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My VF500 rebuild


GazVF500

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After lurking around for a while and posting some specific topics I thought I ought to start a build thread for my VF500. Currently it sits completely dismantled in the garage awaiting lots of new shiny bits.

She's a a1986 VF500F2, and I got her last year as something to play with as my CX650 Eurosport was finally on the road following its full rebuild. The bike looked to be in good condition and complete but was a non-runner. It only has 20k miles on the clock and was last taxed in 1994! All the electrics worked and it even had oil and water in.

Here she is when I got her, looking slightly sorry for herself.

DSCF3794.jpg

Under further inspection I found:-

  • Bent RH fork leg
  • Exhaust collector rotten
  • Plastics cracked but complete
  • Master cylinders full of jelly-like congealed fluid
  • Front brakes stuck on
  • Surface rust to frame and 1 area of corrosion in the frame rail under the engine
  • Carbs full of varnish


Not one to be scared of a challenge, I've set about given her a full rebuild. As some of you may have seen, I set about making my own 4-2-1 exhaust, here VF500 Exhaust, and I'm going to be putting both wheels off a CBR600 F2 on for good measure!

This forum has been a wealth of knowledge and extremely helpful, so I thought I'd post up what I've been working on!

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  • Member Contributer

Very cool. I would love to do a F2 as I think they just look that bit more cool than the F here in the US. Also looks like the CX650 and the CB1100F used the same fairing.

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Look forward to seeing the progress!

If I could ask, how is the condition of gas tank? The lower rear corners are prone to rusting through if the tank is not properly drained and coated with oil during long term storage.

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Look forward to seeing the progress!

If I could ask, how is the condition of gas tank? The lower rear corners are prone to rusting through if the tank is not properly drained and coated with oil during long term storage.



The tank doesn't seem too bad from the outside, I think it'd be wise to use a sealer on it to prevent rust getting through into the carbs.
Does anyone have any tips for getting all of the fuel out of it, other than shaking it for ages?

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If I could suggest, take a close look at the lower rear corners.

If there is visible rust inside the tank you may also have pin holes starting to develop in the lower corners.

Discolored paint in this area is a sure giveaway:

rustspots.jpg

pin holes:

pinholesonleftside.jpg

If you are thinking of sealing the inside of your tank, check out Casewell's Epoxy Gas Tank Sealer ( http://www.caswellplating.com/aids/epoxygas.htm ) It's the cat's pajamas.

empiregp12-02-10.jpg

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I will definitely do that, thanks for the heads-up. The paint is good in the area, no discolouring as you have shown. I will be repainting it anyway, so will be taking it back to bare to check out the condition.

Any tips on getting that last little bit of fuel out?

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In my case the pinholes made it easy ;-)

In all seriousness, I know other owners have tried all sorts of methods. With this in mind, Mityvac offers a nifty 'mini fluid evacuator' (as it's always fun buying new tools)

MV7430.jpg

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Hi Gaz,

Have fun on the project!

Some nice shots of a rebuild CX650E will be nice too!

My brother owned a white 650 (long time ago, long gone to the scrap yard after burying itself in a car. My brother flew over the car, did a summersault and landed on his feet, not a scratch...)

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Becareful with coating the tank.

My old VF500 was leaking in the areas IC mentioned. I had the tank repaired and coated but I woas then experiencing a problem with the fuel bubbling out of the tank after filling up.

Also, after further investigation, I found that the coating never made it to the problematic "valleys" where the rusty leaks occur.

Good luck with the build! Looking forward to hearing that exhaust!

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I use a 60cc syringe with a long tube attached. I also wrap wire around the tube for stiffness or to bend to the angle I want to get the gas from.

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I use a 60cc syringe with a long tube attached. I also wrap wire around the tube for stiffness or to bend to the angle I want to get the gas from.



That is indeed borderline genius!

So to the rebuild - this weekend I was busy preparing my new shock linkage, as I'm planning on using this F4i shock on the VF:-

DSC00870.jpg

As I live nowhere near Jamie D the shipping costs pretty much put pay to having him modify the shock to extend it. I have no machining capability at home, but I have a friend, Ian, who runs a Precision Engineering firm - very handy indeed! So I got him to turn me up two bearing carriers which would form the basis of a new shock linkage. I cut some pieces of 4mm thick mild steel to form the side plates:-

DSC00873.jpg

I then needed to work out how to position everything so that the bores in the bearing housings would be parallel, and the side plate perpendicular. I reasoned that my friend would have turned the ends of the tubes square to the bore, and so bolted them to two pieces of the steel plate. This is as close to parallel as I think I'm going to achieve reasonably!

DSC00874.jpg

The first side plate needs to be 4mm (handily) from the edge of the bearing tube, so another piece of plate offcut is serving as a spacer.

DSC00876.jpg

Once the first sideplate has been welded on, I'm going to use the bush out of the bottom of the F4 shock as a spacer to locate the other one.

That's as far as I got, my MIG won't give me enough penetration through the 4mm plate, and ~6mm thickness of the bearing tube. I'm going to get a local welding firm to do the final welding on the piece, especially as it's a safety-critical item.

Hopefully that will allow me to use an un-modified (except for spring rate) CBR600F4i shock.

Ian also made the cylinder head stubs for my exhaust from 316 stainless, and as I'm doing the F2 wheel swap he machined the CBR6 front wheel, VF500 sprocket carrier, and made me the necessary spacers for both wheels.

