Vf1000r Rebuild

[VF1000RS]

You need a low profile 90 fitting to replace that fitting I think. NPT on the engine end, AN to the hose end. I`ll see if I can get a pic and maybe a part number. Need time.

I`ve had teflon tape on mine for years now. Any NPT fitting, you really don`t want to risk a leak there.

Try a Google search on Earls 922104 . Then replace the existing 90 hose end fitting with a straight AN hose end fitting. That _may_ give you the clearance and also has a swivel which may also help. ANplumbing.com has worked for me in the past.

I think that might work. Thanks for the tip on AN Plumbing, they look like the best pricing. I'll see when the order gets here.

Did you mean 921104? http://secure.chassisshop.com/partdetail/921104/ I don't think there's enough room to screw in the 922104, 10mm to the case. The 1104 should work with the straight hose fitting. It's tight, it's pointed straight at the frame rail, there is no offset and I don't think there was more than a mm or two I could have offset it.

No, I meant 922104. It would replace the straight NPT to AN fitting in your pic. It has the swivel NPT so you don`t have to worry about hitting the case. It threads directly into the engine. That should move it high enough. Then put a straight or 45 hose end fitting. I`ll try to get a pic up tonight as I`ve got a similar setup.

[vfrcapn]

Black Frame / Black Swing Arm.....Nice and Glossy. With so much Frame exposed, Silver or Polished would look disjointed and goofy IMO.

Kinda like those Red Wheels as well, how about Black Rims with Red Stars. Find someone with some PS skills.....

Looking Good!

Thanks. This is the R bike so most of the frame/motor is covered up. Wheels are black, not planning on changing them right now. I went with a dark bronze on the swingarm to almost match the RC forks, just polished the ribs.

[AussieinUSA]

Kick ass thread guys, love what you're all doing :biggrin:

The frame and swingarm / fork setup vfrcapn posted recently looks killer, great choice of colors!!

[VF1000RS]

Here you go Mike, little late, but I`m sure you got it:

[keny]

Switch to my nice, completely stock 86 R. Don`t feel I could push the front end on it, seems a little vague. On the other 2, I felt like giving it a handful of throttle until I scared myself, this one I seem to want to just cruise, weird. Give it the berries anyway, then haul it down with the brakes, definitely less powerful than the RC51 brakes on the others(big mystery there!), but pretty good for this big girl. That`s the other thing, this one feels alot heavier than the other 2 and doesn`t turn as easily at low speeds as the F or my modded R. Probably has to do more with the Dunlop 501`s in 120/80/16 and 150/70/17 and their flatter profile than anything. Front end feels less a part of the bike on this one for sure.

Here`s the girls after their outing today:

And what would it be if I didn`t get one from the rear...

The top heavy feel and slow turn in come from 2 things:

You have a 150/70 rear and stock is 140/80 so the 150/70 lowers the rear a bit and slow steering. Then on the other whit the rc51 forks you have the front lower and rear high, it give faster steering (not nesseserly as tripel ofset has to do whit it also) and bringin the motor lower, the front part at least thats more heavy.

I can feel my RC24 beeing a slight slower steering whit a 140/70-18 (or 160/60R18 :blink: ) vs stock 130/80-18 that has about same height differens as you now have (140/80 vs 150/70). I have also dropped my forks in the tripels 15mm (17mm max you can) and it made a lot differens in the steering, much faster now (even faster that stock) whit the 160/60R18 rear, and the top heavy feel, a lot lighter now! But I do not recomend droping the forklegs until there is stiffer springs in the fork!

[VF1000RS]

The top heavy feel and slow turn in come from 2 things:

You have a 150/70 rear and stock is 140/80 so the 150/70 lowers the rear a bit and slow steering. Then on the other whit the rc51 forks you have the front lower and rear high, it give faster steering (not nesseserly as tripel ofset has to do whit it also) and bringin the motor lower, the front part at least thats more heavy.

I can feel my RC24 beeing a slight slower steering whit a 140/70-18 (or 160/60R18 :blink: ) vs stock 130/80-18 that has about same height differens as you now have (140/80 vs 150/70). I have also dropped my forks in the tripels 15mm (17mm max you can) and it made a lot differens in the steering, much faster now (even faster that stock) whit the 160/60R18 rear, and the top heavy feel, a lot lighter now! But I do not recomend droping the forklegs until there is stiffer springs in the fork!

Keny,

You bring up some good points which I neglected to mention in my short write up.

