Matt Tries – 1984 VF500F Overhaul

The nut usually has provision for safety wire if your fave track requires it.

 

The "race" is to get where you need to go without throwing it down the road or losing all the oil and toasting the engine.

 

Hose clamp.

 

Thats what I used.

 

Yea, not anymore. Most track day organizations are banning the oil filters with the welded nut. I use the hose clamp. People were tightening the filters with the nut on it, and they were failing on track.

 

I was in carburetor mode working on another bike, so I figured I would pop open the VF500F's carburetor and install the #40 pilot jets that Captain and others have mentioned are a good modification as opposed to the stock #38's. I still can't work out how it's possible to remove the last carburetor bowl without removing the rack from the plenum. Not that I needed to since it's seems plenty clean and there's enough access to replace the pilot, but still... I want to see how this Chinese finger puzzle is solved!



I wanted to swap the shims in my Suzuki Bandit with a known shim size I ordered, so I also ordered a few of those from Jets R Us. Figured I'd take a look at the needles on the VF500F and possibly drop a shim in just to see how it would react. Totally forgot I had aftermarket needles and 104 mains all around. I didn't believe I actually knew this fact until I went searching way back through this thread to find I had documented this very fact with pictures and concerns. I really need to stop mixing bikes up in my head, lol.



Anyway, I haven't made much progress yet on the bike since I still haven't gotten the frame blasted and either painted or powder coated. Think I finally have a lead on a place I want to use. My lone hold up is that looking at the freeze damage on the right bottom rail of the frame, it looks damaged. I'm wondering if grinding and either welding across the damage OR welding a brace in place would be ideal before painting. I don't actually know how to weld. But I do have a little stick welder I just bought some supplies for (for making up fairing brackets for track fairings).

Would it be a good idea to address this issue prior to blast/paint? From a structural and safety point. It's probably been on there for decades, but now it's in my head. The blue sharpie mark on the frame is where the bulletin says I should drill a small hole for draining.

 

So water was in the frame and it froze and busted out? Wow! How did water get in there? And what condition is the rest of the frame?

I feel like i need to go out to the garage and check mine now!

 

Captain 80s raised the issue to me earlier. If you go to post #23 in my other thread, this is where the discussion started. Honda put out a bulletin about the issue. Apparently rain/washing could allow water to get into the frame. There was no way for that water to drain, so as it froze... swollen frame. I could never figure out why the frame was rounded in that area. It all makes sense now. My buddy's bike was way worse than mine in that it was almost circular. However, I didn't see an actual puncture looking wound on his which mine appears to have. The resolution is to drill a small drain hole in the frame. The better solution would be to build a time machine and drill the hole before it became an issue, hah.

This is the thread: https://vfrworld.com/threads/orwells-interceptor.59169/page-2

I'm not sure if this issue would have affected your bike though given your location and the fact it is a 1986 (not 84/5).

 

VERY interesting! I went out and checked mine for the hole but the lower fairing is in the way. I will have to remove it to see if the hole was drilled

As you mentioned, my bike is registered as a 1986, and it has the S/N of an 1986 but the frame is in fact from a 84-5 model. It must have been a replacement frame from a warranty when it was new. I found out it was NOT an 86 frame when I ordered am 86 removable frame section and it would NOT fit my bike. The 86 frame has many subtle differences from the 84-5 frames!

I did not seen any issues with the frame but will check it all the same. The bike lived in Mass at some point (it had U Mass parking permit stickers on it) so it could still have rust/freezing issues.

Thanks again for the heads up and good progress on the bike!

 

I would certainly address that area prior to any kind of finish work.

Grinding it out and trying to weld it up. Or welding a small plate after grinding and cleaning up the area to encapsulate it for paint or powder.

 

Agree, clean up the area with a grinder and get it welded by a pro, maybe even cut the bad part out of the bottom and 'In-lay" a patch piece properly welded and grind to finish. that way 1) you remove all the thin metal, 2) the patch isnt sitting proud of the frame and looks factory, 3) doing this prior to blasting will keep the sand/media out of the frame rail (and trust me it will get in there and getting it out is a PITA).

 

While you're working in that area, maybe go get a body hammer and heat that bulge up and see if it can be flattened a bit. Now's the time to try, but I wouldn't do it until after you've addressed the wound.

 

Well, I didn't really have a clue how to even go about finding someone that might be able to help me out on the welding, so I started asking coworkers for input. The plan now is that one of these upcoming weekends I'm going to take the frame to a coworker's house a few hours away, spend the day with him learning how to weld, he'll do the actual fix, and I'll hopefully come back home a little bit smarter. He races formula boats and has his own machine shop, but I really don't know him outside of shaking his hand once introducing myself a ways back.

So the project remains on hold until I can (hopefully) do that, but I'm looking forward to it.

 

I realized the damage was a lot worse than I originally thought when I hit it with a brass wheel.


A coworker that lives near me texted last night "Just bring your motorcycle frame to work tomorrow. It'll be done by Monday". He was headed down to work on welding up a boat trailer at the other coworker's house for a weekend. I received a text as I was driving home, "It took him ten minutes. You still need to come down here and have him teach you how to weld. But that wasn't the one to learn on."



So that's pretty exciting!

 

Super cool! I want to purchase a welder system, so I can put my welding class to work at home. Well done on the frame. What color are you going to paint the frame?

 

Either black or pink. Depends if the quarter lands heads or tails.

... it's probably going to land black.

 

I'm going to throw titanium with clear powdercoat. It really looks decent in low light and in the sun it pops just the right amount.

 

Is that metallic or solid ti? Looks good!