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Tony1M

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Everything posted by Tony1M

  1. Tony1M
    Well, I was wrong. I added water to the upper level mark and the alarm went bye bye. The sensor was just doing it's job and my eyes were not. I filled the rest of the cells to the same level. Thanks again for the offer, scotty. I appreciate it.
  2. Tony1M
    Scotty, thanks! First, I'll try the steel wool method and report back.
  3. Tony1M
    I started the bike this morning for the first time this season. For the first time ever, I had the battery plugged into a battery-minder through the winter. The battery remained in the bike throughout the winter. (I have a permanent charger-connector on the battery and am able to connect the charger to it via a cable whose end is available externally.) When I turned the key I got the usual run-through of alarms on the dispaly, but the low-electrolyte alarm stayed on. I removed the cover and the electrolyte level in the sensor's cell, as well as the rest, seemed OK to me, so I removed the sensor, dipped it in a glass of water and the alarm stayed on. I think that I might have a bad sensor, but I'm not sure about that. Anyway, after determining that the battery level was OK, I put things back together, started the bike and went out for a ride. The bike started and ran beautifully. I want to have a working sensor and NOT do the resistor "mod" to eliminate the alarm, so: 1. Do these battery sensors occasionally fail? 2. Is dipping the sensor in a glass of water an adequate way to test it, or is the electrolyte part of the circuit? If so, should I just add demin water regardless of the present level in that cell? Any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks.
  4. Tony1M
    Dan, Thanks! http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y35/Tony1M/regulator.jpg
  5. Tony1M
    Do I smell just a bit of the odor of a group-buy?
  6. Tony1M
    I bought our horns from a person named Garret at this place: http://www.stebelengineeredsounds.com/main.html Garret is a fantastic guy to deal with. He responds to queries very quickly. He will ship to Canadian buyers using US Post, even though the company generally uses UPS. I had the horns in hand almost exactly a week after placing the order. (For Canadians ordering from the US, this is more than acceptable.) Because of my own experience, I highly recommend this place, especially for Canadians.
  7. Tony1M
    Same here.
  8. Tony1M
    I installed the two Stebel Magnum horns yesterday. http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y35/Tony1M/leftfront.jpg http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y35/Tony1M/Driverlefthorn.jpg http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y35/Tony1M/Driverrighthorn.jpg I easily installed each horn on the OEM brackets and wired the ground from each horn to the rubber-insulated bolt at each lower side of the radiator directly behind the silver-colored trim piece that is just behind each horn. (I have since determined that one could probably wire the ground right under the nut that secures the horn to the OEM bracket. Whether this would look neater than the way I have it now is debatable.) I pulled the two wires from each of the OEM horns up close to the battery , connected the like-colored wires to each other in parallel and installed a single female connector on each pair, then connected those two to the relay's low-current terminals that energize the relay's electromagnet. I then connected one end of an in-line fuse-holder to the positive battery terminal and the other to the parallel-linked 12-gauge positive wires that go to the horns. Right now, the relay is just dangling in the breeze near the battery box. The four wires connected to it seem to hold it in position adequately. I'll mount it more sturdily of something comes loose. Anyway, even though we were prepared for something loud, I just about scared the living s..t out of my wife and I the first time I pushed the horn button. These horns are very very loud - much louder than the horn on our Honda Accord that is parked right next to the bike in the garage. There is no doubt whatsoever that our new horns are going to make the drivers of any vehicles on the road around us sit (jump) up and take notice if I should decide that someone needs to know where our bike is. Ironically to me, my wife thinks that our horn may actually cause an accident if a driver loses control of his vehicle because of the scare. I suggested that trucks typically have very loud horns and that they don't seem to cause accidents, but I'm not really sure if they do or they don't. I just take comfort in the fact that when people hear very loud noises, they tend to move away from the source of the noise ("Tremors", 1990 ). OTOH, if someone is gingerly taking sips of very hot coffee as he/she drives down the road, when I hit that horn, , there's no telling what might happen to the coffee and, therefore, the driver's control over his vehicle. To any others who might be considering replacing their bike's OEM horns for something much louder, please give these babies some serious consideration. They are LOUD!
