flyday58

I must have got the last Ignitech Dingy had. Mine had the same issue, #2 and 4 not firing, but when I opened it the corrosion was unbelievable. None of us could believe it was running at all. Hope you get a suitable replacement soon.

Might buy one just to try fitment. At least they're available. Thanks for the ninfo.

Anybody know if the carb floats are solid or hollow? I think they're solid. Mine are looking their age so I might replace them if I can find them. Also, my parts place says 83-85 is one part #, 86-93 is another. Anyone know if the floats are the same?

Great vids, I wish they had a techie channel on tv with anything like this, don't care what it is. Love to watch stuff built, adjusted, machined, torqued, ohmed, synced. Thanks/like/thumbs up.

Thanks, #3 is a new plug. I'll replace the other two old ones and try the Marvel. We used to use it in fish-spotting aircraft engines and fuel tanks all the time, everybody swore by the stuff.

Pulled the plugs, both are oily. #4 is damp black, #3 looks like it's been painted gloss black.

Upon further review.. Been working with the new brain box and trying to iron out a new set of probs. Before going too deep I'll just remind all that this bike is new to me as of February so it's still pretty much unknown. I've only put about 300 miles on it since bringing it back to life. It runs like a banshee being chased by a woolybooger so happy there. But on startup and idle it chuffs on the right side only. At 2000 rpm there's a pretty good popping from the right pipe. Pulled each plug wire one at a time and it still popped. Pulled both boots and the popping went away and it ran like it did before the new TCI. So my issues are with #3 and 4 cylinders. Checked float levels and they were close eyeballing it. Checked for leaks, both air and fuel, found none. As the engine got warmer idle increased from intermittently having to give it throttle to keep it running, to a mostly steady 1500 rpm. As the temp gauge approached the top of the green, just before the fan kicked on, blue smoke started coming from the right side exhaust. That made me stop and come get on the forums to you folks. I'm wondering about valve blow-by, stuck rings, burnt pistons, broke rings, all the nightmare stuff that I can't fool with at the mo as we're between houses. I'm gonna pull both sparklers once it cools a bit to see if I can narrow down which cylinder it is, but it may be both since it pops with either plug wire off but not both. So what's y'all's thoughts?

This bike sat under a leaky shed for 6 years and had to be pushed onto a trailer to be hauled to my house. So I had to go through everything. Got a new tire up front, new oil and filter, new fuel filter, new air filter. Hell, the tank is a good unrusted ebay unit as the other one had a layer of rust and varnish in the bottom. New slide diaphragms, new gaskets and seals in all carbs, cleaned a lot of crud and varnish out of the carbs, blew out all passages. Replaced the exhaust collector, which had rusted through and had a mouse nest in it. On and on the list goes, not much original left on the bike at this point. Either a labor of love, or stupidity, only time will tell.

I ended up doing the same thing. I guess the 30 year-old cables are stretched, and I took too much slack out, so loosened till everything worked without binding. And my slider doesn't look like yours, it's just a rectangular block about 4" long. Also I do have a manual. I've run out of time as far as troubleshooting the carbs. An initial check of the #2 carb float level has it in the normal range, so I don't think it's flooding. I put Seafoam in the tank and ran the engine till the fan came on, now it's soaking. Won't be able to get back to it till November now. Sure would like to get out and run it hard before we leave town for three weeks though. Guess it will have to wait.

So the new TCI has brought new life to this bike. Now I get other people's references to this machine as very fast; the acceleration today caught me by surprise. Wowzer! Now other issues that were masked are apparent. Removed the air cleaner to view the intakes while running and to check the throttle openings. Started it up and noted the following. 1) the #1 carb "chuffs" at idle till it warms up to about a quarter needle on the temp gauge. Every couple seconds it gently farts like a backfire, only it's very brief and not strong at all. This is the cylinder that for sure wasn't firing before, so possible stuck ring or valve blow-by? 2) the #2 carb has a visible spray of gas from the needle valve into the throat of the carb at idle. The #4 carb has it too, but barely visible. The others don't have it at all. Float height? 3) the throttle springs don't pull the throttle completely closed; I have to manually twist the throttle the last little bit. Not much, but enough for a couple hundred rpm. No clue on this one. First bike I've had with a double-cable throttle set-up. Seems like there's lots of room for slop with the plastic twist at the handle bars, the plastic cable cylinder and sliders, and the rod and springs between the four carbs. Not knocking the layout, just alot of moving parts. And of course, leaving town till Tuesday so can't get back to it with whatever suggestions y'all come up with. Soaking the #1 cylinder with Deep Creep tonight. Will look further when I get back home.

Actually two, it's all they had. Going back Monday to get two more.

You said gas dribbled in the carb "clearly" ignited but I'd remove the plug and make sure it's firing anyway. Also I'd make sure I had a good charge on the battery, as idling could take it down to the point that plugs quit firing.

Installed the new TCI today. Took a while to sort out a no spark issue. After running wires, connections, checking for voltage, operation of sidestand, clutch, and kill switches and various other dead ends for 3 hours, went back to basics. The battery had dropped too low to support sparklage, so after a quick 5 amp charge it almost jumped to life! I think I've been running around on 2 cylinders, because the oil burned off of both rear cylinder exhaust outlet stub pipes. Filled the garage with smoke, wife was not happy! Ran out of time, leaving town early tomorrow for three days. When I get back I'll look into a possible issue with an air leak. Idle was kind of hunting and hanging, but it's only run about five minutes so probably the ole "seafoam-ride-it-like-you-stole-it" deal will help. But it revs like never before, can't wait to get on the road!

