Matt Tries – 1984 VF500F Overhaul

That looks pretty enough I wouldn't even want to touch it. I'd just leave it right there on the table in the living room as some sort of abstract art piece.

I'm pretty set on black since I've actually powdercoated a few parts black already (bored working a trade show with a small infrared oven... lol. Some little shit tried to walk off with some of the pieces I was using as display pieces! This was like 8 years ago.)

Anyway, all of the installations I know of that we've done through work with blast setups are more industrial, so I'm having to look elsewhere to get it blasted. Steel shot will destroy this frame. I think there's a place near me that uses aluminum oxide, so I'm going to reach out to them this week.

Funny story... yesterday I was in my garage working on the fairings on my SV650 (after successfully installing a set of wheel bearings, I might add! Not so scary now that I've done 4 wheels this week). Anyway, a neighbor I've never met walked up and introduced himself. Said he sees me working on bikes all the time and wanted to know if I could help him out. He mentioned his wife and he each had a motorcycle, but they stopped riding them about 10 years ago, but they want to start again. He's got kids my age, so I'd put him at around 55-60. Anyway, I made it very clear to him I don't have any formal training and I'm just a weekend warrior wrench turner--he said he understood but figured I'd at least be able to point him in the right direction. Anyway, I walked 6 houses down and was greeted to a 1985 Kawasaki 454 LTD (never heard of it in my life) and then a 1998 Honda V-Twin. I think it was a Shadow or something? Well, he trusted me enough to think I wouldn't destroy anything of his, so now I've got a 1985 Kawasaki 454 LTD in my basement I know nothing about. I got the carburetors pulled off last night and cleaned in the ultrasonic--bowl gaskets had failed so it was kind of a mess. Found a nice cache of acorns in the right side air box filter, so I'm assuming Squirrelman worked on this bike before.

All he wanted me to do was get it running. So I wanted to try to do that first. I told him I'm rebuilding the petcock and carburetors with new rubber, but I'd text him before buying anything else. Turns out I need an 18mm thin wall spark plug tool, so I can't do the compression test I was planning to tonight. So, yea. I guess I'm getting a crash course in Kawasaki's over the next few weeks. Hopefully I can just get it running, get it full of new fluids, and give some recommendations on getting it rode-worthy and safe (tires, new brake line, etc.)

 

It is titanium colored powdercoat with 2 coats of clear, over aluminum.

 

Satin black, no clearcoat. Shiny, but not too much



Ti with clearcoat

 

I decided to go with somewhat of a "safety yellow" for the wheels, and the swingarm and frame will be just a regular gloss black. No updates for now since it'll probably be close to July before I get any of the parts back given how backed up the shop was on work--but that's alright. Once I get the wheels back I'll see about getting some liquid paint matched to do up the fork lowers and bodywork.

Managed to get that Kawasaki running, and I gave it back to my neighbor yesterday. I pretty much went through everything on it. It's kind of fun to ride--like an angry lawn mower.


Then he rolled over the other bike that hasn't run in near a decade. It's friggen big, hah. Honda Shadow 750. It turns over but I assume I'll probably need to pull the carburetors off to clean them. I also don't hear the fuel pump priming, so my hail mary attempts at just swapping in a good battery weren't going to accomplish anything. I'll need to sort out the fueling first. I don't think I'll need to tear this whole bike apart like I did the kawi. Hell, it's only got 6,000 miles on it. Not sure if I should even bother pulling the valve covers off.

Speaking of... how did Honda get so little horsepower out of 750ccs? hah. I looked it up and it's 44hp. I was expecting somewhere ~55-60. I suppose it doesn't really matter--looks like an inexpensive entry into the world of large cruisers. Not my thing, but I think I'm starting to understand it at least.


Anyway... yea, not Interceptor-related. Sorry. Just passing time before I get my VF500 parts back. Looking forward to reassembling it.

 

lol. I have been on hold for 3 weeks for powder coated stuff. Does give me time to clean a lot of the other parts up, however. Nice SV!! Carb?

 

It's cool, and fun to work on other bikes. I have done a bunch of GZ250 Suzuki's and sold them at a profit. That is how I had funny money to buy my VFR800 in the day!

 

Yea, several places told me they were going to be busy for several months. The place I'm trying out is a small company--and I know they're installing a new powder booth shortly because it just showed up. I'm glad to know they're busy though since it's a small family-owned business.

The SV is in fact carbureted. Trying to use it to learn how to actually ride and what some of those suspension terms actually do that people keep talking about, hah. Had my first track day of 2022 last Wednesday. Was 31°F when I left in the morning after scraping off my windshield. I'm still slow as shit and new, but it was my first day out of novice and into the Thunderdome of intermediate. I left pretty mentally exhausted, but it was a good learning experience going out in the cold.

