Jump to content

My triumphant return to VFRs; fixing up a fifth gen


whodat90

Recommended Posts

A million years ago I had a Red (fastest color) VFR800, and enjoyed it for quite a while but ended up trading it for another bike just to have something different.  The first VFR I bought for pretty cheap because it had been sitting in a basement for 9 years, and didn't run.  I ended up having to rebuild the fuel system, pull the throttle bodies, fix and clean the injectors, replace the tires, replace rubber bits that dry rotted, etc.  Which leads us to now.

 

A buddy of mine had a 2000 Yellow VFR that he loved and put some miles on.  Then he got married, and the riding happened less and less.  Eventually the bike ended up at my place with the thought that he'd come out and ride it (I live in the middle of a lot of great riding) sometimes.  Moving forward 11ish years, he moved away and before he left he came over and gave me the title.  So I had another project to play with, yay!

 

Where it sat for all those years.

51743256244_e2cd40f455_c.jpgUntitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

Freshly washed just to make it easier to work on.  Note the date on the inspection sticker.

51749003421_0e2f100f22_c.jpgWashed ready to work on by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

In the barn for the diagnostics.

51749276918_16b5b39c33_c.jpgCleaned up ready for fixing by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

Last gallon of gas from the tank.  The problem with these bikes is that if you run the tank dry, it still leaves all the fuel in the lines and throttle bodies.  This is what the owner of my red bike did.  This bike just sat with a half-full tank.

 

51749672309_6682a4dc4a_c.jpgLast gallon of old fuel removed by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

Didn't hear the fuel pump run when I applied power to the bike so out it came.

51749895085_bf6dafc7be_c.jpgFuel pump bad by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

And yup, there's rust.  And you can see some of the rubber bits that broke off inside the tank.

51749900105_1fd9d59265_c.jpgRust in gas tank by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

Fuel level sender was bad too.  Took it apart, cleaned it, reflowed the solder on all connections and it works now.

51754035922_97f32bcf63_c.jpgFuel level sensor by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

Filled the tank with evaporust and let it sit for a couple hours, drained it out and checked:

51754421832_3659575e15_c.jpgAfter first cleaning by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

Put the evaporust back in and let it sit overnight with a spare fuel pump circulating it, then washed it out with degreaser, set a spare radiator fan on to dry it (the radiator fan which I originally bought for my last one to see if I could put one on the left radiator) and now there's no rust.  After a day of drying I used a long bent spray nozzle to reach into all the nooks and crannies to blow the junk out of the tank.  

51757137303_7aa645bee8_c.jpgMore reasonably sized fan to dry tank by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

51757000061_6dce2f985d_c.jpgAfter cleaning and de-rusting by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

Then I pulled the throttle bodies out and removed the injectors.  Gross.

51762696313_70717c2017_c.jpgGrossness in the injector hole by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

51763525070_07f6a069ed_c.jpgGrossness in the injector hole by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

51762717408_71bbaff9ac_c.jpgGrossness on the injector itself by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

Cut up a ford car stereo connector to fit the injectors and made myself an injector cleaner.

51762767018_e76358d2e0_c.jpgModified car stereo connector by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

51762887123_010a21e62a_c.jpgHomemade injector cleaner by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

Injectors cleaned they were reinstalled and the throttle bodies reassembled.  The new fuel pump arrived.

51767287430_11e3db8c81_c.jpgNew fuel pump and filter assembly by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

Had to redo the wires to match the new pump.

51766660013_22d3647f8b_c.jpgDifferent connectors by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

51767313000_dcfe203cc7_c.jpgNew ends crimped to new wires by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

Reassembled, but waiting on new gaskets.

51765621327_d3e8d8a876_c.jpgReassembled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

While I was waiting I changed the (zero mile but years old) oil.  Went ahead and put a magnet on the drain plug too.  The magnet is actually pressed into a recess I lathed into the end of the bolt, the epoxy is just insurance.

51776061522_7541d3c14c_c.jpgNeo Magnet on drain plug by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

Replaced the air filter.

