Flyinfool

A hot battery usually means it has been putting out a lot of amps. An easy test to rule out everything else on the bike is to connect jumper cables from your car battery directly to the starter (Car not running). Make doubly, triple sure that the bike is not in gear, because you are bypassing every single safety circuit on the bike. If it cranks then the starter is good and you have an issue in some other circuit on the bike, if it don't then the starter is bad and most likely the rest of the bike is fine. Since all of the lights and radio dim AND the battery is getting hot, that means you are drawing a lot of power. It could be possible the the starter cable has rubbed thru somewhere and is shorting to ground.

@cowpuc does claim to be able to get into my shed to be able to mess with certain machinery................. I'll have to send him the bill for 5 gallons of gas, maybe wrap the bill in a big SNOW ball...................

This happened once about 5 or 6 years ago and it just happened again. A full tank of gas has dissapeared out of my bike. Last month when I went out to look longingly at the bike while the ground was still covered in snow it had a full tank of gas. I started it up and let it run at a high idle for about 45 minutes. This brought it down to 5 of 6 bars on the gas gauge. Yesterday I had to put in a new battery, turned on the key, and it was showing zero bars on the gas gauge. I looked in the tank and it was bone dry. Empty, nada, nutin there. First thought was to check the oil. nope, the oil level is exactly midway up the sight glass, so I pulled all 4 plugs just in case there was a cylinder full and spun it over, Nope none there either. Looking at the ground for signs of gas dripping, not a mark on the ground. The gas cap was still locked, the bike was in a locked steel shed, and the jug of gas on the floor next to the bike was still full, so I doubt that it was theft. No kids in the house anymore, wife would not know how to get gas out of a tank. Like I said about 1 month ago it showed up as 5 out of 6 bars on the gas gauge which would be about right. The tank took the full contents of my 5 gallon gas jug to fill it, and there was still room for more. Today there is no sign of dripping or leaking. If it was a stuck float and gas was siphoning out of the tank, where did it go. If it was siphoning it should not go below about a half tank cuz gas don't flow uphill and the bottom of the tank is well below the carbs. SOOOOOOO Where did the gas go??? We never did figure this one out back the last time it happened either. Here is the thread from last time. http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?67529-OK-Where-do-you-think-the-gas-went

I do not know for sure on the alignment, I never messed with a setup like that. I agree that caster does not apply. Camber I would think should be either 0 or with the tops of the tires tilted slightly to the center, Tops tilted out would be bad. You can measure with a level. As for Toe, I would think it should be like a trailer axle. Either 0 or slightly toed in, toed out would give handling issues. To measure toe use 2 straight 2x4s clamped to the tires and measure the distance across the front and the back of the 2x4s to see which way the tires are pointed. Also lay out the center of the bike and measure out to each 2x4 to be sure that both tires are pointed straight ahead. As I said there are just my best guess for a good starting point.

Check that your headlight aim is correct, many people mistake bright and a poorly aimed light that will blind oncoming drivers. You do not want to cover up the cooling fan and/or heat sink with anything or you will burn up your new bulb. You also want to make sure that the hot air has a way out of the headlight housing and cool fresh air has a way in. BUT you do not want water to get in there either.

I don't think a power nap on a picnic table bench would be frowned on so much as setting up camp to spend a night. I still take power naps in rest areas and have never had anyone say a word to me.

Just a thought from an engineering perspective. Just going by the fact that the original design was a solid suspension with no springs. With the heavier springs that you installed they are now able to hold the bike upright sitting still, but are they strong enough to keep the bike upright in a hard turn at speed? The bike suddenly leaning the wrong way in a turn would be extremely dangerous. Try some static tests, Get on the bike and hang your body weight as far off to each side as you can, does it still stay straight up? If not you will have issues on the road. Even if it does. work up to the fast turns very slowly, if the bike starts to lean the wrong way it will be trying to throw you off and the shift in Center Of Gravity to the outside of the turn, coupled with the centripetal force, could allow the bike to easily flip. Yes wear lots of safety gear while testing. I sure hope it all works out just great.

http://www.mtdparts.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ARIPartFinderView?storeId=10101&catalogId=19502&langId=-1 They have all the exploded views and you can order the springs while there.

It was a good time, lots of pizza, some Rum Balls for desert, a bit of whipping, and even some celebratory gunfire..................... .........................and then there is the part of what happens in chat stays in chat................

Oh we will do it again. But you do not need a special invitation, please drop in most any evening. There is usually someone in Chat.

IN lwei of more details we will have to invent our own............... I have to fall back on my standard theory of Dynamite. If you have enough Dynamite, you can make any problem go away. If it wont go away, your not using "enough" Dynamite. I'm sure we can get whatever it is apart. I also have a cutting torch and a sledge hammer, and a welder. I can do anything.

