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I could deal with rain but it snowed Oct 6th and finally this week it is leaving. Long, long haul. Really hard on calves too.
On the bike front, Pat Cowan is sharing some options with me for glass and I'm working out suspension mods with Jamie Daugherty who is a guru with these things.
Well, with lambing I hadn't touched this much at all for a month and I was a little frustrated because for the life of me I couldn't get it started. Tried quite a few things and then........
Victory!!!!!!! Apparently no video upload on tapatalk so no dice there, sorry fellas. Our Internet is out for a few days while our roof is redone so when that is finished, might get some video up.
Couple of questions. It won't idle with the choke below half. throttle response is great at that point though. Any thoughts here?
Also, burned through two ignition fuses. The wiring on this thing is a complete mess, so it could be anything. Just wondering how to go about tracking down the issue. Thanks in advance!!
It had been so many times of turning over through the last few months with not one start, when it fired and took off I was jumping up and down like a five year old kid. Opened the door to the house and yelled to my wife that it was running. You can imagine the look on her face considering the bike is just on the other side of the wall of our sleeping 8 month old daughter
Well, I've decided to dig a little deeper into the bike considering the electrical issues especially. Plan is to take things off and refinish or replace a couple at a time so I don't lose my mind over a pile of parts, not able to remember where they go.
Clunky signals.......gone. Fronts were actually Suzuki units. Several brackets removed and retained in case I want to modify and reuse them later. Removed the air box to give it a clean and maybe paint. First nice surprise was finding a k&n filter which I had on my purchase list. Filter was cleaned and reoiled. Saved fifty bucks there
Have unwound most of the wiring harness and am tagging and labelling as I go. So many wires not connected to nothing!!!!!! Look at this beast of a harness ....
I find the subframe on this bike to be rather ugly but I have no idea what to do with it. As is, it certainly provides a nice straight backbone.
I would also love to change how the exhaust hangers are set up. These suckers are monsters.....
Also, the welding on this frame could never be described as beautiful. My welding skills are extremely basic but I was surprised at how poor the finish was for a factory frame
Keep up the good work - it'll look sweet when it's done!
Some comments:
Work comes first - especially for you farmers. You feed the rest of us.
The "swirl" casting of the front hub is a pretty common casting design - think Yamaha Virago / RDLC etc alloy wheels with the curved "spokes". It's done to prevent casting "hot-tearing" or cracking during cooling, when the casting shrinks - the same reason you see odd numbers of "spokes" on most "true" cast wheels.
Glad your hand is healing up - could have been a lot worse - like if it had happened at the breach.
You're going to run into the same issues I did if you modify the Honda frame - any new welds are bound to be at least 10 times better than the factory scum. I "back-halfed" the frame on the baby tracker, got 2 of the best welders I know to do the welding and now the front half looks like sh1t. I welded the rear fender loop myself and even my welding looks a lot better than the factory LOL.
You might be able to shorten the rear frame, but I'd say just leave most of it alone until you get the bike running good.
Love your log cabin workshop.
Ready with (more) ideas for bodywork when you get further along with the bike.
Those muffler hangers look pretty "agricultural" - maybe drilled aluminum or something?
Regards,
Pat Cowan,
Vintage Motorcycle Fiberglass
I know it's on a different forum, but check out what this guy is doing to a first generation Magna. http://v4musclebike.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6335 Another guy there is following that build with a V-4 Sabre. Lots of info on there if you have questions on these engines.
Thanks so much for that link Jr. as I have never been over there before and have certainly missed that build, very cool. Other than DTT, I'm mostly frequenting VFRworld as that is the predominant site for this thing. However, I'm avoiding a build thread over there so I'm not crucified for contemplating anything other than a restoration haha. Definitely going to snoop a little more over there for info on motor stuff as I know a lot of the stuff is the same between this and the V65.
Pat, as always, thanks for chiming in. I'm a bit embarrassed by my inability to move forward with bodywork from you, considering how obliging and helpful you have been. I am very thankful my hand was all it affected. About half of my thumb has no feeling and not much for flexion yet. Some days it is frustrating but in the grand scheme of what could have happened and what other people have to deal with, it is completely trivial. Thanks for the note on the wheels, that is something that had never occurred to me.
As high tech as the Japanese were in the early eighties, perhaps they were too busy designing electronics to learn how to weld. Perhaps certain liberties were taken, knowing they would be covered up with fiberglass.