51777586274_3857fb221b_c.jpgOld vs new air filter by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

Couldn't bear to wait for the new gaskets so I reassembled it temporarily with the old ones and voila!  Bike started.  This was pivotal because at this point I was only into the bike for a hundred or two.  Buying tires and battery would only happen if I knew the bike was a runner again.

51776129082_b654298d62_c.jpgFirst start in many years by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

Now that I knew it wasn't a paperweight I went ahead and ordered a new set of pirelli angels.

51788477015_222757b500_c.jpgPirelli Angel ST new tires by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

Of course to get the rear wheel off the exhaust had to come off, and it was badly rusted on.  Heat, tools, hammers, swearing, and ratchet straps eventually got it off.  It has a D&D pipe, which is quite loud for my tastes.  Hmm, I wonder what I have in my pile of leftovers from the old VFR?

51785394986_2a6398886b_c.jpgStock exhaust by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

A stock pipe!  Which is dead silent but just about doubles the weight of the bike so back in the pile it went.  I cleaned up and lubed the D&D and reinstalled it.  Maybe I'll pick up another Delkevic like I had on the last one.

51787551927_f502576a34_c.jpgNew tire installed by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

To balance the rear wheel I needed to turn a centering spacer.

51788158873_3048f330fc_c.jpgRear wheel balance shaft by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

51787094992_584d8a36b1_c.jpgBalance shaft installed by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

Balanced out nicely.  Then finally the rubber kit for the tank arrived so back off came the tank and all the old gaskets were tossed.  These are the new ones.  The old ones were dry rotted, cracked, and generally in poor shape.

51789223930_92fec44149_c.jpgNew rubbers by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

Haven't bought it a new battery at this point so it's using a spare from an old goldwing I had laying around.

51790556620_c0c77b1c32_c.jpgReassembled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

Put in some LED brake light bulbs.  LED on the right, halogen on the left.  The difference is larger than it looks in the pics, the camera just gets overloaded by the amount of light.

51814974399_62bee18e24_c.jpgLED brake/tail lights by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

51813670632_d9ba9f3ed7_c.jpgAdding LED brake/tail bulbs. by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

51813670637_fc7cd314fe_c.jpgLED Brake light install by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

Then I decided to swap out the R/R.  This is the harness I made to put the FH020 on.  Yes I know I should solder the yellow wires.  I may eventually do that, but this is still plug and play and I found no evidence of corrosion, overheating, looseness, etc. when I looked, and these connectors are in fact much more robust than the ones on my last VFR.  I'll just add this to the regular inspection and if they show a need I'll get rid of the connector entirely.

51824404056_82af14ccb2_c.jpgNew Rectifier/Regulator harness by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

Drilled and installed RivNuts into the mount for the new R/R.

51824550838_a1be3177c4_c.jpgRiv-Nuts installed to mount new R/R by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

Since the stock R/R used acorn nuts on the back to keep from digging into the wire harness I added a layer of anti-chaff wrap to it before installing the new R/R.

51824559298_29728f51b6_c.jpgAnti-chaff cover on main wire harness by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

And here it is installed.

51824819249_054c39a900_c.jpgNew Rectifier/Regulator installed by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

Way back when it first came over to my place we installed heated grips, powerlets, a GPS, a voltage indicator light, and wired up a connector for the trunk to carry lights and power so really there's not much else for me to do on this bike.  I bled the brakes (front and rear, not the linked parts; I'll get to that) changed the coolant, replaced a bunch of fasteners and generally gave it a freshening.  Rode it a total of 50 miles so far, then the snows hit and now my driveway is 600' of ice.  Anyway, good to be back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks!  It's been down a few times so the body has some challenges.  I repaired everything I could from the back side using sheet ABS and ABS cement, but it's still pretty rough.  I'm just going to run it like this for a while and if I decide it's a long term bike I'll probably order a new body kit from ebay.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Honestly the only hard part of what I did was pulling the racks to get the injectors out.  Like three octopi fighting each other there's so many hoses, wires, and cables.  Everything else is simple and doable by anyone that can operate a breadstick.  I do this stuff to relax (gone through probably 25+ bikes in the last 20 years) and I love it because it's not hard, just time consuming.  It's relaxing to spend an hour or two slowly taking something apart, fixing it, cleaning it, putting it back together and polishing it.  My Valkyrie was awful when I got it, now it's a monster.  Get yourself something cheap and fix it up!

