BlueSky

From what I have read, the 5.2 and 5.9 engines in that vintage truck are very reliable but the transmissions were a little on the weak side. That looks like a nice truck and I wouldn't hesitate to buy it if it checked out. Look underneath for rust. It may have been a transplant from the rust belt. A truck that old should have needed new paint but you never know what might have been covered up. I have a 2002 F150 that I had painted recently because the condition of the paint on the hood and top of the truck was getting really bad with some rust showing up.

Kudos to you Freebird for being such a hard working dedicated person. But, you are in charge of your schedule. If you don't want to work weekends, don't schedule any installs on the weekends. Around here, when I need some home repair done that I don't want to tackle such as rot repair on the fascia boards on the eaves of my 2 story house, it takes months to get on someone's schedule and they don't work weekends.

I reassembled the master cylinder, installed it, and bled the system using my mityvac and pumping. The rear brake works great now. It was indeed the bellows on the bottom of the reservoir blocking flow. Evidently, it doesn't take much to pull it from its location under the cover of the reservoir. I had ordered a master cylinder rebuild kit from partzilla.com two days ago. According to their web site it had not shipped so I called and asked that the order be cancelled. They said it had been shipped but would refund the money I paid and not to worry about returning it. I was speechless and could only say "okay". Never heard of an online vendor doing that. So, if anybody needs a rear brake master cylinder rebuild kit for their RSV they can have it for shipping cost.

BINGO! I think you just solved the problem! The rubber bellows was on the bottom of the reservoir. I think it was blocking any fluid from draining down to the master cylinder! Thanks! Now I sorta feel dumb! I've been doing brake jobs for 60 years on my autos and am quite familiar with the master cylinder on those but went dumb on the bike.

I made sure the reservoir didn't go dry. It's weird in that it started out with very little pedal and very little brake and plenty of fluid in the reservoir. After bleeding it a few pumps, it had a full pedal and the brake was working. Then after bleeding some more it quit pumping any fluid and there was no pedal and no brake. I found my mityvac and used it to pull a vacuum on the caliper and pumped the heck out of the pedal and no fluid came out. It does sound like I pumped the reservoir dry, but that didn't happen. A MC rebuild kit is on the way. I'll let you know how it turns out. If there was an obstruction in the line to the caliper there would have been full pedal. When I disconnected the reservoir tube at the MC, the remainder of the fluid in the line gushed out, so I don't think there was an obstruction in that line. Has to be the master cylinder bad seals. Famous last words! Ha! OR, the tiny orifice in the MC that feeds the fluid from the reservoir to the MC could have been plugged??. The supply line is large but the orifice is small. When I disconnected and removed the MC the fluid in it came out all of its orifices and that could have flushed the crud out that could have been blocking the feed orifice? I wonder if I put it back together if it would work?

Well, I removed the rear brake master cylinder and it looks okay with no corrosion pits that I could see. There wasn't anything that was blocking the fluid flow. So, I ordered a rebuild kit from partzilla. They hit me for sales tax even though their business is in another state! It's a really simple device and it appears that the only parts really needed are those two rubber cups that push the fluid. But, you can't order just those. The manual states in order to get it off, to remove the brake pedal and disconnect the brake line. Looks to me like the foot peg/pad has to come off too so I took it off. That made it a lot easier to remove the brake pedal with the master cylinder attached. Now, I have to wait for parts. Even with the bike on the stand that Sylvester was kind enough to sell to me, it still requires a lot of lying on the floor. Ain't as much fun as it used to be at 76 yrs old!

You can tell her that ya'll have tried two 3 wheelers and didn't like either one!

My RSV's rear brake was barely working. Today, I finally got around to trying to repair it. I bled the rear brake using the old pump the pedal and release the pressure at the caliper and it appeared to be working well but I kept bleeding it hoping to get all the old fluid out of the system and it quit pumping fluid. Now, I have no rear brake at all. Soo, I suppose I need a new MC or I have to rebuild it. Partzilla has a rebuild kit in stock but a long delivery on the compete MC. Have any of you RSV owners had to rebuild your rear MC and how did it turn out? I wanted to use my mity vac to see if I could pull more fluid through the system but could not find it in the garage!!! Thanks!

