My new project! (89 VS-750)

Hi guys :)
Just picked up my new bike, an '89 vs750
Had a great ride home, but she handles like a bathtub full of water on the tight twisties and pops and spits like a muther beast.
Got her back and removed the tank, and whilst i was draining it, it went onto reserve, then stopped completely after about 150-200ml... you would not believe the amount of crud that came out of that tank..unreal. handfuls of rust and crap, inc what looked like the remains of an inner tank coating/paint, plus an old rubber filler cap seal!!
Took a couple of hours of fannying around to get it all nice and clean again..

Drilled out the mixture screw caps and fed a line from the removed tank, then started to tune her up a bit and get the carbs vacuum synced.
The front pot is the major popping culprit and runs much hotter than the rear (which seems to run much smoother) dialed out the popping on the front with at least 4 turns out on the mixture screw, which seemed like ALOT to me.. got the idle vacuum synced up but it got too late (midnight!!) to run her up to 2000 rpm for the post idle sync, cause with those little cans on there she is LOUD!!!

Its rained ALL day today so not been able to touch her (some of us have to work outside cause their garages are too full of tools )

Think im gonna have to strip the carbs and give them a good clean in order to eliminate that factor before properly tuning..
Also, does anyone know the Headstock bearing codes (koyo, timken?) as i want to get some new tapered roller bearings in there as handling is scary round bends!! (the bearing codes for the front and rear wheels are 6302 RS C3 (F) and 6203 RS C3 (R) if anyone is interested.
I'm going to fit KOYO as they have always been my fav bearing. (they are usually quite expensive but i have found a place that will do both sets for 14 quid inc delivery!! back of the net!!)

Looks cool 

Wow stumpy looking beast there matey!!!!!!!!!

Haha yeh, recon its new name should be Stumpy the Gimp! (PO called it Neil?? wtf?!)

Nice bike!

NEIL????!!!     Bike = 

Love the look of that little beasty.

Interesting looking variant on the 'VS' ...... & it sounds like you will have fun going thnru' the bike & sorting the nigglys ......
....... but it should be well worth the effort.

Wow - somebody's done a lot of work there.  You planning to do any visual changes ?

Cool looking VS Major 

Nice and compact.

Thanks guys, yep she looks good, but needs alot of TLC, i recon i can give her that!
The compact looks is what instantly drew me, looked at lots of intruders before finally settling on this one to give my love too!!
Someone did put alot of effort in (the PO powder coated the wheels but let the maintenance go somewhat (dodgy bearings (had the originals regreased and reinstalled after spending out $$$ on the powder coating? that threw me, i mean they are sealed units) very worn and cracked tyres, complete nasty birdsnest of wires under the hood!
Cant wait to get stuck in tho and get out on the wee beastie!!

Check out these plugs: This girl has been running HOT and LEAN!


And the birdsnest under the seat:

Chris - that looks like an electrical fault waiting to happen.  Sounds like you know you your way around - good luck !!

Bloody hell that looks like an accident in a spaghetti factory Chris! It needs sorting asap mate!

Haha yeh thats EXACTLY what i thought when i saw it!! Spaghetti Central..
Electrics aren't my FAV thing to do, but with a bit of concentration im sure i'll work out what the hell is going on there eventually!! :/ :)
My first mission is to strip the carbs and work out why there has been such fuel starvation,, maybe the pump is not working (anyone know whether the pump should engage on key turn or whether it requires a flow to start it off? It clicks when you turn the key but thats all...

What I was worried about was several bare ended wires coming from some HD cable & joined with insulating tape over the, at a guess, hand rolled joint section almost dead centre of the picture! Shit I'd be well worried about now!!!

That looks a proper rats nest! 

Wow what a great project to work with, the real satisfied feeling you will have when all done will be great.

I know! i have absolutely no idea what is going on there with those wires that have been joined (super glued, yes you heard it, SUPER GLUED!!) together.. so we have two very thin speaker wires joined into a plastic connector(im thinking it may be lights, but dont know yet as been busy draining >>water<<(not coolant) removing the radiator, drilling out and re tapping the radiator cover bolt holes that were so threaded that the bolts were held in with INSULATION TAPE round them!! haha, honestly, some peeps are such bodgers they shouldn't be in control of a body, let alone anything mechanical) So now they are M7 instead of once upon a time M6 thread.
Managed to strip, clean and rebuild the front carb, wow was there some rusty residue in there!
Rear carb tomo.
Back to the wires though, so the thin speaker wire is then twisted and superglued to the blue and brown 1.5mm 240v wires, and on the end of them there was some SUPER THIN wires that were joined as if they were a light bulb (my mind is well and truly boggled now) they had heated up and one was cracked and broken (as i discovered when i started pulling all this duct-tape apart.
Still have no idea what the person who did this was trying to achieve..

So yes Dave you are absolutely correct, it will be ******* ace to get this bike sorted totally!! i cant wait! Also the tyres are old and cracked, so theyre gonna get replaced too, along with new tapered headstock bearings and front and rear wheel bearings that are on their way to me now :)
I just wanna ride it! (but dont wanna die in the process!!) it didnt handle very well on corners at all, quite scary in fact and it popped and banged constantly (the PO actually thought this was a great sound and liked it)

Frying tonight comes to mind I'm afraid!

Sorted the electrics today :) Removed alot of superfluous cabling and all the spade connectors where the loom had been joined front and rear, and properly soldered them.. phew..

Now that looks a lot tidier! 

  To that - it's a lot neater now, and no doubt more reliable wiring !

Sounds like there are plenty of niggles to attend to - but it will all be worthwhile - its a distinctive looking machine !

Cripes that's a whole lot better than it was!

