rjjammer

Dennis Did you find another fender trim piece? If not I have one in good shape. THe background around the "V" is red and could use a touch up but the plastic chrome looks good. Let me know. Rob

Fresh gas. With new fuel filter

HI all I am back after an extended absence. I was so busy that time just slipped by. I recently. took the 86 out of storage to ride. I did cleaning and normal oil changes and stuff but it's turned into a project and I have been working on it ever since. At first it wouldn't run , finally took the carbs off and found the pilot jets in the block plugged on three of the carbs. I cleaned then all up new block gaskets and reassembled. It ran on all four and revs but it smokes white, a lot when revved up. Smells real rich. The diaphragms are good, I already have the needle shims from sky doc. I checked the compression and all cylinders are all within specs at between 180 and 184 with the throttle wide open. So I took the carbs back off and opened them up and double checked them looking for errors. Nope all was put together right reassembled and same thing. Smoke! I re sync'd again still no improvement. thinking maybe I messed up the jets I took off the carbs again and started checking the carb jet numbers and the placement. I found that not all the carbs have the same jets! I have owned this bike since 2000 and have the carbs off several times but I never gave it a thought to check the numbers! Now what do I do? Only one carb has the jets that the repair manual says the 86 is supposed the have. main jet 125 pilot 1 and 2 #80 and the other 37.5? My second question is the white smoke is new but the carbs haven't changed? Where do I look? Any help from the experts here would be greatly appreciated. Thanks rjjamer

Well I finally pulled the trigger and have a new ride. Its was hard replacing the old Venture but the new ride has so many new changes and features. Virtually thinks for itself! Great ground clearance soft touch steering, mostly off road capability and I never have to buy gas! I do have to do daily maintenance to keep her going and it uses a lot of water. Maybe I will sell the Old Venture and reduce the number in my stable. Check out the pic, isn't she a looker! Meet Kaki Bueno affectionately known as Cricket my new reining horse!

Still at close to 2.00 a gal here? Wow.

I have you all beat 4. Yup that is correct 4! I took it around the section after I thought I had the brakes fixed while I was home on leave. Nope the rotors are glazed or something. Put it in the shed and didn't get back home until the 16th of this month. To add to the embarrassment total miles since 2006 about 180. My bride thinks I have it just to tinker with! Guess I should ride this year Maybe!

We don't do the gift exchange between us, what we do is if we need or want something during the year we just get it. (if we can afford it) Of course the grandkids are spoiled as are her parents. However this year is a milestone. My bride finally got her dream fulfilled. Rilley a new quarter horse came to live with us and I finished the stalls and barn. She is one happy camper! 0

Everyone, I have a multitude of good usable parts off a 83 Standard. The engine 40,000 miles ran beautifully when removed, all lights, unmolested wiring harness, perfect seat, two windshields, forks, brakes, etc essentially everything but the plastic, frame, and carbs. This bike was given to me by a friend to start my Venture project years ago. Everything will go by spring so I can clean up. No charge, we can arrange how to get it to you. I thought that I would give them to someone resurrecting a Venture, without spending a fortune. Rjjammer

