I just bought a 1984 Honda V30 Interceptor

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NuggyBuggy

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I hesitate to post, especially as I don't have it in hand, but I am so excited. I struck a deal to buy a 500/V30 Interceptor this weekend. It's a bit of a haul.

That bike was my dream bike as a kid. I loved the original 750, but when the 500 came out, there as just something about it - the dimensions and color scheme were perfect. I had a picture of it in my locker right beside my pictures of pretty girls. Through all the years, it's always been there in my mind, like the girl I should have asked out.

Bike has issues for sure, including a few cosmetic ones, but it hasn't had the plastics spray painted over like most examples I see.

The owner informs me it turns over, has good compression and will try to start. He thinks it needs carbs cleaned or rebuilt due to it sitting with old gas for a long time. I talked to the guy for a good 45 minutes and felt like he was an old friend at the end of it.

I have no illusions that this is going to be an easy or even successful project - the V30 was only built for a few years, parts are hard to find (especially plastics; there seem to be quite a few Magnas kicking around), and there could be a ton of things wrong with it. Apparently things are very hard to get at on these bikes. I have no good space to work on it. And I am no expert wrench.

But it's the bike I dreamed of, at a price I could justify. And now I (almost) have one.

Anybody else here own a 500? I'm already trying to decide whether I should just go ahead and order a carb kit now.
 
I've had one before. For however good I am at wrenching now, I was worse at it then. I still have a loose VF500 oil pan kicking around somewhere due to that.... and a set of forks, in unknown condition.

Recommend you get a tiny bicycle pump and an accurate pressure gauge for the air preload, and to play around with it! Dialing it in makes a difference. Same with dialing in the adjustable anti-dive.
 
TwistedKestrel said:
I've had one before. For however good I am at wrenching now, I was worse at it then. I still have a loose VF500 oil pan kicking around somewhere due to that.... and a set of forks, in unknown condition.

Recommend you get a tiny bicycle pump and an accurate pressure gauge for the air preload, and to play around with it! Dialing it in makes a difference. Same with dialing in the adjustable anti-dive.
Click to expand...
Shock pumps aren't too expensive and make your life easier as they don't lose a ton of air when you disconnect them. With the small volume trapped in a shock, the squirt when removing a tire pump can throw off pressure by a bunch.
 
Just remembered something that may help - I remember my VF500 was EXTREMELY sensitive to stale gas for some reason. It would only take a few months of sitting, even with fuel stabilizer, until it would completely refuse to start until you replaced the fuel. Then it was completely happy
 
Drove about 10 hours total to bring the bike home. Talked to the seller, his family and his buddies for a few hours, and felt like I made some new friends.

After I paid him, the seller ended up insisting on me taking back $100. I didn't try to bargain down at all because I really, really love that bike and was willing to pay his asking price, but he said he had been willing to go down by that much. So we ended up arguing where I tried to get him to keep the money and he insisted that I keep it. Never had that happen before. Really nice, small-town, salt-of-the-earth people.

IMG_6441-b.jpeg
It's definitely a project, and as I mentioned - I am going into this with eyes wide open and no expectation that I will ever get it running. This will be a labour of long unfulfilled love.

Bodywork consists of pieces from more color schemes than I expected. There's some rust on the body and in the tank but I've definitely seen worse. He bought it a year or so ago but was trying to start a new business and was raising funds to do so. He had about a dozen bikes in his stable in various conditions.


Right now I think my strategy is hook up a working battery and checking condition of electrical. Seller said prospective buyers did connect a battery and got it turning over, so I figure that's probably OK.

Then I replace oil, coolant and plugs, putting MMO or similar into the plug bores, hook up a working battery, remove air box, then seeing if I can get it to fire with starting fluid in the carbs. If I can get there, then rebuild the carbs and see where that gets me while feeding the carbs with an aux fuel tank. If I can run the bike with an aux fuel tank, I guess rust removal on the tank and then I'm off to the races including worrying about sourcing body work and figuring out just how much of a full restore I can afford, and calling a few salvage yards.

Did I miss any important steps?

Off to the many "barn find restoration" threads I've seen on the net.

I understand a lot of the internals on these bikes are hard to get to.
 
Did you get a front fender with it?
 
My routine for saving a survivor is as follows:

1, visual inspection

Look for the obvious, missing or damaged stuff, fuel tank condition,, leaks, coolant level/condition, oil (look for metal flakes, spark plugs - read them for running condition clues.

2. Tests. I squirt in a bit of MMO (or ATF or 2t oil) into the Spark plug holes before doing a lot of cranking. Then check for Spark, brake, clutch, suspension, compression, electrics, petcock, fuel pump and make sure it shifts thru all gears.

