honda vf700

yeah i have a freind that receintly purchased a 86 honda vf700. It is not running at the time. We are going to replace the battery pulgs and wires. Does any know of anything else we can do to get his bike up and running.

 

One can only offer a solution to a problem What's the problem?

 

it will not turn over we have pushed it and still nothing, have had compersion checked it is good in all four cylinders, just can not get it to turn over.

 

Fuel air and spark. Start with the easy one. You've obviously got air unless somehow the intakes are completely blocked off (not likely). Next check spark. Pull a plug (with plug wire attached), ground it to the chassis or engine, and spin the motor over and see if it sparks. If all 4 spark plugs are firing, it's most likely a fuel issue.

 

Exactly - and if the plugs are dripping/black then you've got fuel... which means you either have no spark / weak spark ( check battery), or your mixtures are way off.

On later VFR's I think they also had rectifier issues... didn't have a good enough heat sink and fried on a regular basis?

 

Personal guess? If it was running in recent history - start with the battery and the plugs.

I don't recommend jump starting a bike, but if you don't have a charger and you only do this in RARE RARE events you could boost the battery from a car that is turned off.

 

I'm with the other guys here, I'd suspect a spark issue to begin with. Plugs are so cheap I wouldn't even bother trying to get it running without some new ones in there. I tried in vain to get my bike to run last spring. The plugs were wet, so fuel was obviously getting in there, and I even took the plugs and cleaned them thoroughly, no dice. Put in a new set of plugs, and it fired first push of the button.

If it still doesn't start (and you have a good spark), then you need to move onto the fuel system, providing the plugs aren't wet, which indicates that fuel is indeed getting through to the cylinders. After that, it starts to get a little more complicated. You might be looking at a carb strip and clean.

If you mean that the bike doesn't spin over when you push the button, you should check fuses, and the starter solenoid to make sure juice is getting to the starter motor.

If it spins over, has spark,and has fuel, then it might be a timing issue. At this point, you will need a manual, or a professional mechanic, since it's not something you can guess at. Cam timing is not an issue on these bikes, as the cams are gear driven,

 

We are still haveing trouble with getting the bike to turn over when you push the start button. We have a new battery and have checked all the fuses. When the key is turned on there seems to be a clicking noise comming near the fuse boxes, does anyone know what that might be? As far as checking the starter solenoids, how do you go about doing that? Thanks for the help guys.

 

Sounds like something shorted out or a bad relay.

 

Find the starter motor. Trace the wire back from it to the solenoid. It is a heavy duty switch that sends power from the battery to the starter motor. The starter switch controls the closing of the solenoid, and the solenoid itself closes the contacts to the starter motor. You can short the two contacts on the solenoid to see if the starter motor turns over by jumpering them with a heavy wire or wrench (expect a big spark). If the starter motor begins to turn, either the start button is toast, the connection from it to the solenoid is broken, or the solenoid is toast. If you short the solenoid and the starter motor doesn't try to spin, either the wire to the starter motor is broken, the starter motor is shot, or the engine is seized. BTW, you might try the guys at http://www.sabmag.org, they love these Honda V-Fours.

 

My pickups went out twice on my '83 VFR750F, then one of the ignitor units died. I also lost a starter solenoid too. Not too uncommon. The pain of it was that it would sometimes work and sometimes not, wouldn't just up and die on me. Really makes troubleshooting a pain in the puhtooty. MAC, your heading them in the right direction, good directions. Love that bike, wish I had it back.