Everyone, I guess I should explain, last March I received a call from a friend and co-worker. He asked me to come back to Afghanistan to head up the security on Camp Falcon. Even though I said I wouldn't go back, I did. Another 9 months in Kabul. I haven't been on this site since I left. The internet in those places don't always work. Well I just made it home, we closed the camp. The US Government gave the whole thing to the Afghans. The drawdown was complete the 16th. 350 personnel left Kabul. When I reflect on what has transpired since 2004 when I first went over there it makes me wonder if it was worth it. I have two grandkids now... I fulfilled all my promises to my bride... Lost my Mom and both Grandparents. I lost 24 co workers, three team mates and one close friend. I have more wrinkles, cant see as well but I did lose 30 pounds and am in the best physical condition of my life. Looking at it now all I can see is that time is short and I better enjoy the blessings I have here before they are all gone. So here I am facing a number of decisions, the main one is what do I do now? Maybe retire? That looks like the best option as I am pretty sure I will have trouble in the work force! I will take a couple months and catch up on projects that were pushed back forever. Catch up on the goings on here and maybe finally go on a ride with some of you, a rally or ??? I am definitely going to have to practice on the Venture. I haven't ridden at all for a long time. If I don't ride the thing soon I will have to get rid of it so it doesn't just rot in place. I know the tires went on in 2000 they have about 480 miles on them. I have some tinkering to do to make it safe for sure. One question? Where do I post a number of good parts to give away? Anyway, I'm am back and hi to all I am looking forward to chatting with you. Hi to my fellow Wisconsinites! Stay warm! rjjammer

Well it looks like I found the problem. It wasn't the light module, or the computer. I had the car put on a scanner at a friends shop and could find nothing wrong. No errors and everything worked like it is supposed to. Driving it home from the shop it was working fine but halfway home it started acting up again. The roads were wet with melting snow. Then it hit me it always happened when it was wet. When I got home I did some checking for water in the lights etc. Then I found it. The previous owner installed an aftermarket trailer hitch and plug. The plug was wrapped around the hitch and looped through the safety chain bracket. The green and yellow wires were rubbed through slightly and the factory harness underneath is cut and cobbled together. Seems when it was wet and I applied the brake it would cause the problem. I removed the trailer plug and patched the harness. Test drove it on wet roads and all is good. The only thing confusing is why the fuses didn't blow? I was always going to remove and redo the trailer plug when I bought the car but never got around to it. I guess I should have fixed it before it caused issues. Thanks all for the advice.

Merry Christmas Venture family! Is it possible to get some technical advice from the electrical gurus here, I own a 08 Cadillac SRX, it has one quirk that can not seem to be solved even at the dealer! The daytime running light bulbs will burn out repeatedly . Sometimes within a week of replacing them. When that happens the signal lights will flash fast and the rear LED taillights will do all kinds of weird things. I just replaced the bulbs last week and they went out again. Both rear taillights will flash when I turn on the right or left signal and the brakes are applied. The systems are all tied together in the computer and all the research tells me its the cars way of telling me the bulbs are burned out. I have changed the bulb sockets as suggested by GM replaced the bulbs cleaned and checked the sockets and plugs. All the other lights are operational. To change the bulbs one has to remove the front wheels and take the complete inner fender off to get at the housing for the bulbs. To do both sides it can take a couple of hours. who in the world designed this? On to my question, can I replace these bulbs with a LED and hook some kind of resistor inline to fool the computer into believing it has a incandescent bulb in it? Kind of like the battery probe mod on my 1st gen? How would I find the right resistor to use ? From what I have found online the bulbs get hot, and the sockets get hard and cause a bad connection, high resistance and the element will burn out. I am not sure if the DRLs can be disabled and have everything else work as it should. Im at a loss. I wanted to sell the car but I sure would feel bad if a new owner had the problem and it caused a wreck because of the signal lights. Any ideas?

Yes I removed the proportioning valve but I am not sure which port the line goes to now that you say that... Which port did you use?

Hi all, I went for one last ride before this white stuff fell and need some ideas on why my rear brake pedal is hard (not bottomed out) but will only barely slow the bike. I have delinked it with the kit available here, and have the R1 upgrade front and better rear caliper. There is no air in the lines. So any ideas? 86 Venture Royale Thanks rjjammer

I have a lower light bumper looks like the one pictured, with no cracks just the lenses are faded. I am looking to get rid of. I bought it off ebay a couple years ago but didn't like it on the bike.

Thanks for the kind words, the color is called amethyst pearl, its a 99 Dodge color, it looks black in low light, looks blue and purple depending on the angle you look at it. My Dodge truck is this color and I always thought it was unique. RJ