Yokel

It was shockingly filthy. Baked detritus. Hahaha

Spending the day at Traxxion Dynamics today getting the whole enchilada from these guys. Working with Jacob. I've opted to go with a rebuild of the Penske 8983 2-way shock and a set of AK20s. I'm learning a LOT while here, as suspension has always been a bit of black magic. I'll put together a photo group later, as I'm trying to stay out from underfoot. I did take mercy on the guys and removed the fairings for them. Getting new fork bushings, internals being replaced, new seals, tubes being polished and inspected for true, and likely new springs.

Should require a micrometer and disassembly of clutch basket. I can check the shop manual for you and provide tolerance if the system bleed is not helpful. The fact that it migrated OUT of feel makes me think you're fluid related. Either as someone else stated there is a bad seal, air in line, or you're getting weep somewhere from crush washers. Could be as simple as particulate jamming a valve somewhere.

What is your mileage/km's? Bleed it lately? Might have an air bubble in the line... Plates under tolerance? Could be a couple things. I start with cheapest first. May bleed system with a vacuum bleeder to ensure all air out.

Possible. It's unlikely, but not unheard of, that something nefarious is afoot. I would say just ride and monitor critical systems. Perhaps you got lucky. 🙂

Side note: Some valves were a bit snug. I need to buy a micrometer before I can order appropriate shims, but I'm comfortable running these settings the remainder of the season. I'll do all this again and adjust everything to nominal in Jan or Feb. Also, next week I spend a day at Traxxion Dynamics having my Penske rebuilt and the forks reworked. I'll try and make some mental notes and get some pictures.

OK, now, follow the book to check the valves, and obviously, assembly is reverse of disassembly. Do yourself a favor and vacuum out the absolute nasty detritus that has deposited itself in the valley of the engine. Refer OFTEN back to your photos and the book. Be sure to clean valve cover gaskets, head mating surface, and valve cover mating surface of any remaining RTV sealant around the camshaft cutouts, and ensure to put a blob of it back on the corners of the cutouts prior to reassembly. This isn't rocket surgery, and if you documented well, you'll be fine. A cautionary tale however, is this little tube on the LEFT LOWER side of the AIRBOX BASE. It's really short. It's also SUPER EASY to miss. It made the bike very hard to start, and throw a MIL signal when running. Also made it smoke black sooty crap and run hot. AND I had to tear it apart again. Aggrivating, but thankfully simple (THANK YOU HISPANIC SLAMMER for the hint on that, you ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL MAN.) Evidence of that here: OK, so throttle bodies go back on. Reconnect and reinstall throttle cables, tighten throttle body boots again with your 4ft long phillips screwdriver, install fuel rails (remember to get the rubber back in the fitting!). Then lower airbox goes on. This is when all your wiring gets reattached. Pop in the computer, and finish up the airbox. and thermal insulation. Make sure to leave yourself or the next owner a love note. Then toss on the tank and fire it up. From there, install body plastics which you should be pretty good at if you do any work on the bike at all. Anyway, a little intimidating maybe, and definitely learned a few lessons. Hopefully my experience can help YOU get this much needed service done cheaper than the shop will charge you, and you know it's done right.

Next take your ginormous screwdriver and loosen the intake boot clamps. You have to get at them from the holes in the frame. The rear boots can be seen from the LEFT side of the bike, the front left boot can be gotten to from the left side, but the FRONT RIGHT one has to come off from the Right side. You'll see it. After that is done, pop off the throttle bodies. It takes a bit of work. Now, you should have a view of your valves down the intake channels. Mine were covered in garbage. That will be remedied later. The rear valve cover removal is stupidly straightforward. Pop off the coils, undo the bolts and pop her loose. BEWARE THE SMALL O-RINGS inside the valve cover and MAKE SURE they come out with it. You can see one of the two on the lower left of the following photo. The valve cover gaskets are absurdly robust. If you take your time and are careful, you should not need new ones. They are shaped to fit into a channel on the underside of the valve cover, so re-installation is relatively painless. (Except the front valve cover, to hell with that thing.) From here, the front cover is next. This is a bitch. There are FOUR bolts, not THREE like the rear. See this image to locate the fourth. I mangled the crap out of the gasket for about 2 hours before I finally called HS and he mentioned "another fastener". The damn thing is almost impossible to see. It's tucked behind a boss, but ahead of and left of the PAIR device. It's the bolt in the lower left of the following shot. This was taken by shoving my phone in the gap betwixt the fram and valve cover. Also, the back right and left side bolts are essentially box-end wrench tool bolts, unless you have fancy low-profile ratchets. Even then, it's a very snug fit wiggling them out. See left of photo below for front valve cover bolt clearance. Bunch of sadists. OK. So, now this can come off. I had to remove right side, then fish left side out from wiring loom which I had put some tension on to the triple tree with zipties. Now you should be here, and can actually get started following the steps to check your valves. You will want the u-joint socket thing to get the front plugs out, and will need a flexi-magnet to retrieve them and replace them without banging them on the electrode tip. Here's an idea of the parts removed to accomplish this job. COTD