That looks a damn sight better.  Thing is, looking your first picture, you'd think it was a sorted bike - it looks so clean & tidy

Looks can be deceiving... I had a ''feeling'' that there would be quite a bit of ''sorting'' to do, even though the PO said it was all good and a sorted machine, and at a glance, you would agree!
Sometimes that's the price we pay for the things we get attracted to and i probably wouldn't be happy unless i had something to do to it!! (that damned engineer in me) :)

Been there, done that !!!! And we always say that we'll know better next time - it's coming on tho

Update on "The Project'' ....

Well after one thing leading to another thing and another thing ... .. The bike is currently in bits :)
Stripped and rebuilt the forks and the front brake caliper(seized) and put new bearings in the front and rear wheels.
Front wheel bearing was pushed right on the outer edge of its seat, causing the speedo drive gear to be pushed right out. PO's answer to that was to hold speedo drive gear to forks with heavy duty hose clamp!!
Seated new bearing with retaining fluid.
Forks had way too little oil in them and wrong dust seals had been fitted, so they were just floating around.
Rear bearings straight forward.
Rear drum torque arm had NO BUSHING and could be 'clunked' backwards and forwards! The proper shouldered bolts had been lost and way too small full thread bolts had been used.
Machined up some bushes for that, so it has nice smooth radial movement but no axial slop :)
rear shocks also the same, no bushes, just too small 'normal' bolts. Made bushes for them too.

Now for the seriously SHOCKING part... The swing arm was running on the bolt. NO BUSHES :O
(Well one bearing was seized to the center spacer, there was one bearing bush stuck in the middle where the spacer should be, and the right hand side was running on the bolt itself)
Both needle roller bearings were completely knackered, luckily the frame and bearing seat were OK.
There was over an inch of sidewards movement.
No wonder it handled so badly. Downright bloody dangerous, it should NEVER have gone through the MOT just a couple of months before.

New Bolt, Bearings, Bushes, Spacer, Seals etc on order from Germany (Genuine) and a myriad of other things the bike is missing.
Its gonna ride like a new machine when i eventually get it back together!
Headstock is well and truly fused though :(
Gonna have to make some kind of puller..

Oh and im going to change the exhaust wrap for graphite grey, apart from that, she'll LOOK the same

It's shocking that someone would be prepared to sell a bike on with that many issues without making the new owner aware of them.  You sound extremely competent with the tools, but it could have been a disaster to someone with no mechanical knowledge.  If you bought it of ebay, I hope you've left negative feedback.

Hope you get it sorted soon.

Yeah tell me about it.. If this went to a garage it would already be in for a VERY steep bill.
I will have spent about 400 pounds on parts alone (plus another 150 on tyres)
BUT the good thing is, that i took on the project and not someone who may have continued to ride it..
I rode it home and then pulled it apart.
I found it on ebay yes, but arranged to meet the guy halfway, and decided 'what the hell' im gonna buy it anyways.
It popped and banged continuously and i thought a mixture adjustment and carb sync would sort that in 30 mins and id be good to go....it had a new MOT end April...
It was only on the tight twisties through the Cambrian Mountains on the way back, i realised how dangerous it was.

All good experience though, and at least i'll know the bike inside out and KNOW its safe :) that counts for a lot :)
Oh and i drilled the disk! looks quite smart i think :)

There's no way all those problems have occurred sine the end of April - the MOT tester needs shooting.  Discs look smart - the shame of it is, when you've finally finished, only you are going to know how much work has gone into it - to all intents & purposes, it'll look pretty much the same.  If I'd spent that much time on a bike, I'd want people to stop & say "wow - I can see how much time you've spent on that !"  

As you say - you know it's safe, which, at the end of the day is the most important thing.  Keep us updated on progress.  Good work

I am tempted to report the MOT tester/station.
Absolutely no way any of this occurred since April.
There was an advisory on the tyres, that were EXTREMELY worn and ridged on the front and cracked all around the sidewall on the rear.
But no mention of any of the mechanicals.
The swingarm bearings had been like that for a long time because they were completely seized with grit and rusted together and the main bolt was heavily scored.
It wouldnt go around right hand bends without wanting to go straight on, somebody could have killed themselves!

I'm all for MOT testers using "discretion" eg, my exhaust & the position of my reflector - to me, they're not items which are dangerous.  But the point of an MOT, IMO, is to ensure that primarily, the vehicle is safe, for the user & other road users, to be on a public highway.  And in the wrong (inexperienced) hands, your bike could have been a death-trap.  Worst case scenario, the rider could have been killed, the bike would have been seized for evidential evidence & the MOT tester would have ended up in a coroners court explaining why he had allowed the bike to remain on the road.  

Either the tester is a mate of the PO, or he's just incompetent.  If it was me, I'd be tempted to report it - if only to possibly save someone from serious injury or worse.  If he's allowed this one through, you have  to ask yourself, how many other potential death traps has he passed !!!!

Yes totally, a bit of 'discretion' is welcomed when it comes to modded bikes and motors and indeed when its not a major safety item.
I'm not one for reporting anything, but i am tempted in this case, just for other peoples safety.
The testers leniency in this case was just downright irresponsible and dangerous.
Pretty sure he was a mate of the PO though, but even so, i have mates who are mot testers and if i bought anything which was that sloppy to them, they would fail it (and give free retest) just for my own safety!!

Nice job your doing there major, great job drilling the disc  I'd also report the Mot station, downright ridiculous !

I have nothing but respect for people that do work like your doing.

Thank you :)
Yes it's a mission, but if i ever sell the bike, then the next owner will get a totally sorted ride! And if i dont, then happy days!!  i get to benefit 
Looks like im going to be waiting quite a while for parts now though, there's a three week wait on some of the swingarm components :/
Im just chuffed that its still possible to get genuine spares, down to every single nut and bolt :)