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One thing to think about also is replacing the rubber brake hoses with steel braided hoses. What I found on my 89 was that when I applied pressure to the brakes or clutch and had my hand around the rubber hose I could feel it expand in my hand. I ended up rebuilding all the brake and clutch components and added the steel braided hoses and the bike was able to stop a lot quicker then before. There are a couple places to get them as a kit for the bike. Also you should download the service manual from the tech section as you will find that a lot of help in seeing how to work on these bikes. Good luck and let us know if you have any questions. Rick F.

It does appear that they are discontinued for the 83 but still available for the 86-93 Ventures. It also helps us that the Vmax uses the same parts in their carbs also so we have a little longer availability run for the later Ventures. We can no longer get the needle set for the 86-93 Ventures as the Vmax uses a different needle set for their carbs. Rick F.

I found that this kit offered the most in o-rings and gaskets for the carbs. http://www.carburettorshop.com/contents/en-us/d380_Mikuni_BDS_carburetor_parts_and_rebuild_kits.html Pay for the quicker shipping as the standard shipping can take a month to get here as this comes from overseas. But the K&L is also a nice kit but doesnt have as many of the parts. I ordered the main nozzle, and needle valve assemble from Yamaha. There is also a company in Canada what offers parts for the Venture, SCI https://www.siriusconinc.com/index.php They offer the rubber plugs for the jet block, diaphragms, and other assorted parts. I would NOT use the Keyster carb kits as I dont think they are worth the money in my opinion. Hope this helps.. Rick F.

Just to let you know there is no one stop carb kit for these bikes. There are some companies that have partial kits, but you will have to source some parts from Yamaha no matter what you do. I would suggest strongly getting Damons DVD on the Vmax carb rebuild as it is full of so much information on disassemble and reassemble of the carbs it will save you a lot of pain down the road. He does show rebuilding the Vmax carbs but there is only a couple of small difference between the Venture and Vmax carbs. One thing to check is the diaphragms for holes or tears in the rubber. There are a couple of sources for those besides Yamaha and it can save you some money. Let us know if you need some more information Good luck Rick F.

The Vixen model is a bare bones Venture. It has no factory radio, cassette, intercom or CB. It is also missing the Class system, ie ride control. These are all items that the Royale model comes with. It was my understanding that starting in 1988 the Vixen model was dropped and all Ventures were Royale models. But I could be mistaken on the year. Looking at the colors guides, there was a color in 87 that appears to be only a Vixen color, Orion Silver. I wasnt aware that colors were limited to different models of the Venture but that seems to be the case. Does anyone recall if that is the way it was? Well while looking over the color guide, the do show a 1988 Venture color of Salt Lake Silver while they list over colors for the Venture Royale model. So I could be mistaken on the year that the Vixen was dropped as all the years after that only show the Venture Royale colors. So I guess this is a 1988 Venture Vixen, my mistake here on that. It appears that 1989 is when the Vixen model was dropped and all Ventures where the Royale model. Rick F.

Just a note here.. I am thinking that is a 1987 model and not a 88 as Yamaha stop making the Vixen model after 1987. After that they were all Royale models. Plus that color combo was available in 1987.. Still a great bike and you will get a lot of enjoyment out of it.. Be safe and enjoy the ride... Rick F.

I did skydoc's drain plug fix last year and didnt leak a drop all winter long. It is well worth the cost and to do it when you can flushing your cooling system. Rick F.

I got my 89 VR out of its winter parking spot and started it up. It fired right off as I store my bike with a full tank of non-ethanol gas and seafoam added at the fillup so it mixes into the cards as I ride it home. Changed the oil and filter before running out of time to give it a bath. I am so looking forward to riding it this season. Rick F.

If you look at the 89 VR clutch fiche you will see they do sell a kit to rebuild the clutch slave.. https://www.partzilla.com/catalog/yamaha/motorcycle/1989/venture-royale-xvz13dw/clutch It is item 30. This is what I used to rebuild my 89s clutch slave a number of years ago and it hasnt leaked yet. [TABLE=class: table table-hover table-striped table-responsive] [TR] [TD]30[/TD] [TD]PUSH LEVER SEAL KIT 26H-W0098-00-00 [/TD] [TD] $34.99 $23.13 [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] Checking the part number on the clutch slave replacement, they are the same for the 83 and 89. Hope this helps you out.. Rick F.

Use some new clean brake fluid to help lube the seal and piston when you put it on.. it will help in preventing a tear or nick happening to it.. Rick F.

I think you need to remove the starter as you are talking about.. hook it up to the battery and see what happens. To remove the starter you might need to remove the thermostat housing also. Least it makes it a lot easier to remove the starter when it is out of there. The starter from the 83 will fit the 86 or if you want to spend some money, a 4 brush starter from a 91-93 Venture or a 2nd gen starter will work also. Gives you a little bit more torque when spinning the motor over when hot. There are some excellent post on here about the starters and mods you can do to the 2 brush ones also. I am sure you will get this figured out.. Rick F.

Victory did state they would be supply parts for the next 10 years when they made the announcement of stopping production. So I dont see that being an issue for at least that long. Rick F.

Ok.. I would take a volt meter and start tracing voltages in the starting system. You can get an inexpensive one at Harbor Freight or one of the big box stores. The service manual has a nice flow chart of what to look for where but it takes that voltage meter to do it properly. It seems to me you might have a relay that isnt working properly, maybe a loose wire or a bad solenoid or as Yamaha calls it, Starter Relay. You could move the heavy gauge wire that run from the solenoid to the starter, from the solenoid and touch it to the postive terminal of the battery and see if the battery spin over. This wont start the bike but show that you have a working starter. Next step would be to see if you have power to the solenoid on the L/W.. Blue/White wire that runs to the solenoid, this is what activates the solenoid to make the connection for the postive cable. You should hear it click when you energize it. It is located on the left side of the battery box as you sit on the bike. Check out page 7-9 thru 7-18 of the service manual for procedures to check out the starting system.. Service manual is available at the link in this post.. http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?3384-First-Gen-Service-Manuals Let us know what you find. Rick F.

