MiCarl

I didn't notice initially that you live in the great white North. The border adds another layer of potential shipping problems.

Slow down. I'd presume it's either not bled or the master cylinder needs rebuilt. If you haven't opened the clutch there is really nothing on the engine side that could cause your symptoms. Even a bad slave will disengage the clutch a few times until the system leaks out.

I use Parzilla for my oem parts (they're part of the same family as Boats.net). Their economy shipping hands the package off to USPS for the last mile and when that happens the tracking information is useless. I found this out when USPS marked a package delivered but it wasn't. It turns out the postal worker marked it delivered in the truck, decided it might rain and since no one was in just carried it around in her truck for an extra day. She's the good one, the other driver will just roll a box out the door and let it drop in the parking lot. When I'm paying for shipping (it's usually free because of my volume) I always spend the extra $3 to have it ride the whole way on the UPS truck. It also gets to me a day earlier that way. Interestingly, when they're paying the shipping it comes the whole way UPS.

If the voltage gets low enough the ignition system will start to act up and then shut down. Probably not the battery though, it should keep running even with a bad battery. You need to make sure the charging system is working.

Yeah, but I'll bet a MKI coupler would fit into a 2nd gen final drive though.

I don't know if I've ever been in there on a 2nd gen but I did look into parts compatibility when I broke the pinion gear on my '89. As I recall they used the same coupler. I think there should be a couple small holes in the back of the coupler to let gear oil splash in there and I don't see them. I wonder if they're plugged with debris.

There isn't an o-ring. There was a boot between the drive shaft and the coupler in the final drive. The band around the shaft against the splines and that ring rattling around were molded into it.

I'm curious if the oil seal got destroyed during disassembly or if it was like that when it came out. I'd think you'd have to tear up the seal then throw it in a lake for ten years to get it to look like that.

That looks like the final drive end of the shaft to me. Do I have that right? Those splines should be picking up lubrication from the final drive. If the final has been run without oil you might want to look at swapping the whole thing.

Never have run into that. Mine does have some overhang at the rear and not sure I've ever lowered the lift without a whole motorcycle on it. When raised the table is pretty much over the lift "wheelbase".

If you're putting the motorcycle on backward you should be able to (we put them on backward but pull the whole fork from the tree). Not sure how you'd get the wheel out of the way if you have it on frontward.

Are you talking about the washers cowpuc pointed out or the ones on the spindle (24, 23, 24). Those are part of the anti-dive but I'm not clear on what exactly they do.

Yep! Neglect of proper lube in those places are the most common failures. Particularly the splines between the rear hub and wheel.

Simplicity and Snapper are owned by Briggs Power products. You won't get them with anything but a Briggs & Stratton engine. Don, I recently purchased my first zero turn to replace a 19 year old lawn tractor. I ended up going with a 48" Simplicity Courier. The 48 and 52" models have suspension at all four corners, they have the most comfortable seat and the largest diameter tires in their class. When I test rode one side-by-side with a competitor the ride difference was quite noticeable. The Courier mows at twice the speed of the old lawn tractor and beats me up less. The impression I got in my research is a residential Zero Turn transmission is good for about 1000 hours if you don't overload it. I got the Courier 48 which uses the same Hydro-Gear EZT as all the residential competitors. I only use it about 50 hours/year so 1000 hours should cover me into old age. Their 52" model uses a heftier transmission than the 48, but I don't know its life expectancy. It's got a Briggs Professional Series Engine. It's been ok for the 6 hours I've used it. I will say their auto-choke system seems to be junk. Cold starts take a lot of cranking before it fires up. I'd encourage you to find a dealer with a 52" Courier and a competitive product you can drive over the same terrain. I was pretty impressed with the difference in the 48" class.

Here is a question I ask my customers: "Do you think Yamaha (or Honda, Kawasaki etc.) would buy balancing equipment and pay people to operate it if their engineers thought you could balance a tire by throwing in a handful of sand or a squirt of goo?"

That's not the only reason Oberlin is in the news this week. Students at Oberlin College have submitted a petition requesting the school cancel midterm examinations and forbid grades below C. The students claim they are too busy being community activists to do their school work...... Oberlin students want to abolish midterms and any grades below C

I wouldn't run it for even a second. If you bent or broke a rod the next revolution could damage the crankcase. That would take you from a major repair to an excruciating repair. I'd drain the oil and inspect for debris, pull the spark plugs and turn the engine over by hand until I had a good idea what was going on.

Wet cell batteries will last a long time if properly charged and maintained. Overcharge, let them sit discharged or let the fluid get low and they die young. I've got a friend had the original battery in his RoadStar last 11 years.

Seems unlikely that excess fluid was causing the squeak. Maybe it was causing the diaphragm to chatter somehow..... Make sure you clean every drop of it up and wash with soap and water. Brake fluid will ruing paint and plastic. Your clutch reservoir should not be filled much above the LOW mark. Unlike brakes, as the clutch wears the fluid level will rise. You don't want it pushing any out.

Don't have to remove saddle bag to get to it. Just the side panel.

He's not talking about it grabbing early (air in system) or quickly (Skydoc17 upgrade). What he describes sounds normal to me - the friction zone on a Venture is with the lever well away from the grip.

More oil reduces the air volume on top which increases the spring rate. The volume (so long is there is the bare minimum) won't affect pogoing. The pogoing is because the damping rate is too low. A higher oil weight is the way to go.

You've got to pull the top bridge off anyhow. I suppose you could get the rest off as a unit but probably not on the center stand. I think you'll find that the extra work to remove the forks from the lower tree is much, much less than the hassle of messing with it as an assembly. You also might find you need to get the lower tree on the work bench to get the bearing off, you don't need fork oil running everywhere while you do that. Getting everything back in and started together is a little bit of a juggling act - you won't miss the extra weight when doing that either. But yes, you can do steering bearings on center stand. Get everything off the forks (calipers, wheel, fender, brace etc.) and pull the fork tubes. Since you're going to pull the fork caps don't forget to break them loose while still clamped in the lower tree. From here getting the top bridge off and lower tree out is pretty straight forward. I've found that an air chisel is an excellent tool to drive the inner race off the lower tree. The outer races will require some force to remove from the head stock. Make sure the bike is well secured. Forget what Yamaha says for bearing grease. Use the same moly grease you use on the drive splines. That stuff will stay in there so you can skip the zerk fitting. If you do opt for the zerk fitting make sure the head tube isn't open to the frame (some bikes are), you don't want to fill your whole frame with grease.

Yes, some of that is normal. There is some drag in the clutch so parts in the transmission will be moving when you're in neutral. When the gears come together that motion causes a bit of a clunk (click is shifter mechanism locking into place) and the bike will jump a little. What you are describing is typical for a motorcycle that is not running. When the engine is running the motion I mentioned in #1 should let the gear dogs align and pull together. I can think of some reasons the transmission parts might not be moving but your first question makes it sound like they are. It's under the false fuel tank. If you open the fuel fill door you will see a screw. Remove that screw, slide the cover forward a bit to disengage the tab at front and the cover will lift off. The air box is behind the battery - 4 screws hold the lid on. The filter is under there.