Take out the spark plug wires and look inside for oil in the bottom of the well around the spark plug. If it is wet with oil it will leak out some special drain holes the factory put in there. They drain out the back of the rear cylinder and out the front of the front cylinder. All you need to do then is unscrew the spark plug tubes and reseal the O rings. If you spray carb cleaner in there you will see where the oil drains are.

 

This is what the spark plug sleeve looks like.

 

thanks. I'll look at it tomorrow since i have the day off from school. I appreciate all the tips your giving me.

 

so i pulled the plugs today and they were fouled. They did have oil in the sleeves as far as i could see, but on the front right side cylinder i had carbon build up on one spark plug. I did replace all the spark plugs, and it started running strong again with plenty of power. I just don't know how i'm going to remove the sleeves. I'm also hoping that with the way its acting with the fouling plugs and everything that there is nothing wrong with the valves or piston rings. I know that would be a heavy job. What would be your guys opinions be about this? I was going to spray carb cleaner down the spark plug holes like it was mentioned to see where the oil leaks are but i didnt have any carb cleaner to spray. anyway, thought i'd let you know what was going on. Thanks for the advice so far.

 

Take a good ride and pull the plugs to see if they continue to foul. Maybe don't use as much choke when cold starting to avoid any added fouling.
I found a large crankshaft bolt that was 27 MM to get mine out. Welded a socket extension on it .
If you get a large socket you can grind off 6 flats to remove it. Not in too tight, but needs good some twist to get it started. It's aluminum so be careful on a good fit of your remover.

 

so now i'm also thinking theres also a carb related issue with it running. I replaced the spark plugs today with new ones and its acting flooded again. It dies every time i give it a little bit of gas or use a little bit of choke. I did take my air filter out and the whole thing smelled like gas really bad. it was pretty drenched. Also i noticed that maybe the owner before me or someone bypassed the petcock on the right side of the bike. Didn't know if this had anything to do with getting to much fuel as its gravity fed. I guess i'll plan on taking the carbs off this weekend too since its getting cold here in Illinois.

 

My 1987 VT700C is NOT gravity fuel fed. Maybe yours isn't either. Mine has 2 fuel tanks; the one you see and the one under the seat. The Under the Seat tank connects to the main tank with a hose and below the Under the Seat tank is a fuel valve, filter and pump that supplies the carbs. I bet yours is not simple gravity feed, Honda would never make it that easy.

 

The shut off valve on the right side of the bike under the side cover isn't hooked up to anything. Instead they bypassed it with a fuel filter and fuel line. Also, i pulled the plugs again and it looks like its running rich only on the rear cylinder, when i pulled the front cylinder plugs, it looks like they are dry and looks like white carbon on the bottom of the plugs. so i guess that means its running too lean? looks like i definately got a project over the winter to do. It started today. I'm wondering if i reset the pilots on the carbs maybe it will run better. Someone already pulled the pilot screw covers off the carbs so i'm guessing they have been rebuilt in the past. What do you guys think? i still have that oil leak too. so maybe thats contributing to the problem of the cylinders running so different from each other? also when i had the fuel filter out to see if it was clogged it looks recently replaced, but it smells strong of fuel. Like it was dipped in gasoline. Just trying to give you the whole picture that i know of right now.

 

so today I went to go see what the pilot screws were set at and they were adjusted 23/4 turns out on both sides. After It started up I noticed that it sounded not so loud like it usually did. Im pretty sure it was only running on the rear cylinder because front cylinder spark plugs have white powder on them. After about 3-4 mins of running though it sounded like something became unclogged. like a big whoosh sound and the front cylinder fired. Got really loud and rpms increased. (due to me playing around with the idle stop adjuster, probably wasnt a good idea). I'm wondering if my floats arent sticking in one carb that supplies fuel with the front cylinder. Also got me some carb spray so i'm gonna see where that leak is in the spark plug sleeves. just a question, do i just spray to carb cleaner right into the sleeve with no spark plug in?

 

Spray the carb cleaner in with the spark plug in so you don't fill the cylinder with it.

 

It is pretty strange that the air filter was drenched with fuel. If the fuel supply system is mickey moused, is it leaking into the air filter housing somehow? Even a stuck float should not get fuel up into the air cleaner before running out the over flow of the carb first.

It should have a hose to that shut off valve , then to the filter, then to a pump, then up to the carbs. Sound like it is gravity feed now, which may work, but it is not factory.
And that should not over supply the carbs because the pump is about 2-3 pounds pressure on the normal system.

If you run it with the air filter out can you see any leaking into the air box ?

 

sprayed the carb cleaner and leaked out the back and front cylinders as soon as i started spraying. pretty heavy leaking too. does that mean i need new o rings and where would i get them? gonna go pull the air filter and see if its leaking. get back to you as soon as i notice that.

 

okay just checked the air filter. I'm sorry, it must of been my senses or somethin. I know i sound stupid, but i digress. The air filter box has no leaks and now the air filter doesnt smell like fuel. I don't know what to think on that.

 

Sounds like a similar situation to the one I recently re-built. Your jugs are actually separate pieces held together with an internal rod. it sucks, but what you need to do it pull the engine, remove the valve covers and re-torque these rods. It'll pull everything back together again. What you are describing is not uncommon.