Sorry I left off something with the clutch switch.. the B/Y... Black/Yellow and the L/Y.. Blue/Yellow need to be connected to start the bike when in gear.. This shouldnt matter if the bike is in neutral as long as that switch is working properly.. Do you see the Neutral light on? I would try and temporary connect them together and see if you can start the bike that way.. If you havent downloaded the service manual, I highly recommend it as it has a lot of procedures for testing with a volt meter.. Do you have the fairing off of the bike.. I saw you said the fairing pockets are empty.. Those would contain the radio and its components in the left one and the right one would have the Class control unit and the CB.. none of these are required for the bike to run. Is the starter motor spinning and engaging the engine and turning it over? Good luck.. Rick F.

For me a days ride is anywhere from 350 - 500 miles depending on where I am riding too and doing along the way. These bikes are so easy to ride long distances that a 400 mile ride is so easy to do. Rick F.

The B/W.. black/white wire is what disengages the cruise control. These wires need to be attached together for the cruise to work. This pair of wires also goes to all the brake switches so that if any of them are operated, it breaks the circuit and the cruise control is released. But note, attaching them together will not let the clutch lever break the cruise control if engaged, just keep that in mind. The sidestand switch is used to ground the two leads coming to it. The L/Y..Blue/Yellow and the G/L.. Green/Blue wires run to different system but when grounded by the B..Black wire cause the engine to shutoff. I would leave the L/Y and G/L unattached and seal the end of the wires so they dont ground out or touch anything else. Again doing this disables the safety features of the bike and could cause you to ride off with the kickstand down and possible cause an accident for you. I pulled the color codes for the wires from the service manual for the 86-93 Ventures as I dont have any experience with doing what you want to do. Good luck.. Rick F.

No matter what brand you buy, I would make sure it is made here in the USA and NOT China. The China ones dont seem to last very long no matter what brand you buy. I have a Mills Fleet Farm,Road Runner AGM battery in my 1st Gen that is 6 years old. I keep it on a battery tender all winter long and hasnt failed me yet. When the time comes for a new one I will buy the same one as it is nothing more then a rebrand Deka AGM made by East Penn Manufacturing. Rick F.

I checked the service manual for Middle Gear Service on pages 3-45 & 54 and they call that seal a dust seal but I do see where the parts fiche calls it a oil seal. There is a O-ring in the manual and parts fiche, #19 in the fiche that could be the issue. Looking at the pictures in the service manual and from what I remember, this seal isnt accessible from the back of the engine without taking out the middle drive shaft and housing with the shims. If you want to make sure if isnt in that area, you could remove the rear wheel, swing arm and then you would have access to it. My thought if is was leaking oil the swing arm boot would have the oil in there and not on the swing arm. This would show as a leak at the back of the engine. Just some of my thought. Keep up the good work. Rick F.

Welcome.. What the sound you hear with the clicking is the fuel pump kicking in once it sees power which gets it's power from the same source as the ignition system. Check the fuses, back sure they are tight as Yammer Dan stated. A lot of us on here have upgraded the fuse panel to the blade style of fuses and one of the members here does sell a kit to do that. Also just check the connection to make sure they are clean and tight.. Take a look in the tech section in the forum for the 1st Gen, we call your bike, 86-93, a 1st gen MK 2, so look for items related for that. Let us know how that goes and what other question you might have. Rick F.

I would ride it more and then in a week or so, double check for the leak again and see if anything shows or wait till you see something on the ground under the bike. How did the oil look with the UV light when you looked in the sight glass at the oil? This kind of leak can drive you crazy trying to locate and solve it. Good luck Rick F.

I also have a full set of JIS screwdrivers and use them on everything. They are the only thing I use on my motorcycle now and I havent rounded a head off since starting to use them. I know they can be a little harder to find but well worth the hunt for a quality set of them. Rick F.

You can try a couple of things with the carbs.. One is call the shotgun method.. You basically remove come of the adjustment screws and use carb cleaner and compressed air to blow out the carbs passages. here is a link to another site that shows how to do it.. http://vmax.lvlhead.com/tips/shotgun.htm While this is for the Vmax, we have the same carbs for the most part on our 86-93 VRs.. You could also try using some seafoam in the gas tank and running a can thru the carbs. I would start with fresh gas and put about half a can in first and top the tank out with gas. Run the bike for about 10 mins and then shut it off and let it sit overnight then get it out and drive it hard and you might see an improvement as you ride it around. Just a couple of the things we have done here to get the bikes running. Let us know if you have more questions on this.. Rick F.

I agree with Casey, I use the carbtune and find it easy and accurate to use. I ended up order mine for the manufacture in England. https://www.carbtune.com/ They list if for about $105 USD shipped to the USA and it is well worth the money. Rick F.

Yes, you need the airbox to make the carbs operate properly and yes, you HAVE to sync the carbs for it to run correctly. Get yourself a quality sync tool for this as you will need to use it multiple times a year to keep the bike running at its best. The carbs are the touchiest item on the bike but easy to sync once you done it a few times. Good luck and enjoy the bike. Rick F.

if I recall correctly, you need to pull the windshield and the headlight bezel off to access the RLU, it is located behind and above the headlight. Also refer to the previous post from videoarizona with the link in it to see which wires that need to be connected together for everything else to keep working properly. Good luck Rick F.