 

51465534899_6849d2b73e_c.jpgUntitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Excellent work and post!  Thanks for sharing the story, photos, and descriptions.  👍

 

I wish I had the time, patience, and skills to do things like this.  But while I may not be a guy who can restore a bike, I definitely appreciate folks who can.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer

You have created a great post here Whodat! Must be great to have such a set of skills and tools. The Evaporust + fuel pump to circulate it is a great idea, as is your home-made injector cleaner. The photos are also well done; I usually have too much crud on my hands to take photos when I am getting into a restoration project. Your bike a is a great colour too, this is my 1999 that I just bought.

 

IMG_2832.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer

Impressive work! When can you drop by? 🙂

 

I've never pulled the injectors from anything. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow this is some awesome work you did! I just came in from working on my '00 Yellow VFR and I thought I was having Deja Vu! I just picked mine up last week and it is in rougher shape than yours, but I think its going to be a good project. I need to just bite the bullet and pull the injectors off and come up with some method to clean them. My bike came in pieces so I put the air box lower back on and plumbed the tank thinking I would get lucky and it would fire, but no luck. I'll probably replace all the vacuum lines while I'm in there because taking that all apart isn't very fun. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer
7 hours ago, whodat90 said:

So I had another project to play with, yay!

 

Now all you need is some white paint for those wheels...

 

gallery_6146_6562_229497.jpg

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer

I really should have my spare set done in white or grey or silver. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer

Ah yes, memories of my resto, I really should post up that story....  Congrats, I know how satisfying it feels.

You guys and your white high maintenance wheels, lol.  White wheels on a yellow VFR will slow it down...... I'd say go a nice medium dark bronze....... or if you stick with black, a nice metallic black perhaps with gold fleck in it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer
31 minutes ago, raYzerman said:

Ah yes, memories of my resto, I really should post up that story....  Congrats, I know how satisfying it feels.

You guys and your white high maintenance wheels, lol.  White wheels on a yellow VFR will slow it down...... I'd say go a nice medium dark bronze....... or if you stick with black, a nice metallic black perhaps with gold fleck in it.

I had my 86's wheels powdercoated in white and the only thing fast about them is how quickly the back wheel looks grimy...

 

I have a spare set of rims (currently gold, off a red 07) and was thinking silver-grey would be nice (but the black, like a SR-71A Blackbird, is fastest already). Found this image on the net, not mine. Of course one can also just wait for the dust to accumulate...

 

IMG_5133.jpeg

bikepics-1873391-full.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As cool a I will admit the white wheels look, it's a bit too prissy for me.  I traded my last VFR for a DL1000 that I put TKC80s on, because most of the roads I enjoy are terrible.  Hell, my driveway is 600' of bad gravel and dirt.  BTW I just found the link to my previous VFR:

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

So not white wheels by any means, but the VFR, especially a bright colored one, has a vast dark area underneath.  The black wheels, tires, engine cases, brake cover, calipers, radiators, exhaust, etc. just leave no visual interest or distinction.  So I used the same brand (Keiti) of wheel stripe tape I did on my red VFR, and lo and behold, the color match was perfect this time also.  Anyway, the applicator it comes on is awful.  Zero percent chance of it working correctly as designed.  I pulled the rear wheel off, cleaned up the edge of the rim with some rubbing alcohol (the whole bike is filthy but it's too cold to wash it; not too cold to ride it though) and applied it by hand.  The yellow feels more fragile than the red and blue I've used before, but that could be because I probably did the other colors when it was warmer.  Right now it's about 65* in my barn.  Anyway, it broke occasionally, but that's not a big deal, just overlap the break a little bit and keep going.  So much easier to remove the rear wheel now that the exhaust has a lot of antisieze on it.

