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919 Revival

13K views 91 replies 16 participants last post by  Mazaev 
#1 ·
New to me, free 919 with over 65K miles, but missing a few components and a bit worse for wear after spending much of the past 8 months braving the dangers of street parking in NYC. I've always loved the 919 and this will be my 4th.

Time for some TLC:

- Six spoke F3 front and CBR900RR rear wheels with Q3 tires
- SP1 master cylinder and calipers
- F4i front end with racetech springs
- Ohlins rear shock
- 520 chain kit
- Rizoma front LED signals
- New seat, throttle cables, clutch cable
- Full fluid flush

The bike already came with an integrated tail light, stainless brake lines, renthal ultra lows, SBK exhaust, and aftermarket mirrors. Hoping to keep this build simple and leave the bike in raw form with only focus on the performance bits. Can't wait to get this bike cleaned up and back on the road.

 
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#2 ·
Sounds like a great project!

I'm doing the 520 conversion right now, hoping to be done tomorrow.

So what's the advantage to the F3 wheels, are they lighter?

Is the F4i forks and Racetech springs better than the gold valve conversion on stock forks with new springs?

Suspension is one of the next things on my list.
 
#3 ·
Only advantage to the six spoke wheels is looks and helping out a fellow WT member get them out of his garage.

F4i forks give full compression, rebound, preload adjustment and is a direct fit to the 919 other than the front fender. Don't have any experience with converting stock forks to make a comparison.
 
#5 ·
Finally got a few solid hours to work on the bike and put things together. Here's the current state:



Front end is on and it's a crazy amalgamation of different Honda bike parts and aftermarket parts that miraculously fit together: CBR F3 front wheel, custom wheel spacers purchased from ray.beard, Honda F4i front forks reworked with straight springs and heavier oil, Honda SP1 front brake calipers mounted with 4mm spacers purchased online, stainless steel brake lines, Honda SP1 master cylinder, Rizoma Track 77 turn signals wired with a diode to double as running lights, and CRG bar end mirrors. The only parts that don't currently fit are the 919 front fender and 919 brake lever so I'll have to source something aftermarket for the two.









The rear end is also coming together nicely. Ohlins mounted and new sprockets from the 520 kit installed - all purchased from LDH. Rear wheel is from a CBR900RR with new bearings, but remainder of parts all all from the 919 including spacers, wheel hub, and rubber bumpers. Still need to install the new chain and clean up the caked on greasy crud from the old chain lube.

 
#8 ·
Nice work! Let me know if you need any help with small bits and pieces. I work a side gig at a machine shop for fun and always enjoy making motorcycle parts when I can.
 
#10 ·
It's been a while since I've been able to work on the bike, but things are coming along.

Replaced the rear pads which were worn down to about 2mm and decided to rebuild the rear brake with new seals and piston. Unfortunately the front bolt for the rear brake bracket somehow welded itself to the bracket and sheared off when I tried to disassemble the caliper. Bought a used one off eBay and finished off the reassembly.

New gold 520 DID chain put on with 114 links. Installation was super easy with the PBR tool purchased from LDH.

Removed the pair system and capped off the openings on the valve cover. Also changed out the clutch cable.

Next parts will be harder. Looks like I need to remove the air box and throttle bodies to get access to change the throttle cables. While I'm in there, seems like a good time to also do a valve check. After that comes the easy parts: oil change and coolant flush. Also need to find brackets to reuse the 919 front fender and check the wiring for the rear integrated tail light.

Hope to wrap up some renovations on the house first and spend the rest of my weekend time enjoying the remainder of this riding season.


Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 
#12 ·
Just an FYI.. when you do the valve adjustment, make sure you replace the rubber donuts that go on the valve cover bolts, otherwise you'll have oil seeping from the gasket (the gasket should be ok though).

I think I have an extra set sitting around of you need em.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk
 
#14 ·
Just wrapped up the 2 most intensive maintenance job on the 919.

Throttle cable replacement - who the hell thought it would be a good idea to locate the cable pulley in the most inaccessible place on the entire bike.



The manual states you need to remove the air box and throttle bodies to get to it. F that. I opted for the other route and purchased a set of 13 inch needle nose pliers from home depot to try and hook the new cables on from this opening. This is an exercise in patience and needs finesse. Pro tip: Use a screwdriver to push down from the top of the bike and rotate the cable pulley on the throttle body forward to get the cable hook clear of obstructions and give yourself a straight shot to hook the new throttle cable on. Rotating it made getting the new cable on tremendously easier. Once the first cable is attached, grow a third arm to pull on the newly attached cable to rotate the pulley further while simultaneously holding a flashlight and using the pliers to hook the second cable onto the pulley. Sounds easy.

