6m459

Hi, My '84's choke works but won't stay put & slides back off again unless I hold it in place. Is there an adjustment somewhere to increase the friction of the choke cable or mechanism? I have looked through the manual but can't find anyu referece to this. Any advice welcome. Thanks, Brian H.

I sure hope this guy doesn't go by the name partpuppy on ebay! Thanks for the tips gang, I'll check out the items suggested & let you know what I find out. Thanks, Brian H.

Hi, I need to consult with an engine expert for my '84 standard, have we got any in the house? I have some engine misfiring going on. It has just started again today but late last year I had it happen at about the same time my stator coil failed. I fixed the stator got back full system volts and all had been good, till today. I figured the misfires were caused by a CDI not getting full volts. When it happens, I feel a slight drop in power in the seat of my pants and I see a quick dip on the tach. I think I read somewhere that cyl #2 is the one that the tach signal is derrived from. Have I got this right? Can I take this as a clue that cyl #2 is my offender? The other clue is that this seems to happen as the engine is warming up. Once I have gone a few miles, the misfires seem to go away. This makes me think it might be a connection issue somewhere that makes better contact as things warm up. My question of course is where to start looking? I fear that this might be a CDI problem. I understand there is someone around who rebuilds / repairs them. Who is that and what does "rebuild / repair" actually mean? Just in case and for diagnostic purposes, I have just bought a CDI on ebay. Might be useful. BTW, I am still loosing a little coolant too and its still a mystery where its going. Could be a head gasket but I am not convinced. I suspect the crankcase vent system myself. She just rolled over 42,600 miles today. I know it sounds like she has a lot of problems but she runs great for the mostpart and I really like the old gal. I don't have much $ invested and I like to do the work myself so even if I have to take her to pieces & put her back together again, its OK by me if I can make the fix. I'd like to figure it all out first before I go in. So, bring on the sage advice. Thanks, Brian H.

My sympathies on this, I know that sick feeling! Even on ebay it seems! Thanks for the excellent photos and suggestion. I will take a look at mine ASAP and see if I can do as you suggest. One wacky idea I had was to buy a pair of Mazda Miata power mirrors and adapt them to the bike. They look about the right size and profile but I suspect wouldn't give as wide a field of view as the OEM ones. Doubt I'll actually try this solution but cooking up odd ball solutions to this sort of thing helps pass long days at work. Best regards, Brian H.

Hi, Electrically, the horns are an inductive load. Inductors want to keep the current flowing even when the supply stops. Energy is actually stored in the coils of the horns such that there is an arc across the relay contacts as they open and the energy dissipates. This arcing and energy dissipation makes short work of burning up the relay contact material. What you need to do is provide a controlled means of dissipating that energy elsewhere. The way to do this is to use a diode wired across the horn so that it is reverse biased (nonconducting) when the horns are in operation which conveniently becomes forward biased (conducting) for the stored energy coming from the horns and safely dissipates it, which protects the relay contacts from burn up. So, take a common 1n4005 or similar diode and wire it's cathode to the (+) horn connection and its anode to the horn's (-) ground connection. This should fix things up as far as inductive kick is concerned. Hope this is helpful, Brian H. (C.E.T.)

Hi, My '84's RHS mirror is rock solid and stays where I put it through all kinds of miles. My LHS mirror on the other hand won't stay put and I have to keep repositioning it. It gets pushed towards me at the top presumeably due to the wind buffeting it. Is there a cheap way to re tension the pivots on these mirrors to add more 'stiction'? I keep intending to buy a better one on ebay but never get around to it. Thanks, Brian H.

Hi, Is there a third party alternative source for air filters for the first gens? I need a new one, but last time, the OEM one from local dealer was just over $50 by the time I paid all the sales taxes! I don't see a Fram one in thier catalog, is there anyone who offers one? Thanks, Brian H.

I keep my battery on a tender all winter too. I used to take it off the bike and inside the house to 'tend' it over the winter, but now I just leave it on the bike and plug in the tender. Still going strong in the battery's third season and two winters out. Canadian winters that is! Hope this is of interest. Brian H.

On the advice of a smart guy I used to work with, (a virago owner btw) I have dressed dings on my fork tubes with a sharpening stone. My former colleague lent me a nice small fine one that fit nicely in my hand lengthwise. Things worked out well for me (I never tried to fill the low spots). I put lots of oil on the stone and the fork tube for lube, and wiped down regularly and refreshed with new oil to get the metal particles off as I worked. I kept the long face of the stone and the length of the fork tubes parrallel at all times and only worked up and down not across. This minimises the chances of removing any material below the average surface level and takes all the high spots down. There were some visible marks in surrounding areas afterwards, but they all ran in line with the fork travel so I ignored them and don't think they ever caused me any trouble. The nice thing about the stone is that since its is a single solid piece rather than floppy sand paper on a block, you can feel the difference in resistance when you are actually removing material and not. This way, as you get the high spots down to level with the rest of the surface you know by feel, when to stop. Less chance of removing too much material. Worked for me anyways. More power to those clever old guys you used to work with. Long may they ride! Hope this helps. Brian H.