1985 Honda VT 500 C Shadow - Answered Questions & Fixed issues

What year?

Most oil brands have an online application catalogue that will recommend an oil type for most applications and list the quantity required. First choose your favoured brand of oil...

clutch master cylinders go bad all of the time the cheapest fix is a new unit

Contact a transmission shop or any honda aftermarket tuner company. I'm sure they have parts that will work.

Under the front seat (small plastic tube)

Right site under front seat.

Take off exhaust, left bracket, side cover, then you see 2 pulse gen. around main gear, take the gear off, anscrew pulse generators. I just do not know, why do you want to change them, usually they do not die, post a story, why do you think, they are bad.

Check the fuses (under the plastic cover on the handle bar), and there is the main one under the seat too.

In all, there must be 2Liters of coolant in this engine. If more, it will go out, first to reservoir later through the overflow hose. When refilled the coolant, start the engine and unscrew the 8 mm bolt on the left side in front of the tank just under small plastic cover. The coolant must come out when unscrew the bolt 1 or 2 turns out. On this way you let out the air and the cooling system is in order.

Try this or other ones on the right side on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWLE_jjEKZI

Honda vt 750/700 - 1,7 L, +-2%

if the spark plugs are black - adjust 2 air screws on the carbs (2 or 2,5 turns out. OR - sync the carbs OR - change the air filter

Remove seat first. then remove tank. look for bolts at the front and rear of tank. be sure to turn off fuel valve before removing fuel line.

Replace the crank position sensor.

If you have power to the bulb, replace the bulb, if not check the fuse check the wire , for broken wire , ect

try motor cycle salvage places near you and there may be two of them

dave there are a couple videos on checking the coil for spark i would take out a plug and put it in the socket lay it on the motor so end touches metal pull of other cyl wire so it don't start roll it over you will see a blue spark make sure your battery is charged fully if it works fine with fully charged battery it could be the battery not recovering fast enough these bikes do not work properly and act weird with a poor battery have the battery load tested if you are unsure and stator tests ok

First start at the source. If the battery is too old, low on fluid or is picking up heat from somewhere (exhaust) it can affect it's performance. Make sure the battery contacts are not corroded if they are, clean them & spray/lather some grease or oil on them. Another problem can be your battery cables. They may seem solid but after time they build resistance especially if they get warm. The battery can only push a fraction of it's true power through a bad cable & while attempting this it heats up the cable making it even worse. Check your ground cable too. If this isn't the problem then you have a cooling issue.

Unfortunately, the ONLY thing you can do is replace the cdi box....what REALLY sucks is that those cdi boxes were only used by Honda for 2 years...85 & 86...all the other years/bikes had MUCH cheaper units on them...And DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT waste your time on a USED part that is 30 years old!!! There is NO WAY to test a cdi box!!! Bite the bullet & buy a NEW one if you want to fix it & forget it.....there are new ones available online from a company in the UK for about $259.00 I speak from personal experience with this EXACT issue & once you replace the cdi box, that bike will run (providing everything else is good) Best of luck!JJ

10W-40 4-Stroke Motorcycle Oil. If you stick with Honda oil you wont have a problem. Cheers