He's practicing the eat part. So am I. Gotta be able to keep up. There should even be some of the famous Rum Balls.

Puc, You don't know just how close you came to haveing a PAIR of engineers named Jeff show up in your driveway at the same time. A very dangerous possibility.

Creamy and looks like chocolate milk is water/antifreeze in the oil. This is a critical thing that must be found and fixed. The engine and transmission share the same oil so whatever is in one is also in the other.

Does that mean that you got the lifters freed up on the bike?

I did say it was a WAG............

On a 1st gen there is no need to pull the carbs to check valves. If there is a bit of rust on the valve seat causing it to be slightly open, the valve lash check will give wrong calculations and you will end up with a way to thick of shim and then when the interference goes away the valve will be way to tight. If it was all good before storage and the valve and carbs went bad during storage the valve adjustment would not have changed and the carbs are just gunked up. Normally the exhaust valves wear a lot faster than the intake valves, so if was a lash issue it would be more likely on the exhaust than the intake. Not impossible, just less probable.

Just a Wild ass guess. O/S could be Over Size? U.R. could be User Replaceable? Purely a guess on my part. Since all of the Shims are marked U.R. and the correct one to use must be determined by the mechanic.

A full can of Seafoam in the gas tank can fix many neglect evils and is s not a big investment in time or money. I would certainly try that before anything else. Just dump in the Seafoam and do a few hot laps around the block every day until the tank is empty or it cleans up and starts running good. If the full take of heavy Seafoam does not clean it up. then you need to pull the carbs for a proper cleaning. The sticky valve might just clean up with the Seafoam also. If not then while the carbs are off you can look in there as see if there is anything to see with the valve. It is possible that that valve was open the entire storage time and there is a bit of rust on the seating surface that just needs a bit of time to seal back up. I always try the cheap solutions first, I hate throwing money at an issue and hope it goes away.

You will have to grind down below the top of the bucket, The damage is always deeper than what you can see. Not only is the top surface layer of aluminum mashed over the edge of the bucket, but for a small distance the bor that the bucket sits in is also pushed out of round and pinching the bucket into the bore from the side. It is OK if the grinder makes some small mark on the bucket. If you are grinding then you should see sparks anytime you are hitting the bucket, the aluminum head will not throw sparks. Patience and persistence will pay off. It is worth it to keep grinding until it frees up, worst case you have to replace with head off your parts bike. Best case you are able to save it and not do a head swap. the head is no good as is so you can not hurt it with more grinding.

For me, when riding in the dark, all headlights start to look like they are on high beam and hut my eyes. When I am well rested the oncoming headlights do not bother me unless they are actually on hi beam. The other one that is becoming more prevalent in some of the newer cars with LED tail lights. Many car makers use what is called PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) to dim the LEDs for the tail lights, this means that there is a circuit board that is flashing the LEDs on and off at a high frequency to make them appear dimmer. Most people can not see the flashing and only perceive the dimmer light. My persistence of vision is low enough that I can see the flashing of the LEDs and the more fatigued I am the more it bothers me to the point that I must either pass them or slow down to get another car in between us. In day light, when my eyes start to have difficulty transitioning back and forth from shade to sun. Interrupted sunlight like you would get along a tree lined road really hurts my eyes if I am tired.

Well ifin I cant play with my summer toys, then I will have no choice but to make snow year round so I can play with my winter toys. @cowpuc has been hounding me to finish developing that Snow that does not melt until 60 degrees..................

Sorry, I hate rain so I will not work on that one. Rain makes riding much less fun. Rain Makes grass grow. Then I have to waste riding time cutting it. If it never rained there would be no need for expensive roof replacements or foundation leaks. Drought is good. Brown dry grass is good. But SNOW is fun to play in.

I know I bought one of those wrenches, never needed it yet, I'll be darned if I did not find a really, really safe place to put it so that I would never loose it ............... I am getting a pretty long list of things that were put in that really really safe place..............

Yup just like the title says, I tried everything in my power. I took the front end of the bike apart to change out the front wheel bearings (they are the reason I parked it last fall.). Ordered new bearings and seals from Boats.net, should be here in a couple days and the bike should be back together by next week end. The front bearings were the only thing that HAD to be done to make the bike safe to ride this year. I got my foot healed up to where I can move the bike around and lift it onto the center stand at will, so that I am safe to ride. I got my heart working good enough to end the drugs that were giving me dizzy spells. Then I cleaned up the back hall and I put all of the snow and ice removal tools and supplies away. Then I even went and took the winter safety gear out of the truck, put it all way, and even put away the trucks snow and ice removal tools. I even dug out the summer gear an loaded it into the truck so it is ready for any hankerin for a quick trip to the beach. I do not know what more I can do to temp fate and squeeze one more good snow storm out of this season....... You may just have all beat me down enough to allow the full riding season to begin.........