  9. Tony1M
    Thanks, Rocket!
  10. Tony1M
    Rocket, thanks for the information. Do you have any photos of the nautilus on the bike? Did you have to replace the OEM straight mounting bracket? Thanks again. Tony
  11. Tony1M
    Thanks for the information, guys! Unless somebody posts real soon that the nautilus is easily installed on a first gen., I'll be ordering the Magnums to replace our OEMs. Thanks again.
  12. Tony1M
    Forgive me for being off topic, but here's a place that does a fuel injection kit for VMax, so it might work in a 1st gen: http://www.roadstercycle.com/yamaha_vmax_fuel_injector_cv_car.htm You retain the OEM carbs, but replace the diaphram/slides and covers with fuel injectors (not included in kit?) and add the four throttle bodies. Of course you then have to buy a Megasquirt system, injectors, pump, gauges, etc., so some money is definitely going to change ownership during this little royal venture. (heh, couldn't resist) In the end, is this system really going to be less complicated and easier to maintain than four clean, well-synchronized carbs? I place my bet on "maybe".
  13. Tony1M
    The horns on our bike are pathetic. I've put off replacing them, but the other day I really wanted to give someone a blast, so now is the time to replace the OEM horns. I've done a seach and read several good threads about how to wire Stebel air and electromagnetic horns. I'd like to go electro because I think they may be easier to install than the nautilus. Please tell me if I'm wrong on that. I'm seriously considering putting these on our 84 VR: http://www.bikerhiway.com/stebel-magnum-motorcycle-horns-dual-tone-chrome-p-280.html http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y35/Tony1M/chromehorns.jpg Any first gen folks have these on their bike? If so, what do you think of them? Will they fit on the same brackets where the OEM horns are? (That is, can you just remove the OEM horns and install the new ones on the very same OEM brackets?) If you have these on your bike, please post some photos of your installation. Thanks for any information. Tony
  14. Tony1M
    I installed Jack's new fork brace this morning. I debated buffing it to a high polish, but decided to install as received: http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y35/Tony1M/newbrace.jpg A couple of light taps with a plastic hammer and the brace dropped right into position. Torqued to 16 ft-lbs and that was that. Hey, now I can go off-roading (after a few beers, of course)!! Thanks for your great service, Jack. Tony
  15. Tony1M
    I replaced the seals using the PVC pipe to seat the well-lubricated seals. I used 20 ga. single-strand aluminum wire to hold the the washers and taper cylinder in position while I installed the outer tube. My wife was the wire and steel-rod operator. When the wire/damper touched the bottom of the outer tube, she pulled up on the wire while holding the damper downward using the rod. After the wire was pulled up and out I could feel the outer tube move upward a bit as the damper rod made its way right to the bottom of the tube. Then I started the 10 mm bolt. Then my wife put the custom tool down the tube to secure the damper rod and I torqued the bolt to spec. I raised the outer tube to its uppermost position, added fork oil to 6" below the top of the inner tube, lowered the outer tube to full extension, installed the spring, installed the custom spacer, then, finally torqued the cap bolt to spec. Then I assembled the rest of bike, added some coolant, and took it out for a test drive without adding pressure to the front. Ride is noticeably firmer than before, but that is just fine with me. The bike takes bumps beautifully, with less "wallowing" than before. I tried a few emergency pulls of the front brakes and the anti-dive performed very well. So this is how a new front suspension is supposed feels, eh? Fantastic! I'm very pleased with just about every aspect of this job, including the service I received from Argyll Motorsport , the local south-side Yamaha dealer here in Edmonton. I ordered the parts last Wednesday, they called in the revised order last Thursday, and I received the all the parts today, Tuesday. Again, great service, Argyll Motorsport. Thanks again to everyone for helping me with this project. Sunday my wife and I will ride the bike (behind some friends' who are taking the same trip in their car) through the world-famous Icefields Parkway that runs between Jasper and Banff, Alberta. Breathtaking scenery and vistas. We'll stop for the night at "The Crossing" hotel, about mid-point down the Parkway. We took the same trip four years ago and it was fabulous in every respect. I hope that this weekend goes just a smoothly. Here is the bike as it sits in our garage tonight: http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y35/Tony1M/complete2.jpg
