Honda vf750f valve timing

hi i have bought a non running 1983 vf750f and after some hours of
swearing and kicking the thing i cant get it to run i after cleaning
and setting the carbs up and then checking the ignition timing i have
found that the previous owner must have had the heads of at some point
because the valve timing is wrong. i set the cams on the rear cylinder
to line up with all the timing marks but the front cylinder timing
marks seem to be wrong the valves hit the piston if you linr the marks
up. i was told that the marks on the front cylinder cams are wrong and
that you are supposed to mark the cams before you take them off
unfortunatly the previous knit wit didnt put the cams to the corect
timing and he did not mark them. so can anyone tell me what the timing
should be for the front cylinders.

 

Please don't tell me that you're doing this work without a service
manual; really, even if you don't have one, I don't want to hear about
it. In any case, you should head over to:

sabmag.org

info, tips, techniques, and lots of other things for early Honda V4s

--
Later,
John



'indiana' is a 'nolnn' and 'hoosier' is a 'solkk'. Indiana doesn't solkk.

 

What he said. In addition:

*You can get a Honda shop manual from: www.helminc.com
*You can contact Dave Dodge (www.drp123.com) who specializes in Honda V4s
*You should probably go ahead and replace the cam-chain tensioner if
you're going to be monkeying with the cams anyway

 

<Snip>

Buy a manual or payt SWK to do the job properly.

No, better still - it's a horrible Honda VF750F, so throw it away.

 

Note that Helm is Honda's US distributor. I don't know if they ship
outside the USA(in case the OP isn't in the US).

Probably true, and there are people here who know more about the early
V4 engines than I do, but just from that one post, I think that the OP
should get a knowledgeable second opinion before starting to buy parts
(unless this is a love-not-money project). If someone put the cams back
on in such a way as to cause valve interference, Dog only knows what
else they did wrong, or how hard they smacked the valves into the
pistons finding out their mistake.

The OP is already looking at checking the valves (bent?) and pistons
(holed?). Hopefully everything's fine, but if either valves or pistons
are toasted, it might be better to find a bike in nicer shape and use
this one for parts or something, particularly if the rest of the bike
was hacked on like the head was.

Don't take this as saying that it's not worth working on. I'm just
saying take a real careful look before starting to spend money on it, as
it might very well turn into a deep hole.

--
Later,
John



'indiana' is a 'nolnn' and 'hoosier' is a 'solkk'. Indiana doesn't solkk.

 

Agreed.

That model was one of the most unsuccessful and unreliable Hondas ever
built: a byword for mechanical catastrophe. It will swallow cash in one
gulp, burp, and then demand more.

I really wouldn't spend anything on it. If it doesn't work, throw it
away and move on.

 

(The Older Gentleman) wrote in

Are you confusing the VF750F with the 'C and 'S models and their cam
problems? The Interceptors seemed to be less suseptible to it.

And, in my experience, are a hell of a lot easier to work on than the
Sabres and Magnas.

 

Not really.