So I successfully removed the wiring harness as there is some work to do there. I'm almost tempted to just remake the whole bloody thing. There are loose connectors everywhere. Not loose as in poorly connected, but loose as in not plugged into anything! However, everything that was connected, is unplugged, labelled and photographed. Gonna have to spend some time with my wiring diagram to trace everything else. Hoping to pick up a blast cabinet pronto so i can start cleaning up parts. Here are a few pics...
How the PO had the ignition wired...
Headlight just randomly spliced into a random wire.....
Looking a little cleaner with the wiring out of the way. The front half of the frame actually has an interesting shape. The curves on the bottom remind me of the old featherbeds. I realize how ludicrous a comparison that is.
So, a couple questions. The brakes probably need to be rebuilt as one is sticking for sure and I'm tempted to just do them all while its apart before I put my life into their little padded hands. The left front rotor is a pig though because of this little bugger. Simple allen head but it is slightly stripped. What on earth should I do to get that sucker out.
Also, the shifter set up is screwy. As you can see, the way it is right now, the arm on the spline rubs against the footrest.
If it is rotated on the spline, the lever then points down at an inoperable angle, believe me I tried.
Thoughts? Keep in mind that these things are far from pristine and I actually feel that they are slightly higher than I would like. The brackets are massive, perhaps I should just throw something completely different on?
As far as your brake caliper bolt goes - drill the head off it and then use multigrips to extract the bolt. You'll only need a drill bit just a bit larger than the allen hole (IE: no need to try and drill out the entire head of the bolt).
Also, as far as your brakes sticking - that can be caused by uneven wear on the pads (the pistons tend to "skew" and will stick on). Worth checking that out....although tearing down the calipers won't be a bad thing either.
Thanks for the info hillsy. I have a set of extractors so I will try those. And as far as the sticking brake, I will replace the pads first and see what happens. Might take the calipers apart for powder anyways. As far as the rear set issue goes, I did some researching and these are obviously not the stock ones...... I actually like the look of the stock ones better. May have to find a set and then cut off the passenger peg.
Notice how the linkage is actually above the peg, completely opposite of mine. The peg is also mounted in the top bolt hole currently and it should fit into that hollow in the middle of the bracket. That should improve the feel for me. Although more aggressive, my 6'5" frame would rather have the pegs located more rearward, rather than mostly higher. Felt extremely uncomfortable the way it was. Might be the only time stock equipment gets purchased for install on this bike other than engine parts
Correction, they are the stock rearsets but have been cut up and reworked. Bit of a mess actually. I was able to get the front caliper off finally after some heat and a bit of torque which was great news. I have a few more things to go over, take pictures of and post, but mostly I wanted to share a couple new parts for the build.....
CBR rims, calipers, brackets, both masters, extra rotors, and a brand new rear sprocket all for the princely sum of 75 bucks. Not a straight bolt on but pretty close. Should be a great upgrade. Jumps from 16-17 inches in the front and modern rubber is much easier to find. Should be fun.
CBR rims always did look good on the old VFs.... It's cool that the stock rotors bolt up, too. God, I hated the 16" front wheel on my VF1000R.... My understanding is the fork just needs the axle hole bored out a bit to fit up the front wheel, but I'm not sure about the F models. Either way, good choice. You can technically even run the stock size tire on the rear.
Yep, stock size on the rear indeed. Unfortunately, I can't find anything on what needs to be machined on the rear sprocket carrier in order for it to work. Was hoping my brother in law could do it but if I don't have any luck finding the info, it's going to be much more pricey. Gonna have to pay Jamie Daugherty around 300 to have the conversion done. Which isn't terrible but just one more unwanted expense.
Can't believe it's been 8 months since I updated this thing. Slowly moving forward. Rear sprocket carrier, and spacers are being machined for the wheel swap. Shock from an '02 cbr is also being resprung, rebuilt, and adapted to be used. Also picked up stick coils and harness from an '07 cbr1000rr to replace the old style ones and clean up the top by the tank. On a stock bike the front ones could conflict with the fans/rad but mines being modified there anyways. Newer parts and replacements are way cheaper!
If the seat was similar in price to the others you showed me pat and you could extend the seat pan a bit, that would be awesome.
My father in law has a tig but I have no experience with it or shaping metal for tanks. It wouldn't be a terribly difficult design as the bottom would be nearly flat. Just extremely difficult for me. Also, I think with some trimming, my stock fender might be all right. I'll see if jumping from a 16" to 17" rim makes a difference first though.
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