First of all I want to thank all the members of Venturerider.org. After 20 years of not riding a motorcycle I finally decided to start riding again. I wanted a full dress cruising machine and started looking at what was out there. I ran across a very nice 1983 Yamaha venture. I loved the look of the bike so I started researching it. I came across Venturerider very quickly and read a ton of information. After all the reading I purchased the bike. I did know 2nd gear was out when I purchased the bike and understood what was required to fix it. After riding the bike I decided I wanted 2nd gear to work. Again I read everything I could find on the subject and also everything about what engines were affected and when Yamaha corrected this gear issue. I also looked into what was involved in swapping out a 1200 engine with the newer 1300. I found only a small amount of information on the subject of engine swap. I then found a 1988 Venture 1300cc engine with only 30k miles for $350 bucks. With this find I decided it was worth trying to swap engines no matter haw much modification was required. Here is what I found out about putting an ’88 1300cc engine into a ’83 1200cc bike,
Fit - the engine bolts up perfectly.
Exhaust - the 1200 exhaust fits perfectly.
YICS - the 1200 YICS chamber is not needed on the 1300 so leave it off
Carburetors - the 1200 carburetors appear to work perfectly. I only have a few hundred miles on it now so I will continue to monitor this.
Radiator - The ’83 radiator lower hose fitting is weak. It came off with the hose. I could have had it repaired at a radiator shop but I found a good ’88 radiator for 40 bucks. The ’88 has this area reinforced.
Thermostat - It appears the thermostat for all Ventures are no longer available from Yamaha and I was surprised to fine no information on this on Venturerider. After extensive research I found only one thread on another site that indicated that the Napa Parts thermostat number 156 will fit like the original and works just fine. I compared the Napa 156 with the original and decided to use it. The original has a small vent hole with a weight to help bleed the air out when filling the cooling system. If it makes you fill better you can drill a small 1/32” hole to match the original. I chose not to do this. The cooling system filled fine and works perfectly. The temperature gauge now stays right in the middle.
Starter – the 1200 starter fits and works perfectly.
Electrical – You will need an electrical schematic for the 1200 and the 1300 to get it right. The generator lead connector and the pick up lead connector fit perfectly. The Neutral indicator wire for the 1200 bike is a single black and yellow wire. The 1300 engine has a multi wire plug. In this plug there is a ski blue wire that is the neutral indicator. I made the single wire from the bike into a spade connector and inserted it into the ski blue slot on the multi wire connector. I then sealed this complete plug with shrink tube and electrical tape to keep the dirt out. The oil level indicator connects to the only singe wire coming from the 1300 engine. I did not take the time to find out what the other wires in the 1300 multi conductor are for. I did not really care because my ’83 doesn’t require them.
After swapping the engine I balanced the carbs and cleaned and adjusted everything.
The bike and engine combination are fantastic – I love this bike and can not wait to put many miles under its wheels.
Thanks again to all the members at Venturerider.org.