 

if i pull the engine i might as well pay to have the whole top end rebuilt. I didn't really want to pull the engine. If it comes down to it i'll just have someone do it. I know about bikes but not that much about them. Im just wondering if i fix the spark plug sleeves it will fix my oil leak problem.

 

I had the same leaking situation and when I sprayed carb cleaner it came out fast just like yours. It is because there are drillings in there to allow the oil to drain out, and not puddle around the spark plugs. It is a factory drain and it is OK. I just unscrewed the sleeves and put silicone sealer on them and it stopped the leak. Unless the O rings are ripped you can seal them. Maybe you can find them at an auto parts store if you need them.

 

i actually found them at bikebandit.com The top one is 5.99 and the bottom is 6.35 or something like that. So 25 bucks for both sleeves. I just didn't know if they had cheaper ones somewhere than buying from them. Sometimes they can be pretty expensive on their parts.

 

You may as well get new ones and then it is sealed for a long time. Just put some oil lightly on the new rings when they are screwed in to keep them from getting damaged.

 

appreciate it. Probably order em when i get home and get it done when they get here. I'll update you when i get the parts and put them in. I appreciate all your help. After this fix i'll probably focus on my carbs. I'm thinking with the way its acting that the slide is sticking. it will run fine sometimes and then all of a sudden lose a bunch of power. No throttle response after 1/4 turn. It just bogs down. so thats my plan. anyway, like i said before i appreciate the help you've been given me.

 

Got the old sleeves out by the handle of a screwdriver. (soft handled of course). anyway, it definately needed new ones. Probably the originals that were on the sleeves in the first place. the bottom o rings basically came apart when i took the sleeves out. They were all really hard and not rubbery at all. Anyway, just waiting on the new ones. til them i shoved some old rags in where the sleeves are out so nothing gets in the engine. They should be here next week. I'm gonna compare the new o rings with the old ones, so i wrapped them up in a rag along with the sleeves.

 

so i got the new o rings today and put them on along with the carbs. the engine is still leaking oil unfortunately. Also sometimes it runs fine and other times it will start running like ****. like maybe i can get 35mph out of it. this only happens when it gets hot. I'm thinking head gasket is the culprit because i smell antifreeze. Only thing is antifreeze isnt in my oil. so maybe valve cover is letting air in. On the way home after 10 min ride it started bogging down and not responding, i got so frustrated i kicked the left side of the cylinder with my foot and it picked up again? maybe it was a coincidence but maybe not. anyway, whats your guys ideas? i'm about to just take it to a dealer and have it done. i know it will cost me out the ass, but i really like this bike and want to restore it to its former glory, especially since i know it runs fine when it does run right. Oh, also muffler on left side is nice and cool and right side muffler is running hot. anyway, i know i have a lot going on with this bike but i figured im not in a rush to fix it since fall is upon us and its dropping down to 40-50 degree nights. Anyway, any thoughts on what this could be would be appreciated. Hope to hear from you soon.

 

Does it only run on one cylinder? It sounds like it if you kicked it and it picked up some, like a plug wire problem or something shifted when you did that, and the left muffler is cool.
Check the spark on all wires. And it may be the carbs have vacuum leaks around the boots. Since it ran good at first you have to back track on the work you did that changed something.

 

It was doing this before I cleaned the carbs. the spark plugs on the front cylinder have white spots on the end of it when I pull them out. Like it's running to hot. Maybe the boots are bad or something. I was just thinking maybe it's a bad head gasket or a valve cover sucking in air. I know a little but not a lot. And I sure have a lot to go. I was thinking tonight though could it be a bad coil doing this. I know when coils get hot they tend to act up during this time. And still gotta figure out that leak. Cause It doesn't look like it's leaking that much but maybe it's burning it off to quick also. I just added oil last week when I took it out to ride and today it's low again. But still leaking from the cylinders even after I did the sleeves. Who knows, I'm gonna sleep on it and try to research some more on what it could be. I've even thought about a bad stator but I don't know how to check if it's bad, and I don't know if this would cause the problem of power loss anyway. Thanks for the help so far. I'll get it sometime. Just gonna be a process for me but well worth it in the end.

 

Did you solve the problem ?

 

If the front plugs have a white deposit it may be coolant burning. Do you smell a sweet smell out the exhaust like pecan ice cream? Or see a white smoke from exhaust? Have you checked the level of coolant in the radiator?
If you pull all the plugs and take a photo and then clean all of them, and switch them in the cylinders, and ride, you can pull them and get a comparison of their color.
A valve cover won't cause an air leak and be a running problem, it has a vent on top anyway for crankcase fumes to be scavanged and reburned.
Check your charging voltage with a meter to be sure it is charging.

 

bad news. looks like i got screwed good on this bike. i had to checked today by a dealer and the front cylinder is only running at 121 psi. 140 something on the rear cylinder. he told me it needs a complete rebuild. so basically he told me its junk and told me to get a new bike, easy for him to say, i dont have the money to get a new bike. I'm pretty pissed. but thanks for all your help that you guys have been giving me. I wanna keep this bike. but i dont know if i could rebuild this engine by myself. I don't have any of the tools needed or anything. so, i might part it out. or i might try to fix it. i don't know what i wanna do with it yet.