Well, to build on this sentiment... I did actually check the valves. VALVE CHECK HONDA VFR1200F I strongly advise NOT doing this if you do not have a shop manual handy, either digital or paper. It is a pretty fiddly operation, and I found having that nearby was seriously handy. Also, take MANY photos. You need to be part electrician, part plumber, and part mechanic to work on a VFR1200, but it's done easily enough if you are organized and take your time. You will want: A u-joint socked attachment and extension. A magnetic extendable wand. Dextrous Fingers. A "very" long phillips head or JIS screwdriver (simply for throttle body boot clamps. It needs to reach about 3/4 of the distance across the bike.) Some Honda gasket maker liquid crap. Since you're in there, may as well do plugs, get some of those on order. You're disconnecting throttle cables, good time to lube them. Might consider picking up some spare o-rings for the PAIR system and spark plug holes to valve-cover mating surface A bunch of zip ties. A very small vacuum attachment to clean out the valley. Basically, it's straightforward, BUT there are a few tripping points. After you get your plastics, and tank off, you need to remove the computer. It's a bit fiddly, but easy enough. then the entire airbox assebly can be removed. The lower portion of that airbox has a multitude of wire looms running around it and many connectors mount to it. Take more pictures than you think you need about how they are routed. It's a very tight fit under the plastics, and these engineers routed everything explicitly to fit. That done lands you here: Fuel rails are next. Pay attention here, the connectors have a rubber wedge holding them OPEN AND LOCKED. That rubber has a tab you can pull to remove it, and allow a pair of needlenose or a hemostadt to get in there and pinch those to release the connectors. Here is a photo of that disassebled so you can see how it works. The proceed to break things down to remove fuel injection rails. Disconnect throttle cables. You should easily be able to remove the fuel rails. Injector #1 wiring I noticed was labeled, but you might want to take careful observance to how the injector wiring is routed... this seemed like something that could readily be screwed up. DOUBLE CHECK o-Rings came out with the injectors. Take special note of any fiddly small lines, and make sure to photograph them. I found it helpful to photo wiring/tubing mounts from where they were taken. COTD

You're right. Screw it, I'm going to do it. Ordered parts.

Change of plans... Found a place relatively local that will do all the suspension work for a ride-in ride-out appointment, so I'm going to put things back together. Looking at that front valve cover, I'm quite frankly concerned about being able to fit my damn hands in to get any adjustments done. So, I'll probably just pay the money to have that done in the offseason by an appropriate digital contortionist. The bike isn't down on power, and there's no valve noise, so I'm just going to ride it for the time being. Suspension appointment is early July, so will update afterwards!

Well... Here we go again! Started the tear down today to send forks off to be re-valved. Spoke with Jamie, and think we have a plan to make the front end better. Also pulled out the Penske, as it's due for a refresh as well. Jamie is going to do both for quite a nice price! Hope I like the work. People have complained that he valves and springs on the firmer side, and that's what I want! Also, should get the valves done this time. Will post as that progresses as I don't think there's a good walk through of that on the site. Stay tuned.

Looking like this year may simply be an inexpensive but "clean" motel. I'm leaning towards the Super 8 in Harrison, AR. Am told many groups use it. Feedback from the peanut gallery?

Following. Curious as well.

You're not wrong!