Early V4 Hondas, ever wonder what the real reason was ?

**gav** · 29th July 2005, 20:57

Why they were so unreliable? Heres some interesting info!
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~wrenc...er/V4hist.html
So anyone here use to have one of these? Must admit I owned a 85 VF750F Interceptor for a while (similiar to this one), and actually wouldnt mind another one, one day!

**XTC** · 29th July 2005, 21:06

I had a VF1000R... nice bike but weighed a ton..

**erik** · 29th July 2005, 21:22

Originally Posted by gav

Why they were so unreliable? Heres some interesting info!
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~wrenc...er/V4hist.html
So anyone here use to have one of these? Must admit I owned a 85 VF750F Interceptor for a while (similiar to this one), and actually wouldnt mind another one, one day!

An interesting read.

Sounds like they had an awful lot of problems with them.

Thanks for posting.

**Sensei** · 29th July 2005, 22:02

So whats changed ??

**Motu** · 29th July 2005, 22:07

Interesting about the valve adjustment - sounds like they needed to a ''running tappet adjustment'' like we used to do on the old Chevs.....one guy one each side of the car,one with a feeler gauge on the valve,the other with spanner and screwdriver being told...tighter,or looser, until they were right.It was standard proceedure and doing it that way you know it's right.Sounds like a typical big company ''conspiracy''

**Racey Rider** · 29th July 2005, 22:08

Had one myself.
Really liked it.
Had no problems with it.

**Ixion** · 29th July 2005, 22:09

Originally Posted by Motu

Interesting about the valve adjustment - sounds like they needed to a ''running tappet adjustment'' like we used to do on the old Chevs.....one guy one each side of the car,one with a feeler gauge on the valve,the other with spanner and screwdriver being told...tighter,or looser, until they were right.It was standard proceedure and doing it that way you know it's right.Sounds like a typical big company ''conspiracy''

Vauxhalls used to have to be done that way too. It was a pain as it flung oil everywhere .

**Motu** · 29th July 2005, 22:22

I had a special ''thingy'' to put over the oil pipe on Holden ''grey'' engines....the running adjustment was a GM thing,but we sometimes did it on Zephyrs because they were just so damn noisy.A bit of oil splashing around was good for Vauxhalls,but they still rusted away.

I thought those early V4s had big cam chain problems too? Maybe that's a seperate page....may even require a whole web site.....

**TonyB** · 30th July 2005, 07:19

Can you imagine how stressful this would have been for all involved? Makes my job seem like a cake walk!

**rogson** · 30th July 2005, 08:25

I owned a VF750F Interceptor - worst bike I ever owned, and I didn't even have any mechanical/reliability problems!

I bought it new in 84 (I think). I was seduced into buying it by the motorcycle magazines which at the time were raving over it (it was quite technically advanced for its time). I bought it without riding it first - what can I say.........dumb,dumb, dumb, dumb,dumb,................!).

It had about as much character as my wife's sewing machine - sounded like it too. I put a K&N filter and dynojet kit on it to try and give it more snap which improved it from comatose to soporific.

The handling was crap too. It had a 16" front wheel (one of the first?), which felt like it was always trying to tuck-under around corners. I never did get confident with it.

I had it for about a year, and sold it buy a KZ750 (great bike!). It had only done about 15,000km when I sold it.

The lasting legacy is that it put me off Hondas. I've never owned one since - shame really because they have made some good bikes.

**DEATH_INC.** · 30th July 2005, 08:42

I had a 750 Sabre,no rpm limiter......would pull well all the way from 1500rpm at full throttle till way off the end of the rev counter,most flexible engine I've ever used.Did a 13 sec flat standing 1/4 too,not bad for an '83 shaftie.Had a 4>1 on it with a short 2"straight thru can,made the most beautiful sound I've heard come out of a bike.
Oh yeh,I blew it up eventually,but no cam troubles.....
There is another problem with the camshafts on these things, and that's where they take the oil from to feed the head....it comes from the gearbox after it's fed all the bearings etc.....so not a lot of pressure as you can imagine.I've got a thou V4 here I've set up an oil line from under the main oil gallery(tapped into it) to feed the head.This apparently is the real fix for 'em.

**Ixion** · 30th July 2005, 09:36

Originally Posted by rogson

..

The handling was crap too. It had a 16" front wheel (one of the first?), which felt like it was always trying to tuck-under around corners. I never did get confident with it.

...

Triumph 3TA and 5TA had 16 inch front wheel in the 60's IIRC. Handling was pretty crappy too, but I don't know that could be blamed on the wheel

**Motu** · 30th July 2005, 10:04

Originally Posted by Ixion

Triumph 3TA and 5TA had 16 inch front wheel in the 60's IIRC. Handling was pretty crappy too, but I don't know that could be blamed on the wheel

The ''swan neck'',you just had to look at it and know ''something'' was missing....like the whole top tube! Edward Turner was renowned for cost cutting.We welded a piece of angle iron onto one.but it still didn't handle.

I rode one of those V4s with a 16in front wheel once,I thought the motor was flat,but it did have power everywhere on the tacho,the exhaust note didn't help the flat impression.I didn't like the 16in front wheel at all,but just put it down to my inability to cope with a ''modern'' bike,good to know I wasn't wrong.

**nudemetalz** · 30th July 2005, 11:38

I had a VF500 once, beautiful bike, great to ride and not too slow.
Never had mechanical issues with it, but from what I've read the '500s were the best of the lot, reliabilty wise anyway.

The only thing I didn't like was the air-shock pro-link.
Not enough rebound, used to pogo but then again the shock may have been stuffed.

But, yes the V4 was very flexible for a 500, great touring motor.

Cheers

**Brian d marge** · 30th July 2005, 15:16

In 82 I wasnt a honda mechanic then , ( drunk in singapore I think) ,,but when I did become a onda monkey, I rember getting a honda oil additive for those bike ,,which I now know was zinc ,,in order to slow the rate of cam/head wear ...and the tensioners ...always wore we used to say another winning idea by honda, ( though some of the bike now are really well made )

Biut its always been like that ,,,the Swan neck , realied on the tank as a brace, this was ok in the forward backward plane ,,,but what about left and right plane ,,,,pretty bike though

Now I work with a materials engineer, on thursdays , she works for Mahl which is subcontracted to Nissan, they have been battling a broken oil cooler bracket for over a year now, ( posted a quick Acad drawing you can see the sharp edge where they are getting fatigue failures )

Anyway the reason is the designer on her team has NO idea of load paths and is using the tried an true method of ,,,if it breaks make it bigger ,,,

The thing that make me see red is that Y### is a woman and we both know the solution , but she is a woman so her opinion holds little wieght ( in a man dominated jap society ..,,,, , and a materials engineer..ie not a designer ... and ...B , its not my progect ( ie nothing to do with me !)
She has been down 3 or 4 times to Yokohama to appologise for the failures ( which as a professional I would be spitting tacks ,,,she is to ...)

I hope there is no one working for either company on this list !!!

So rest assured ,,,, that you will see more superbly engineered lemons hittng the market ,,,,

Have I told you about the chinese spring order !!! 4 million yens worth of springs costing 1/2 yen each ....made with an incorrect spring rate ......Oh yeah oh yeah
( Even I could balls up like that ...I am in awe of your skills master !!)

Stephen
that was a good read ...always like tales from the dark side !!