Are the needles and seats from Japan? or china?

Just don't do what the Baptist minister of our church did when he locked his keys in the trunk of his old chevy. He shot the lock out with his 12 gauge! I was a teenager at the time and couldn't believe it! That boy had a temper!

Partzilla sells the Yamaha o-rings. That kit is probably made in china since it doesn't say. I'd want Japanese or OE parts. I bought K&L carb parts that were okay that were made in Japan. Today I read a post on the kawasaki forum from a Kawa ZN1100 owner. He said he rebuilt his petcock several times before he bought Japanese parts and repaired it to last. He was adamant about not using chinese parts.

Are you sure your volt meter is accurate?

I use starter fluid on all my lawn tools and occasionally have used it on a motorcycle. After sitting those tiny carbs get plugged to some extent and I used to yank the cord dozens of times to get them to start in the spring and during the summer sometimes. Now, if it doesn't start on a couple of pulls of the cord, I remove the air filter, spray a little starter fluid into the carb and it fires up immediately. They usually will stay running or restart once it fires the first time. I don't have the patience to deal with stuff that won't start any more. I also put a couple of ozs. of Gumout with PEA in the gas mix to try to keep the carbs clean. Non-ethanol gasoline of course.

I don't think the cop meant to kill George. There were too many people watching and filming it. From the conversation I surmised that after George was cuffed he refused to get in the vehicle and they took him down and punished him. George was 6' 6" tall and built like a body builder so I'm sure he could be difficult to deal with even handcuffed. The cops are guilty of killing George, but in my opinion it's manslaughter, not murder.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EZ5hdGQWoAoDD7n?format=jpg&name=medium

Well, as it turned out, I was barking up the wrong tree. The Kawasaki ZN700 rubber foot peg pads are bolted on, not glued on. The rubber pad is bolted on with two small bolts that are sunken into the aluminum foot peg. I unbolted it and found that the pad is pulled over the metal core and that the outside corner wasn't completely pulled over the metal core. With the help of a flat blade screwdriver I was able to get it pulled over the metal core and bolted it back on! Problem solved! This bike was 24 years old when I bought it, but it only had 1k miles on it, so it's possible it came like that new. One of my bikes made a fool of me again! Seems to happen a lot!

The rubber pad on my ZN700 foot peg is lifting on the outside end. I tried glueing it back on with JBWeld two part epoxy and that didn't hold. What is the best glue for this application? Thanks!

Try rolling it backwards when you stand on the centerstand.

I'm lucky in that respect. My wife baits her hooks and removes her fish. She's a back seat driver too.

My 99 150hp Yamaha FI 2stroke outboard motor that is. My wife and I went fishing in the inland waterway today on our 98 18' Boston Whaler. We caught about 15 fish with my wife catching most of them...... Seems she does that a lot...

So happy you survived with minimal injuries! I used to think of deer as "Bambi". But, after a big buck deer slammed into the side of my car in a 35mph zone within the city limits of Peru, Nebraska, I decided that as stupid as they are, they must have been put on earth for food.

Well, it's Wednesday! Did ya get it?

If you are asking about the 2nd gear issue, it is caused by a soft washer or spacer that wears too fast. Yamaha fixed the issue sometime during the 85 model year. If you do a search of this site you should find the exact serial numbers when the improvement was made. It is a lot of labor to repair but doesn't require many parts. And as Cowpuc can attest to, you can ride it just skipping 2nd gear.

The 2003 Venture is over 80 lbs heavier than the 87 that you have now. But, with the lower seat height and I think wider front tire it isn't as tippy as the 87. I don't consider my 07 RSV to be top heavy. And the RSV is super comfortable.

Welcome back! The more the merrier!