This was simply an observation of the different bikes/setups ridden back to back, but I wasn`t really asking why. I know exactly why each rides as it does. It just shows how far I have yet to go to get the F to handle how I want. I guess I assume(wrongly) that everyone is on the same page as me and I didn`t feel like writing a book at the time, just my observations. There is only so much that can be expressed on a forum, much thinking and all the work happen off list,... More a notation of what I have to do yet to the F project to get it to ride how I would like.

A ways to go yet, it`s still not ready obviously. It won`t be as radical as my R, but it will be better than it is now. With the soft shock spring, more weight gets transferred to the rear, there is not enough weight on the front and the rake isn`t steep enough, the rear compresses too much when I am on it adding to this, so I don`t get the turning ability and feel I am after. The smaller diameter CBR wheel/tire is also adding to this. I have compensated for some of this with a longer than stock shock. The shorter RC51 forks drop the front some which helps. Add the high bars that puts my weight further back on the bike and that adds to the disconnected/chopper feeling. I really hate it. But I will fix it. I need to be able to feel what the front is doing and I know I can get there. I also don`t want to go to the extreme that I did on my R with the F but I want more of a balance between the front and rear. The bike as a whole if you will.

My R sits as it does with the high rear and the low front because that is what it took to get it to turn how I want. The rear ride height adjustment was built in so I could get it dialed in for me. It was engineered that way for a purpose. Steeper fork rake and more weight on the front. The fork springs were changed to 1.0kg/mm to deal with this. The fork offset adds to the stability and combined with the steeper rake, the bike turns better at high speed, but is still a rock as far as stability goes. I didn`t build my R without knowing what I was doing, far from it, I had a specific goal, and it wasn`t just to look cool, it had to handle.

The F is a different animal and presents challenges not altogether different, but getting there is alot of the fun for me. I`m sure I`ve left a ton of information out, but that`s all I feel like writing at the moment.

[VF1000RS]

Anyone care to motivate me with their progress?

OK, You gonna let Tom get a blue VF on the road before you? "Gentlemen...Start!...Your!...Projects!"

Game on...

Ordered my custom sidepanel decals from Mark at CBDecals today to match the full set I have....will have the 84 VF750F RWB paint scheme with the "750" removed, the red stripe cleaned up and the "Interceptor" left in white lettering on the blue paint on the sidepanel, then will have "V45" in red lettering above on the white of the sidepanel.

Their site will be down for the next week(if anyone is interested) but he was going to knock it out to me by tomorrow.

[vfrcapn]

Anyone care to motivate me with their progress?

OK, You gonna let Tom get a blue VF on the road before you? "Gentlemen...Start!...Your!...Projects!"

I'm just trying to clean out the garage, getting rid of stuff on eBay. I still have a R lower and 2 uppers left, a header along with some F brakes, swingarm, valve covers. Need some room..

[VF1000RS]

Anyone care to motivate me with their progress?

OK, You gonna let Tom get a blue VF on the road before you? "Gentlemen...Start!...Your!...Projects!"

I'm just trying to clean out the garage, getting rid of stuff on eBay. I still have a R lower and 2 uppers left, a header along with some F brakes, swingarm, valve covers. Need some room..

I`ve been trying to clear out some bikes to get some room and still waiting on my rear shock to come back from the rework at Works. Also started toying with my XR500 Supermotard project again...

[SEBSPEED]

Anyone care to motivate me with their progress?

OK, You gonna let Tom get a blue VF on the road before you? "Gentlemen...Start!...Your!...Projects!"

I'm just trying to clean out the garage, getting rid of stuff on eBay. I still have a R lower and 2 uppers left, a header along with some F brakes, swingarm, valve covers. Need some room..

I`ve been trying to clear out some bikes to get some room and still waiting on my rear shock to come back from the rework at Works. Also started toying with my XR500 Supermotard project again...

& I'm trying to get my lawn mower and associated crap out and into a new shed I'm finishing today... then I have to organize, I'm making a second "bay" to work in so I can have 2 projects going without mixing stuff up... it'll be nice to not have to tiptoe around stuff anymore! :biggrin:

Tom, do you know Mark from somewhere other than his site? I've sent him two emails this year and have yet to hear back from him. It was a pretty simple question too, I wanted to order certain decals instead of the whole kit because I'm going to paint the stripes...

