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Gearhead

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Everything posted by Gearhead

  1. Gearhead
    Congrats, and yeah, you have to be going between 35 and 80 for the cruise to work. Jeremy
  2. Gearhead
    Ditto what Condor and Scotty said! The shoulder bolt is designed NOT to squeeze the two tabs together. Jeremy
  3. Gearhead
    Greg, I haven't had these apart, but I've never seen a carb where the seat didn't unscrew from inside the bowl. Jeremy
  4. Gearhead
    Really? I bought mine from Autozone. What is the bike bulb's number? Anybody know? Where do you get it? Jeremy
  5. Gearhead
    Hey TX, thanks, and I would have loved to have your help with your antenna analyzer, whatever that is! And the previous dual antennas were individual, one for radio and one for CB. Thanks to all who chipped in. Your input and ideas have helped me understand CB's better. Special thanks to Lonestarmedic and Hugbare for your continued assistance. Problem solved! Friend Richard who's an old-time CB'er, my Dad, and I spent several hours on it Saturday and life is good. To cut to the chase, the antenna was way too long electrically for my installation, don't know why. I had already removed the tunable tip, and had to cut about 3/4" off the brass slug at the tip where the tunable tip used to go. My SWR is below 1.3:1 on all channels. It took us awhile to get there. Richard had never run into a situation before where the antenna was so far out of tune, so we needed some convincing that "too long" was really the problem. With the tunable tip removed, SWR was 1.5 to 1.7 on CH1 and almost 3 on CH40. My dad bought the stuff for his antenna, so we did the RKG method. We substituted for the cable, mounting stud, and even tried a different CB with no change. Dad's new antenna, a base-loaded 4' whip, was actually worse. We tried different supplemental grounding schemes for the antenna bracket. We checked the meter with a dummy load and it was good. We removed the fold-down and had already removed the splitter. All with no change. So we started cutting the brass tip, 1/8" at a time. After the first cut it was clear we were doing the right thing. A little more, a little more, and finally, approx. 3/4" later, CH40 came down and there was a dip in the middle (CH20). Put the fold-down back in with no change. Made sure everything was hooked up and routed back the way I wanted it. We got the SWR as low as about 1.1 on CH1 and 40, with barely a twitch of the needle at CH20. Then I put the splitter back in, a Firestik AR1 Matchmaker. SWR went WAY up - like over 3. I was not optimistic as I reached for the little tuning tool they supplied. But after some tweaking on the CB pot, I had the SWR down to ~1.35 at 1 and 40. Then I discovered that the Radio pot on the splitter didn't really affect radio reception, but it did fine-tune the CB SWR - go figure. I was able to get SWR down to about 1.25 on 1 and 40 with the splitter in place. Wow - I thought I'd never get there. Wilson tech never got back to me, despite two emails and two phone calls. Thanks a heap, Wilson! But I like their antenna. Jeremy
  6. Gearhead
    I'm a little late here, sorry. First, 30-40 mph is the classic speed range for a front-end wobble, esp. when decelerating. Read up on it. A worn, even half-worn front tire, is definitely cause for it. I've wondered before if it's all related to funny wear patterns, or if it's partially the tire getting out of balance. I've been gonna re-balance a tire when it starts that behavior, but never got around to it. The new tire almost always stops the problem cold, in my experience. (I say almost, because on my 87 VR the problem persisted through a new tire, but was much reduced.) Usually those wobbles require just the lightest of pressure on the handlebar to prevent or stop, so maybe yours is more severe than average. Second, I have to disagree with the popular sentiment here that the mech is full of crap and incompetent because of this. Maybe he is, maybe not. This is completely reasonable! When the bearing is dry and stiff (or overtightened), the bike may tend to wander, but the steering head is not free to oscillate. In fact, my 87 didn't have the shimmy until I lubed dry bearings, just like you. IMHO - not to be argumentative - but I don't think tightening head bearings makes for a suitable steering damper. Bearings are not designed to be tight like that. I tried that on my VR and all I got was a wandering bike that still had the shimmy. Every other bike I've ever had worked great with the head bearings tightened JUST enough to get the slop out, which is pretty much what the service manuals say to do. Just my 2 cents. I'll crawl back in my hole now. Jeremy
  7. Gearhead
    I had a Silverstar, but the hi beam burned out in less than a year. I was disappointed and stuck the regular bulb back in. I do think it was brighter, though, or at least whiter. Have you guys's Silverstar lasted longer? Maybe I just got unlucky. Jeremy
