Service recommendations

The VFR750 that I picked up for $2k runs ok, but never got to temp and had sluggish throttle response. I ordered a t-stat and tested the new one against the old one. Weird: the old one will not open, which to me means the bike should have been overheating. The plugs are carbon-ed up, and a bit wet; to be expected as the engine never got hot. This bike is VERY stock and original. It DOES have an upgrade series R/R. original spark wires, maybe original plugs, dirty air filter, tons of bugs in the radiator.
So what I know for sure I'm doing:
1. Coolant flush/change from the green to Pentofrost A6 since I have to change the t-stat good time to change out the coolant. Had to clean the radiator with a good helping of Bug and Tar remover.
2. Oil/filter; it has a Fram filter on it, so its going away ASAFnP! I have Castrol Semi-syn motorcycle oil in stock.
3. New sparkelators. Rock auto has NGKs for $6 for iridium's.
4. I was going to pull the carbs to clean them up, but they won't budge! Maybe I'm missing something, I can get the manifold insulators loose, but the carbs are planted in concrete. Might not even need to remove them?
5. New air filter, looks like HiFlo is half price of an OEM. I prefer paper, but would consider a Uni style foam type, will not consider a K&N as I live in a dusty environment and they don't provide the level of filtration I want although they do flow more (at the expense of filtration).
6. Change the fork oil; the front end feels ok, not great but not bad either. Dex6 is pretty close to 5wt or I may have some 7 or 10 wt in stock, have to check.

Considering a PAIR delete, but honestly I don't care if its there as long as its working properly.
Considering repainting the front headers, but they really don't look too bad and I can't see them under the fairing anyways.
Considering fixing the existing broken up fairings, or getting a new set of fiberglass fairings.
Considering making a custom bracket to mount my spare GPR V1 damper. Not sure it really needs it though.
Considering heated grips, but not sure if I really want to ride in the cold.

It has a set of Helibars on it, not sure if I love the position or not. They are probably 2" higher than stock, I like being crouched over the bike, so maybe get a set of 4-way adjustable bars.

The brake fluid looks fine, I have plenty of DOT4 for a fluid change next year.

Tires are ok, they are T31 Sport Tourings, work fine, I'll leave them for the time being.

The front wheel bearings just got changed, they were NSK, maybe original with 55k miles on them.

Chain and sprockets look fine, newer 525 O-ring chain.

Fork seals are good.

Brake pads have plenty of meat left.

Rear shock is stock, works ok and I haven't tried to adjust the preload or compression damping yet

What am I missing? The objective is to ride the wheels off this bike, been waiting for one to cross my path for a LONG time, I bought the only one I have seen in this area in the last 10 years.

Vfr8 by SkiHands posted Dec 25, 2021 at 4:43 PM

Vfr7 by SkiHands posted Dec 25, 2021 at 4:43 PM

Vfr6 by SkiHands posted Dec 25, 2021 at 4:43 PM

Vfr4 by SkiHands posted Dec 25, 2021 at 4:43 PM

P18_7305!! by SkiHands posted Dec 22, 2021 at 10:50 PM

 

carbs will come off alot easier if you get the engine warm first, and loosen both clamps on the boots. work on pulling front carbs up first. what about regreasing or replacing steering head bearings ? at 55k they're way overdue for replacement if they're original. you might want to strip the emissions stuff off the bike too.

to test the temperature gauge, touch the wire on the thermostat housing to ground (briefly, less than a second), and the gauge should go full scale if it's good.

good pry points......

 

Your throttle response may likely be carb related, but a plugged up air filter can't be helping the situation.
You could run some SeaFoam in the gas and see if that helps to clear things up.

 

Yes, head bearings should be on the list. And Fuel filter!

 

Carbs need to come out in my opinion. It's a huge question mark that you can chase symptoms around on or you can put it to bed as verified.

Delete the PAIR. As long as it's working is a fine philosophy, but is only good until it's not. Fuck that shit. Weight and complexity. When I de-PAIRed my ST1100 I disassembled the units and the diaphragms were all swollen and failing at 27K miles. Replace the coolant crossover o-rings while you're in there.

And heat the boots up with a hair dryer or heat gun on low. They will lever out.

