1995 VFR750F refurbish

I think it will be a fun project. I just rode Big Red into work this morning. She is pretty smooth. So if I can get my RC36 near Big Red I will be super stoked.
@Kennyska your RC36 is beautiful!

 

If you don't love the RC36 engine you don't really like V4s at all.

 

Part of the reason I sold the 400. I love the 750 V4 powa!

 

OK, finally making some time to list up all the finishing touches (and rework) that I've now completed on my 95 RC36/2:

1. PAIR removal and blanking plates - had a local shop laser cut me out some 1/8" thick aluminum plates, I installed with the original fasteners and new gaskets: 18645-MT4-730. To install the rears was challenging, but I had removed the rear shock so I could remove the hardlines already
2. Petcock rebuild. Followed this thread: https://vfrworld.com/threads/petcock-rebuild.61485/ Tapped M4 and used M4X8mm button head fasteners (so the plastic knob would clear going between ON and OFF. Replaced all o-rings and found the spring wasn't strong enough to seal properly on OFF. Ended up with the same spring kit as in the thread and found one that sorted that issue out. Picture was before o-rings were replaced and everything cleaned up, you can see the M4 tapped holes here.
3. Installed a hidden voltmeter with switch so I can watch the reg/rectifier output (it is the original non-finned one). Still giving 14V while running, so I'm just going to watch the voltmeter and be ready to replace when necessary.
4. Fuel pump started weeping out of the plastic vent channel. Spoke with Captain and he pointed me to the cross reference chart of where to source the Mitsubishi pumps. If you search K&L 18-5529 you will find the pump was used on lots of 80-00's carbed bikes, picture below of those bike models and years. I tracked down a good one from a ZX-11 off eBay that had the same vent design but the cables were a little shorter (and plug was wired opposite of the way Honda had it) - still worked fine when swapped and installed. Big shout out to @Captain 80s for letting me borrow one of his spare pumps so I could ride while sourcing a replacement - what a decent dude!
5. I was feeling like I was having an idle enrichment circuit issue. On cold start with full choke I was not getting the 3k high rpm that I remember my dad's RC24 used to have. I was getting around 1800 - 2k rpm. It was starting fine but I did some research and thinking and found this old thread: https://vfrworld.com/threads/cleaning-idle-enrichment-circuit-choke-96-vfr-gen-4.34506/ I ended up pulling the carbs out of the bike again (wasn't bad at all) and giving some extra cleaning to those long brass tubes. Two of the four were definitely slower to drain carb cleaner down (put a clear hose on top of them and filled with carb cleaner so i could watch the flow). Blasted with compressed air and also carefully poked the holes with a small guitar string (0.009" and 0.011"). After reassembling... hooray - I have the 3k high idle!!

Now is the time to just get some tanks of gas through her and enjoy the fine machine that she is!


I will start making a list of tasks I'll get to this fall/winter, top of which is adding a toggle switch to the fuel pump relay so I can keep running if the relay dies but also so I can fill the carb bowls without cranking the engine or doing the jumper wire trick.

 

Those are literally the "starter jets", so that makes sense.

Did you verify the slack on the choke cable at the carb arm / clamp?

Irrelevant I suppose, you got the starting idle speed you wanted.

Nice follow up work. I bet it is a touch crisper right off idle too.

 

Sorry, missed your reply @Captain 80s. Yes verified the choke cable slack before pulling the carbs, it was minimal, but I cheated it some more with the choke holder pinch screw/cable end to confirm I was getting full travel - I was, hence removing the carbs to clean the "starter" jets.

Funny you mention "crisper" off idle, I was sort of expecting that, but can't say I noticed anything. I did also put new pilot/mixture screws/needles in (one of my original ones had a bit of corrosion) and set them at 1.75 turns out. I am wondering if the tolerance is not exactly the same on the K&L replacements I got. Might go out to 2 turns and see if there is improvement. The new pilot needles have a flat head on them, so maybe that'll be easier to access/adjust than the D slot of the originals - I struggled to do the idle drop method first time around - access is challenging and I need to practice some more as getting the rpm to change was not predictable.

Also when I swapped the fuel pump I managed to split another 30 year fuel hose (the pump inlet one) so I was worried it was another bad fuel pump - thankfully just a hose this time (I should have replaced all the fuel hoses when I was in there, only one original hose left now, the long one from pump to carb inlet T!)

And another thing I have to investigate, when testing the new fuel pump I kinked outlet hose when pump was running and it did the anticipated slowing of clicks and stopping. BUT when plugged up to carbs the hose didn't slow clicking (relay jumper'd, engine off). I knew it would take a long time to fill the 4 bowls but I am wondering if a float is not sealing now after taking carbs out the second time. I noticed no overflow of fuel though and the bike started right up so can't have been flooded. Maybe I'll take the carbs out again to check - it's a pretty quick job and not difficult.

I did get to take my wife out on the back for a quick rip on some of our favorite roads the other day, she enjoyed it - apart from some of the tighter twisties!

 

I have had a used pump act like it didn't sense when pressure was reached. It wasn't over loading the float valves and flooding, but continued to click, perhaps with a little less enthusiasm. The fuel wasn't going anywhere. And then not have the problem again.

Pumps strong, doesn't leak, didn't dump fuel in my oil. Just wanted to be a little weird that time. Oh well. I just continue to monitor.

Play around with the screw settings for sure. Unless the profiles were measurably different, I wouldn't expect to compensate appreciably from typical settings. If you didn't go up on the pilot, I would expect to be 2 or more out.

Cheers!