  16. Tony1M
    I'm sitting here stunned after just getting a call from Yamaha telling me that ALL of the parts that I ordered are "ready to be picked up". Before I leave I'd like to ask the forum a couple of questions. I know I should wrap the lower part of the fork with nitrile and coat it with oil in order to slide the seal on without damaging it. When I'm ready to finally seat the seal inside the outer tube, can I apply fork oil to the inside surface of the outer tube into which the seal will be sliding, or should both that surface and the seal be dry as the seal is pressed in? What should I use to press in the seal? The OD of the inner tube where the seal normally slides up and down is 1.57". The ID of the outer tube where the seal will seat is 2.04". As of right now, I plan on using a short piece of PVC pipe 1-1/2" nominal (actual: 1.592" ID and 1.900" OD) to press the seal into position. I might get away with making one cut logitudinally down the length of the pipe and then bend open the pipe in order to get over the inner tube. If it won't open up enough, I can either widen the cut until it does, or cut the pipe in half longitudinally and put both halves on the inner tube and use them together to press in the seal. I'd welcome any suggestions on how to do this more effectively. Thanks for any advice. If things go well, I should have the bike on the road tonight.
  17. Tony1M
    Will do. Thanks.
  18. Tony1M
    I now have two custom-made, 7/8" high aluminum spacers. The machinist just happened to have some 1-1/4" aluminum rod, so the job was very easy and pretty cheap. http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y35/Tony1M/spacer1.jpg When I got home with the spacers, I installed the spring and spacer. As I thought, the top of the spacer is even with the top of the tube. Just for the heck of it, I placed the cap bolt in position, pressed down and screwed it all the way in. Compressing the spring the first fraction of an inch to engage the thread properly was a piece of cake. Should I find it desireable to have an even higher spacer, I can just insert some washers between the spacer and cap bolt.
  19. Tony1M
    It is of interest. I've added two of those to my order. They're $19 bucks apiece. Yikes. Is the part being pointed to by the yellow arrow the one you're talking about and the one I've ordered? http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y35/Tony1M/metalslide.jpg When I called Yamaha to make the change, I was told that the order will be "called in" today. So I'm looking at next Thursday () at the earliest to receive the parts. Thanks for the advice, Brian. _____________________________________________________________ Because I'm working on a tube that is still in the bike, I've already got the dust seal and oil-seal-washer temporarily taped to the outside of the upper part of the inner tube. Today I plan to slide the oil seals up from the bottom of the (nitrile-wrapped-and-oiled) inner tube, up and onto the smooth, sealing part of the inner tube where it will remain until I get the rest of the parts. When that day finally arrives, I'll install the parts and do the rest of the assembly. I have questions about assembling. I had to do that "slide hammer" technique to remove the outer tube from the inner. Is there any particular technique to get the outer tube EASILY installed over the inner? I plan on using a piece of pvc pipe that has been split longitudinally down the middle to seat the oil seal in the outer tube. I'll bevel the inside bottom edge of the pipe so that that part of the pipe edge that contacts the seal will press down ONLY on the flat outside edge of the top of the oil seal, NOT on the upwardly-angled edge of the seal's "wiper". Does this sound like a good method? If not, I'd be grateful to hear any advice on seating the seal in the outer tube. With two progressive/dual-rate springs, what is the approximate amount of 10-weight fork oil I should buy to adequately fill the two tubes? Thanks again. Tony
  20. Tony1M
