HispanicSlammer

Stiction is measured by doing multiple sag measurements and then comparing them, if there is a lot of difference then you probably need to replace your seals, and check the tubes.

From what I learned rebound control is strictly a function of the spring stiffness while compression is related to the wieght of the rider, spring stiffness, and flow properties of the valves in the oil. So yea you need more rebound control with a stiffer spring but at the same time less compression cause your not compressing the springs as fast. bottom line to get back on track here - I think adding 20 wieght oil to a stock fork is a big mistake and it will ruin your ride. If you add stiffer springs and 20 w fork oil its gonna be like welding the fork tubes together.

Actually the stiffer the spring action the more dampening it will take to control it... I'd

recommend trying a 10 weight over the 5 weight HS... you may favor the more control

feel the extra dampening will afford...

When I put in the stiffer springs I used the standard 10w oil withthe standard oil measurement. Ride was harsh and bumpy, with the front wheel hopping out of bumps much too stiff. I figure the extra stiffness of the springs take more energy to move so less damping is needed, the rider was the same and the bike was the same so the stiff springs made it too stiff. I found 5 wight gave it a much more compliant ride than the 10w for a guy of my wieght (230lbs). Not too much difference from the racetech valves and oil combo I am using now. Its slightly more compliant now, but with suspension a little goes a long way its perfect now.

10w fork oil is standard for the 5th and 6th gen vfr, I actually use 5w oil now with stiffer springs, the springs dont need as much damping action so a lighter wieght oil is better.

where are the pics? I want to see... : :beer:

Fixed

Last week I rode to New Mexico and stayed with my sister in Santa Fe ( read the Sandia Classic Post) Anyway she had a big rock in her driveway and as I was pushing my bike into her back yard for safe keeping I hit the clutch cover and it must have cracked the cover. I noticed it leaking oil so I decided to remove it for inspection.

November 2003 I lowsided on a patch of ice and slid on the clutch cover for about 40 feet, so I am sure the damage was done then and the rock just made it worse.

Cracked Clutch Cover Started this whole mess!!

Anyway I ordered a new one and hopefully I will get this bike back up and running within a week!!

I have had a clutch pack for over a year cause I thought it would need it soon. So I decided I should replace it while I have the cover off.

The manual tells you to remove the cam pulse cord from the plug under the airbox, thats a total pain in the butt to remove for a job like this so I left it on and just babied the cord.

Clutch Cover bolts removed

I removed several bolts and wrapped them in some masking tape, they are all the same size.

Bolts wrapped in masking tape

WHAT IS INSIDE

Clutch Assembly Crankshaft, Starter, two reduction gears, Clutch basket.

You have to soak the new friction plates in oil before assembly. Now is the time to also change your oil too!!

Soak New Friction Plates Soak in motor oil before assembling.

New Parts One Friction Plate A (smaller to fit into spring seat), 8 friction plates, 8 clutch plates, one gasket, one replacement pressure plate spring (not needed).

Clutch Plate over Friction Plate Clutch Plate engages the inner basket, Friction Plates engage the outter basket

HOW THE CLUTCH WORKS

Its pretty simple really there is an inner and an outter basket, the outter basket is connected to the crank by some gears, and the inner basket spins with the transmission. They are independant of each other, then there are friction plates that have teeth that engage the outter basket, and metal clutch plates that engage the inner basket, you throw in 9 of each of them together staggered, and push them together with a moving pressure plate. The pressure plate is spring loaded by 5 springs.

So When you pull on the clutch lever a piston pushes on a rod on the other side and goes through the engine and pushes on the lifter piece, which lifts the bearing which lifts the pressure plate and it takes the pressure off the 18 plates so the two baskets can spin free of each other. Let it out and the springs push the friction plates and the clutch plates together and then you have power to the rear wheel!!

:media:

See The video

Pressure Plate Removed

Inspect the lifter bearing for wear.

Pressure Plate Removed 9 total friction plates, 8 clutch plates, 1 friction spring, 1 spring seat.