Next up was a valve check and adjustment. This 919 has 66K miles. 6 of 8 exhaust valves were out of spec, 2 exhaust valves were tight, and 1 intake was tight. I ran out of adjustment shims and had to order more online. Everything was set to the looser side of spec at 0.011 inch for all exhaust valves and the one intake was set to spec at 0.006 inch. Pro tip: use a zip tie to secure the chain to the intake cam sprocket so that you don't have to worry about the chain falling into the engine and keep timing set on that sprocket. With the pair system removed, this job was not too hard, but care was needed to not drop anything into the engine and to evenly torque down the camshaft holders. Spark plugs were replaced as well while I had access.





Put the engine back together, plugged the ignition coils back in, and it fired right up no issues. All is well and now truly comes the easy stuff. Only needs now are an oil change, coolant flush, some fuel injection cleaner, and fixing the wiring to the taillight to get a working running brake light again. Can't wait to take it out this upcoming season.
 
#21 ·
All of the OEM shims I took out were between 1.92mm to 2.00mm in thickness with most being closer to 1.95mm.

I had a Hot Cams 7.48mm diameter shim kit sitting around for years. It's available on Amazon. 5 packs of individual shim sizes in 7.48mm are also available on Amazon for ~$10. I swapped one or two shims around, but for the most part, I needed 1.85mm and 1.90mm shims to get everything back into spec.
 
#23 ·
Changed the oil and refilled the coolant today. The engine was stumbling when opening the throttle from off idle, so I put some seafoam into the tank and let it run for a while which seemed to help clear up most of the stumble.

Took off the tail section to see what was going on with the rear taillight and found an abomination of a wiring job.



Yes, that is disintegrated bubble wrap that was previously used to wrap up an extra taillight harness. 3 loose positive wires, 2 positap connectors that connected to nowhere, 2 loose ground wires, and exposed connections. I also found out why the rear running taillight was not functioning. One of the taillight wires disconnected from the plug into the led panel.



Since there are 2 taillights in the 919, I simply plugged in the harness for the other light. I trimmed off the excess wires, wrapped up all of the exposed connections, and tidied up all of the wiring.





Since I had the tail section off, I also worked some magic to address the hole in the plastics.



Feeextd





Finally, I put the bike back together. After 7 months, it's good finally seeing it all in one piece.

Before:



After:





The 919 is road worthy at this point. A few items to take care of though. I'm getting a small oil weep from the valve cover gasket, but I have new rubber donuts on order for the valve cover which should fix this. New bolts are on order for the grab handle. Plus, I'll need to find some metal blanks somewhere that I can bend and drill to make a bracket to secure the 919 fender to the f4i forks.
 
#24 ·
The current frame sliders were all bent out of shape after multiple crashes. Motovation doesn't make sliders anymore that fit the 919. So instead, I bought some engine case mounted ones off eBay for $27. I had to cut off the existing sliders because they were too bent to get a socket properly in there and needed some penetrating oil to get the rod to slide off. Went to home depot to get a 7/8 in threaded rod, cut the rod to the right length, and reused the same washers and bolts off the motovation sliders to mount new sliders onto the 919 via the frame.







2 of the 4 mounting holes on the 919 fender do not line up to the f4i forks. No one makes the mounting brackets anymore so I needed to come up with something. Went to home depot and picked up some aluminum strips. Cut a strip to 6 3/4", bent to shape using a vice, and drilled two holes for mounting screws. Came out better than I expected and let's see how it holds up.



 
#28 ·
The current frame sliders were all bent out of shape after multiple crashes. Motovation doesn't make sliders anymore that fit the 919. So instead, I bought some engine case mounted ones off eBay for $27. I had to cut off the existing sliders because they were too bent to get a socket properly in there and needed some penetrating oil to get the rod to slide off. Went to home depot to get a 7/8 in threaded rod, cut the rod to the right length, and reused the same washers and bolts off the motovation sliders to mount new sliders onto the 919 via the frame.

2 of the 4 mounting holes on the 919 fender do not line up to the f4i forks. No one makes the mounting brackets anymore so I needed to come up with something. Went to home depot and picked up some aluminum strips. Cut a strip to 6 3/4", bent to shape using a vice, and drilled two holes for mounting screws. Came out better than I expected and let's see how it holds up.
Good work, man - she has come a long way!
 
