luvmy40

My '83 has the same oil drain bolt as yours snyper. I thought it odd too.

Actually, what was portrayed was them modifying the original engine in one night. Remember the first motorcycle they put together was just a motor strapped to a bicycle. Absolutely doable. I loved that they included, very subtly the tomato can gas tank of legend. It was there and clearly tomato can but it was never mentioned.

https://www.amazon.com/Motion-Pro-Vavle-Shim-08-0017/dp/B000WJC0D4/ref=pd_lpo_263_tr_t_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=2EB9ZNGSQ2XG2H4RKQ29 Here ya' go! No way to make it work on the 83 Venture anyway. No room on half the valves even if there was a round shaft to work with.

Great mini series! I wonder when Harley-Davidson lost it's soul? In my youth, I was a die hard Harley man. The first street bike I owned was a HD FXST and it lead to several more over the years including a very short stint with a Knuckle Head. You couldn't pay me to take a Harley today. Well, I could be talked into a true vintage Harley of the Pan or Knuckle Head variety, maybe. They sold out and started stepping on the working man who kept the company alive during the AMF years and the HD Stealerships became RUB hangouts and Yuppie cafes. Meh.

Valves are all in spec, top end put back together and two bowl gaskets are leaking. Glad I checked them again before reinstalling the carbs! 4 gaskets on the way from parts-n-more. The wait continues.

Nice, listed as a choke cable bracket!

Welcome Home!

This may be the one you're thinking of. http://www.regulatorrectifier.com/catalog/1984-1985-1989-Yamaha-XVZ12-Venture-1200-CDI-Ignitor Not exactly cheap either.

The one still on mine seems to be held on with a spring from the extension to the lower rear skirt assy. I don't see any screw or clamp.

Ha! No idea! I haven't even looked at mine yet. I'm still getting the top end back together.

Any chance you have an extra turn down you can sell now??? I'm looking for one. Hint, hint, hint...

Outside to inside: Screw(needle) spring flat washer o-ring

I'm not sure how close the carb set up is between the '83 and the '86 models but it just occurred to me that, on my carb bank the bracket you are missing is not the same as the one in place. It incorporates a spring retainer for the throttle linkage and has a cut out for the push-pull throttle cable. It may not be that easy to fabricate.

Yamaha part # 12R-14105-00 is what I got for my '83 The air screw should be that same for any model year/model with these carb bodies the differences should be in the jet sizes.

I just got four sets from my local Yam shop for $6.00/ea. Screw, spring, washer and o-ring.

Check with your local R/C hobby shop for the small e clips and bushings. I picked up a variety pack of clips from one for $3.00 and it had clips for the enricher circuit linkage. That top bracket should be easy to fabricate.

I've got to get her back together and running again, but it sounded like she was only hitting on 3 cylinders at idle and low throttle but every thing sounded good at WOT. I had spark at all plugs and got a good sync but was still missing badly at idle. Three of the coils tested bad on the bike but then tested good at a later date off the bike. I have another set of coils and caps and new wire. I'll put together a set with the best numbers I can. I cleaned the carbs(twice) and got new air screws as the o-rings were in very bad shape and one was missing the spring. The diaphragms all looked good and they pass the swish test. All but one of the 16 valves were out of spec. A couple were severely out. One is near zero clearance. I have the shims to bring them all back to the max speced clearance(hopefully). The TCI connections were hideously nasty. It looked like it had spent a good bit of time under water. I cleaned them up as best I could and will probably revisit them before I put everything back together. My past experience with the Yamaha CDI/TCI boxes is that the bike either runs or it doesn't. I see that may not be the case with the Ventures. I hope to have everything back together for a test run later next week.

Shakin'

OK, the shim removal tool for these bikes is officially the biggest PITA I have ever had to deal with. The Yamaha XJ shim tool is close but there are some very simple work around methods that make it obsolete anyway. The Suzuki GS series shim tool is an exercise in simplicity comparatively speaking. A simple shepard's hook with a cam milled into the sides that can be used in nearly any cam position and rotated manual without turning the crank. Anyway, enough whining. Thanks to Flyin fool for straightening this old dog out on a simple matter that I refused to see! I got all my clearance measurements and a good start on documenting the shim sizes in place. 5 of the sixteen are within tolerance but 2 of those are on the extreme tight side of spec so I will probably change those shims too. One intake valve on cyl. 2 is I'm done for the night, I'll pick it back up tomorrow afternoon.

I have read in several other manufacturers' forums that a simple Ohm reading across the coil connections(back through the TCI sans coil) will show definitively if the TCI is bad but not necessarily prove it good. I.E. a low resistance reading means a bad circuit and thus, a bad TCI but a high reading just proves that particular circuit is not bad. No one could give a resistance range for good or bad, just extremely high or low. Would that test prove anything on the 1983 first gen TC!?

The 1980 850 Special shouldn't be a YICS engine.

Yeah, that's the tool for the XJ engines. Just to be clear, Yamaha doesn't mention capping the ports for sync on the Venture and you should be able to get good results just leaving them alone. However, I have read that the YICS chamber on the Ventures is prone to developing leaks with age. That's why I removed mine.

I'd ask the seller if he's experienced any of the '82 teething issues(starter/stator/stumble/etc.), but if I wasn't in the wrong country, broke and already up to my arm pits in a "new" Venture project, I'd be all over that!

The YICS tool(at least one of them) is for the XJ series engines where the YICS chamber is milled into the head. No YICS tool needed on the 83 Venture. You can disconnect the YICS lines and cap the ports during synchronization if you want. I just left mine capped off and removed the YICS chamber. On a side note, I have seen mention in several different places of connecting the YICS ports front to back with vac line. It supposedly enhances fuel mileage...? YICS is one of those engineering designs that works great on paper and should, in reality make a difference but doesn't seem to have much practical effect.

Yeah, it's my kids' fault! That's it!