Inspect the Clutch Plates Look for discoloration, place on a flat plane, glass or whatever, and use a feeler gauge to measure any warpage. 0.33 mm or 0.012 in is the service limit. I just replaced mine.

Inspect The Outter Basket Teeth Marred but not damaged, check for broken pieces or deep impressions where the friction plates meet.

Inspect the Inner Basket Teeth Mine were slightly marred but not damaged

If the teeth are damaged you will need to replace the basket. I did not remove the basket or inspect the needle bearings holding the baskets, there is a lock washer for that and it must be replaced with a new one when removed. The oil pump has a chain drive on the assembly too you should inspect. I did not get that involved I just replaced the pack.

Actually my old friction plates were still in spec but one metal clutch plate was pretty blued. I did not measure it for warpage but replaced them all anyway.

Measure the Springs 1999-98 vfr 42.6 mm, 99-01 vfr 43.7mm is the service limit.

The spring bolts are only 9 ft/lbs so dont crank on them too hard!

remove the old gasket matierial from the cover and engine case and replace the gasket. The torque for the cover bolts is 9 ft/lbs

Now how do I keep from going crazy as I wait for a new clutch cover??

To monitor your charging system. VFR's have a nasty habit of blowing Regulator Rectifiers by watching charging voltage you have advanced warning and can replace a bad unit before your stranded.

the relay gives me the option of keeping it off at super high, so I can just flip the switch when I need that little bit extra light. Your solution keeps it on double high all the time, good stuff! and you reused my drawing too cool. I am gonna move this and attach it to the original post for an alternative.

I need to redo my corbin as the foam has deterieroated after 5 years of 12 hour days in the saddle. I subscribe to the bowl shaped seat that spreads the body weight out a bit better. Since I broke my pelvis a couple of months ago I have become very sensitive to the seat now!

Yours is sort of an inverted bowl - with a crown that would have my pelvis roaring in pain after about 30 minutes, the bones tend to peirce the highest part of the foam and so become points of pressure, with a bowl shape it sort of puts more of the load on the muscles rather than my poor broken bones it just seems to make the surface area that actually makes contact with the body larger that way!! Sort of like the difference between a boat and a needle

Nice Larry Moved to the How to section of the Mods forum

Compared RR Bigger heat fins and an extra black wire for the new RR

If you getting low voltage readings, or your hotgrips just dont ever seem to get hot, chances are your having a problem with your Regulator Rectifier, the dreaded RR. I was having low heat problems with my heated gear so I thought I would take a look at the RR.

Burned Out Connector this is the connector on the old RR amazingly with one phase wire missing completely it was still charging the battery with the other two holding on by a thread

The natural stator connector had burned up and yet somehow was still working somewhat enough to charge the battery I was still getting 13 volts at 5k. The wires were exposed and the connector was deep fried like a corn dog!

different connectors

I bought this RR off a VFRD member who had no idea what to do with it cause the connectors just do not fit, who needs stinking connectors!! Connectors are the weak link anyway just look at mine, the units fine except the darn connector. It starts with a little water, some corrosion, dissimilar metals, a bit of electrolysis and then arching burns the thing up. My solution was to cut off the connectors and just soldier the wires together, not connectors to burn out.

NO connectors Cut off connectors soldiered them and heat wraped the wires

The wires soldered and heat shrinked into place, the new one had an extra wire for a secondary main relay that does not exist on my bike so I cut it off and just covered up the wire.

Started her up and whoa 14.5 volts right off the bat, first time in over a year my little led volt meter showed green all they way!! I guess that was it! The new one is actually a part from Honda and it was in the 5th gen parts list at Ron Ayers but the connectors were all wrong, I think perhaps it was a euro spec model with Hiss or something, the extra black wire exists on 6th gen bikes cause they have that extra relay?? In any case the new one has more fins bigger fins and is heavier, I had to find longer mounting bolts.