    Thanks, Paul. As far as the tool goes, never has a tool so big and heavy done so little (but important little). I'm now leaning toward holding those damper-rod parts in place using a single length of 18 gauge, plastic-coated, solid core, copper wire, rather than a wooden dowel with a paper clip attached. After the wire is poked through the inner fork tube, the upper end of the damper rod and then, finally, through the hole in the bottom end of the damper rod, I'd install the three washers and taper cylinder onto the damper rod, then bend a nice "L" or "J" in the end of the wire to hold everything in position. Then, as the outer tube is installed over the damper rod and inner fork tube, the damper/wire will finally make contact with the bottom of the outer tube. At that point I'd simply pull up on the wire, straightening the bend, releasing the taper cylinder and allowing the end of the damper rod to mate with the hole on the bottom of the outer tube WITHOUT allowing any of those parts the room to fall off the damper rod. Theoretically, as the wire unbends, releasing the taper cylinder, the taper cylinder will no doubt drop, but only a fraction of an inch - NOT enough for taper cylinder (or the washers above it) to slip off the damper rod. If 18 gauge wire is too stiff, I'll use smaller. This should work. It does indeed help. So, after the components of the fork tube are re-assembled, with the spring still outside the tube, I push up on the outer tube until it hits the stop, then I fill the fork to say 5.5" from the top of the tube. Then I fully extend the fork (dropping the oil level dramatically), put the spring in the tube, install the spacer and, finally, screw down the cap. Sound good? I'm going to have custom spacers fabricated from aluminum. The spacer will be "flush with the top of the fork tube with the forks fully extended". Thanks, Paul. When I ordered the parts earlier today, Yamaha told me that they should be here by next Wednesday. So, hopefully I'll be riding again by next Thursday or Friday. Tony
  21. Tony1M
    Ideally, with the spring installed, how far down from the top of the tube should the surface of the oil be? Thanks.
  22. Tony1M
    Yes, I think so, but I don't as yet understand how the group of washers/damper rod/damper rod hole/taper spindle/anti-dive all interact with each other. I don't understand how the oil flows through the various ports and holes, etc., but let's face it, the total amount of possible "compression" of the little stack of washers is only about 1/4" (when I get the new washers, I'll know for certain), so this is the maximum amount that the taper spindle can travel up and down the damper. (However, like other things in life, just a fraction of an inch can make a big difference in "performance".) There are two curved, springy washers (Yamaha calls them "spring, valve", part number 26H-2319M-00-00) and one straight washer (Yamaha calls them "washer", part number 26H-2319L-00-00). I believe they're arranged like this on the damper rod (the taper cylinder slides on from the right): http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y35/Tony1M/washerorientation.jpg
  23. Tony1M
    Papa Bear, the driver's right tube had only one spring washer in there, and the driver's left had only bits and pieces of the three washers remaining in the tube. In short, it wasn't pretty. For that reason I'll bet the anti-dive was not working on either side. I'll be ordering 6 new washers. MiCarl, no problem about the tool. It just cost me a few bucks. Maybe it'll come in handy for some other purpose. Today I built the tool suggested above by Tupperj. It came out very well. Rather than weld, I pinned both the bolt and the T to the central pipe/shaft in order to prevent rotation of either on the shaft. That other 10 mm hex bolt was in there so tight my wife could barely resist my turning force. Eventually the bolt broke free and I got everything apart. Yikes! The cap bolts and 10 mm bottom bolts were either tightened way over torque, or they were both "loctited" in there with the stuff that's supposed to be permanent. Since I don't know how high the 1-spacer/3-collar combination would actually poke out the top of the tube (if at all), I could compromise and put a 7/8" high custom aluminum spacer in there. Sitting on the spring, the top of that spacer will be just even with the top of the tube. It should still be an easy matter to push down just a bit with the cap to engage the threads of the tube properly, then, when it is completely screwed in, it'll compress the spring 7/8" rather than just barely compressing the spring as it did before. Better than nothing. I'm going to go ahead with my custom tool to keep everything in place, and NOT remove the tubes from the tree. My first plan requires two people. I will use a long wooden dowel that will go down through the entire length of the tube and taper spindle. I'll then attach a piece of paper clip, or light wire, across the end of the dowel that is long enough to temporarily hold the taper spindle (and the washers above it) in place. Another dowel goes down