[VF1000RS]

& I'm trying to get my lawn mower and associated crap out and into a new shed I'm finishing today... then I have to organize, I'm making a second "bay" to work in so I can have 2 projects going without mixing stuff up... it'll be nice to not have to tiptoe around stuff anymore! :biggrin:

Tom, do you know Mark from somewhere other than his site? I've sent him two emails this year and have yet to hear back from him. It was a pretty simple question too, I wanted to order certain decals instead of the whole kit because I'm going to paint the stripes...

Just from CBDecals. Are you using this email: cbdecals@afegraphics.com ? He usually sends me a return email the next day. He has always been very quick returning emails but he just told me the site is going to be down for the next week. I wouldn`t think that your request is out of the ordinary, he made two full sets for me without warning labels and he is doing the sidecover decals custom. He also has done many custom decals for people on the CB1100F list.

[bear22099]

& I'm trying to get my lawn mower and associated crap out and into a new shed I'm finishing today... then I have to organize, I'm making a second "bay" to work in so I can have 2 projects going without mixing stuff up... it'll be nice to not have to tiptoe around stuff anymore! :biggrin:

Tom, do you know Mark from somewhere other than his site? I've sent him two emails this year and have yet to hear back from him. It was a pretty simple question too, I wanted to order certain decals instead of the whole kit because I'm going to paint the stripes...

Just from CBDecals. Are you using this email: cbdecals@afegraphics.com ? He usually sends me a return email the next day. He has always been very quick returning emails but he just told me the site is going to be down for the next week. I wouldn`t think that your request is out of the ordinary, he made two full sets for me without warning labels and he is doing the sidecover decals custom. He also has done many custom decals for people on the CB1100F list.

I have been to his house quite a few times. Both my R and F decals are from him. He lives about a half hour from me. Anytime I have emailed him it usually gets replied to pretty quick.

[VF1000RS]

Busy day for UPS and the Postal Service. Got my reworked shock today from Works with the spring switched to a 1100lb spring and tweaked. Haven`t installed it yet though. Hope this is the final revision. Also got my custom sidepanel decals from CBDecals for the 750 today. Looks like Mark did his usual excellent work with the decals and it will end up giving the bike a factory looking but custom touch.

[SEBSPEED]

Can't wait to hear more ride reports on the bike Tom, that really makes me want to work on mine.

I will check Mark's site again later today and over the next few days, I have questions and I hope he's got answers...

I got a teensy bit of work done on my 750. The little screw the holds the plastic knob for the trip meter reset had snapped its head off when I tried to remove it years ago, when I was disassembling the bike. A plastic part on the end of another shaft also broke from the pressure(I know, I know, frikken ham fist...). I also wanted to swap out the white plastic tub from the 750 unit, as one of the four grommet mounts had a piece missing.

So, I went into "swiss watchmaker" mode, and laid out my three gauge units - the 2,997mi unit from my 750, the 26,000mi unit from my and an 8900mi unit from ebay(700).

Disassembled 2 and had one for reference, always a plus, seeing as how that's not covered in any manuals... they expect you to buy a whole new cluster... I also took lots of pics along the way of various angles for more reference. Didn't actually take too long and after fiddling with a few e-clips and springs, I had my 750 unit working like new again! I took the parts I needed from the 26,000mi unit, and will be selling the 8900mi unit soon. It was a pain in the butt fiddling with all the little gears and springs, keeping everything aligned while dropping parts in place(I have sausage fingers!), but I got'er dun. Another reason to keep this bike FOREVER when I finish it!!

I went all out(like with everything else on this bike) and brought the plastic tub in the house to clean it, nice wash with warm soapy water, will get a coat of Vaseline later to keep the plastic from drying out...

I'm also planning to swap out all the little incandescent bulbs for wedge type LEDS... might even color match them to add some pizazz... going to make life very easy on my electrical system with all the LEDS I plan to use on this bike, might make up for it by going to an HID headlight. :blink:

Do any of you guys know the bulb type number for the bulbs in the gauge cluster?

[chickenofsea]

It is good to hear that you are making progress, Seb! To answer your question about the bulb type-I think it is a non-standard bulb type, as I had to order mine through Honda due to the fact that nobody carried anything close to the bulb for the IPC. The bulbs have the same base as a 23 automotive bulb, but the bulb itself is about half the size. If there was a way to convert to LED, I'd jump at it. For now, I had to settle with just replacing the burnt out bulbs.

I have a question for you, though. My tachometer face seems to have detached from the rest of the IPC and rotated about 15-20 degrees. It is still functional, but looks bad (though, now that I think about it, that is pretty much how that whole bike is). Are these repairable, or should I make you an offer on your spare?