Did this when I first got the bike as when it warmed up, it got a pretty pronounced misfire. Moving it to the top of the air cleaner solved that problem, except for occasional back-farts during warm-up. I'm just lucky it didn't quit when I was way out on the county roads (translated: no cell signal) this past weekend.

How was it even running on 3 cylinders?? [ATTACH]87005[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]87006[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]87007[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]87008[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]87009[/ATTACH]

Okay, thanks. I got the caps to register again, but still no spark. Started cleaning contacts and when I got to the TCI I decided to open it up for a look-see. Turns out most of the water dripping in from the shed it was parked under for years went into the TCI. Lots of corrosion in there. So before doing anything else I'll shop for a replacement 26H on fleabay. Unless someone here has one they'd part with...:mo money:

Why is that? I used 1000 grit to clean everything up, then cleaned with contact cleaner. The resistors themselves still show around 4.5k Ω. But when I reassemble the parts I can't get any reading other than infinite resistance. I also tried ohming the caps without reassembly and again get infinite resistance on both caps. I would've thought they would read continuity, but they don't. Is there something else molded into the caps that would cause this high resistance? Puzzled.

So. Verified no spark at #1 cylinder. Put in a new one, no spark. Ohmed the prisec coil, all fine. My vintage Venture manual said to ohm the cap. #1 was .5M ohms, the rest were at 4.5K or so. An aha moment. Not the band from the '80s...Anyway. Took the cap apart and the plug receiver had the high resistance due to corrosion and crud. Once I cleaned it up I had good continuity so put it all back together. Worked almost 2 hours, I can't get any readings now. It reads an open circuit. Took #2 apart to make sure I had reassembled in the correct order. Now it won't read either. #3 and 4 still read 4.5K Ω, these two nada. Whaddideye miss?

First I'll pull the sparkler, it might just be dead. Going to the doctor first, then I'll jump on it, jump on it, jump on it.

Thanks for all the replies. We have a winner! The fellow aviator was right, #1 is not firing. Explains a lot. Like why the slight oil film on the exhaust outlet never burns off. Guess I'll dig in tomorrow. Can't believe it runs this good on only 3 cylinders. Just like my 2005 Smart! Thanks, FF.

Will do the sea foam thing, checking the actual level when I top off. When I stop, nothing drips from the overflows, but I'll get down there and look upon return to base. I'll keep y'all posted, thanks for the tips.

Took Akihabara out for the first long continuous ride since its rescue from under a leaky shed back in February. Lots of lovebugs, yuck. It used 3 bars worth of gas in 41 miles. No obvious leaks, although a continual low-grade gas odor while riding. I haven't had the carbs synced since I got it so that's gonna be where I start. Carbs have been low-level rebuilt, new seals and o-rings, new diaphragms correctly seated. All clamps are correctly installed, all hoses and vacuum plugs look good. Would a bad sync use that much gas? It also doesn't have the guts to maintain 60-65 going up a mild hill, and most on here claim the 1st gens will scream. Mine kinda yells in a threatening manner, but no screaming. So, thoughts?

I swapped out the dash for an '84-85 I think with cruise to get the digital gear indicator. This after mistakenly purchasing a newer harness, 41H it seems. Original was heavily mod'ed by the PO and I didn't do enough research before buying a harness. Anyway, had to purchase other items to be compatible with the newer harness, master cylinder, gear indicator, various relays. Computer had lots of rust from 5 years of rain draining down, and would cause the bike to cut out when the engine heated up. Moved it to the top of the air filter housing and cleaned it extensively and don't have that problem for now. I read about swollen components inside; didn't see that but at some point may invest in a replacement unit. Bike runs out of guts around 55 except going downhill. Trying to get it to a local shop to sync the carbs but haven't had time. Rebuilt the carbs and did a thorough cleanout of all the passageways; just replaced all four diaphragms from Sirius. Thought about getting a sync'er but not even sure I'm keeping the bike. Just realised all this is I'll have to get down on the ground and try to look at the frame, there's quite a bit of surface corrosion from the weather. Had the rear frame off many times doing all the resto work and keep thinking I should replace it, but don't wanna go too far replacing things. Will look at the newer forks and R1 brakes, was it? Thought they were just newer model Venture units. Thanks for the input.

Thanks for the reply. Does he have the progressive springs or are they on later model Ventures? I'll check him out in the classifieds, thanks again.

Hello to all you happy people. I've got the 83 running fairly well after it sat under a leaky awning in Southern Miss for 5 years. Replaced lots of rusted / busted parts and it's looking much better, too. I was thinking about doing some of the upgrades I've seen on here and want y'all's guidance (I originate in the Florida panhandle where "y'all" is used both for singular and plural applications so I hope I didn't confuse any of y'all just then. Don't know which state uses that "all y'all" crap for plural...). Looking at doing the brakes, the anti-dive units and maybe other little things that will help, like braided brake lines. So which parts are interchangeable without mechanical mods involving welding or similar techniques? I've tried to glean most of this from other posts but still not sure what to shop for. Thanks, y'all.