luvmy40

OP, Who rebuilt the carbs? If the answer is not "Me"(or possible one of our members here) then you can bet corners were cut. I'd question if they even bothered to set the float levels. Just my personal experience. If you want it done right, do it yourself.

At this point, you should run a compression test, bench sync the carbs and check and recheck all the rubber bits and hoses for cracks and proper connection. The Harbor Freight compression tester is good enough to find any major issue and should reach all four cylinders.

Always great to hear about a good dealership! My local yammer shop is stand up. Yamaha of Warren. They bend over backwards to help me keep my 30+ year old fleet on the road.

Slip Streamer has been around for quite a while. They make an OEM spec replacement screen for the Gen. 1 bikes and I have their Hell Fire screen on my Maxim 750. I ran a Spit Fire screen on my Seca for years. Good quality and excellent CS from SS.

Sounds good. Keep us posted. One of these days I'll actually be able to make one of these meets.

OK, the batter is a 12VDC source. If you take a voltage reading at the battery terminals with the engine running, anything over 12VDC is output from the regulator/rectifier. You want to see 14VDC or something close to it. Ideally, 14VDC at any RPM but realistically, bikes need to be at 2000RPM +/- to see good charging voltage.

Maybe I just missed it, but what is the DC output from the regulator at 2000rpm?

Serious question. What advantage do you see with this on the left grip?

No need for one on the left grip. This just allows you to use the heel of you palm to keep the throttle stead rather than a hand cramping death grip. I've had both styles(the one with and the one without velcro) the velcro style works better. Kuryakyn makes their Throttle Boss that can be added to their ISO grips. They work very nicely.

He claims it runs and is ride-able. He said it was sputtering badly at higher rpms so he ran some seafoam and it cleared up. I doubt it but I've seen seafoam do some pretty impressive magic in the past. I'm sure it needs a good carb cleaning and sync at the very least. The fact that he is unwilling to ride it to meet me tells me there is something more in question.

Well, all trades are off right now. The fellow that wanted to trade for a motor home decided to wait until his next trip back up from FL before doing anything. He didn't have enough time to do the required maint. or get titling and registration straightened out to drive it home this trip. Still a possibility but back burnered at the least. The dude with the '83 has texted me twice now with successively lower cash prices. He's down to $850.00 but has admitted that it has carb issues and a dead battery. I wasn't really looking for another Venture when I found these and really don't have an extra $K to play with. Still, if he comes down any more, I may have to think about it as a parts bike if nothing else.

I'll look around the show for you. Do you have a model name or number of a specific knife you want?

I am having the same kind of feelings for this bike. I was an avid HD man in my youth and forswore "touring" bikes as a wimp's ride. I made many cross country rides on my trusty FXST with no screen, fairing or hard bags and I loved it. 25 years later a wind screen at the least is a must, and the Gen1 style tour package has really taken it's place in my heart. This new '18 Venture has all the things great about the V-twin bike combined with all the things great about the frame mounted touring packages. The one thing I remember as being less than stellar with the HD engines was throttle response at highway speeds. Pushing the ton was never an issue but accelerating from 65mph in 4th gear was something you planned and anticipated. Even with a down shift there was no instant acceleration available. That is one of the things I love about the Venture. I get snappy acceleration from 65-95mph and have plenty of throttle left. It's a moot point for me at this time at any rate as I seem to have a thing for 30+ year old bikes:12101:

Freebird, There a 5 or 6 serious knife collectors/dealers that do the NEO gun show circuit. I buy/sell/trade with them regularly. One or all of them probably have exactly whet you are looking for. The next show is Aug, 26-27 at the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds in Berea. I set up at that show as well. If you come out, stop by my table. Custom Carry Concepts.

does the smoke smell "sweet"? Possible head gasket issue?

PB wants $400/year to allow 3rd party hosting.(IMG tags)

Oh well, the guy with '83 turned out to be the typical CL douche. All of a sudden he can't ride to meet me, so I'll go to him. Then he "Got laid off today, I really need cash." when he was the one who instigated the trade scenario. Maybe the trade for the '89 MK2 will go through for my son.

So, what are these many problems that I should be wary of? I know they are prone to losing second gear but that's the only warning I've been given. That and not to buy Chinese gaskets! Though I had to figure that out the hard way. Is it just the 83 that had frame rust problems? I thought that was the entire gen1 series?

I'd question the experience levels of the riders in this. Not that it invalidates the study in any way, but How many experienced riders drop their bikes often? I have dropped a few when I was very young and learning to ride the heavier street bikes, but it has been at least a 2 decades since I "dropped" any bike. I suppose they may be talking about drops happening when pushing a bike around in a cramped garage or such but I doubt it.

Sometimes just applying a little tightening force can break loose a stubborn screw.

I'm considering trading my '82 Yamaha Maxim 750 for another '83 XVZ12TK.. The guy selling it is asking way too much for it unless it's immaculate, but he said he'd be interested in trading for a smaller bike. There's also an '89 1300 Royale that is more reasonably priced and the guy is looking for a motor home to trade. My son happens to be the owner of an older GM based motor home that has been sitting in storage for several years now. He may be interested in the trade. We could wind up with three Gen 1s in the driveway.

I'm in the same boat as the OP. My '83TK feels perfect sometimes and other times I'm asking myself if I'm dropping a cylinder. The carbs are synchronized, the valve clearances in spec and the spark plugs and wires are new. Start's easy and idles clean. She'll hit 65mph in 2nd gear before red line and 95 in third. But, my fuel economy sucks and every once in a while I get that nagging little feeling like I just lost a piston.

If you're not getting fuel to the front carbs but are getting fuel to the rear carbs, you have a blockage in the fuel manifold on the carb bank or both front carb bowl valves are clogged.

OK, I do have the 26H CDI so it's plumbed correctly to the carb vac port. I'll have to strip some plastic to get at the boost module to test it.

I use Seafoam in every other tank of gas on all my bikes and cars and I do a flush with it prior to my oil changes on the bikes. Berryman B12 is good stuff. It's quite a bit more aggressive than Seafoam so be careful to follow the mixture recipe and never, ever add it to your oil. Some folks like to use B12 in the "shotgun" method carb clean. I've never tried that though