  8. Gearhead
    A thicker core gives the air passing thru the radiator more time in contact with the hot coolant (indirectly thru the aluminum or copper). More time means more heat extracted. It would be kinda like mounting two stock radiators back-to-back. Fin count is also very important. I'm sure that in expanding a radiator it's theoretically better to go wider and taller (like two radiators side-by-side) than thicker, because that would expose the radiator to more fresh air rather than longer exposure to the already hot air. But wider and taller are not easy without bike mods. Squeeze, black radiates better, but I would think the dominant mechanism of heat transfer is not radiation but rather convection which is color-independent. No? Jeremy
  9. Gearhead
    Per the manual, the radiator is only 5/8" thick. The tanks appear to be 1.5" wide at least, so I'd think a rad shop could fit a thicker core. I may make a couple calls to see. Jeremy
  10. Gearhead
    Hey Squeeze, "you're on to me" is just a phrase that means you figured me out. It's has no negativity to it, and indicates no offense. I am in fact an engineer. And I am in fact going on some assumptions that would be better not to make. I haven't had the gumption to rig up something else. Would an IR thermometer pointed at the upper rad tank be a valid way to measure temp (I'd have to pull over, of course)? As for the "tropical net", are you referring to a thicker core radiator, or one that's heavier duty in some fashion? That might be good... Jeremy
  11. Gearhead
    I would add that it's Yamaha thing, at least from that era. Viragos are like that, as was the 87 Radian I had. I think it's more useful, actually. You always hear that the pressure idiot lights have such a low setpoint that by the time they come on you've already done the damage. The level light seems useful to me. Jeremy
  12. Gearhead
    Not offhand, I'd have to examine the diagram. Did you know there's a couple PDF's on the site of the factory service manuals? Jeremy
  13. Gearhead
    SilvrT, thanks for the lead. I know there's other hot weather riders - does your bike behave like mine does? Squeeze, you're on to me, I am in fact an engineer, I have the analyzing disease. Are you confused that I'm putting all this thought into the issue based on data from the dash gage? Well, I have two reasons for that: It's all I have! I don't have another gage on the bike and haven't looked into what it would take to mount one. I don't think it's all that unreliable. Granted, I don't have temp numbers which would be very helpful. But as far as its consistency of operation over different ambient temps, its reading when the fan kicks on, and other observations, the stock gage really reads quite consistently. I know that in cool weather it always runs at the gap at 1/3, and I know the t-stat starts opening at 180, so I assume the gap is 180 F. I know the fan comes on around 2/3 and according to the manual that happens at 221 deg F. The fan turns off when the needle gets a little above 1/2, which should be 208 F. It's consistency over 2 years leads me to trust it to some extent. Anyway, I'm not itchin' to mount another radiator or whatever just yet, just thinkin'. I think I'm gonna replace the t-stat for good measure, and try reducing the percentage of Ethylene Glycol to about 25% and adding Water Wetter. I do live in a pretty extreme climate, hot-wise. I looked over my fuel mileage figures from the last year and I am now sure that my mileage drops in warm to hot weather. When I'm riding in temps predominantly over about 80 or 85F, my mileage drops by 2 or 3 mpg compared to cooler ambient temps. By the way, Squeeze, I always appreciate your 2 cents, whether in US, Euros, Francs or whatever! Jeremy
  14. Gearhead
    Hehehe, there's 2 or 3 active threads on tires right now. My opinion - I have E3 on rear (not yet available for front), Pirelli MT66 on front, and I like it. Elite2 are good tires but supposedly being phased out. Nothing else out there wears like an E2 or E3 series. Jeremy
  15. Gearhead
    Can you clarify a little? What's the upper and lower swing arm? There's the swing arm, which is the big part that holds the wheel. Then there are two link pieces. Per the schematic, the "Arm, Relay" goes from the frame to the shock, and "Arm 1" goes from the swingarm to the shock. In all cases, I think when the schematic says "collar", that's the "inner bushing" which is a solid steel piece, and the "bush" is a composite piece that presses into the bore. That's probably what needs replacing. Mine is the same way. Jeremy
  16. Gearhead
    I've heard that the most common probelm is the interlock switches. There are 3 - clutch and both brakes. If the system thinks you are activating any of these the speed will not set. Mine works but spontaneously cuts off, like one of those switches intermittently loses contact. Jeremy
