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Cleaning Up The Old (new To Me) Girl; 1999 Vfr800 Fi. Part 2


ZenMoto

2,425 views

Time for another update! Granted, I haven't gotten much done since I last posted, or at least not a lot done on the bike. lol

When last we left, I was waiting for my buddy, and all around VFR guru, Tony to come by to help me with a valve check. I'm confident enough to do the valves, but have never dug into this generation VFR and I know Tony knows all the shortcuts. ...waiting for him proved to be well worth it.

Though I had remounted the forks to facilitate removing the rear, there was still plenty of room to move around with the radiators moved out of the way. First though, you have to remove the two bolts that hold the oil cooler in place and allow it to drop out of the way. It will seem to still be an obstacle because the rigid oil-lines are resting on the coolant hose that crosses in front of the engine. Once the radiators are lowered, the oil cooler will also fall out of the way.

A trick Tony showed me, which requires removing the inner radiator brackets (which bolt to the engine just above the front exhaust ports). By removing these braces and the bolts which hold the rads to the sides of the frame, you can wiggle them free and drop them nearly to the ground. You need to disconnect the vent line from the right rad (as you sit on the bike), and be sure to cap it, but that's the only hitch.

With all this done, access to the front cylinder head is pretty much wide open, as seen here:

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In the pic above you can also see the "cheater" bar I have with a 14mm socket (I think) on the crank. I don't necessarily go by the marks on the crank for checking valves, just ensure that the cam lobe is pointing straight up (away from the bucket) when checking clearance. For some reason the "T" marks make checking valves seem much more intimidating than it really needs to be.

If I needed to pull the cams to make an adjustment, a bottle of pink nail polish is sufficient to mark the gears to make sure everything goes in exactly as it came out. :smile:

There was a little surface rust on the cam-gears, but nothing too bad, probably from time spent sitting on the right coast in cold weather. :frown:

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And here's Tony enjoying the fact that all the front valves were well within factory spec (not a surprise with just under 40k on the clock, but always good to check).

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The rears are even easier, though a bit more wiggling is required to get the valve cover out.

By removing the ignition coils from the back of the air box, there is just enough room to wiggle and manipulate the rear valve cover free. The ignition coils don't need to be unplugged, just set aside and out of the way (they will only really fit back into place in one way, so don't worry about it too much).

Here is the rear exposed with the air box still in place (this saves a LOT of time from following the manual).

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The rear (cylinders 1 & 3) were all in spec as well, so it was a quick process and time to button her back up.

A quick note about the reusable valve cover gaskets used on many modern motorcycles ...and this goes out to whoever did work on this particular bike prior to me). You do not need to use liquid gasket on these gaskets. And you should NEVER wet them with oil prior to installation. If you look at these gaskets they have 3 "wipers" let's call them, that comprise the sealing action. When they are clean, and DRY, you simply make sure they are aligned properly, and tighten the valve covers; these "wipers" make positive contact, and provide a triple layer of barriers that the engine oil is not going to penetrate.

...if you wet them with oil, they cannot compress into the open channels between them, hence, they don't form a tight barrier and will leak.

When you go to put your VFR back together, inspect these gaskets, and take time to thoroughly clean and dry them before installation. If you do this, you will never have a leaky valve cover and you shouldn't ever have to replace the gaskets!

...ok, of my soapbox, but I was frustrated after spending an hour picking bits of hardened sealant off my gaskets! :rolleyes:

So since that didn't take very long (it wasn't even lunch time) Tony helped me check out the electrical system and showed me the 3 points that must be kept clean and secure. These are the 3 main grounds for the bike's electrical and charging systems.

1. Right side of frame, general accessory ground.

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2. "Main" fuse and ground, this is the ground for everything relating to the charging system (mine was in great shape)

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3. Battery & main frame ground; this is where the battery grounds to the frame and it is tricky to get to, but very important!

...this is viewing it from the right side of the frame (the battery box is just to the left):

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...and looking at it from under the tail, near the left side of the swingarm pivot, looking up:

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For all of these I make sure the connections are freshly cleaned and free of any corrosion, then I use a smearing of dielectric grease to prevent anything getting in there (FYI, I'm told you can also use Vaseline).

So with the valves checked, and the electrical cleaned and sorted, it was lunch time, and I had other things to do besides work on the bike this weekend.

Lastly, there was a bulb out on the dash and since I haven't put anything back together, now was the perfect time to pull it and go shopping for a replacement! ...with the bike in this state of disassembly, it's pretty easy to get at these:

561183467_rHZWn-L.jpg

I still have to rewire the marine fuse box under the seat through a relay, and rewire my heated grips and Datel volt meter, but that will happen this weekend. :biggrin:

As for the rest, well. ...my exhaust should be back from Jet-Hot next week sometime, along with my new (heavier) spring for the Penske.

...and there's all of this still to find a home for on the bike somewhere:

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...ah the joys of 10 year old bikes! :fing02:

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