Matt Tries – 1984 VF500F Overhaul

You're right and I noticed that too. Just didn't mention it yet cuz it seemed the least of the worries. Might just be missing the outer washer.

 

Damn, you're absolutely right. I didn't like how that looked, so I was going to put washers over each side at least, so it wasn't squishing weird.

Go figure. I just found the two bushings in my bin labelled "VF Rear Pegs". So I'll be able to resolve that problem at least! I just went through every single bin, box, and bag of VF parts that I have, and I can't find anything that looks like a bracket that would straighten out the right exhaust though. Nor do I see one in any pictures. I must have something misaligned. I'll keep playing with it.

 

You can perhaps slot the holes in the brackets a touch for one to go up and the other to go down. I would first loosen everything, including the footpeg brackets themselves and manipulate everything first and see what you might get.

Also compare the welded on brackets to each other and make sure one's not bent weird.

Also the VF500F footpet brackets (actually the tabs on the frame) are very easy to bend in with just a driveway tipover. Does either side of your swing arm have any gouges from the back of the muffler mount bolts?

 

Wait... are the brackets that are welded to the mufflers the same? That right one looks wider. Perhaps a repair? They should be the same shape/width.

 

They're different. The right one seems like it needs to be about 3/4" backwards and maybe 1/2" higher. I am almost positive it can't be an alignment issue from either the #2/#4 headers because I can't move #4 without moving the rear shock--and I can't move the right footpeg brace... black piece... because that's also bolted into a stationary spot.

The left side all seems to align correctly when on the bike.

The right side doesn't seat correctly if bolted through the bracket. However, if I take it off the bracket, and just push it all the way into the header (collector box?), it's alignment looks like it would be correct with the a different bracket.

If the brackets are supposed to be the same, well, they're not. But the different shape on the right side one actually makes sense--it just seems like it's too short and far forward. The problem one is stamped with "H520" whereas I don't see the same marking on the left one.

It's a real shame that Photobucket blurred out and watermarked-over all the high definition images that someone posted here a decade ago of a V&H system on a 500.

 

I'm seeing something else. The #4 pipe isn't seated properly which should give me my height and a little bit back... This has to be it.

I'll see if I can shoot some penetrating fluid on there and bump it up with a mallet. I wonder if I did this when I was trying to ratchet strap the carburetor into the intake boots or if it's been this way... always. Because I've never purposefully touched that exhaust pipe there because I've never removed the rear shock to even get to it. If anything the ratchets would have pushed it *up*, but I tried to keep any tension off the exhaust regardless.

 

Keep at it, you'll figure it out. If they were straight before, they'll be straight again.

 

The brackets look good actually.

But it sure looks like that rear pipe was up farther looking at the wear mark that is visible a little higher. Loosen and re-set everything.

 

That left muffler looks pushed in with the classic swingarm gouge? Get that pulled back out to. Make sure the brackets bolts are tight and sit on the ground and give it a tug, it will come right back out.

 

It does look like it should go further up. It looks like I can actually drop the exhaust without needing to access the collars on #2 and #4 because the V&H uses the top OEM exhaust piece that sits in the exhaust port. If it comes off easy (which the right will.... left looks a lot more difficult), I may just pull them off and clean those mating surfaces as well as I can because the poor mating is causing the alignment issues.

Now I know exactly what you're talking about, but I wouldn't until having seen it.

 

Not many VF500F left without that gouge.

 

Awesome looking bike and thanks for the inspiration. finished rebuilding carbs for my 700 today and tomorrow is the day.. Dreading and anxious at the same time. Of it fires i’ll re-do the whole thing. Wish me luck.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Best of luck!

Know that you're not alone in the dread and excitement. Im planning to try to fire mine up this weekend. I'm super uneasy that I screwed something up with the valves despite having checked them 7x each. And I'm second guessing myself thru the whole carb rebuild.