EDIT....

after testing it the voltage would spike past 15 volts and up to 16 volts when I really reved her up. I figured that extra black wire had somthing to do with regulating the voltage so I took out my wire diagrams and looked up the after 99 schematic and found where it was wired too, its part of the engine stop sensor and engine stop switch circuit. I beleived at that moment that is where it reads system voltage and so I tapped a wire into that circuit out of the back of the fuse box and spliced it with a Tee soldier, and connected it to the extra black wire...............sure enough the RR worked properly after that maintaining voltage around 14 - 13volts and not spiking above that like before. So there you have it that extra black wire monitors system voltage

When you first get a bike, or when you replace a control part like a brake lever or foot peg, you must adjust your controls for best placement.

Shift Lever

Here is a picture of my foot on the peg, notice my foot is resting with out straining up or down, to throw the shift lever requires little exertion to accomplish this (never mind my shop shoes they are rags)

Down-shifting

Up-shifting

If you have your foot at an extreme angle like this to shift your bike you must make an adjustment in order to get better control. The foot should not have to flex too much.

The VFR shift lever can be adjusted by removing this bolt and popping the lever off its spline then replacing it in a better position. 8mm bolt

Rear Brake Lever

As you can see here my foot is flexed too far up, this is not comfortable and can lead to unnecessary fatigue or inadvertent brake pad wear.

The adjustment bolt is located in the rear of the footpeg under the brake master cylinder, it has a pinch bolt that allows limited adjustment up or down.

By turning the pinch bolt as far in as I could I lowered the brake lever by 1/2 inch, this was as far as it would go but is much better on the foot than before.

Brake and Clutch Levers

Sit on your bike, stretch out your arms, and feel how your wrist is flexed when you extend your fingers to grab the lever. See in the picture below the angle my wrist has to make in order to engage the brake lever.

I placed a yardstick and rested it on the handle bar and the lever and took note of the angle, then compared it to the angle of my arm as I reached for the lever.

An adjustment had to be made so I loosened to 2 8mm bolts that hold the lever and angled the assembly down. There is only so much adjustment that can be done before the assembly binds on something but it was a much better angle.

Now you can see how much closer the 2 planes almost parallel. Now I don?t have to flex my fingers up as much as I did before, this also allows you to use the 4 finger control method, 2 fingers on the brake lever and 2 on the throttle for fine throttle control, if the lever is too far upward that method becomes impossible since your fingers are too far spread apart.

Static Voltage Test

Remove the seat, unhook the battery cover. You will need some type of multi testing meter, I have an Equus that I bought from Checker Auto parts $79 that has Ohms, Voltage, DC Amps, Diode test, Continuity test buzzer (kind of like the old operation game), digital tach, Dwell, duty cycle its an all around testing tool.

Steps

Switch your tester to Voltage and place the positive probe on the positive (red) battery terminal, put the negative probe on the ground terminal.

Take a voltage reading it should be fully charged at 13v-13.2v mine was at 12.5v. If your battery is under this voltage then put the battery on a charger before doing any further testing. If the battery will not hold the voltage after charging then your battery is defective.

Leak testing - will indicate short circuts

Start with the key off , set your multimeter to amps at about the 1mA range. Put the (positive) +probe to ground cable, and the (negative) -probe to the battery (negative) -terminal. If you get more than 1.2mA leak then you have a short somewhere

Steps

Remove the rear Cowling 4 hex bolts and disconnect the tail lights

Remove the ground cable from the battery, switch the multi meter to amps, connect the + probe to the ground cable, connect the - probe to the - battery terminal. measure for current leaking, if it is over 1.2 mA then you have a short somewhere. As you can see below the bike is fine

Charging Voltage

Charging voltage should be about 15.5 - 13.5 volts at 5500rpm with the Hi beam lights on, volt meter across the battery with the correct probe (positive probe/positive post) on the correct post. Connect the volt meter before switching on the bike. Start it up then run to 5500rpm hi beams on. If Charging voltage is lower than 13.5 volts it could be the RR or the alternator.

