Hi all, greetings from sunny Granada. Just new to the forum. I recently bought a 1986 VF500f. It has been stood for the last 25 years. It had a full service prior to this, so everything is immaculate EXCEPT for the carbs. Completely trashed, they had not been emptied , so a real mess inside. So I managed to pick up a very clean set of pre 86 carbs - big question will the work on the 86? I have replaced the carb to manifold rubbers (2mm bigger than the 86) will the jetting be ok? 86 carbs have main 95, older ones have 90. Thanks in advance
On a stock bike, the stock jetting from a different year will likely be just fine. Keep in mind 86 were gravity fed and prior had fuel pumps. The inlet spigot is in a different location and some adaption will be needed.
Interesting you say '86 was gravity fed, I have a genuine Jap import '86 build (first registered in Japan) then brought to Australia that has a fuel pump as original equipment. And yet they were a de-tuned version c/w speed limiter on what we received as Australian compliance bikes. How did they get on without fuel pump when fuel level was low in the tank? Just wondering...........
The 86 has a larger outlet on the petcock and larger fuel lines that split right above the carbs to gravity feed them. I ran an 86 tank to 85 carbs on my race bike. Those carbs have one smaller feed into the front left. I routinely ran a low tank for sprint races and never had starvation issues running at Wide Fucking Open. I wouldn't be so thrilled to try and gravity feed using 84/85 tank and carbs, but I bet it has been done.