Carbs don't usually need kits, I carefully disassemble them and do a routine clean. If you're not familiar with the carbs you're working on, film your disassembly. Be sure to record air screw setting, this is usually dialed in for a clean carb.

Cleaning a steel tank is simple (almost always necessary on a survivor). Remove tank, empty gas, flush with clear water, then fill with white vinegar. 24 hours for cleaning vinegar, 72 hours for regular vinegar. If it's really rusty, I'll toss in a small chain - periodic shaking will help loosten rust flakes. When you dump the vinegar, you need to immediately flush the tank with water, then dump some oil into the tank (swish it around) to prevent flash rusting.
 
Mad Mike said:
My routine for saving a survivor is as follows:

1, visual inspection

Look for the obvious, missing or damaged stuff, fuel tank condition,, leaks, coolant level/condition, oil (look for metal flakes, spark plugs - read them for running condition clues.

2. Tests. I squirt in a bit of MMO (or ATF or 2t oil) into the Spark plug holes before doing a lot of cranking. Then check for Spark, brake, clutch, suspension, compression, electrics, petcock, fuel pump and make sure it shifts thru all gears.

Carbs don't usually need kits, I carefully disassemble them and do a routine clean. If you're not familiar with the carbs you're working on, film your disassembly. Be sure to record air screw setting, this is usually dialed in for a clean carb.

Cleaning a steel tank is simple (almost always necessary on a survivor). Remove tank, empty gas, flush with clear water, then fill with white vinegar. 24 hours for cleaning vinegar, 72 hours for regular vinegar. If it's really rusty, I'll toss in a small chain - periodic shaking will help loosten rust flakes. When you dump the vinegar, you need to immediately flush the tank with water, then dump some oil into the tank (swish it around) to prevent flash rusting.
Click to expand...
Thanks @Mad Mike ! When I did the carbs on my 87 CBR600, all the orings tore or crumbled apart when I took it apart, but I will check out condition first. For some reason I have read rebuild kits are hard to find for this bike compared to others of similar vintage. I assume that’s because they either didn’t sell to many, or the limited production run, or both.

Although, there seem to be quite a few V30 Magnas still out there.

I was thinking about electrolysis to remove tank rust (that’s a recent rabbit hole of mine), but I am not sure whether electrolysis on the interior could adversely affect exterior paint. Sounds like you would prefer vinegar over electrolysis though?
 
NuggyBuggy said:
Thanks @Mad Mike ! When I did the carbs on my 87 CBR600, all the orings tore or crumbled apart when I took it apart, but I will check out condition first. For some reason I have read rebuild kits are hard to find for this bike compared to others of similar vintage. I assume that’s because they either didn’t sell to many, or the limited production run, or both.

Although, there seem to be quite a few V30 Magnas still out there.

I was thinking about electrolysis to remove tank rust (that’s a recent rabbit hole of mine), but I am not sure whether electrolysis on the interior could adversely affect exterior paint. Sounds like you would prefer vinegar over electrolysis though?
Click to expand...
Electrolysis works, but not as well for tanks, plus it's a more complicated setup.

I've done plenty of tanks both ways, vinegar is easier and gives better results, your tank will come out looking like new inside.

I use electrolysis to clean steel parts. They don't come out shiny, you need to be able to scrub them when finished ,- kinda tough inside a tank.

As for carbs - those Keihin CV carbs have a very few parts that go bad. Kits are cheap, $35 on Amazon . Doubtful you need diaphrams, but if you do they are readily available too.
 
NuggyBuggy said:
I hesitate to post, especially as I don't have it in hand, but I am so excited. I struck a deal to buy a 500/V30 Interceptor this weekend. It's a bit of a haul.

That bike was my dream bike as a kid. I loved the original 750, but when the 500 came out, there as just something about it - the dimensions and color scheme were perfect. I had a picture of it in my locker right beside my pictures of pretty girls. Through all the years, it's always been there in my mind, like the girl I should have asked out.

Bike has issues for sure, including a few cosmetic ones, but it hasn't had the plastics spray painted over like most examples I see.

The owner informs me it turns over, has good compression and will try to start. He thinks it needs carbs cleaned or rebuilt due to it sitting with old gas for a long time. I talked to the guy for a good 45 minutes and felt like he was an old friend at the end of it.

I have no illusions that this is going to be an easy or even successful project - the V30 was only built for a few years, parts are hard to find (especially plastics; there seem to be quite a few Magnas kicking around), and there could be a ton of things wrong with it. Apparently things are very hard to get at on these bikes. I have no good space to work on it. And I am no expert wrench.

But it's the bike I dreamed of, at a price I could justify. And now I (almost) have one.

