frankd

Here's how I eliminated the 'Reserve Lighting Unit' from my 89...... https://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?92344-How-I-installed-LED-headlight-kit-in-my-89&highlight=frankd+headlight This is the section you need.... (See picture #1) You can see the RLU (Reserve Lighting Unit) at the top of the picture. Follow the wiring out of it to the connector. On the motorcycle side of the connector, cut and tape the G/R, Y/G, and the light green wires (the light green isn't shown in the picture). Now, you'll be able to switch between high and low beam, and the HEADLIGHT white lamp on the instrument panel won't come on, but the blue high-beam light on the instrument panel won't work. To get that working, on the motorcycle side of the instrument panel connector, cut the Y and the R/Y wires leaving about 2” of them still on the connector. Tape the 2 wires not in the connector (that you just cut). Using two 12” lengths of 16-20 gauge connect them to the Y and the R/Y wires from the connector. I soldered mine and used shrink tubing to insulate them, but you could use butt connectors. (picture #2) Actually, I went back to the stock headlight because of the radio frequency noise (RFI) generated by the LED headlight I had mad my radio(s) useless unless you had a strong station you wanted to listen to. Right after I put the LED headlight in, we moved to Tennesee and we don't have many near by radio stations. Some of you that have the newer LED headlights could do me a favor. With your key in the Accessory position, tune in a weak FM station. Then turn the key to on and see if the station can still be heard. Frank

We used to live in Illinois, and whenever we got near Galena we'd visit Mississippi Palisades State Park. Illinois state parks are free, and the view is great.

12.15V after 2 days is way too low. Charge the battery fully. You can't read the voltage immediately after charging because the battery has what's called a surface charge and the voltage will be high (probably around 13 volts). If the battery drops to near 12.15 volts again after 2 days, you either have a bad battery OR you have a current drain on your motorcycle. To determine which you have, you can disconnect the negative battery cable and read the battery voltage. Let it sit another day and it should be nearly the same. If it still goes lower with the battery disconnected, you have a bad battery. You can also measure the current draw with a meter. It's not good to store a battery with anything less than a full charge because the battery will sulfate and it's capacity will be reduced.

I was driving my mini-van in downtown Nashville morning rush hour traffic and next to me was a Slingshot with a 2 passengers in it. They were NOT wearing helmets and Tennessee is a helmet state. I thought they were classified as motorcycles and that should make helmets necessary. However, it looks like I'm wrong. Do passengers in these type of trikes need helmets?

As Cowpuc show in his video, the Harbor Freight bead breaker works great but.....that's on First Gen bikes. RSV's have wider tires and the rear may be too wide to fit. I've balanced my tires for a lot of years basically the way Cowpuc does, except I use my car/truck jack stands to support the axle and then I don't have the swaying of the straps. Before I replaced the wheel bearings in my front wheel this worked fine. When I replaced the bearings, I used sealed bearings, and the seals caused enough stiction (actually it may really be friction) that this method didn't work any more and I had enough imbalance to cause vibration above 70 MPH.. I purchased the Harbor Freight wheel balance fixture and now I can get the front tire balanced well.

Did you have the stator disconnected when you measured 11.9 volts? If so you have a bad stator. To detect a shorted stator coil, you need to have the stator disconnected, and measure phase to phase (lead to lead) and even at idle you should measure more than 11.9 volts. At 3000 RPM it'll measure about 100 volts, and all 3 phases should be nearly equal. I forgot what I measured at idle, but I'd guess you'd get about 40 volts. I have connected three 75W, 120V incandescent light bulbs across the stator leads, then I held the RPM at about 3000 RPM. AT first all 3 glowed at equal brightness, but then one started intermittently getting dimmer and then back to being equal to the other 2 and I knew I had an intermittently shorted coil.

In view of the fact that it starts charging normally after it cools down and the Rectifier/regulator is getting extremely hot, the first suspect is the regulator. I think if I had the original regulator/rectifier, I'd put it back on the bike and see what happens. The OEM regulator/rectifier is a pretty reliable unit. Is the new stator a higher capacity unit, or is it identical to the OEM unit. Frank

OK on the Rotella, but I would NOT use Fram spin on filters. Fram uses less filter media than other brands in their spin on filters, and it tends to clog, which restricts oil flow thru the filter. I used to drive a Olds Silhouette mini van with a 3.8L motor. If I used Fram filters, after about 2000 miles, the oil pressure would start reading less and less. I changed just the filter, and it went back up to normal. I do use Fram filter inserts in my 89, but I've got the OEM filter and for this application, the Fram has the proper amount of filter media. Frank

My sister (who lives 550 miles away from here) has been having problems with her Escape overcharging the battery. What some mechanic finally found was that the wiring to the alternator had been chewed up by mice. It cost her $1500 to get it fixed because her's is a 4WD model and the alternator is near the bottom. I guess they had to lift the motor up to get to the wiring. I'm not saying yours is the same problem, just keep your eyes open for this. She has the 3.0L V-6. Frank

I bought my first impact when a friend who worked on motorcycles informed me how he got those impossible phillips head screws out of a motorcycle engine's side covers. I had a Yamaha 305. ALSO if you enjoy good informative auto/truck repair videos see more of Eric's. He's owns SOUTH MAIN AUTOMOTIVE and the videos are on YOUTUBE. They are great. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=south+main+automotive Frank

Along the same lines, the pilot is a pretty big flame, it is directly below the blower switch. I am wondering if the big 6 inch high pilot flame was just enough heat to turn the blower on?? Since I cleaned and realigned the pilot the blower has not hung either? So far the beast seems to be cycling normally. Doesn't the pilot go out when the the thermostat is satisfied and the flame goes out? Frank

This one always makes me smile.....