Can't wait to hear more ride reports on the bike Tom, that really makes me want to work on mine.

I will check Mark's site again later today and over the next few days, I have questions and I hope he's got answers...

I got a teensy bit of work done on my 750. The little screw the holds the plastic knob for the trip meter reset had snapped its head off when I tried to remove it years ago, when I was disassembling the bike. A plastic part on the end of another shaft also broke from the pressure(I know, I know, frikken ham fist...). I also wanted to swap out the white plastic tub from the 750 unit, as one of the four grommet mounts had a piece missing.

So, I went into "swiss watchmaker" mode, and laid out my three gauge units - the 2,997mi unit from my 750, the 26,000mi unit from my and an 8900mi unit from ebay(700).

Disassembled 2 and had one for reference, always a plus, seeing as how that's not covered in any manuals... they expect you to buy a whole new cluster... I also took lots of pics along the way of various angles for more reference. Didn't actually take too long and after fiddling with a few e-clips and springs, I had my 750 unit working like new again! I took the parts I needed from the 26,000mi unit, and will be selling the 8900mi unit soon. It was a pain in the butt fiddling with all the little gears and springs, keeping everything aligned while dropping parts in place(I have sausage fingers!), but I got'er dun. Another reason to keep this bike FOREVER when I finish it!!

I went all out(like with everything else on this bike) and brought the plastic tub in the house to clean it, nice wash with warm soapy water, will get a coat of Vaseline later to keep the plastic from drying out...

I'm also planning to swap out all the little incandescent bulbs for wedge type LEDS... might even color match them to add some pizazz... going to make life very easy on my electrical system with all the LEDS I plan to use on this bike, might make up for it by going to an HID headlight. :biggrin:

Do any of you guys know the bulb type number for the bulbs in the gauge cluster?

[SEBSPEED]

It is good to hear that you are making progress, Seb! To answer your question about the bulb type-I think it is a non-standard bulb type, as I had to order mine through Honda due to the fact that nobody carried anything close to the bulb for the IPC. The bulbs have the same base as a 23 automotive bulb, but the bulb itself is about half the size. If there was a way to convert to LED, I'd jump at it. For now, I had to settle with just replacing the burnt out bulbs.

I have a question for you, though. My tachometer face seems to have detached from the rest of the IPC and rotated about 15-20 degrees. It is still functional, but looks bad (though, now that I think about it, that is pretty much how that whole bike is). Are these repairable, or should I make you an offer on your spare?

The bulb size on top shouldn't really matter if we're converting anyway... right? The only thing I'm really going to give thought to is whether or not to leave the little metal hoods in there - they are there to "disperse" the light evenly in the cluster, but with the right LED arrangment that shouldn't matter, right? If they are too bright we could solder some tiny resistors onto each positive lead of each bulb to tone them down, yes/no?

Don't quote me on this, but I believe the tach is held in place with 2 screws on the back of the cluster(the white tub), and I think the face plate is held on the same way as the speedo face, with 2 small screws, one on either side of the needle. You've changed the bulbs before, so you know how easy it is to get to the cluster(try doing that on a newer bike! :biggrin: ), maybe you forgot to tighten one of the screws the last time you changed a bulb?

Matt, do you still have that spare HID sitting around, and are you still happy with the one you installed?

[SEBSPEED]

EDIT: V4 BBS to the rescue! (another V4 site focused on older 'Ceptors and Magnas)

>>>

You want a 194 and you can order them from http://superbrightleds.com/ you want the 5 led style for best light distribution. You can also get them cheaper on ebay buy my experience is they only have about a 50% chance of lasting more than a week damn china knock off.

Thanks to member Midias there for his quick reply! :biggrin:

Here's the cross reference chart from www.superbrightleds.com, Rob(Veefer800Canuck) has used then before for his 5th gen dash conversion and is happy with the result and the product. He recommends the single LED (WLED -x) bulbs for his application, not sure if I want to get brighter ones since our clusters have those little tin hoods over the bulbs, leaving them in with a brighter bulb should reduce any spotting of intense light.

Do you see the bulb you used listed here?

[chickenofsea]

Seb-

Here is a pic of the stock VF IPC bulb next to a 194 bulb.

Note the difference in size of the base.

DSC02510.JPG

EDIT: V4 BBS to the rescue! (another V4 site focused on older 'Ceptors and Magnas)

>>>

You want a 194 and you can order them from http://superbrightleds.com/ you want the 5 led style for best light distribution. You can also get them cheaper on ebay buy my experience is they only have about a 50% chance of lasting more than a week damn china knock off.