the inner tube to hold the edge of the taper spindle firmly downward against its spring. My wife will be the "dowel operator". Then I'll raise the outer fork tube up over the cylinder and onto the inner fork tube. When the paper-clip/taper spindle touches the inside bottom of the outer tube, my wife will pull out the dowel/paperclip. As the dowel is pulled up, the paper clip bends into an inverted V shape at the point where it is attached to the dowel, goes up through the fork cylinder (damper) and finally out of the bike. With the other dowel still holding the cylinder firmly down, I'll try to get a few threads of the 10 mm bolt engaged in the cylinder. After that, the big tool goes in to hold the cylinder and I tighten the rest of the way. Easier said than done, but I'll give it a whirl. Alternatively, I can poke a dowel UP through the hole in the bottom of the outer fork tube, then attach the paper clip or wire, and press it lightly up against the taper spindle to hold it in position, etc. This way, the weight of the big tool by itself will hold the cylinder firmly in postion all the way through bolt insertion. Might even be a one person job. I'd love to hear any other suggestions on how to hold that taper spindle and washers in position as I install the outer fork tube. (Light grease, maybe?) As you suggested, I'll wrap the tube with some nitrile to prevent damage to the seal. Of course I'll have to fabricate a device to seat the seal in the outer fork tube. I already picked up the seals at Yamaha. Good. Tomorrow I order the rest of the parts. Yamaha has told me that the parts should be here in 5 to 7 days. Not too bad, I guess. I'll post when there's something new to report. Thanks again for the help, guys. Tony
  24. Tony1M
    Amazingly to me, the local Yamaha dealer has the seals in stock, and can order the various washers at a price that no online dealer comes close. The only things I need are: two "spacers", Yamaha part number 26-H2316E-00-00 six "seat, spring upper", Yamaha part number 1W423142-L0-00 I'll be checking around for those elswhere. But if anybody has these, please PM me. Anybody know the total height of the three seats, plus spacer? In case I have to fabricate some kind of spacer, at least I'll know how tall to make it. I was thinking I'd get a piece of rod macined so that one end is flat and the other with a protrusion that would fit into the inner diameter of the spring with a shoulder above it to rest against the top of the spring. Thanks. Tony
  25. Tony1M
    Paul, thanks! When I wrote about the photo in the service manual that makes reference to how to orient the spring, I was not really interested in how to orient it. I was under the impression that the OEM spring had coils of equal spacing, so I was very interested in the fact that what is written in that service manual note seemingly confirms that the spring that came with the bike from the factory was/is indeed a progressive spring - one that has variable space between coils. If that is indeed the case, then the springs in our bike might very well be the ones that were in the bike originally. I already have in my mind a very simple tool that will allow me to hold all of the properly arranged parts in place on the damper rod while I install the outer tube over it. If it works, I'll post a photo of it. As soon as I finish this post, I'll be heading out to get the parts for the tool that will prevent the damper rod from turning when I either tighten or loosen the 10 mm bolt. Then I will disassemble the driver's right fork tube and determine exactly how many washers that I have to order. (I already know how many spacers and collars I will have to order.) I have to wonder why whoever removed the washers, spacers and collars did that. Was it only to allow the cap to go back on a bit easier, or was it to make the ride a bit more "luxurious", or soft? Regardless, I'd like to get them back in there, along with the now-missing OEM-specified washers. If the suspension is then too stiff, even with no air pressure, I can always remove the spacers and collars pretty easily (I hope I can test ride the bike without having to install the large dash pieces). I find it hard to believe that these parts are still availble. Are the VR's fork parts unique to the early first gens only, or are they common to other years of VRs, or perhaps even to another model that is still in existence, such as VMax? When you say "Mothership", is this the place you are talking about? http://street.parts-unlimited.com/ If not, would you provide a link or phone number to the Mothership? Thanks again, Paul.
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