#29 ·
Good point and I didn't even consider that.

Thinking about it now, it can be done, but it's not clean. The f4i fork uses a M6 x 1.0 screw at that location, but unfortunately it doesn't allow a screw to go all through due to the curve of the fork. Also the mounting surface on the other side of the hole isn't flat. Maybe it could work with a smaller diameter bolt + some spacers to clear the fork tube.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 
#31 ·
This bike likes to remind me that the KISS principle applies always.

It's been a while since I started up the bike so I decided to run it for a bit. Go to turn it on, hit the starter, and get sputter sputter sputter pop and bang out the exhaust. OK wtf, it's not supposed to do that.

Lift up the tank and poke around a bit. Turns out ignition coil #3 wasn't plugged in. OK, plugged it back in. Bike started back up, but had a rough idle and would sputter and sounded like not all cylinders were firing. At this point I'm starting to get that feeling of dread that comes along with not knowing why the bike is acting up especially considering it seemed to run fine after the valve adjustment.

I let it idle for a while and exhaust pipes for 1 and 2 aren't warming up. 3 and 4 are heating up just fine. Spark plugs look wet so it's not firing. Did a compression test and got 150 psi in cylinders 1, 2, and 4. Good, I didn't screw up the valves or timing. So hopefully it's fuel or electrical. Swapped plugs between 1 and 4, no luck.

Then I looked again at the ignition coils. F me, the one labeled for cylinder 2 was plugged into cylinder 1. I must have mixed them up somehow when I was installing the new rubber donuts for the valve cover. Plugged the coils in correctly and started it up again just fine.

I need winter to be over so I can go ride instead of wrenching.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 
#32 ·
How close are you? I know you've done a LOT of things to this and we all wait to see how things turn out, but just how close are you to being done?

One other note: take your time on these things. I did a LOT of things to mine last year and screwed up a few things. I didn't replace the rear fender and lost the rear brakes because the hose rubbed against the tire. For some reason, a part of the shift linkage fell off and I nearly screwed up a chain-sprocket install, went metal to metal on the brake pads (used the rear brakes) until I got back home because I know how expensive disks are. Went after market on the front pads and they squealed like a pig.

It's not the kinda thing you want to rush. The more things you change, the more things you have to pay attention to.
 
#34 · (Edited)
Got the 919 road registered on Saturday and spent over 3 full hours at the Randolph NJ DMV just to get the bike titled and registered under my name. Seemed like there was only 1 person doing new registrations and the waiting got so bad that us 20 or so "K" numbered people waiting on line cheered whenever the next "K" got called. Even though the waiting was bad, it was a good thing I got it done, because just today it was announced all of the DMVs in NJ would be closing for the next 2 weeks for coronavirus. Plus I got to ride and finally take the bike out for the last 2 days.

The good:
With all of the mods, this 919 handles and rides so much better than my previous 919. The Ohlins rear feels absolutely planted and feels like the bike just floats over most of the imperfections on the road. The f4i forks up front with new springs and heavier oil do a great job keeping the front under control, soak up the bumps without being soft, and provides great feedback. The engine is pulling strong and getting up to speed is only limited by the air resistance on my torso. This 919 also tracks straight and vibrations are fairly minimal which is a bit surprising given that this bike has been crashed about 6 times in it's past including flipping once or twice.

The bad:
I was getting oscillating power output from the engine. Cruising down the high way holding constant throttle, the engine would lose a bit of power for a second slowing me down a few mph, then come right back up again and just keep alternating. It didn't go away after riding for about 45 minutes and filling up the tank with new gas. I did a bit of roadside assessment to check the TPS connection to the ECM and the vacuum hoses under the tank. Turns out the vacuum hose to cylinder #4 was cracked. I reseated the hose which seemed to solve the issue and replaced it with some extra rubber hose I had lying around after getting home.



The front brakes don't have good bite. There may have been some kind of oil or other residue on the pads. Or maybe it's because I'm using ebay rotors. Either way, I'm hoping a good clean with brake cleaner and sanding down the pads / rotors a bit will help.



The rear rotor that came with the wheels was the wrong size and I'm not getting good stopping power in the rear. OEM rotor and pads on order.



The 919 exhaust stink is STRONG on this one. After reseating the line for cylinder #4, I noticed I was getting a puff of smoke coming out of the exhaust on revving. Video link below. I have a new FPR on order, but would welcome anyone to weigh in on what it could be.

https://youtu.be/E-Kk-wZIsMI
 
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