flyday58

It turned into a labor of love, it's been damn fun, now I want to till the tires wear out! Never knew these big Yams were cruiser's dreams. And I just took this in trade for 3 boxes of Honda CL350 parts. See the battery, the car battery, in the right saddlebag?? See the corroded-through rear brake reservoir?? I know I'll never get my money back out of it but it's more about the challenge of it all. I never can stand to see anything, anyone for that matter, neglected to the point where they are written off. Money didn't matter here. Well, not much!

And today. Replaced all of the black plastic, it was all busted up and ugly. I like the black and gold combo, looks nice. Don't know if I'll ever replace the side bags, hard to find in decent condition and I've already sunk a ton of dough in this thing. But it keeps me off the streets and out of the nursing home, so the heck with the money. Most of my acquaintances throw their money into airplanes, fast cars or fast boats, so I can afford to do a bit more. Hope y'all enjoy the pics, wish they're were more!

The cruise switch operates my bi-xenon headlight.

So with a little over 500 miles since I first got it running after 6 years in the rain, thought I'd post a picture of the plugs I just removed. I'm replacing the NGKs with the Denso iridium IX24Bs. Very happy with the coloring, especially with what it took to get it running correctly. From left to right it's 1, 2, 3, and 4. You may notice #2 threads look funky. I guess the PO may have cross-threaded this one. It's also an Autolite; I left it in place since it didn't turn freely. I ordered a 12mm reverse plug chaser to try and clean it up. I don't want to get into an engine teardown until the move to New Mexico is done in the next couple of months.

Glad to hear it. Removing and capping the 'YUCKS' was one of several things I did at the same time like you did. Was never sure which thing actually got rid of the popping but the YICS probably had a lot to do with it. Enjoy that bike. Which you should totally add to your profile so we all know what you ride!

Running on only 3 cylinders is a very real possibility and very hard to detect once the engine is thoroughly heat-soaked. You'll convince yourself all 4 are firing. If you suspect it's down to 3 cylinders do a quick cold start and check your pipes, it's how I found mine. Unless that's what you mean by 'cool pipe test'. Mileage was down and wouldn't maintain speed up a small incline on mine.

What kind of bike? 1st gen Venture with the glass fuse panel on top of the battery? There's an ignition fuse there. Does the starter spin, or is everything dead? There's a fusible link at the positive terminal of the battery that may have melted.

I put new points from an ebay parts house in my pump and it refused to run, even after "adjusting" the hell out of it. Put the old points back in, been working fine ever since. Go figure.

I guess it's time to ask about the "other things" you did to try and see if there's a connection. Sure sounds like gas is not flowing. Can you get the cycle to repeat, i.e., use starting fluid, run for 30-45 secs, sputter out, repeat? Or after it sputters out is it a no-go?

If you remove the hose from the filter in or out port does gas flow out? Didn't shut the petcock off by any chance? Does the pump click each time you turn on the key or cycle the kill switch? If it does, is it like the carbs are empty or just one or two clicks like the carbs are full? I'll bet it's a simple fix.

Interesting. I'll look into these myself.

What Max says. Also look for loose or corroded circuit board solders on the instrument cluster.

When I upgraded my battery cables Gary included the same fuse as in his photos. I like it, made for a clean installation, looks good. I had two of the old-style fuses, but only one had the spares. I found them the same way Jeff did.

Noted Jeff, heard this before. But I'm not that comfy with a big bike like this yet, only ever owned small enduros from the 70s and 80s up till now. So I'll keep it low and slow for now. My limitations will move upward as I get more experience with it, I'm sure. I fly big airplanes for one of the big three US airlines, and I know I operate them more conservatively than most of my mates. With more miles on the 83 I'm willing to bet I'll get to be on friendlier terms with the higher revs. Thanks for the tip.

That was it, thanks for y'all's help!

Found the clutch hydraulic line metal union in contact with the motor underneath the shifter where a clamp holds it to the frame. First tried jacking the motor to see if there was any give in the mounts, but there was no movement. So I just bent the clamp enough to keep the union from hitting the engine case. Gonna ride it tonight after dark to test the brightness of my LED hi-beam indicator and will check the vibes then. Most of it was in the clutch master cylinder and left-side handlebar, so hopefully this fixes it.

Yup, after I brain-old-farted I realized it was Bonneville, so went back and edited it. Guess you saw the original version. Coulda been Edwards too, but couldn't see how you woulda got permission to drag the Shuttle Landing Site! But then, lots of people know lots of people, I'm just not one of them.

These vids remind me of "Endless Summer". You could have these cut into a motion picture and I'd go see it! Puts Venturing in a whole new perspective for me, SOOO glad I traded 3 boxes of Honda parts for my '83. Best deal I ever made, excluding the Missus. Thanks a million for sharing, you oughtta repost these in a separate thread; anyone who doesn't view this one is gonna miss out!

Puc, this stuff is the bomb, you're a man after my own heart! Question, um, where do you...ya know, do...ya know...doodies? Where's the showers and McDonalds?? And omg, is that the Bonneville Salt Flats???

Damn Puc, I thought I was gonna get away with this one. I dropped the old girl before the ride of the vibes. Gently dropped. Had a brain 'old' fart, put the sidestand up, thought of something I wanted in the house, went to set the bike back on the sidestand, and away we go, as The Great One used to say. Tried to catch it, but of course in the saddle, 5'8" and 170ish pounds, all I could do was say bad words and watch the Titanic sink. Rollover/ fallover/ old fart forgot sidestand was up switch worked fine, though. It was close enough to the house that I could brace against the wall and got it back up. Most importantly, nobody saw. The crash bar took all the weight and doesn't look bent, but I'll go over the whole thing tomorrow in bright sunlight. And where's that video of you using Tweeks as an off-road scoot??

This is from the thread "Pilot screw 5 turns out" down the page: "I've been having problems with backfire thru the carbs so I did alot of reading and most say pilot screw is lean so I went 4 turn and then 5 a little better. My question is why do I have to be out so far on my pilot setting? I should mention it has a k&n air filter and the box top has been opened up quite a bit and the stock mufflers have been opened up also..." And a reply: "All of the things that you have done will each make it leaner. You will most likely need to change the main jets to get it to run right with all of those mods. Depending on just how much you have opened things up you might be able to get close by playing with the needle shims and/or the pilot. If not then either close some of the breathing back up or start playing with the main jets. These bikes do not like the airflow to be messed with. Most of the people that have messed with the airbox are now running around with patches on the air box to get back to stock airflow..." Hope this helps. There are more threads here that talk about K&N filters and such.

True dat, Vito. This is the kind of out-of -the-box thinking this site excels at. It's kinda like being in a full-motion simulator: sitting in the pilot seat you often miss things, but someone behind you wonders how you keep missing what to them is obvious. Big shout of thanks to Kevin from me at least!

Three weeks.