 

51884654900_7eece4d1e1_c.jpgUntitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

Then 60lbs of wood pellets in the racing trunk and the front wheel was off the ground:

 

51883039207_ababdc8ebf_c.jpgUntitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

Front wheel also came off easily due to the judicious application of antisieze.  BTW I took the wheels off, cleaned the rim, then set the wheel on a home depot bucket and used a low stool so I was working comfortably with the wheel flat.  Stuck down a few inches of tape, turned the wheel, stuck down a few more inches, repeat till done.

 

51884669315_ae3c1e3bb7_c.jpgUntitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

How close is the color match?  Check out the pic I took with the flash on.  In this one you can see the bit of tape I had hanging off the gas tank in all the other pics.  No, I didn't leave it there.  I just had it on hand because the roll of tape doesn't come with a whole lot of extra and if I screwed it up and was a tiny bit short I'd have that on hand.  And now I realize that that pirelli sticker is on the bike still, and although I do have pirelli tires on it I don't do stickers so it has to come off.

 

51884358599_b048610f72_c.jpgUntitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And man I forgot how much of a pain it is to bleed these brakes.  Did it today because I had spare time.  Fronts, no big problem.  Rear, ok.  Kind of a pain to do by yourself but not impossible.  Secondary master to rear?  Holy balls.  Finally got a system worked out.  Squeeze front caliper with a quick-clamp to the fork leg to compress the mc.  Crack the rear caliper bleeder.  Remove the quick clamp, step on the rear pedal to force new fluid in the smc.  Repeat a million times till new fluid comes out.  Yes I followed the manual, but still.  Pain to do by myself.  And yes, I know, bypass the linked brakes.  Too pricey to do right, and this is strictly a low-budget bike for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer

I've started doing mine when I change tires and the wheels are off (instead of every Spring). Much easier, especially the back. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer

I shall be doing mine soon when I swap in the braided brake hoses. I'm going to install speed bleeders as well as it does make the whole process a lot easier.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Because reasons I decided to go to LED headlight bulbs and turn signal/running lights, as well as a LED specific blinker relay.

 

51890236603_5023a637ec_c.jpgUntitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

51891876589_65635eb9de_c.jpgUntitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

51890610587_d0fa013332_c.jpgUntitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

51891698653_5abb286cf5_c.jpgUntitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

So now the lights are brighter, I use less electricities and I shouldn't have to pull the fairings off again for a while.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One of the bar ends was missing from the VFR.  I went into my bin of spares and found the one that had been on it, but also realized it was ugly which is why it was removed in the first place. I looked on ebay but nobody was willing to donate them for free so I figured I'd grab a whunk of aluminum and make one.

51895142168_ccf34c9181_c.jpgUntitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

51895099911_9e93ae44d7_c.jpgUntitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

I didn't have a matching countersunk screw so I had to use a SHCS instead.  NBD, unless you're specifically looking for it you'd never notice the difference.  I rebated the inner edge to give additional clearance to the throttle tube/heated grip.  The finish was near polished when it came off the lathe but I scuffed it up with some 400 and 800 grit sandpaper to get a surface for the paint to stick to.  Used some semigloss black I had on hand, which turned out more gloss than semi.  Oh well.  It's less shiny in person than in the pic, and I figure a bit of age will knock the gloss down quite a bit.

51895201391_3a263b54d6_c.jpgUntitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

Then baked it in the shop oven for an hour to cure, let it outgass a bit more, then installed it.  

51895423708_1da7289103_c.jpgUntitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

Ta Daa!  No money out of pocket, got to spend a bit of quality time with my lathe and mill, and now I have nice matching bar ends.  Of course when I was making it out of aluminum (to match the OEM one) I found a chunk of stainless the right size to make a pair, and a chunk of Titanium the right size.  Hmm.  I'll probably leave well enough alone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer
On 2/16/2022 at 1:00 PM, Skids said:

I shall be doing mine soon when I swap in the braided brake hoses. I'm going to install speed bleeders as well as it does make the whole process a lot easier.

When you put your braided lines on, fill the reservoirs, let gravity do its thing until you get the master cylinders primed and fluid at the conventional bleeder screws.  Once the system is full, you can swap them out for SpeedBleeders.  You won't be able to fill an empty system with SpeedBleeders installed.......

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy.