luvmy40

Yep, Looks good to me. The rear master cylinder is gone in that pic. If is just removed for rebuild, no big deal. If it is just gone, it's $. I'd start dickering at $1,000.00 and point out that it is not rideable as there are no real brakes and the tires are far too old for safety. In all honesty, I always figure on new tires and a battery for any used bike. Doesn't mean I don't use that for leverage.

Hey all, We are offering 20% off all holsters for Independence day. I forgot to post earlier, Sorry! http://www.customcarryconcepts.com/

I don't know if I ever mentioned this anywhere in the forums before. The PO I picked The Beast up from gave me the standard story with some ridiculous embellishments. You know, garage kept, never ran in the rain, the odometer is actual. Blah, blah, blah. He also made the ridiculous comment that he had had a "racing cam" installed. I let it all go in one ear and out the other as I have dealt with the type on many occasions. As I have stated in other threads, she was in pretty bad shape as far as running goes. Only hitting on 3, sometimes two cylinders, but she still idled steady and ran down the road with authority. She had 26,248 miles on the odometer when I took possession. Now according to everyone I've ever talked to who knows these bikes even slightly, that would barely be past break in and certainly would not need valve adjustments yet. So why were all the valve clearances tight? Obviously the odometer had rolled over and she had 126,248 on the clock. I'm extremely happy that I have not had any more major issues than carb rebuilds, some new(to me) coils and plugs and wires to deal with. The exhaust leak is nothing really. Just a PITA at this point.

Well, she's running great and I now Know the popping is due to, or at least most likely due to the exhaust leak. I'll leave things alone until I can fix the exhaust leak.

Thanks Don, I have a color tune and have had limited success with it on the Venture. It does great on my XJs and was totally useless on my Suzuki GS bikes. I forgot to mention that I did test for vac leaks and found none. I used starting fluid and sprayed it around the intake rubbers and vac ports. So, I buttoned everything back up and went out to "blow the cobwebs out". About 15 miles on the freeway at 6500rpm. Everything was nice and smooth and when I twister her tail she instantly jumped. Extremely responsive at the higher rpms. When I got back, I let her idle at 1000 rpm for a minute or two and the stumble at idle is gone. I'll take a look at sealing up the exhaust when I park her for the winter. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that while not completely gone, the popping is much less severe after this round of adjustments. BTW, According to the Yamaha Factory Service Manual, you are supposed to chug the engine until the pressure stops rising with all plugs removed and grounded for the compression check.

Compression test results: Cyl. #1 165psi Cyl. #2 160psi Cyl. #3 170psi Cyl. #4 140psi Test parameters: All plugs removed CDI unplugged Battery charger connected on boost mode Throttle wide open 4 cycles repeated 4 times Numbers are averaged The differences between the way I tested today and the last time are may be quite significant. Last time the air box and carburetors were removed and I let the engine chug until there was no increase in pressure on the gauge. I installed new plugs, DPR8EA-9 gap set at .032"(.81mm) The old plugs still looked way too lean for my taste so I connected up the Carb Tune and fiddled with the mixture a good bit. Going by ear and keeping an eye on the manometer, I got the highest rpm and vacuum I could on each cylinder. I started with #1 and went around the bike 4 times then I set the synchronization. I have to admit that I am one of those guys that can let the pursuit of perfection get in the way of good enough so I forced my self to only run the sync procedure 3 times! Once again, all cylinders are richer than they were before the tweaks. I then ran to the local Dollar General for a BBQ lighter as I could not find any of the dozen or so that I know are in this house. Lighter in hand I immediately found a pretty severe exhaust leak at the #1 header. I could not determine exactly where because I couldn't keep the lighter lit. It's somewhere after the EGA port, maybe under the heat shield. Or, it could be the gasketed, clamped connection. All I know for sure is that it blew the flame out when I got close. No other exhaust leaks found. I think I'll go hit the freeway for a a 20 mile High rev run. How's 7K rpm sound? That might blow the cobwebs out, huh?

New plugs and a carb sync.

Yep, My manual matches Steven's. Bongobobny, No YICS chamber. It was cracked so I just took it off and capped the ports. It is possible that the caps have developed leaks since I last checked, so I'll check that again as well. I got new plugs today and will run another comp test and install the plugs gaped at .032". I had been setting the gap to factor spec of .036". I do alternate running Lucas fuel additive, Sea Foam and Star Tron enzyme. Not every tank but fairly regularly. My current tank is treated with the Lucas. I'll try to dig up a bore scope and see if I can get a look at the piston heads and valves.

I'll snag new plugs tomorrow as well. Any befit in going up a point in heat?

Yes, The float levels have been checked and are good. The compression spec from the service manual is 128-156 psi. It would appear that I am quite high. I will run another test ASAP just to make sure I wasn't reading the gauge wrong. I have been told since I ran that test that you should only cycle 4 times and I'm sure I chugged it much more than that. That may account for the high readings.

Here are the compression test results from 3/9/2018 Compression test results: #1 190psi #2 185psi #3 190psi #3 190psi #3 190psi #3 190psi #4 180psi I ran #3 multiple times as that cylinder was giving me grief at the time. The only change to the carbs other than new OEM gaskets and o rings are Skydoc's needle shims. No other modifications. I'm not sure what you mean when you say you are not impressed with the plugs. The plugs are new this season and have approx. 1700 miles on them. I checked for vacuum leaks around the same time I ran the comp test but I'll do it again tomorrow. Didn't find any leaks then. The main diaphragms and the coast diaphragms looked good from a visual inspection. I stretched them looking for pin holes and found none. If the acceleration was much more crisp, I'd have whip lash.

I just swapped the needle shims for Skydoc's shim set that is supposed to stop the popping.

Tried to get the popping on video. And when I got back from that ride she was stumbling at idle again.

I got some pics of the spark plugs and I decided to play around and do some vid clips. The popping and stumble doesn't come through in the audio as well as I'd like but here goes. The plugs all look way lean to me. N0.1 No.2 No.3 N0.4 I re tuned the pilot mix to best highest vac and ended up enriching all 4 cylinders a good bit. After bI got them tweaked to the highest vac. I opened them up 1/4 turn further, Then synchronized. Here's the result.

I used Skydoc's needle shims when I rebuilt the carbs. I have had the popping tuned out almost completely but it was definitely a rich mix. I'm going to pull the plugs later and see what they tell me. Right now the pilot circuits are tuned to highest vac reading then synced at 1000 rpm.

I mentioned this in another thread started by oldfailthful but didn't want to clutter his line up, so... I have been working on getting my pilot mixture and synchronization perfect. I've gone several different routes on the pilot mix. I first went with a color tune which I have used for years with great success on my XJ bikes. I didn't get the same level of feedback with the Venture so my results were only so-so. I then just tuned by ear with very poor results. So back to the color tune. Then I tuned to vacuum. BTW, My sync is always tight. That's never a problem. So here's the deal. No matter how I set the pilot circuits, I always either have a lot of popping on deceleration or sluggish throttle response off idle. Right now i'm getting both. She pops like crazy on decel and takes forever to warm up. Once warm, the throttle response is good. She's also developed a lope at idle. An intermittent "miss". I haven't investigated the miss as yet. Ok, so here's the strange thing. Tuned as is with the popping, slow warm up and lope at idle, I'm getting the best fuel economy I have gotten to date. My last tank ran 39.5 MPG as close as I can figure by filling to the same level in the neck visually. Up till now I'd been getting 33-35 mpg and before the carb rebuild I was getting 28-29 mpg. On a possibly related note; My voltage meter is showing 12v at idle and sits solid at 14v while riding but when not rolling, in neutral or with the clutch in at a light it will not rise above 12v at any rpm. This is a new bug. I just noticed a couple days ago and it went away for a short time but is back now. :confused::confused: ETA. She pulls strong once warmed up. Plenty of power and no detectable miss at speed.

oldfaithful, No I haven't dug into it at all yet. Cowpuc, I just posted up in another thread that I saw a sluggish rise to 14V for the first time since I have had The Beast. It only happened once but it took about 30 sends to get from 12 to 14V from a stop at idle when I took off. Then it was all good again.