You should charge your battery before performing any of this test with a battery charging device. The procedure is the same as testing the static battery charge test, however the motor is running at 5500rpm and the Hi beams are on, my battery was at 12.5v not running you must have a fully charged battery, and the motor must be at normal operating temp in order to do this test correctly, but I did it just for the sake of this post.You can see it is at 13.5v the motor was shaking so the image is blurred.

IF this test produces good voltage your charging system is fine!

Charging voltage at 5k rpm

Alternator Test

To check the Alternator disconnect the alternator RR connector and check the resistance of the 3 terminals to the alternator, KEY OFF resistance should be between 0.1-1.0 ohms and then check all three terminals for ground continuity, there should be no continuity

Steps

Find the RR wire harness connection to the stator shown here. Side note - also check the red main buss wire as well for signs of burning or corrosion, that big red wire connection above my finger this seems to be a common problem with VTEC models, the main buss wire burning up

Disconnect the natural connector #3p of the harness

The connector (natural color #3p) with the 3 yellow wires connects to the stator/alternator switch the meter to ohms and check the resistance between the 3 wires to each other should be between 0.01ohm - 1.0ohm mine was 0.3ohm which is fine with all 3 wires

Make sure you check the the resistance between all 3 wires

Now check for continuity of all 3 to a ground (bike frame)

There should be no continuity! Mine did not have continuity ( a buzzer sounds if it does ) that means the alternator has burned up the windings and is shorting out and must be replaced. My alternator checked out ok.

Check the #3P connector for corroded or gunked up wire connections.

Testing the Regulator Rectifier

This test should be done if the charging voltage is not withing spec listed above and your alternator has passed the above tests.

Now disconnect both connectors the Natural #3p and the Black connector #4p at the harness. Inspect the connectors for corrosion and gunk on the wires.

On the Battery side of the same harness the wires red/white + and Ground - should show the same as the battery voltage around 13 volts fully charged (same as the static voltage key off)

Steps

Positive probe to each of the 2 red and white wires the other to the frame, mine tested .3v less than the battery on one and the same on the other.

Ground wires green wire to the positive probe and ground the black negative probe, should have continuity. My tester buzzes and show 0.00 when there is continuity, it was good.

Testing logic

If your static battery charge is good then you need not go any further, if its low then you either have a bad battery or your charging system is not working, or it just naturally discarged over time from lack of use. Charge up the battery on a battery charger and then test the voltage again. If its good then go on to your charging system. It would be best if you could use a battery load tester to test the battery, an auto parts store will have one.

Test that your charging voltage has enough Voltage to charge your battery. If its good then you need not go any further.

Now test the alternator its its not shorted out and the resistance is good then the last possible part of the charging system must be a bad Regulator Recitfier.

Do a few further tests indicated in the Regulator section to insure its is not the harness, and then replace your RR.

My system checked out good right away with 13.5 volts charging at 5k rpm.

If you discover a bad battery and replace it - you should still continue on with the charging tests to ensure that either one of the two other componets are good. A bad rectifier regulator can ruin a battery so its best to replace the battery and then test the system after its installed to make sure you dont ruin another battery. Sometimes you have to replace both, the chances of a bad alternator are slim. But it does happen, mine burned up when my radiator fan malfunctioned. I overheated the engine and some of the wire caseings burned off and shorted out one of the alternator phases. Basically it deep fried the plastic off the wires in hot motor oil.

:: note for 6th generation owners if you have bought a used 02 make sure that the Alternator has been replaced due to a general recall on the alternators for that model year.

*************************************

RR modification

In an attempt to stop the unit from burning out I added a $9 computer 12v fan to it, I hooked it up to the license plate lighting wires that only work when the key is on it draws less power than the light did.

Steps - the idea came from AustinVFR so credit goes to him!

Drill holes in the RR to wire the fan to the fins, then I used some wire to fasten it.

Wired the power for the fan from the licence plate light

• VTEC Starter Valve Synchronization
  
• K&N filter Install
  
• Airbox snorkel modification
  

Preparation

Remove the tank screws and prop up the tank. Unscrew the 7 screws on the top of the airbox, remove the tube to the flapper.

Remove the airfilter and unscrew the 8 screws on the velocity stacks, lift the airbox out of the way. I had to remove the wire to the flapper solenoid to accomplish this but I did not have to remove any other tubes or wires to lift the airbox up out of the way.

Remove the velocity stacks notice that the stacks are different sizes, they are offset so that the short ones are on the inside and the tall ones are outside. Front tall on the left short on right, back short on the left tall on the right.

Disconnect the hoses to the PAIR Valves front and back

Back

If you have a rubber cap plug up the open ends of the PAIR valve tubes, we did not so we stuffed in a plastic bag.

There are 4 starter valves connected to a 5 way tube connector, they take air from the airbox and bypass it into the intake manifold in place of a choke. They must be balanced by equalizing the vacuum pressure so they run evenly and run smoothly.

Here is a clear view of the 5 way connector

another view

Remove the 4 tubes from the 5 way connector and connect them to your a 4 way vacuum tester, I use a motion pro mercury tool

They are difficult to reach and if you lose them you have to fish them out

make note of the tubes in relation to the starter valve location as they are related. connect the tubes to the number on the vacuum tool

Here they all are connected

Connect an electronic Tachometer

I have a multi use tool that has a built in tachometer

The ECM computer has a tach lead wire that gives off pulses that an electronic tachometer can read, I just shoved the lead in behind the connector, it is the yellow and green wire on the gray connector, and set the tool to 4 cyclinder.

Ground the tool anywhere on the frame

Start up the bike and warm it it up to operating temp. Then set the idle speed to 1200 rpm, Craig's bike was only at 1050 when first measured. The idle adjustment is on the right side

Begin balancing the valves, They are numbered #1 left rear, #2 left front, #3 right rear, and a non adjustable #4 valve at the right front side. turn the valves one at a time to get them all even with #4 and adjust the idle to 1200 until they are all even, clockwise to lower and counter to increase the vacuum pressure.

Remove the tools and reconnect the 5 way connector, replace the airbox and reinstall the velocity stacks.

K&N filter install

Remove the rubber gaskets in the groves of the top and bottom of the airfilter

The K&N has a built in gasket just set it into the groove.

Snorkel Modification

I also have a K&N on my VFR, I was cleaning it last month and found that the filter was dirty only on one side so I cut away a portion of the snorkel to get a more even distribution of air and still get the laminar flow.

I cut the rubber at the first ridge and left the top of the snorkel material, cutting at an angle.

The modification increased my normal tank mileage by 20 miles to a tank of gas extra. But I did not notice a loss of torque at low rpm and a slight increase in power.

Still in a major dilema. ?Following this thread and the one where everyone is going the Hyperpro route. ?

I spoke with Traxxion and they were helpful, but fall into the fixed rate school of thought on springs.

Preliminary research for F3 forks looks they run $300-$400 for a servicable set. ?Is this about right? ?Was anybody able to find a much better deal?

To give you a bit of reasoning why the suspension gurus are using fixed rate springs when there are progressive rate springs on the market has to do with the way the damping is valved.

For example take a look at the stock valves, the tiny holes compared with the Race Tech or Traxxion valves.  You will notice they are much larger and allow much more oil to flow than the stock valves.  The damping action is done mostly by the shim stack, rather than being limited by the size of a smaller valve hole like in the stock cartridge.

So what does that have to do with springs?  Stock setup uses heavy oil, smaller more constant vavled holes, but compensates with a progressivly wound spring.  This allows for a decent riding fork for a very wide range of riders.  The bike is undersprung for the most part till you reach the limit of the stroke where the progressively longer windings take more energy to compress, combine that with a heavy oil small vavling and a decent airpocket to act as a seperate air spring you can accomidate a wide range of load and still have a fairly predictable ride.

