Fritzer

28 splines equals 13 degrees by 92mm throw is 22mm. I was a little long on the quote. I am surprised how much better my shifts are now for such a small change the hose made.

Picked up a piece of 3/4" radiator hose at the local auto parts store. It fits nicely over the lever without cutting it lengthwise. Put a zip on it to stop from sliding off.

The shifting lever on my machine is in a position that requires my foot to be raised higher than is normal for me to shift into a higher gear. Once in a while I don’t lift the lever up enough and the gear engagement cogs don’t get fully meshed. When that happens, it pops out of gear while under load. Very bad. So far no serious damage has happened (I think/hope). The most likely solution is to move the lever one notch down on the shaft splines, but the result is a 25mm drop in the lever. I tried that quite some time back but it caused too much toe contact with the lever. Never gave the issue much more serious thought until today while doing some cleaning. It came to me that if I could not lower the shift arm at the splines to the correct height, I could increase the diameter of the shift arm pedal rubber to effectively lower the contact point to my foot. Happened to have some ¾”ID clear tubing handy so I cut off 30mm length, slit it lengthwise, wrapped it around the shift arm pad then zip tied it on. This dropped the contact point about 4mm. I took her out for a spin and what a difference that made! Now when I go for a upshift, it solidly goes into a full engagement without having to make extra toe lift effort. Now that I know this setup works, I’m going to move the zip tie ratchets forward to eliminate contact with my shoe. If a person needed more drop of the lever arm, some thicker walled radiator type hose would probably work. I am sure that some others may have the same issue. Hope this helps.

The Cogs has been found and in good shape. I was worried that he got in a serious crash. He is just taking a break from the forum.

I am one of the few people on earth that is not on facebook. If you see him there sometime, find out what is going on with him.

Cogswell dropped off the radar a few months back. I miss his excellent advice and humor. Anybody know what happened to him?

My thoughts exactly

Did the same to my chain a week ago. It has 28,500 miles on it now and not making any noise yet. I could only get 20K mile on my old 84 FJ1100 with the more power and weight shortening its life. I looked back on my service logs and I remove, clean, oil and replace about every 1,000 mile with drops of motor oil at the rollers every 300 miles or so.

Another angle on it

I just got done doing a 62,000 mile rehab on my front wheel that included the following......... Removed and replaced the bearings and dust seals Installed new OEM rotors Installed new Metzler M7 tire Installed new EBC brake pads Painted wheel with 3:1 single stage urethane paint It now looks like a new wheel The bearings were still good with no hints of failure but I wanted to put new bearings in to make it into the 120K+ miles. New bearings and seals were only $50. To remove the bearings you need to use a long drift punch to knock them out. Once you do that, the bearings are not useable. So I go to put the new bearings in and remembered a veteran Honda mechanic once telling me that you can remove the seals on ball bearings to grease. Afterwards just pop the side seal back on. I had the old bearings right there so I thought I would give it a try. I took a micro screw driver and got under the seal on the outside edge and it popped right out. The seal pops right back on like it never left. I take the new bearings before installation and pop the side seal off. Honda doesn't overload the bearings with grease. I packed both of my new bearing with additional grease, reinstalled the side seals and put them in the wheel. To make a long story come to an end, the moral here is that yes, you can do front wheel bearing maintenance without taking the bearings out of the wheel. Use a wide screwdriver and pop out the dust seal for reuse later. Now you can see the bearing. Take a mini pick or micro screwdriver and pry the side seal off. Pack it with grease, reinstall side/dust seals and you are good to go. I plan on regreasing mine every 20K miles or so. If a person does that, they will probably last the 130K mile life of the bike if it garaged.

I have not needed to remove the filter yet, but I am pretty sure the silicone will stay in place when the filter is removed.

I purchased my 5th gen with a k/n filter installed. I decided to go back to stock filter but found that the gasket at the airbox was missing. Needing to remedy the issue right away I decided to partially fill the receiving channel with silicone rtv. Before installing, I misted my air filter edge with silicon. Worked out to be a perfect seal that let the air filterto be removable.

This technique might be helpful.

A free VFR engine is offered in the Portland Oregon area. https://portland.craigslist.org/clc/mpo/d/oregon-city-1986-vfr-750-engine/7454770016.html

This place could be Aberdeen in Washington State, It is right on the pacific coastline (salty) and the place I think Kurt Cobain grew up in.

I like the drain in floor. Easy cleanup.

My friends press was a harbor freight at around $140. It however, came with a ram that was not perpendicular to the platform. He easily fixed the issue but you could take it back. Could probably find used ones cheaper.