Anybody else here own a 500? I'm already trying to decide whether I should just go ahead and order a carb kit now.
Click to expand...
Good news is the gasket/o-ring set for the carbs 16010-KE7-305 is still available.
The bad news is 4 of them will cost more than what you paid for the bike!
I check any of the sites that have the online parts diagrams to get the parts numbers and wether
they are still available from the manufacturer.
Those parts diagrams come in handy trying to figure out how things go back together 3 months later.
Armed with the part number you can usually get them ordered in and if you are not in a hurry shipping can be free in some cases.
If the dealer is ordering a certain dollar volume they get free shipping from the warehouse.
If the part is not available from the manufacturer then using the part number proceed to vintage part suppliers such as cmsnl.com.
Ebay is usually my last choice because of overpricing and stupid shipping costs.
Since any given part (except body panels) may have been used on several different models & using part numbers usually give better results.
Even if your part number is obsolete when it is put into the dealers computer it will give an updated number in most cases.
Honda as a rule use Keihin carbs and most motorcycle shops will have kits with most sizes.
Main jets are usually not a problem but the low speed/idle jets can be plugged because of the orifice size.
Make sure you have the proper JIS screwdriver NOT standard Phillips and definitely not that set of 25 screwdivers you bought for $9.99.
 
guzzirider said:
Good news is the gasket/o-ring set for the carbs 16010-KE7-305 is still available.
The bad news is 4 of them will cost more than what you paid for the bike!
I check any of the sites that have the online parts diagrams to get the parts numbers and wether
they are still available from the manufacturer.
Those parts diagrams come in handy trying to figure out how things go back together 3 months later.
Armed with the part number you can usually get them ordered in and if you are not in a hurry shipping can be free in some cases.
If the dealer is ordering a certain dollar volume they get free shipping from the warehouse.
If the part is not available from the manufacturer then using the part number proceed to vintage part suppliers such as cmsnl.com.
Ebay is usually my last choice because of overpricing and stupid shipping costs.
Since any given part (except body panels) may have been used on several different models & using part numbers usually give better results.
Even if your part number is obsolete when it is put into the dealers computer it will give an updated number in most cases.
Honda as a rule use Keihin carbs and most motorcycle shops will have kits with most sizes.
Main jets are usually not a problem but the low speed/idle jets can be plugged because of the orifice size.
Make sure you have the proper JIS screwdriver NOT standard Phillips and definitely not that set of 25 screwdivers you bought for $9.99.
Click to expand...

4 Sets Carburetor Carb Repair Rebuild Kit Parts Fit for Honda VF500 C V30 Magna VF500 F, Carburetors - Amazon Canada

4 Sets Carburetor Carb Repair Rebuild Kit Parts Fit for Honda VF500 C V30 Magna VF500 F in Carburetors.
www.amazon.ca

$35 bucks for a set of 4. That's not bad!
 
I remember when that bike came. It was a game changer.

I agree with what's already been said. No one really mentioned brakes much. Usually to get them working well again you need to clean and rebuild both calipers and master cylinders. Stuck cali pistons can be forced out by pumping grease in thru the brake bleed nipple. Messy but works good. After doing all that the brakes usually still suck because the 40+ year old lines just swell up. I've had custom stainless braided lines made up by Venhill and been very happy with the results.

At Paris this summer my buddy and I both had our mid 70's 750 Honda SuperSports. "Ron I wish my brakes were as rock hard as yours". I grabbed a 50 year old line and a handful of brake. I could easily feel the line swelling in my hand.
 
NuggyBuggy said:
thanks for the reminder about JIS- I had a nice set of Vessel screwdrivers but they burned up on me. Still have a set of JIS bits somewhere. In my excitement I was liable to just go off and round off my screws!
Click to expand...
Yambits out of the UK has a very good set for reasonable price.
 

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timtune said:
I remember when that bike came. It was a game changer.

I agree with what's already been said. No one really mentioned brakes much. Usually to get them working well again you need to clean and rebuild both calipers and master cylinders. Stuck cali pistons can be forced out by pumping grease in thru the brake bleed nipple. Messy but works good. After doing all that the brakes usually still suck because the 40+ year old lines just swell up. I've had custom stainless braided lines made up by Venhill and been very happy with the results.

At Paris this summer my buddy and I both had our mid 70's 750 Honda SuperSports. "Ron I wish my brakes were as rock hard as yours". I grabbed a 50 year old line and a handful of brake. I could easily feel the line swelling in my hand.
Click to expand...
Before shooting grease in, try removing the pads, squirt a little penetrating oil around the piston, tap a few times with a hammer then use the bikes hydraulics to pop them. Way less mess to clean up.

Masters are so cheap I don't bother rebuilding unless it's a show bike.
 
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