  17. Gearhead
    OK, one more, this one for cooling improvement ideas. If my system needs repair, that's a different story, but suppose this is as good as it gets for a stock system. Extend the grill's "side scoops" out wider to "grab" more fresh air to the radiator. The front wheel has got to block a bunch of flow to the middle. Expand the capacity of the radiator. Perhaps a rad shop could get a thicker core with more rows and mount the factory tanks and trim brackets to it. I also thought about a bigger core, but this could be a problem. Wider would fit on the bike, but the existing tanks wouldn't work. Taller would work for the tanks, but there's limited vertical space on the bike. There is a little bit, maybe an inch or so, however this might also cause problems for the side trim and mounting brackets. The trim could be redone somehow to accomodate this. Add an extra radiator in series. I had a friend back in the day with an 84 Interceptor 1000. It had a radiator like ours, and a smaller one up near the headlight in the fairing. I was looking at the lower scoop, and a radiator from a small bike or an auto heater core might fit in there, and that way the heat from it would be down low and hopefully not blow back on me too much, except maybe for my feet. At a glance, it looks like something 4" x 8" would fit. What about Water Wetter? I admit I'm skeptical. Have you guys that use it really seen a difference in the indicated temp? Where do you get it and what's it cost? Any comments? Jeremy
  18. Gearhead
    Maybe the radiator needs rodding or something. I did do a chemical flush on the system. Maybe the t-stat is not opening all the way. I'd like to hear from other hot weather riders, though, if this is normal, typical behavior for these bikes. Maybe the cooling system just isn't up to the task. A couple more observations: My daily commute involves 25 miles, about half of it Interstate with a few miles of 2-lane on each end, and a mile of dirt to my house. Yesterday I rode home in 95 degree weather. Once going on the Interstate, it stayed at that 2/3 level and I suspect the fan was going most of the time. By the time I got home after the slow dirt road, it was still right about the same on the gage, fan running, coolant overflow tank chock full. By morning the tank was normal level, between the marks, so the recovery system is working properly. This morning I came in with 85 degree weather. After riding the dirt and 2-lane, the bike was fully warm, gage camped at 1/3 on the gap in the green line. Once on Interstate, temp went to 1/2 and stayed. Then, on 2-lane afterward going 55, temp crept back down, almost to the gap. This confirms that it runs hotter at higher speed, and that the t-stat set temp is at the "gage gap". I know there's more load at higher speed, but there's also more airflow. But...once a Yammy factory-trained service manager told me that on the Virago's air-cooled v-twin, the rear cylinder actually runs cooler than the front, which is counterintuitive. This, he learned in class, is because the front wheel splits the airflow around the front cylinder and it converges on the rear. Maybe something like this happens to the Venture's radiator at higher speeds. They must have put those little side "scoops" on the grill for a reason. I have some ideas, which I'll post separately. Jeremy
  19. Gearhead
    GW, I know whatcha mean, but yours sounds worse. What did you do when the gage pegged? Your 85 has open triangular areas in the side panels beside your calves, right? My 87 has the adjustable louvers, and closing them makes a HUGE difference on my legs. In fact, in the summer I tape a piece of auto underhood insulation over the inside to help prevent leakage. I also glued this stuff to the entire inside surface of both side panels. Passenger still gets a fair bit of heat leaking from below the panels, though. But if you could get louvers or fabricate a decent-looking plate to fill the hole, you'd love it in the summer. And the sheepskin I have on the seat helps insulate the boys and their house from heat leakage from under the "hood". Baker Air Wings help alot too. I gotta say, though, that my Virago is a nicer ride when it's hot. Knees in the breeze, and the air-cooling transfers the heat directly from the cylinders which then blows behind me. Contrast this with the Venture's radiator being out front, so all the heat comes right back to me. And no temp gage means no overheating worries, right? :-) Jeremy
  20. Gearhead
    You mean it has 5 gears????? Seriously, on a Dunlop E2 or E3 you can expect close to 20k in back in most cases. They wear that well. Jeremy
  21. Gearhead
    Wow, do you pop for the "iron-impregnated" model tire? Jeremy
  22. Gearhead