Like Marcarl suggested, replace the spark plugs, and I'll add check the carb. synchronization. When the 4 cylinders are not balanced, the engine speeds up and slows down as each cylinder fires. These engines make a lot of deadly sounding noises when this happens. Your suggestion of metal in the oil....if you have something mechanically wrong beating itself to death, you WILL have metal in the oil. Except because the transmission shares the engine oil, you will always have some metal in your oil. Do you have a magnetic oil drain bolt? If you do, check it and see if it has more metal than usual on it? Frank D.

I second the motion to go to WalMart and see if they'll exchange it for the correct one. Walmart does try to keep customers happy. Do NOT use the conventional Fram filter....it has a small filter element inside and will clog quickly. I speak from experience. I had a 3.8L Olds mini van and if I used the Fram cheapie, my oil pressure would start getting less and less at about 2000 miles. I'd have to replace the filter (not the oil) to get the oil pressure back up. Good thing this vehicle had an oil pressure gauge. If I had a light, I wouldn't have known this. Frank

My Dad used to fry it and make sandwiches when I was 'young' also, and I remember I used to really like it. A while back I was walking through the food section of Wally World and saw the Spam. On a lark (impulse buying) I threw a can in the basket, and when we got home fried it up and took a big old bite. Yuck....I don't like it anymore. Frank

I've got Avon Cobras on my 89...I like them. They seem to handle very well, but my rear needs to be replaced after only 12,000 miles. Most of that mileage is 2 up, but I'm 70 years old and don't ride as aggressively as I used to. I'm not satisfied with their life and I'm going to try the new Dunlop Elite 4's. Puc tried one and he's getting excellent life from it. Frank

Congratulations Don & Eileen. Barb and I purchased a 2018 Jayco 5th wheel just over a year ago and have been really enjoying ourselves. Here's how we got the bike down to central Florida when we were spending a month there. You can't do this in every state, and in fact Florida, Georgie and Alabama don't officially allow towing 2 trailers, but a lot of LEOs passed us and didn't bat an eye. It may have something to do with it being allowed in our home state. We don't usually take the 2nd trailer and bike with us. It tows beautifully and turns just inside of where the big trailer does, so you don't have to worry about it being inside too far in a corner. Backing up is a challenge though but it can be done. Our 5th wheel is about 31' long.

KA9J/4 in Manchester TN. I am active on most modes and HF bands. If anyone wants to meet, let me know and I'll give it a try. At the present time, I only have a wire antenna. Frank

For a normal summer start up, probably 5-6 clicks on the 89. If I put it in the garage hot, and then close the garage door, probably 10 or more next morning. In cooler weather, much less. If I put non-ethanol gas in it, it clicks less. If I let it cool down, turn the key on and let it pump back up, I can shut off the key and the next morning it won't click at all. I blame most of it on the ethanol fuel evaporating.

Cowpuc, I've looked but can't find your test report for the Elite 4's. How'd it do?

If you do buy it (and it looks like a great deal) check the VIN and compare it to the title. 83's didn't come in blue, so at least the plastic has been replaced. I purchased a new 83, and the standards came in marron (ok, Yamaha called it some shade of red) and black, while all the Royales were yellow.

I used to just use my auto jack stands and insert the axle into the wheel, and put it on the jack stands so I could spin it to balance my tires. That worked great, until I installed new wheel bearings into my front wheel. Then there was too much stiction so the wheel didn't stop with the heavy spot on the bottom. I installed a new front tire and couldn't get it balanced. I purchased the Harbor Freight balancer and it worked great. My vibration is gone.

Has anybody checked for RFI (radio frequency interference) with these new LED headlight kits? I had an LED headlight kit installed in my 89, and I really liked it, UNTIL I moved down here to Tennessee. I'm 70 miles from Nashville, and of course the radio signals aren't very strong here. I found that my LED kit was making so much interference that it would block just about all of the FM signals down here. You could tell if it's radiating RFI---tune in a weak FM station with the key on accessory. Then turn the key to ON and see if the station can still be heard OK. Mine was so bad that I re-installed the incandescent headlight. Frank

First off, it doesn't matter at all if your plug caps measure 5K or 10K. The value of this resistance only limits the current flow from the coil after the spark is struck. These caps are there to limit the ignition noise getting into the radio. Seeing as all 4 cylinders are miss firing, a bad coil or low compression on one cylinder couldn't cause the missing in the other 3 cylinders. It has to be something common to all 4 and it still sounds to me that it's the ignition system. Does somebody with a 84-89 Venture live near you and might be talked into trying his TCI in your bike? That would answer a lot of questions. You mentioned you were going to get an Ignitech----I do have one of Dingy's later files. I got it in 09/15 and he said it was the latest. If you want it send me a private message with your regular Email address in it and I will send it to you. Frank