It's fun to work on other bikes. I'm learning it's not as much fun to work on someone else's that you don't really know.

I'm guessing if you had a source for cheap, non-running bikes right now you could actually make some money flipping them. Used bike prices are just bananas right now for anything that's running. It's nonsensical. I check Craigslist every week just to get a laugh.

 

My avatar is my old '99 SV 650 superbike. Converted to GSXR front end, .5mm overbore, flat slides etc... about 78hp in the end. Honestly I think the gsxr front end was an overrated swap. I found the real magic for me was a fancy lightweight ( PVM ) front wheel with Bridgestones (during their reign in MotoGP). Then I started getting really fast. OE forks SET UP RIGHT would be just fine up until your reaching for AMA/MotoAmerica quali on most machines. Too many people spend their whole day dicking with settings when in reality they just don't have the skill. Better off getting max mileage on the track and learning your limits and capabilities, then fine tune with suspension.

I won't even look at a track unless it is above 50*F anymore. lol

Have fun and always stay relaxed on the track. B group is usually the worst, they tend to think they are Marquez and revving the piss outta their bikes waiting to "tear it up".

 

Ha Ha! Exactly! CL is hilarious right now. I have not bought a bike in a year now due to the "comedy" I see on FB and CL!

 

I thought that was an SV in your avatar picture! Sounds like half of everyone I meet at the track had one at one point in time. I'm just setup baseline with stock forks and emulators and a Penske rear shock. My pace just isn't at a place where I've been able to push it enough to know where to set things since it should trend towards more aggressive once I push past some mental barriers of carrying more speed into corner entry. The GSXR front end swaps certainly look cool, but like you just mentioned, the guys that are extracting an extra few tenths a lap with them are already racing in MotoAmerica. At least, that's what I've been told by a few experts on SV's that run both SuperStock and SuperBike.

To bring this back to the VF500F--I really quite like how the SV feels up front with emulators, so if I'm able to mimic that similar feel with the RaceTech emulators I'm waiting to install on the Honda, I'll be really happy. It already feels 10x better after replacing the fear shock with the YSS, so I'm certain that sorting out the front end will have it feeling quite spritely.

 

You will be very happy with emulators in the 500 forks. For that bike's weight and size, the stock forks with them and correct straight rate springs gives amazing feedback.

 

Awesome picture!

Are the rearsets you're running on there the ones from your post on VFRD here? https://www.vfrdiscussion.com/index...rear-sets-looking-for-aftermarket-cnc/page/2/

The only thing I've come across is the Tarozzi rearsets for the VF500F. This isn't really high on the priority list, and I'm thinking rearsets will be more of a winter project--and after I find someone with the mechanical know-how to help me locally make something up, hah. Too many irons in the fire right now though--need to complete a few projects first.

 

Funny you say that. They are Tarozzi plates with with CBR900RR pegs and levers.



I also have a set of Japanese BEET VF400F rear sets that are trick as fuck (in a period correct way) for a future build.

 

Picked up some goodies earlier than expected from the powder coater today. Really happy with the safety yellow I chose. Excited to start working on the VF again soon! Now I need to start thinking about how I'm going to do all the other parts once I can match the yellow... namely the fuel tank and fork lowers. I've also got all the fairings to think about as well.

It'll be quite a while til it's ready and rideable... Realistically I'm shooting for end of summer because there's just so much prep work and research I need to do. But I'm glad you guys talked me into going with yellow wheels instead of black. I'm actually going to need to be careful when I mount the tires now!





One other goodie showed up today I'm excited about. I purchased a Helite GP Air Vest that goes over my RST 1-piece leather suit. Hoping I never get to experience it getting deployed, but realistically I know it's coming at some point. Airbag is a lot cheaper than a broken collarbone, so hopefully it works out.

I bought some extra canisters of CO2 and I'm really tempted to try it sometime... looks terrifying, haha.


And now I've really got some motivation to get my neighbor's Shadow running and out of my house... make some more room for my projects. I think I've learned my lesson about ever taking on someone else's project (that I'm not good friends with)--it takes a lot of the fun out of it. Now I just want it done. Got it running for the first time in near a decade last night. Might be able to get everything completed this weekend if I don't find any major stumbling points.

 

Nice update...looking good. And no more "neighbor" projects!

I have a neighbor that has tried to pull me in to various projects but I have so far evaded him!