Where as the aftermarket guys use stonger springs for the most part, single rate cause the shim stack is progressive instead.  You have to consider the entire fork as a whole system rather than a sum of its parts.  Two different ways to engineer damping systems accomidating different load conditions different ways.  

The aftermarket system is more sensitive to weight load but provides a much more compliant ride over a variety of road conditions - where as the stock system can accomidate a wider range of loads but offers less compliance over differnt road conditions.  

I changed to stiffer springs over a year ago before I installed new vavling and found I did not wallow as much in the tight stuff, however my ride was pretty harsh.  I compensated by going to 5w oil rather than the 10w standard and found I had a bit better ride, compression was much better but the rebound was just wrong cause thats dependant on the spring rate.  It was fine over smooth roads but bumpy roads would have me rolling off, seemed like a good trade off for not wallowing in the tight turns, I just had to roll off when it got bumpy.

Now that I have the right valving BOY its so much better, bumpy roads seem to be soaked up much better, I still get some shock on the really bumpy stuff but no nearly as unstable as before,  I feel like it does not fight me so much to lean over either.

If your going to keep the stock cartridge the way it is a bit stiffer progressive spring may solve your wallowing issues.  If you go for single rate springs then I would recommend a complete vavle job as well to match them.

HMM you can see the thicker ring even on the stock rebound valve here.

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I double checked on the Race Tech sight, the F3/F4/VFR use the same gold valves.  You can look up the part numbers on the race tech site.  I am not sure how the F4 adjusts for compression so that may be different.  I know the f3 I used did not have compression adjustment.  But if its like the ajustment on the rebound the valve and shim stack are a seperate componet from the ajustment mechanism.  I just swaped them out from the VFR to the F3 cartridge.  I made an adjustment to make the compression shims a bit softer but that was because I thought they were a bit harsh even before I did the swap.

For Race Tech Gold Valves Remember this, compression adjustment shim stacking is determined by the wieght of the rider Rebound stacks are determined by the spring rate only - I guess indirectly rebound it is determined by the wieght of the rider if you using a proper spring wieght for the load.

I'm trying to find some pegs to use to lower my feet on a ?2004 VFR/Interceptor.

I'm wondering... 1) What pegs do I buy to drop them 1 inch, and 2) how do I lower the brake and shift lever along with them?

Thanks,

Dave

I ended up removing the lower pinch bolt on the back of the master cyclinder.  This frees up about 1/4 of play on the adjustment screw, which lowers the brake petal almost an inch.  I lowered it so much the brake rod to the master cylinder was almost touching the brake lever.  I suppose if I need more adjustment I will have to grind down the rod a few mm for clearance.

This modification is actually pretty standard for upgrading VFR forks. To take the Cartridge/Fork Caps from a CBR and install them into a VFR. For a 5th Generation VFR such as my 1998 VFR the cartridge from an f3 will work, and for a VTEC the Cartridge from an F4 will work. I found a set of 96 F3 forks on Ebay that were sort of in bad shape. Tubes were bent a bit but not enough to bend the cartridges. The fork lowers also had some epoxy over a hole in the fork. I did not ask why I can only assume a collision with something.

I did not need those parts anyways just what was inside.

Here is how they arrived, unfortunately they came in a box that was the wrong size and was taped with Duct tape, one of the forks actually punctured the box and so there was some damage to the fork cap from impact with something hard.

I only paid $75 bucks for the darn things so I did not complain, but not good feedback. But delivered as stated in the auction - I know I know for those of you who know about my problems with Ebay and VFRd I have since decided to move on and not try to fight Goliath anymore, not worth it. Call me a Hypocrite if you will for using it.

The forks were missing the snap ring and the bushings and oil seal were loosely hanging out, and the epoxied fork bottom was pretty ugly. I removed the fork caps and slid the long adjustment tube out of the damping rods, removed the springs and spacers.

