cowpuc

I have successfully used this simple method of checking for loose spokes on my motorcycles, bicycles for years and now finding myself doing the same on my E-bikes. This little trick came in VERY useful when racing Motocross, Enduros and Harescrambles on dirtbikes where the rear hub/spoke connection took major abuse but I also used it in my shop when swapping on different wheels on my Chopper builds. A simple slow spin (or not even spin at all, just go around and "tonk" on each spoke with a screw driver or other tool that could be used to make them "sing" worked fine too). Give it a try and see what you think and let me know in the comments below.. Puc

LOL @Condor,,, sooooo perfectly stated!!! Look at this HONKER that I pulled out when I fixed the tube!!

The 20" x 4 inch wide tires on these Ebikes are rated at 20 pounds but I run em hard at 30 pounds cause our riding is on asphalt.. Running them that way gives them about a 2 inch ride patch and far less resistance when rolling. My next move as the center of these "nobbies" wear off will be to street tires. I do totally agree with you on the whole puncture resistance though BUT,,, watching for nails on the bicycle paths also works pretty good too LOL..

If you use those slow speed left lane drivers as pylons on a race track its actually difficult to get upset with them LOL..

Another option to those mentioned by Freebird that has worked really well for me has been to remove the OEM starter and clean the dust out of it real well, paying very close attention to the build up between the armature and communtator segments.. Kept clean my OEM 2 brush starters have served me well and worked as new when kept clean. If it were mine I would also double check stator output at the battery when warmed up as a tired stator can cause hard starting when warm too. So can carb issues, dirty plugs and so on and so forth... Maybe a quick youtube video of what its doing would help us help you diagnose whats going on..

My new aftermarket Caltric stator came with a not so perfect rubber grommet around the wires exiting the stator cavity. While did use the normal ATV gasket sealant on its contact areas along the cases I sealed its exterior areas real well with my favorite sealant = E6000 as this product has proven itself VERY worthy for MANY applications.. Simply cleaning the area real well with brake/carb cleaner the cover the area, including around the wires, and then coating with E6000 resulted in, once again, an oil drip free stator area... Worked for me,, maybe give it try? Here's the stuff:

My gut tells me it sounds like a cooked stator issue. What can happen, at least has happened to me on several occasions, is the laminate on the stator coils get fried and loose their resistance to current flow across the windings ending the ability for the stator to do its job effieciently.. It is not uncommon,, again IMHO, for this to become more relevant as the stator warms up as the engine runs. My 1st Gens all had the OEM volt meter built into the dash and they were always appreciated as I could monitor my stators condition at all times while traveling cross country.. At idle the volt gauge is suppose to read battery voltage only (sayyy,, 12vdc) but just off idle I always like to see 14.5 vdc appear suddenly and solidly. This testing can also be done quite easily by watching your headlight change when throttling up which is how many of us really really old timers did for years before we could afford a $5 meter from Harbor freight. With a little bit of trial and error over a period of years I am now amazed at how accurately I was able to predict a total loss of our stator on Tweeks recently.. When she got warmed up real good I started noticing voltage drop and told Tip that I was going to have to replace the used stator that @Squidley had installed a few miles back, probably had about 3000 miles left in it . Sure enough,, exactly 3000 miles later it failed.. @pcnorb, if I were in your shoes and having the gut feeling that the RSV's do not have a built in volt meter,, I would grab a cheap volt meter (something that didnt matter if it splatted on the road), attach its leads to the battery posts semi-permenantly and take the bike for a ride while monitoring the voltages being produced.. If you have good numbers when cold and bad numbers when warm I would be looking forward to installing a stator. You can also ohm out the stator and check each leg of its 3 phase windings to ground too but if you do this I advise you do so with the engine fully warmed up..

Roger that says the Kettle to the Pot!

Here are my thoughts as to the why J.. The shift drum has channels machined into it that the driven end of the shiftorks lay in. The "forked" end of the shift fork lays in a journal machined into each corresponding/mating gear and when the drum is rotated by that mechanism that hooks on to the pins we are discussing resulting in lateral pressure from the rotation of the drum created by your toe when you shift it results in the forks moving side to side and the gears to move side to side and mating up with gears of a variety of ratios. I have a hunch that if you were to put a dial indicator on the end of the shift drum and run the tranny thru the gears you would discover a certain amount of end play of the drum as the drum/fork pressure increases with the force needed to get the gears to ramp up (talking in another direction as Marcarl would say = gears to match up LOL). When the mechanism that is engaging the pins is in the process of rotating the drum that end play has to go somewhere and possibly the mechanism has enough of "bite" on the pin that the pins resistance to move in its housing is over come and the pin slides in its case and finds itself pushing on those easily bent tabs and, over time, that pressure can be great enough to actually bend a tab open and the pin falls out. A couple things that may help to avoid this from happening would/could be: 1. Making sure the engine oil is changed when it looses viscosity and you feel the tranny getting "notchy" as I mentioned in one of my other posts. When riding in extreme temps I have noticed the need to swap in new oil as early as 1500 miles. 2. Making sure your clutch system is up to par with no tiny little air bubbles collecting at the bango bolt at the master resulting in loss of disengagment space between the plates resulting in more pressure needed to move the shift forks side to side. On a side note here, I am almost 100% sure that Mom Yam actually did an upgrade to that plate with the Tabs on it and have long since developed a much more suitable means of capturing the pins. I have never ever had the issue and thusly have never ordered a new plate but I would be shocked to find out that the new plate, if ordered, would come non-updated. I am sure when an actual VR guru comes along and reads this they will verify one way or the other and/or correct all the 3 or 5 different directions I just took you in LOL

And J telling the same story from 3 or 4 different directions and rambling on and on would have been a pretty good indicator that, as a newer member, he was already starting to pick up some bad habits that some of our clubs life long members have honed to perfection and we certainly would not want that to happen LOL. See what mean LOL

In memory and sincere gratitude for those who shed their blood and paid the ultimate price so we could live in freedom = THANK YOU!!! Puc

Fools wife eats the dogs treats and his dog LOVES the fish for treats.. LOL

You know,,, relooking at the pics you posted @JFootman I think I misread what I initially thought I saw.. I initially thought the tab that holds the pin in was sheared off but looking a little closer I can see that it is just bent upright (this allowed the pin to slide out???).. I also noticed that Partzilla has those parts in stock and cheap.. Here is the fishe I am looking at:https://www.partzilla.com/catalog/yamaha/motorcycle/1983/xvz12tk/shift-cam-fork and looking at part numbers 14, 7 and 8. Notice the pins (14 and 7) are different pt numbers so probably different size pins. Tell you what my friend, if I were on the road and stuck camping in a Hardware store parking lot while I had my bike tore apart I would remove that plate that secures the pins, go inside the hardware store and purchase a drill bit that measures the diameter of the pins, borrow a bench grinder from the hardware store backroom and cut off the shaft of the bit to match the length of pin I needed and make myself a new missing pin.. I would then knock that bent tab back down into place, put it back together using atv sealant for a gasket and enjoy my trip.. Matter of fact, and seriously,,, I would do the same thing even if I was home only I would make a new gasket for the cover LOL. That would DEFINITELY keep me enjoying my riding adventures until I could get up to Michigan to pick up my free parts bike LOL....