I'm using the F2 rear wheel, and the F2 rear brake disc, so it makes sense to use an F2 rear brake system (or similar) too, so that everything fits. I found a used VTR1000 Firestorm (guess you guys would call it a SuperHawk) rear brake calliper assembly (complete with pads) on eBay for £5 and snapped it up! It's in great condition. I just had to have Ian shave 2.5mm off the outside face of the bracket, where it meets up with the RHS adjusters, and make me a RHS wheel spacer that took up the clearance between the 20mm hole in the brake bracket and the 17mm VF axle.

DSCF4750.jpg

The best bit of that is that it cost me less than a rebuild kit for the original VF caliper, which was in a very sorry state indeed! After reading this thread http://vfrworld.com/...ossible.html on the <other forum for Hondas with 4 cylinders arranged in a V> I decided to check the fitment of the VTR calliper bracket into the VF swingarm, and found I needed to take some material off the swingarm tab. 60 seconds with a flap disc in the grinder and she fits a treat, throughout the range of axle adjustment.

I'm at the stage of the build now where all the work required to get the modifications (wheel swap, shock swap, exhaust) onto the bike is complete. Now I need to clean everything up and start putting her back together!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Not much to update on the build yet, I haven't got round to getting the suspension linkage welded up, due to various things getting in the way. For Christmas, Santa brought me a pair of nice Bridgestone tyres to fit my CBR rims! Lucky me, and thanks to my girlfriend for buying me such a great present!

I want to get the frame and some other bits off to the powder coaters after I get paid, but I realised my centre stand won't fit round the tyre. Well it will just but there's no room for mis-alignment, and I'm not happy leaving it as it is.I want to keep the centre stand as it's useful for rear-end maintenance, and the exhaust was made in order to accept the centre stand.

Also, as I'm adding some rear ride height to my bike, I'll need to lengthen the centre stand to avoid the stand dangling in fresh air with both wheels still on the floor :-)

So I took the scabby-looking VF500 centre stand and cut the "feet" off it to use as a pattern (this also let 25 years worth of rust out...). I also took the stop off the LHS of the stand, as my exhaust is right-exit. I'll have to make a new stop:-
DSC00878.jpg

I've decided to keep the top "hoop" as it has all the bracketry for the stand, and re-make the rest to ensure it clears the new tyre.
DSC00879.jpg

I have had to scallop the Right-Hand forward gusset on the stand so that it clears the exhaust:-
DSC00885.jpg
DSC00881.jpg

I've made some new pads out of 2mm thick mild steel plate, ready for when I get some tube to make new legs for the stand. I'll also need to make a new foot lever, which I'm going to tuck in further towards the LHS footpeg hanger than the original (again, as I have no exhaust on the left side).
DSC00892.jpg

I couldn't resist putting some parts loosely in the frame to see how it looked:-
DSC00886.jpg
New tyres waiting for the rims to be powdercoated

DSC00889.jpg
Showing dusty CBR F2 wheel, VTR1000 caliper and bracket, and Micron end can all in installed position.

Can't wait to get this thing built now!

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  • 2 months later...

Not much to report recently - it's been a mad-house round here and I've not had too much time to do too much on the bike.

Getting ready to get everything off to the powder coaters, though, and wondered if anyone had any pictures of similar bikes with the frame done in black?

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  • 1 month later...

Hi all,

It's time for me to take all the major parts to the powder coaters.

I want to get the swingarm done as well as the main frame, but have a question about how to get the old bearing races out of the arm.

I don't have an internal puller small enough to get behind the races to pull on them successfully, can I heat the arm and allow the difference in expansion rates between Steel and Ally do the rest?

Does anyone have a different method?

Thanks in advance!

Gareth

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Can you reach in from the other side of the arm with a long rod and hammer the bearings out from the backside?

Maybe a long slender punch?



There's absolutely no access from behind - the bearing bores are both blind! It's not like a newer VFR with the needle roller bearings - these are 2 x 30203 taper roller bearings, with the outer races pressed into blind bores machined into the swingarm. There's barely any depth behind the outer races in which to get a puller (and even then I haven't got one) hence the heat idea.

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Can you reach in from the other side of the arm with a long rod and hammer the bearings out from the backside?

Maybe a long slender punch?

There's absolutely no access from behind - the bearing bores are both blind! It's not like a newer VFR with the needle roller bearings - these are 2 x 30203 taper roller bearings, with the outer races pressed into blind bores machined into the swingarm. There's barely any depth behind the outer races in which to get a puller (and even then I haven't got one) hence the heat idea.

There are these special blind bearing pullers, but when I pulled mine out I just welded a big washer with a rod in the inner part of the bearing.

The welding heat helped loosen up things and with the help of an "impact dent puller" getting them out was not a big problem.

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Darn it! If only my dad hadn't borrowed my welder! He's 250 miles away too! The big washer and the slide hammer seems to be the way forward.

Ah well, I'll have to wait 'till I get my welder back and then get these bearings out.

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  • 4 weeks later...

This weekend I got around to working on the bodywork for the VF. There were loads of scratches, chips and cracks to fill and fair.

Fairing top panel:-
DSC00998.jpg
DSC00997.jpg
DSC00996.jpg

Fairing Lowers
IMG]http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk307/Gareth_16V/DSC00988.jpg[/img]

Side panels
DSC00991.jpg
DSC00989.jpg

This weekend I'll be putting them all into primer ready for top coat. Should get the frame and other components back from the powder coaters this week too, so there'll be plenty of things to crack on with over the weekend!

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  • Member Contributer

You're getting there. Lot's of people on this side of the pond that would kill for those lower fairings.

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Thanks guys! The whole set of front plastics were pretty well rashed up, with missing bolt holes and parts snapped off. Most of the corners were missing so I've had to build them up with hard filler.

Got them into primer last night and they look much better, still plenty of work to do!

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