I feel that inspection of the rear axle and related bearings is an important but commonly overlooked practice. I wanted to do this earlier, but getting into this kind complicated assembly was a little daunting for me, so I put it off. I was in need of a new rear brake rotor install that would require the rear axle to be removed from the bearing block. While everything was out in the open, this was the time to closely inspect the axle/bearings for wear. Bearing removal from block for cleaning and repack also was on the agenda. Examining the cleaned axle, I see that the wheel side needle bearing axle race (the axle itself is the inner race) was in great condition. I had added grease to that bearing 24,000 miles earlier, so everything was good at that end. Taking a close look at the axle where the radial bearing lands, I see signs of the axle spinning in the race (SITR) of the radial bearing. It was not a horrible spin out, but not good. After rotating the bearing, I see why this happened. It was very stiff to turn, like the grease was petrified between the ball bearings. After 22 years/60k of service, it’s not surprising the grease is hard. It looked like, if left alone, an axle failure was in my near future. Lucked out that I found this issue before it all turned red hot and possibly seizing. An option at this point if the damage to the axle is too extensive to overcome, you can buy a new axle from Honda for about $180. Wheel lug studs are included. This is a deal when you look at how much machine work there is on it. Also, the bearing block loaded with bearings and seals is available for about $230. For $410 your problems easily fade away. Decided to move forward and disassembe the bearing block to see what it needed to be safe again. If you decide that inspection is something you want to do, the following may be helpful. The manual describes the disassembly/assembly procedures well, but here are a few things that may take a little mystery out of the process. You will need access to a press for removing/installing the bearings into the block. Luckily I have a friend that has one in his shop. The problem with pressing the bearings in and out is finding the correct drivers. Getting creative here is helpful. There are two different size drivers for removal of the bearings. For removal of the smaller radial bearing we found a socket with correct diameter. The other, larger needle bearing needed a driver slightly larger than any socket we had, so we belt sanded a 3mm washer to correct diameter & a close diameter socket to push the needle bearing out. Before you can press the bearings out, you will need to remove the dust seal and a bearing keeper ring. The ring that is holding the bearing in the bore creates a space between the bearing and the dust seal. Use this space to get a screwdriver underneath the seal and lever it out undamaged. Now you need to deal with the small keeper ring. The ring has no clip holes for a keeper removal tool. It requires the use of a pick or micro screw driver to remove. One came out with moderate effort, but the other one challenged more than a couple peoples patience. Before I put it all back together, I took my dremel tool with a micro round cutting bit to carve a tiny channel that will allow the micro screwdriver to get behind the ring. This access channel is still covered by the dust seal when it is installed. This just makes it easier to access next time. The first bearing to come out is the radial bearing. Once pressed out, you see it is actually two narrower ball bearings joined together with a plastic ring with one grease seal on each to make a sealed bearing when they are together in the bore. Being able to split them allows the bearings to be cleaned/inspected and repacked if deemed worthy. After cleaning the bearings, I think they are still good to use so I packed them both with some moly grease. Seals looked ok so they also went back in. At the bearing installation step, a 62mm driver installs both bearings. Since they are both the same diameter, make sure you verify the correct position of the bearings before you press them in. The needle bearing has a built in oil seal that needs to be facing the inside of the block. I have a 1 13/16” socket that was 1mm too big in outside diameter for use as a install driver. After belt sanding it down to proper diameter, I now have a installation driver that also doubles as the socket for the rear axle nut. Install both bearings in their respective bores, install the keeper rings, then the seals. There is a sealed bearing in the sprocket drive plate. If the bearing feels good, no need to take it out. This bearing deals with the movement on the drive plate interfacing with the damper plate. Not much movement here. And BTW, I put in a new rubber damper set while there. With the bearing block back in the swingarm, the axle got put back in for a test fit. Even though the radial bearings have been cleaned, repacked & are spinning easier, the axle still spins easy in the bearing race. This SITR condition cannot be tolerated. Bad things will happen if not resolved. I have dealt with this SITR condition in trailer axles in the past. One solution is to take a center punch and lightly install some divots. This creates a raised crater effect that, in my case, increases the diameter of the axle at the radial bearing landing. I just happened to have a spring loaded center punch that made the perfect size indents. I put about 25 divots for each of the radial bearing landing areas. Cleaned the inner races and axle area free of oil, applied blue threadlock to the axle bearing meeting area then installed the axle. The divoting made a fit that required me to use a mallet with light force to push the axle through the radial bearing. I think it is the perfect fit and coupled with the threadlock, I won’t have a SITR issue here again. I will have to use a little force to remove the axle if needed in the future, but not too much. At final install of axle assembly to the bearing block, the axle nut requires 148 ft/lb torque. Rather than using the brake to hold the axle from turning, a lever through the lug studs is much easier. I let it all set for a few days to let the treadlock firm up. It now looks like SITR issue now history. I can check the bearing block for heat at the radial bearing area occasionally without removing anything for hints of any future failure in progress. If you don’t need to wait for new parts and are able to reuse what is there, the time it takes to remove the bearings from the block, clean them, repack, and reinstall would take about an hour. While up on the rack, I also got around to… >Shock absorber removal, sent to Jamie for revalve & new spring. New pivot bearing & pin >Removed the swingarm for pivot bearing inspect. All good. Added moly grease. >Installed new rear brake rotor and pads >Removed counter sprocket cover and thoroughly cleaned the area. >Installed speedbleeders then replaced all hydraulic fluids. >Initiated Fritzers famous chain cleaning & maintenance procedure J >Oil and filter change Bringing an end to a very long story, it leads me to my final point. If you have a high mileage/age VFR, it might be wise to open the axle/bearing block assembly for inspection/maintenance. I think this SITR condition could be common on high age/mile bikes. Once you have gone through the procedure, you realize it is not that big of a deal to do again in the future. Major piece of mind knowing your rear axle is up to the task.

Hi Fritzer, Thank you for your donation of 25.00 USD. We look forward to improving the forums with your donation. Thanks VFRDiscussion

Got pulled over today for moving past stationary cars for right hand turn in the bike lane. Got a warning. 4th warning in a row for miscreant deeds committed while on my trusty "99.

Hi Fritzer, Thank you for your donation of 50.00 USD. We look forward to improving the forums with your donation. Thanks VFRDiscussion

Poor charging performance on my '99 led me to your post. After determining that the stator was in good working order, your solution made much sense. After a short time implementing your solution my charging troubles are a thing of the past! Thanks for your posting, it sure helped.