csdexter

Just FYI: the pipe goes into the muffler at the joint. The pipe is mild steel whereas the muffler is stainless. I would bet on the pipe being corroded all-around so it broke there, with the last ~2" of pipe still stuck in the muffler hole. Can't tell for sure without pics, but I think your mufflers are in a much better shape than the pipes. Depending on what magic device the Road King mufflers have at the forward end, you may or may not be able to connect them to what's left of your pipes' ends. Take a look (maybe even post a pic) before investing in new mufflers ;-)

A few things about the "EFI stumble" story: 1) How come in those 10000km (or was it miles?) of testing nobody noticed anything and yet a couple months after the launch people started complaining about off-idle stumble? Smells like a last-minute, improperly qualified update to me ... 2) EFI is never "plug and play", it requires research -- regardless of whether it's a retrofit or not. Research requires brains or (time and money). Ural (the company) doesn't have either. 3) The ECUs chosen, while small, cheap and, let's not forget, USA-made (a very important selling point -- at least to them), do represent a compromise. Ural's engine is at the higher limit (displacement-wise) of what ElectroJet is targeting and the exotic one-ECU-per-cylinder configuration is also something they've never done before. Add in the low-budget combined pressure sensor and you get a very unstable cocktail, perfectly matched with the complaints we heard. I said something above that warrants further explanation: if Ural (the company) had brains or money, they would've transformed the Ural (sidecar motorcycle) into the wonderful product that it could be; anytime within the last 10 years or so. "The wonderful product" means a sidecar motorcycle that looks as vintage and as Russian as it gets but doesn't crap out on you in the middle of nowhere, at night. It would have then attracted endless stories of "let me tell you where I've been with my Ural last weekend" instead of the current "let me tell you what I've most recently fixed (or patched up) on my Ural". In my humble opinion, Ural (the company) is wasting a valuable chance and are seemingly oblivious to sitting on a gold mine -- by keeping the quality low and insisting it's "part of the brand concept". Pity.

Mine was "easy" before I rebuilt it a month ago. The first time I tried to turn it after closing it up was real tight, I was almost afraid I put the O-ring the wrong way in and I'm gonna break it or something. But with patience I managed to work it around a few times and now it's fine. I think the gas lubricated it after I opened it the first time because it was noticeably softer after that. Rebuilding is simple: get a kit online (like the one here), then empty the tank, get a philips head screwdriver, open the plate that surrounds the tap (the one with "RES - OFF - ON" on it) and take the tap, the packing and the O-ring out. Replace with new parts from the kit, assemble in reverse order and that's it. If you have extra time/patience, do the tap-to-tank O-ring as well: undo the two big bolts that hold it on, take it out, replace long O-ring, put everything back the way it was.

The radio will not turn on unless given a command by the handlebar controller. Unfortunately, that command is not the closing of a switch but a command word sent down the C-Bus interface (round DIN-13 connector). You can thank Clarion and the stupid copyright/patents/industrial secrets doctrine for the fact that, despite the product being defunct, no documentation was ever released by Clarion. There is no way for you to debug it unless you can borrow known-good components from another bike and exchange them one by one until you find the broken part on your bike. Alternatively, find somebody who works (or worked) at Clarion and beat the information out of them. Alternatively, find somebody who is privy to the construction of the VentureMP3 and maybe they'll start talking if you ask them nicely with a six-pack of their favourite beverage. Alternatively, find somebody who works for iSimple (AAMP) ...

Isn't that a diaphragm? I.e. it's meant to bellow down as the fluid is consumed. When you open the reservoir, top-up the fluid and simply fold the diaphragm back into its original shape.

Yes, the CC on these bikes only works in 4th or 5th gear, above 50km/h and below 120km/h, if my memory serves me right.