Thanks to member Midias there for his quick reply! :biggrin:

Here's the cross reference chart from www.superbrightleds.com, Rob(Veefer800Canuck) has used then before for his 5th gen dash conversion and is happy with the result and the product. He recommends the single LED (WLED -x) bulbs for his application, not sure if I want to get brighter ones since our clusters have those little tin hoods over the bulbs, leaving them in with a brighter bulb should reduce any spotting of intense light.

Do you see the bulb you used listed here?

[SEBSPEED]

Do the contacts line up? Maybe a little creative grinding will help? To re-use a phrase I tossed around a lot while looking for our headlights - I can't imagine that Honda would engineer something as silly as that little light bulb just that bike... has to be compatible with something that was widely used in the 80's for lighting...

Here's a pic of the 5-LED bulb:

Seb-

Here is a pic of the stock VF IPC bulb next to a 194 bulb.

Note the difference in size of the base.

[chickenofsea]

Seb-

They do not line up. The 194 is about twice as wide and thick as the proprietary bulb. I don't know if they are the only ones who use this style ( I can't imagine that they are), but all my searching has not panned out. I haven't really looked at the IPC off the bike too hard, but if you had room in there, you could simply ditch the smaller bulb connector and make a visit to your friendly GM dealer to get a 194 base. I doubt they give you enough room inside, but anything is possible on a 23 year old bike.

Do the contacts line up? Maybe a little creative grinding will help? To re-use a phrase I tossed around a lot while looking for our headlights - I can't imagine that Honda would engineer something as silly as that little light bulb just that bike... has to be compatible with something that was widely used in the 80's for lighting...

Here's a pic of the 5-LED bulb:

Seb-

Here is a pic of the stock VF IPC bulb next to a 194 bulb.

Note the difference in size of the base.

[SEBSPEED]

Seb-

They do not line up. The 194 is about twice as wide and thick as the proprietary bulb.

That's weird. the guy over on the BBS just replied that he's had the 4 led versions in his Magna for a while now... can't imagine the bulbs being different between the two bikes... I'm going to have a look at the contacts in the connector and see what they look like, maybe they'll still work.

He said it was a tight fit, but they do work.

[chickenofsea]

Having the 2 bulbs here in my hand, they don't look like they will fit, BUT, the connector terminals in the socket itself may be wider than the pins on the bulb and it may work. My experience with this has taught me not to try to force something made of glass into a space it wasn't designed to fit (picking glass bits out of your fingers isn't something I'd like to try again). I bet if you were able to take out those light diffusers, a 194 light would fight in just fine. You could even skip this whole process and cut the wires off the connector and solder it directly to the pins of the LED. Just a thought.

Let me know what you find out, I'd like to do something with the dash lighting.

I think we have done a fantastic job of hijacking this thread. :biggrin:

Seb-

They do not line up. The 194 is about twice as wide and thick as the proprietary bulb.

That's weird. the guy over on the BBS just replied that he's had the 4 led versions in his Magna for a while now... can't imagine the bulbs being different between the two bikes... I'm going to have a look at the contacts in the connector and see what they look like, maybe they'll still work.

He said it was a tight fit, but they do work.

[SEBSPEED]

Let me know what you find out, I'd like to do something with the dash lighting.

I think we have done a fantastic job of hijacking this thread. :biggrin:

Hey, it's for a good cause, and it is related... :fing02:

Those metal hoods pop right out if you wiggle them, and the 5led bulb has a 220 degree array, so the light should spread nicely. The only other problem is that the single ones are $1.39ea, while the 5led bulbs are $3.94ea... If I use (5) white or red 5led bulbs for the backlighting and (6) singles for the indicators, that comes to $28.04 plus shipping... not too horrible I guess.

Edit: Midias said he had the 5led types in hand and would try to fit them in his Magna where he currently has the 4led types installed, I'm going to order these pending his feedback(or positive feedack from someone else).

[rctwentyfour]

Hello:

Heads up!

Currently, on eBay, someone is parting-out an '85 VF1000R. So, maybe you can pick-up some parts from the seller:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1985-VF1000...p3286.m14.l1318

rctwentyfour

[SEBSPEED]

Yes, he's got a bunch of parts. I contacted him about an axle, and he made me a nice price but I had already bid on another, which I won! Yay! Finally...