My '83 has an intermittent stumble at idle. I've got her dialed down a bit low, about 950rpm+/- and I don't know if it's one specific cylinder or not.

DragonRider, If you do not already know about it, check out xjbikes.com another great forum dedicated to the Yamaha XJ series. One of the members(probably the owner) is a spectacular source of NOS and aftermarket parts for the XJ bikes. If chacal doesn't have it, it's not available.

Yes, That is exactly what this fix takes care of. My shouldered bolt was tight, just the jamb nut was loose, but I had an inch and a half, give or take of up and down play in the side stand when on the center stand. The Beast was leaning way too much when on the side stand. There's a thread thad has pics of the repair somewhere. But it really is simple. I used grade 8, 1/2" hardware. The thread I mentioned used M12-1.25 hardened parts. The 1/2" stuff requires a little more drilling than the M12 but I think it tightens things up better. I used a 1/2"-13x2" lag bolt and two 1/2"-13 nuts. I couldn't find a 1/2"-13 jamb nut so I just cut a regular nut in half with a right angle grinder and cut off wheel. Try to get a lag just a bit shorter than the shoulder on the OEM bolt. The lag should be long enough to extend through the top ear of the side stand, through the mounting tab and into the bottom ear but not through the bottom ear. Mine was just barely to the bottom ear. Drill the holes in the ears on side stand and the hole in the mounting tab out to 1/2". This drilled very easily with a cordless drill on low speed as you are not removing much stock at all. With the M12 hardware, I believe you only need to drill out the threads on the bottom ear of the side stand. I don't remember what size drill was recommended. Stick the bolt through the side stand and thread the nut and jamb nut on finger tight. Mark the length of the bolt flush with the jamb nut and cut it off. Remount the side stand on the bike. Tighten the first nut up until there is little to no up and down movement of the side stand but it still moves easily. Then lock it up with the jamb nut. A little medium strength LocTite wouldn't hurt but I didn't bother with it since that's exactly what the jamb nut is for.

I, and a couple local guys who ride Gen 2 bikes use Rotella T5 with Lucas additive. Works well and the Lucas smooths the shifting out immensely.

How's it going on the Maxim? Are the controls going to work for you? They were for the XJ750 originally.

Just to clarify. The voltage has always dropped to around 12V at idle. It just always picked back up to 14 as soon as the rpms were back up over 1500 or so. That fairly typical of motorcycle charging systems. This one time, it took a while to get back up to 14V. I know the Gen1 MK1 had an issue with the stator not getting enough oil for cooling. I'd just assumed(I know!) that at 130K mi. any problems would have already been dealt with or would have been obvious from the start.

I'll take a look at them tomorrow but I do keep a close eye on that kind of stuff and they were fine before I left for MD, about 1K mi. ago.

I noticed something I'd not noticed before while out on a ride this afternoon. While stopped at a traffic light my voltage was down at 12V. This in it's self is not odd. I've got the idle a little low, around 950 rpm+/- and the volt meter has always been solid at 14V when over 1500 rpm. I gave her a little throttle while still stopped, up to about 1800 rpm and the voltmeter didn't budge. When I took off from the light, I watched the voltmeter and it took a long time, maybe 30 seconds to come up to 14V. The next time I stopped, everything was back to normal. 12V at idle, 14V as soon as I took off. I haven't checked to see if the stator mod has been done or if she has an after market stator. There hasn't been any need as of yet. What exactly am I looking for on the stator cooling mod? Is there any way to determine if the stator is original or aftermarket? Does the simptom above sound like a stator or rectifier issue? Or, is it just a normal thing that I never noticed before? Thanks in advance for any input!