    Hi. This is a question mainly for those of you who live in hot areas, like 90 plus, regarding engine temp. Now I know the gage catches alot of flak for inaccuracy, but what I've noticed is consistent. If I'm riding at any kind of steady speed in cool weather, my 87's temp runs at about 1/3, where there's a little gap in the green line on the gage. I'm assuming this gap indicates "normal" which I think is 180, right? As the weather warms, it doesn't hold there. When the weather gets over 90 or 95 temp tends to run more like 2/3 or 3/4, right about where the fan kicks on. At mellow speeds, like 55, it might go a little lower like 1/2 plus, but on the Interstate the increased wind drag loading causes the temp to go up. In fact, it may be kicking the fan on and off, but it's hard to tell at those speeds. It does generally hold at that temp, not continuing to climb into the red. One time, in extended riding at 107 deg and 90 mph (we wanted to get it over with) the temp was getting close enough to the red to make me a little nervous. I know there's limits to everything, but if the cooling system and thermostat are effective, it really should be more steady regardless of the weather, methinks. Furthermore, I'm pretty sure I see a correllation between hotter temps and reduced gas mileage, by maybe 2 or 3 mpg. The one trip mentioned above was horrible, 26 mpg or so. I also notice a little ping here and there in hot temps, so I run higher octane gas in those times. Is my bike just like everyone else's, or should I look for trouble? I've flushed the cooling system but never replaced the t-stat or anything else cooling, for that matter. Jeremy
  23. Gearhead
    Well, I removed the fold-down with no effect - still SWR 1.5 to 1.7 at Ch 1, moving right up to 2.5 to 3 at Ch 40. But I see the logic in removing it until I get good results, then try adding it back in. TX, I'm not doing my testing with the splitter yet, other than a quick test. That may cause me problems, but it's not the present issue. Hugbare, we have a guy, JB or lonestarmedic, who used this antenna with acceptable results - SWR 1.5 or so (can't remember if that was at 1 and 40 or at Ch 20). He did not use a splitter or fold-down. George and Carl, the cable was already there, I haven't touched it except to buzz it out. I do not think it's stock; it had dual 16" antennas and un-stock mounts when I bought it and I think the cable was installed with that mod. I need to check that it's RG58, and I'd like to try another cable. George, I've checked for resistance from the cable shield to the bracket to the chassis, and there isn't any. Most of my testing has been wired like this: CB - 1' jumper cable - SWR meter - bike antenna cable - mount and fold-down - antenna. No splitter at all. I briefly tried it with the splitter installed between the SWR meter and the bike antenna cable, results were very bad. I will look at that more after the antenna itself is tuned right. Carl, I have cleaned and added grounds over the last year to improve charging performance and reduce headset noise, which I did succeed in doing (although there's still a bit of persistent noise - arrghhh). Carlos, plenty of people use standard, ground-plane-type CB antennas on bikes. It's not the ideal ground plane but it seems to work for most people. Why wouldn't it work for me? That being said, I have read about the NGP kits from Firestik and others. What they do is change the way the cable shield is connected such that it is totally isolated from ground and the shield actually becomes the ground plane. Thus, it requires a special cable. This according to Firestik's tech page. Thanks guys, this gives me more ideas and stuff to look at. Still looking for all the help I can get! My Dad is about to install a CB on his Voyager, and as such he is going to buy an antenna (different from mine) and a cable, so I can sub those in and try them. Maybe that's the logical next step. Jeremy
  24. Gearhead
    Dick, that's awesome mileage! From what I've read, I wouldn't expect to come close to that with the Avon. The MT66 works well on the front of mine with the E3 in back, and it's pretty cheap at about 65 bucks. I'll probably get about 15k out of it. Jeremy
  25. Gearhead
    OEM tires are as cheap as the factory can make them, no matter what make. All they have to last is the test ride! :-) Bridgestone is often battered here, but I disagree. They make some fine tires. The SE11 (or SF 11, can't remember) Spitfire series is a nice, inexpensive, mid-mileage tire. Not sure if they're available in all the right sizes, but they worked well on my Virago once. I've never had the 404, but based on what I've read I'd by far recommend the Pirelli MT66 or Bridgestone Spitfire over them for a lower price tire. But in the end I agree with George, you're better off in the long run getting Dunlop E2 or E3's, unless you ride very few miles. Only problem there is size availability; they still seemingly haven't recovered from their strike over a year ago. Jeremy
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