This is where I ran into problems, apparently the guy who sold these to me had already tried to remove the cartridges cause all the oil was gone - fine with me less mess!

However when I put my Allen wrench on the bottom of the fork to remove the bottom bolt it would just spin - I tried applying tension to the damping rod to get a bite on the screw but the bolt just continued to spin without unscrewing. I HAD TO GET MID-EVIL ON IT!!

YUP thats a hacksaw! Look at that awful epoxy job. I just cut off the lower part of the fork to gain access to the cartridge.

You see what was happening is the bolt had frozen into the compression valve body and was spinning the valve around inside the cartridge - nothing I could do but cut the thing open to get to the cartridge.

Here you can see the cartridge bottom and the bottom of the fork cut off I was careful not to damage the actual cartridge itself.

I pulled off the top of the fork body as much as I could

The fork tube will not come off until the cartridge is unscrewed there is a flange that prevents it from coming off. What I did now was maneuver the cartridge bottom onto my vise so I could clamp the compression valve and prevent it from spinning. It worked, I was going to toss the F3 compression valve anyway.

Two months ago I replaced the compression valves on my cartridge with Race Tech Gold Valves, they are the same size as the F3 valves so I just transplanted my Gold Valves into the F3 Cartridge.

Here you can see the parts I needed

The F3 cartridge, the fork cap and with the rebound adjustment rod are the parts I needed. looks almost the same as the VFR cartridge but with that adjustment rod that slides down the damping rod tube.

After removing the locking clip on the bottom of the F3 cartridge I removed the Rebound and Compression Valves.

You can see the rebound valve is a different design from the VFR valve but the compression valve is the same - no adjustment.

This is a picture of the original VFR valves notice the difference.

The F3 rebound valve has a hole that can be opened like a faucet, there is a long rod that can be moved up and down to open the hole to control the flow of oil.

Here you can see a side by side comparison of the two cartridges

The F3 is shorter but has a longer fork cap, the VFR also had a fork oil lock piece that serves as a spacer cause the forks extend longer on a VFR due to the difference in rake between the two bikes. Longer rake requires longer forks.

Here I am transplanting my Gold-valves compression into the F3 fork.

I also transplanted my Gold Rebound valves into the F3 forks. I decided to make an adjustment on the compression valve by removing one .15 x 17mm shim for a bit softer ride, the ride was still a bit harsh. Race Tech shim stacks are designed for racing and so can be a bit harsh on street applications, its just a matter of removing a shim to your liking. They actually provide a series of recipes for different shim stacks to give you a harder or softer ride - mostly its just a matter of adding a shim or taking one off from the recommended recipe.

If your not quite sure what I am talking about I wrote a more detailed description of the VFR Valves in this Thread its a more detailed reference piece with diagrams and such, refer to it if you need more info.

Intalling Race Tech Gold Valves

All the pieces side by side

The Springs side by side

I thought I might need to adjust the size of the spacers on my springs - I use Race Tech springs designed for my weight. They are stiffer than the Honda Springs and are single rate. So I put the spacers and springs side by side and they turned out to be the same length together. so I did not cut the spacers to compensate. I may still need to cut some of the spacer to get the bike to sag right but from looking at them side by side I determined that they do not need to be cut as of yet. It all depends on if the bike sags properly when I get them back on the bike. I decided to put the oil lock piece from the VFR cartridge on the bottom of the F3 cartridge. The F3 just bolted right into the compression valve.

The VFR had that lock piece in there between the compression valve and the bottom of the fork.

All put together.

It looks like the bike sits a bit high with the preload backed all the way out, I still have to measure the sag so I may still have to cut the spacers I will report on that later after I do my sag measurement.

Springs, spacers, washers, lock-tip all installed.

I also solved my oil leak by just buying a whole new oil pan. I stripped out the threads on the oil plug on the old one and tried to repair it with some metallic epoxy. Did not work! I called around to machine shops to bore it out and tap it for a larger plug. Ended up just as cheap to get a new oil pan!

Brand New Oilpan