CC disengages when either brake or the clutch lever is used. For some unknown reason, Yamaha has different switches for the front brake and clutch levers (even though identical from an electrical standpoint), with the clutch one having a long stem and a mechanical setup that makes it switch very soon. I also have leather fringes on my levers, but it never happened for the wind going through them to disengage the CC :-) It could be because I overhauled most things on my bike, including the clutch, this winter (and "overhauled" begins with a "so that you can eat from them" clean-up); or it could be that I'm just lucky. Going back to the clutch switch being more sensitive than the front brake one: if you've never ever overhauled your clutch, it may make sense to spend $10 and get a new pushrod and bushing (for the lever) and replace them. They wear down with time and decrease what would be the freeplay, in this case the amount of travel until the switch switches. The same goes for checking your lever and its pin: if the pin or the lever hole have gone out-of-round, it could also make your switch act very early on and prevent you from engaging the CC. Yes, the CC is vacuum-operated but that vacuum is not drawn from the engine intake, but from an electric pump. Finally, due to safety reasons, the CC is "picky": if there's anything wrong with the carbs (some people call it "tuning" ) that makes the engine run differently than stock with respect to "rpms-for-a-given-speed" or the clutch is slipping, or you're going up a steep hill or against powerful wind or, indeed as somebody mentioned, down a very steep hill; the CC will believe something's wrong and cut out. Safety is also the reason for which, even on a new bike, the CC doesn't engage suddenly. It instead slowly rolls the throttle on to match your current speed and then goes just a little bit down and then back up -- it's checking that it can, indeed, control the engine and the bike's speed. I know that, for people used with the car version of same, this must be very lame, very antiquated behaviour; yet again a car has more than two wheels and CCs on motorbikes (at the time the RSV was introduced) were still rocket science compared to their car counterparts. Hope this helps.

For the future, always try PartShark (or the official site, star-motorcycles.com) for superseded part numbers. Partzilla tends to know about both versions but pretends it doesn't know about the link between them when you search the site. When you order, however, they will show the old part was replaced with the new one.

I don't know about the US customs, but in the EU pretty much any gas stop will have a small shop which sells car bits, such as spare bulbs, brake fluid aaaaand kits for fixing flat tires. They're mostly targeted at bicyclists but in an emergency, it could take you home. In the old days they were called "cold patches" to distinguish them from the "hot patches" that a proper tyre shop would use to do the same repair. Also in the old days you could buy emergency hot patch kits which came with a number of patches, adhesive, a rasp to roughen the patch site, a small vice-like thing to hold the patch down and a matching number of something which looked like a biscuit only made of the same stuff that match heads (the ones you light your cigarette with) are made of. You would take the tube out, find the puncture, roughen it up, apply adhesive, put one patch on, use the mini-vice to hold it all steady and then place one of the biscuits on the plate of the vice and then light it up. It was far away from a properly done job at the tyre shop, but has brought many unlucky drivers home safely. I don't know what's still available to buy nowadays, in the era of tubeless.

The iPod plugs into the iSimple, the iSimple plugs into the C-Bus (i.e. round DIN-13 connector at the end of the cable that went to the CD changer in earlier models). Yes, it is controlled via the handlebar controller in the same way as the VentureMP3: by simulating 6 CDs' worth of music. The instructions come with the iSimple box, if I remember correctly, you create six playlists in iTunes with "magic" names (like CD1, CD2 etc.) and the iSimple presents the contents of those playlists as the would-be CDs in the changer.

Thanks for the kind offer, RedRider :-) The parts I need are: 1x Yamaha 90461-15100-00 (plastic P-clamp, holds front end of clutch pipe, under the engine sump) 4x Yamaha 3EN-14997-00-00 (plastic-to-aluminium rubber bushing seal, seals fuel pipe to carb body, center of carb assembly) 4x Yamaha 1FN-14565-00-00 (philips screw with flange head, holds body of float valve inside float bowl) Partzilla wants 31.26USD for the parts and 43.99USD for shipping; PartShark wants 27.72USD for the parts and 50USD for shipping. While I'm extremely happy with the first number, I outright refuse to pay shipping that's more expensive than the product bought -- especially, when we're talking small, inexpensive stuff. Please let me know how (and if) you want to go ahead with this and many thanks once again

If you'll be using the original model, then yes, it is controlled via the same controller that runs the radio too. Also, yes, you can change discs while riding -- it's all explained in your (the owner's) manual.

Okay, I'm done with all carbs. All 4 diaphragms are good (no cracks/no pinholes). If anyone wants them, let me know.