My new-to-me 95 VFR is getting de-PAIRed next. 100%.

 

So what is the consensus on carb rebuild kits - All Balls or K&L seem to be all thats avalable, or Chinese Ebay kits. Are the cheap kits any good (usually not, but maybe they are?)

 

Depends on what you need and what is supplied, but the cheap kits I would steer clear of. K&L is good stuff. Haven't done any All Balls for carbs, but I've installed some seals and petcock kits as a test and they seemed to be just fine. If you need / want just float bowl o-rings, Viton -041 size o-rings are cheap and plentiful. If you think you're gonna split them and replace cross-over tube o-rings then verify what you're getting in a kit.

I haven't done my 95 carbs yet, but I suspect they are 7 x 2 mm o-rings like my other bikes that I also sourced Viton o-rings for.

Other than that, if the bike ran, then everything should just need a good cleaning.

 

avoid chinese carb kits...........or anything else from china. kits are mostly unnecessary parts, and as mentioned above, just a simple cleaning fixes carbs 90% of the time.

allballs=china

 

Having just bought an ebay kit, I can tell you that the quality seemed okay but some of the parts did not fit right. Fortunately all I needed was the float bowl gaskets. I did use the pilot jets although I didn't need them. Easier than cleaning the old ones.

 

I've been trying to find NTN ot Kotyo or any Japanese or American tapered roller steering bearings, and the only place I can find them is on ebay from the UK. Not a huge deal, but the wait could be up to a month for shipping and it would be great if someone in the USA sells anything other than Chi-com tapered headset bearings. I don't need Chris King stuff, but better than the crap produced by 12 year old slave girls would be appreciated. OEM only has roller ball, which is not the best application for heavy static loads. Needle or tapered rollers spread the load out over more surface area at the expense of increased rolling resistance; guess what works better for headsets?

Ordered a bunch a parts today, mostly OEM Honda parts. Found one slightly leaking for seal. Creeeping up to $300 in parts

 

I understand the desire for quality bearings. And in wheel bearings I don't stray. Tapered steering bearings are a different application. I'd rather support quality vendors more, but sometimes you have to go with the flow in this new world. If it meant getting the steering bearings done in a timely manner or waiting and waiting for the supply chain in this particular application... I'm getting the job done.

You can also try piecing the kit together with dimensions which is totally doable thru a bearing house, eBay or Amazon, I've done it. The U.S. bearing houses are not great I've found tho.

Somebody please pipe up with a good individual bearing supplier IN THE U.S.

 

Yeah, I ordered the Chi-com All Balls kit cuz its available and I didn't have to piece it together . Headsets usually don't fail unless they are maladjusted, They certainly don't wear out from overuse!

Anyways, I changed fork oil in the non-leaking leg, not the worst looking oil in there - but definitely needed a good flush. I have a couple gallons of Dexron IV ATF left over from owning a BMW, and it is slick as snot and very stable. took about 5 fills and squirts, but all the old black goo is gone, replaced with pure synthetic bliss.

Now to get the carbs off!

 

dija consider that your complaint of poor braking might be related to the leaky fork seal possibly getting oil on the pads ?

 

First time I heard "Chi-Com" was from my Dad this Summer... never heard it before. I had to ask, "What did you just say?". I honestly couldn't make out the phonetics of what he said.

Enjoy your bearings?

 

Squirrel man, yep once I saw the little dribble it made sense. It wasn't gushing out so I didn't see the leak at first. . It has Galfer pads on it. They stunk like a big rig coming down the grapevine at the track!

 

i told ya your brakes weren't working 100%

 

chi-com = chinese communist or something like that. Have used K&L with mixed results, received the wrong over haul kit for rear caliper once, it helps I have the personal phone number of the doode that handles it for the US. On my 91 VFR I used oem steering head bearings from Honda, they were captured balls. On the Kawasaki EX, I went with all balls as the oem was just loose balls, (like my 50 year old folding Raleigh) so it was definitely a step up.

Old fork oil smells like the inside of a whales gizzard.

 

So the All Balls headset bearings just showed up today - made in India. Ugh. At least India is not trying to take over the world.

 

And yeah I know the proper name is steering head bearings or something like that, but i was a bicycle mechanic for 20 years so they are headsets to me.