 

The really stupid problem I'm having right now is that there is blasting media that got into both the front and rear wheel. I've tried rigging up various hoses to shop vac to try to get it all out, but I'm having very little success. I've tried taping the shop vac on full bore to one side and using a compressor with a hose attachment through the other to try to knock it out, but comically failing at that as well.

I may just fill a tub of water and try submerging them or seeing if I can get it out with a hose or something. I shouldn't have to worry about rust internally... I don't think. I can speed up drying with a hair dryer I suppose.

I was all excited to press in the bearings and mount the tires and 90° valve stems when I lifted the wheel up and thought.. the hell was that noise?

 

I simply refuse to do projects that aren't mine any more, regardless of the money promised. Like you said, takes ALL the fun out of it. Every time I would do it again, I would be so pissed at myself.

"Last time you said it would be the last time!" I mutter to myself.

Just get it done and gone.

Everything looks great by the way!

 

Ugh, tell me about it. Lesson learned. I spent a very large part of my weekend trying to just finish the Shadow so I can get it out of my life. The engine fires up perfect, idles perfect, and goes all the way up to redline no problem. Pulls pretty good around the neighborhood.

BUT! But it has a misfire and after-fire from the front cylinder. So when cruising at 30mph 2nd gear, it just sounds like a Baghdadi shootout behind the bike. I'm convinced it's electrical so I'm going to call him up today and let him know everything I did, and everything else I would start replacing (coil wires, coil) to try to nail down the issue if he wants to pursue it further. Or, alternatively, he can give it the Italian TuneUp that I want to give it to see if that just works the issues out. A pair of earplugs also resolves the issue since you can't even feel the misfires through the bars--it just makes it everyone else's problem when the occasional gunshot fires out the exhaust, lol.

Definitely takes it from fun hobby to work very quickly.

 

Did you install new plugs? And don't forget, I'm pretty sure those are 2 plug heads.

 

Yep. Two of them were a major pain to access due to how deep the thin-walled 18mm socket needed to go. I ground down one end to fit inside a 19mm socket, so I could actually get the leverage.



There are (3) things that are very strange on the bike that I can't account for. But if it didn't have the misfire at low RPM cruising speed, I wouldn't have even considered that it wasn't perfect.

1. The vacuum on the carburetor sync was lower than I have ever seen a motorcycle. Both sub 5in of vacuum pull. Every other bike has been much closer to 9-10in at idle. My Carbtune wouldn't even register the vacuum pull--I had to use my dial gauges. So I balance them at 5in as well as I could.
2. The front spark plugs show signs of carbon fouling. Even after going in brand new. Exhaust and carburetor is all stock. I brought the air/fuel mixture out to 2 3/4 since it seemed to run best there. Stock base setting is 2 3/8 but most people recommended coming out a bit.
3. The misfire itself. It doesn't happen at idle, doesn't happen when coming on power, and doesn't happen when holding it in a high rev. It happens when slowly cruising on the pilot circuit.

I was actually thinking about Stray's adventures with the GSXR and how he mentioned that after playing with the A/F mix enough, he finally got it resolved. So that's where I was focusing most of my troubleshooting Saturday. The bike only has 6,000 miles, so I didn't pull the valve cover open because I didn't want to buy all the gaskets... kicking myself for not just doing it while I had everything apart.

The other things I had done are:

• New fuel filter and petcock
• New soft parts in the carburetor, re-used jets (105 front, 110 rear) and cleaned pilots. Pilots had been clogged--took some fighting with brass wire and fishing line, but cleaned em up. Floats set to stock 7mm height.
• New NGK spark plugs gapped to spec
• New HifloFiltro air filter. Swapped in stock filter to test and result was the same.

The last oddity that may or may not be of importance is that I swear to god that the fuel I drained from the tank was not purely gasoline. Not 7 year old gasoline. It looked way too clear and smelled like mineral spirits or paint thinner! I put the rags in the garage to dry after emptying the tank (the bit I spilled) and my garage just smelled like minerals spirits, lmao. So I have no idea what role that could have played in anything or if somebody just thought it would be good way to prevent a tank rusting. I'm finding other things like rusted bolts colored with silver sharpie, which is kinda funny.

*Edit - I was yapping to myself, so the remainder of the video isn't of any importance here. But if you watch 25 seconds of video starting at 3:50, you'll hear the misfire that happens in 2nd gear at 30mph and is basically non-existent everywhere else:

*Edit 2 - it doesn't allow me to time-stamp embedded videos, but 3:50 - 4:20 you'll hear it.

*Edit 3 - Realistically I need to do a valve adjustment to rule it out. The bike only has 6000miles on it, so I gambled that I'd be able to just clean the carburetor and go. Lost that gamble.