(moderators: if this should've been posted elsewhere, feel free to move it. Alternately, let me know where to and I'll move it myself. In both cases, please accept my apologies for posting in the wrong place) I'm going through my carbs this week because I'm fed up with looking at the new parts bag, constantly reminding me that it's yet another example of stuff I got and don't use :-) I just got them off the bike today, broke them apart and went through #4. Replaced float valve, air cut diaphragm and spring, main diaphragm and spring, little O-ring in the cover, choke plunger set and float bowl O-ring. The main diaphragm looks good -- no cracks, no pin holes and still flexible. I changed it with the new one because that what I set out to do anyway. I will go through the other three carbs tomorrow and I'll report back on the "old" diaphragms' status. If anyone here wants them, I'm happy to let them go. Now for some Q&A: Q: What state is "Dublin", man? A: Ireland, across the pond. I'll be happy to put all/each in an envelope and even pay for postage to the US or wherever you may be. Q: Why don't you keep them, you know, for a future bad day? A: I plan to sell the bike soon...ish and people here don't pay extra for "it comes with a bag of spares". The diaphragms seem rather rare/expensive so I thought I'd give something back to the community. Q: If you took them from your bike and you're in Ireland, doesn't that make them useless for a US RSV? A: On the contrary, the only difference between the US (4XY) and the EU and Australian model (5JC) in what carbs are concerned is the needle kit (4XY-1490J-00-00 vs. 5JC-1490J-00-00); everything else is identical, including the diaphragms. Q: And you're giving them away, like, for free? A: Since you're asking, I need about half a dozen small parts (nuts, cotter pins etc.) for which shipping isn't worth it. I'm happy to send the ~10USD that places like Partzilla want for them via PayPal if you'd be so kind to send them back in return. I'll even include a self-addressed envelope if you like :-) That's all, may I have a show of hands for who wants some RSV carb diaphragms?

With a vacuum gauge, which looks just like a pressure gauge only works in reverse (i.e. measures negative PSIs or inHg from the atmospheric pressure downwards). You can plug that into the same nipple you'd use to sync your carbs.

Funny how you can find optical kits for similar old-style fuel pumps for cars, but none for motorcycles :-( By "optical kits" I mean a small PCB with a small light barrier arrangement that's interrupted by the stem of the pump when it moves. Preserves the operating principle but lasts forever with zero maintenance. Others are based on a Hall sensor, but same idea.

The RSV has a relay on the brake light line, that's what you hear when applying brakes with the engine off. You're not crazy

Yamaha were inconsistent with the usage of the unswitched +12V line. Yes, I know Clarion made the whole system but Yamaha wrote the specs in the beginning and signed the acceptance forms in the end, so they bear full responsibility for a bad design making it to market. For the CB radio, unswitched +12V is fed via a separate 3-position connector. For the amplifier/broadcast radio box, it's fed in via the MCU connector. Normally, only those two components need the unswitched line, to hold station/option memories alive when you turn ignition off. How or why did the unswitched circuit make it to the C-Bus connector (the round DIN-13 thing) between the amplifier and the tape deck, I have no idea but it's a very pertinent question to ask. The tape deck has no settings to maintain so it has no need for unswitched power. The problem you ran into could happen to anyone, somewhere far from home, and it wouldn't be funny anymore.

If you only disconnect the DIN-13 connector, no -- as the AUX port has its own cable.

It's worth noting that electronic CCs can be configured for some amount of resilience -- I think the OEM unit on the RSV will allow you to manually override it (by turning the grip against the vacuum actuator's intent) by +/-8km/h before automatically disengaging. This comes very handy when overtaking, for example. Also, electronic CCs will allow you to "tell" the unit to go up/down in small increments without having to go through a reset -> move grip -> set cycle. Also, electronic CCs will allow you to "come back to speed" after you temporarily had to brake or even stop -- just bring the bike to the lower operational limit of the CC, then push "Resume" and it takes control. Just sayin'

(speaking for the 2nd gen) Assuming you rip all the needed parts off a RSV, which are: control box vacuum pump vacuum actuator (the thing with the vacuum hose on one end and a throttle cable on the other) cable joint (the thing where the five cables meet) You will still have to think about at least two things (should be three but it's your lucky day: you don't need to worry about the speed sensor as it's the same on both bikes): safety: both brake switches and the clutch switch are double on the RSV (two switches moving at the same time) so that the signal that's meant to disengage the CC when you touch the brakes or pull the clutch doesn't depend on anything else but physically moving that lever/pedal. You will have to craft something similar on your bike or ... rip the switches from a RSV :-) control: you would need to think of a way to add the four CC switches (on/off, cancel, set/slow down, resume/speed up) and three lights (on/off, set and resume) to your bike Finally, do note the connectors for the control box are relatively easy to find (i.e. they are made by a Japanese connector manufacturer that's still alive as a company, still manufactures them and does sell to retail), whereas the connector for the vacuum pump is not (it was made by the manufacturer of the pump which never sold such connectors to the public). Your best bet is probably, once again, to get a RSV wiring harness and rip everything you need from it. Good luck!