If I can offer one piece of advice, not that I'm particularly qualified... If it doesn't fire on the first go around, don't lose it. For me, it's easy to lose it. I fought a friend's Suzuki bandit for an entire year before I got it to run right. He'd sent it to a shop, they gave it back 6mo later and said they couldn't figure out the problem. I spent an entire year trying everything I could... Wasting so much time pulling carbs on and off on and off... And then it finally fucking sounded sweet. My buddy flew out, took it on an 1800mi trip with me, and it made it. It may be stupid, but I'm more proud of that than most things I've accomplished.

When you get it running sweet, and you will, it's so damn worth it.

 

Just realized I've been following the thread you recently started here. Doubt I'm telling you anything you didn't already know. Looking forward to seeing more updates. Best of luck.

 

Decided to run over to my buddy's house that recently bought a project VF500F. I wanted to get a comparison shot of what a stock exhaust looks like vs. what I've got. Additionally, he bought the bike non-running with the carburetors in pieces loosely rolling around in a box... lol. Guessing someone took them off the air plenum, they figured ehhhh.. not worth trying, and then sold the bike. So I'll run them through my ultrasonic and see if he has enough of the pieces to reassemble it while it's still fresh in my head. Might try to cheat and buy some viton o-rings from Harbor Freight and hope they fit.



Anyway, the Vance and Hines exhaust uses the stock outlet piece on the rear #2/4 cylinders, and then connect there. Looks like stock has a clamp to hold it in place. I'm seeing that mine just kinda falls down which is why alignment was getting so tricky--especially now that it's soaked in penetrating fluid. Not sure if I'm supposed to have a clamp or not.



I'll push it all together and see if I can get it fired up tonight or tomorrow. Crossing my fingers. If I'm able to get it running, I could then try dropping the exhaust out, removing as much rust as possible, coating with VHT, and curing on the bike. Wonder if I have enough VHT paint..

 

That after market exhaust does not use a clamp back there. I have on some systems, drilled 3 or 4 small equally spaced holes (not past where the mating pipe slides to) and ran a hack saw down to the holes. That gave the slits for a clamp to actually compress something. I think if you get you're rear mounts setup properly and have effective clamps where the muffler pipes engage the system, you'll be fine.

You can use a floor jack with some wood to slide the exhaust back up.

I don't expect much success with HF o-rings. With most common o-ring selections the cross section is too thick.

 

Damn, I gotta give it up to ya, your threshold for pain is rapidly approaching legendary status!

 

Right there with you buddy! Keep at it. I have been beating my head against a wall on my VF500F for about a year now!

 

I really like that idea to slit the exhaust and add a clamp. I was playing around with it again last night, and even once I fasten the exhaust to the footpeg mounts, it still falls down a bit. I'll probably forego the HF o-rings.. we'll see what I've got to work with when I do inventory on his carburetor.

I've learned that if I turn on Jay Leno's Garage, something about it is soothing hearing him talk about old motorcycles. This was really handy when I realized a (another) colossal fuckup I made on the routing of the throttle cable that required me to pull the carburetor off again in addition to draining the coolant and dropping the radiator. BUT, the throttle feels really really nice now that it's routed correctly! hah.

So I actually set the bike up to fire last night. And it wasn't firing, but I could hear popping that it was mighty close. Finally got it after walking away for about 15 minutes. And, well, it really fired. Idle at about 6000 RPM. I shut it off immediately, but it ran for all of 2.5 seconds. That's what tipped me off that I had the throttle cable bad. And the idle set screw was so bent I couldn't even adjust it--not that that was the problem. So I've straightened out the idle adjust screw, and I'll give it another go this afternoon.

I've been following along on your thread. You're in soooo much deeper than I am, and I enjoy reading it. Thanks for the encouragement, and keep updating us on your own progress.

 

I got it fired! It certainly isn't right yet--got a hanging throttle which will certainly take a lot of putzing around with to eliminate... but at least this hopefully means I didn't screw up anything catastrophically with the valve adjustment. Got a lot of PB Blaster to burn off the exhaust too, hah. This is encouraging though.