarm/.. Basically as blacked out as possible, with a few chrome details and red/white tank and cowl

 

I'm fairly certain these Suzuki brake disks will also have a "narrow" brake band (the surface width on the outer flat circle on which the pads contact the disk), at least judging by the pictures I could find through Google.
The EBC MD601 is a very odd rotor... But there are not many that fit the big 6 bolt hole pattern on the CBR600F2 wheels. I was very much restricted by that.

This is a Brembo brake pad for 4 pot "goldline" calipers laying on the disk. As you can see, the pad area is bigger than the brake band area.


Brake pads from a Nissin 4 pot (off a Fireblade) have the same issue, as well as the 4 individual brake pads on Brembo P4 calipers (Ducati/Aprilia), I tried them all.
If you however switch to the 320mm MD629 disks, any 4 pot caliper will have enough surface area, as the braking band is wider.

But maybe you have experience with Tokico calipers (I have not), and they do have narrow brake pads? Any pictures or info would be very welcome, for future projects

 

i hve no more experience than you with tokico pads.
i'll have a look tonight and let you know asap.

 

Hi maximus86, my vf400f project is also running. I'm 50 years old but fortunately I have no kids around so I can enjoy my Vf everytime. The 1985 rs250r gp shock (found new!) fitting is almost complete with the nc30 rear swing. We needed cutting and soldering the lower frame support and building an upper one to make everything work and look properly, but the job has been done very well. Now we proceed making an odometer support and some other tricks to fit a lithium battery and to short the bottom side of the bike. Than we'll assemble the whole bike to build the exhaust, modify the fuel tank and to check any other thing. Than new stripping, sand blasting and powder coating. The last thing before final reassembling will be the engine with yoshi cams, big boring, cranck balancing an head porting. pffuiii. As soon as possible I'll attach some photos.
What about your bike have you some new photos to show us?


QUOTE=maximus86;545557]Lol.. well past that point.. I never imagined I would put so much money, time and effort in this kind of "useless" thing, but it's either "do it now" (no kids yet) or "do it when I'm old and fat and the kids are out of the house"


It's a VF1000F "euro", so black/red/white.
Will have a black frame/swingarm/.. Basically as blacked out as possible, with a few chrome details and red/white tank and cowl[/QUOTE]