Just watched that on the other forum, nice touch :-) Good thing they thought about allowing both ECUs to drive the fuel pump so that the system is truly redundant. Also confirms my previous bet: the ECUs only talk to each other for idle speed targets and for driving the MIL -- everything else is treated as if it were a single-cylinder engine (from each ECU's perspective).

The bolts securing the plastic to the small frame are in the middle of the fairing and only accessible when you open it up. The bolts securing the frame to the triple clam are even deeper. Open the fairing and look around at each of them, try to (gently) pull on the inner half and see where the play happens.

If by "inner" you mean the plastic shell closer to you as you sit on the bike, it's bolted to a small metal frame that then bolts down to the triple tree.

Judging by the electrical wiring diagram on the last page of the 2014 owner's manual (yes, that ****ty 100dpi JPEG is what they call a diagram; even a secondary school student would've known you need a vector format for a publication -- but I digress), the ECU design doesn't match what's shown in the Ducati Energia presentation you linked. Still, it's better than no info, so here we go: it's a monolithic ECU design (i.e. not EFI+CDI), in which the box controls all aspects of engine operation the two ECUs are, indeed, connected to the same data bus but I am willing to bet half my February pay check they do not operate "together" (i.e. in synergy, like a computer cluster would) :-) The engine design is so symmetric and the cylinder heads are so far apart (from a thermal perspective), that actually having 2x single-cylinder ECUs running the engine simultaneously not knowing of each other's existence actually makes perfect sense from an R&D perspective the two ECUs appear identical (despite being called "EJT32L" and "EJT32R") they share the crankshaft position sensor (but bear in mind that the engine is symmetric and has traditionally operated with a wasted spark anyway, so just feeding the same information into both ECUs once again makes sense) they use heated oxygen sensors (lambda probes) powered by the ECUs themselves, from the same voltage rail as the injector (and whether this is/was a good design choice or not, only time will tell) the ignition coils appear to be small (i.e. same as for a CDI system). If previous Ural models have used CDI (as opposed to TCI), this makes sense from a logistics point of view (i.e. reuse already available parts) only the left ECU is driving the fuel pump and corresponding pins on the right one are left unconnected. Once again, only time will tell if this was a good design choice (a cabled-OR, also known as an open-collector output, would've been almost free to implement but it would have greatly improved the redundancy and robustness of the system) the data bus is a twisted pair (connects the two ECUs and is present on the diagnostic connector), so it could be either CAN or ISO9141-2/14230-4. Since it would just be too nice to be CAN (you can't sell $200 "adaptors" for a protocol everybody speaks, can you now?), it's probably ISO9141-2 with a mostly passive L line once again, only the left ECU controls the MIL light and is also connected to appears to be a crude speed output from the speedometer (or it could, indeed, be the other way around: it could be the ECU outputting a tacho signal for a to-be-provided rpm gauge) the other two circuits present at the diagnostic connector are chassis ground and what appears to be switched +12V Finally, the manual contains: a diagram for the evaporative emissions control tubing (for California) which includes a "solenoid-actuated valve" that is nowhere to be found on the electrical schematic :-) no mention of a roll-over sensor (which tells the ECU to shut everything down immediately -- mostly used to prevent the high pressure fuel pump from emptying the whole tank onto the accident scene ;-) ) a nice table of blink-codes (don't get me started) over the MIL light that the ECUs would use to tell you where the problem is. In that list, they: candidly leak the name of the analog front-end used in the ECUs: Freescale's MC33814 :-D just as candidly, mention error codes for the "Immobilizer light" (which doesn't appear to feature on an Ural) talk about MAT/MAP/BAP sensor error codes which once again doesn't show on the schematic. Maybe it's integral to the throttle body assembly and so they let it (them) slide from the schematic (no, I will take no excuses!) Now, if we head over to Freescale and pull the datasheet for the MC33814, we get some interesting info, such as the fact that it indeed contains an ISO9141-2 K-line driver for the MCU behind it to talk to an external diagnostic device.