frankd
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Posts posted by frankd
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Before you make the offer make sure the 85's s/n is above the 2nd gear mod. upgrade.
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I'm pretty sure that my copper washer is fine. I hadn't disturbed the bottom bolt for several years and I had no leaks from there. I've got the same washer on the down sized middle gear cover now and it's not leaking. Besides the leak is towards the center of the bike a couple of inches from the bottom bolt and also a little foward, or just in front of where the center stand hits the ground when it's used. Actually the leaked oil hit the ground just in front of the center stand left foot.
But I agree, it's pretty crudded up, so I gave the area a de-greasing. Then I put on the front left foot peg and shifter and took it for a 10 mile trip mostly at 65mph. I got home and put it in the shop of the center stand, and when I looked things over, everything was dry and I had no drips on the floor. For a little bit I thought I had the ignition pickup coil leads leaking, but I cleaned that area a little better and ran it for a while at 3500 rpm.......it was only trapped old oil, not fresh. The rear valve cover isn't dripping down the cylinders. The only thing I can think of to do is to leave the cut middle gear cover on the bike and just ride it for a bit. The bike will be down for a few days this week because I'm getting the seat recovered by a local guy.
If I really don't still have a leak, it sure points to the middle gear cover gasket. I've got the temporary cover on with an used old gasket, and things look dry after my ride. If anybody has any ideas, I'd like to hear them.
Frank
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When this happened to my 83, I was lucky.....I was about 50' from my driveway. Mine had no rust inside or out, but showed a lot of metal fatigue so I wouldn't have been happy with repairing this area. I ended up replacing the frame with one from an 84, and the 84 was a lot stronger in that area. It seems that Yamaha had noticed this problem real quick and beefed up this area on the 84's and later. It's a lot of work to replace a frame because the last piece you take off the old frame is the first one you put back on the new frame. On the first ride, my wife commented how much better the bike felt to her. I didn't notice much difference though.
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A couple of weeks ago, I started to notice that my 89 had started to mark it's territory with engine oil on the garage floor, and it looked like it was under the middle gear cover (the usual spot). Yesterday Barb and I went for a ride, and when we got home, I put it on the center stand with newspaper under it. I pulled the left side cover off and ran it for a few minutes, and it left a spot on the paper, but I really couldn't see any fresh oil anywhere. I pulled the rubber cover over the clutch slave cylinder and looked down, the stator and the ignition pickup coil wires looked dry. I looked up from the bottom, and couldn't see anything wet. I pulled the left rider's foot peg and looked inside the universal joint rubber cover, and everything looked dry inside ( I replaced the seal here a couple of years ago when I had to replace the universal joint).
This morning I took the next step. I've got a middle gear cover that has all the 'uneeded' material removed so only the middle gear bearing is covered. I located it and installed it. I also checked the clutch slave cylinder (dry), the screws that hold the neutral light/gear indicator switch to the case (snug) the shift shaft (dry) and the stator and ignition pickup coil wiring (dry). I started the bike and ran it until it warmed up. I know that the engine oil wasn't hot yet, but it should have been warm enough to leak. I held the RPMs up for a bit, and also put it in gear and turned over the rear wheel. NOTHING. I looked at the gasket that was on the middle gear cover. It split when I pulled the original cover, but I could see no evidence of fresh oil. Yesterday I did see some fresh oil in the frame under the middle gear, but couldn't tell where it came from. Also I looked over the rear valve cover for leaks. I've got some seepage, but no fresh oil.
What am I missing? I suppose I could put the shifter/foot peg back on and take it for a ride.
On the 2nd picture, you can see the marks on the exhaust pipe that show evidence of the dripping oil.
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Seeing that the head is aluminum and the guides aren't, the guide removal process probably involves heat.
I missed the reason why you pulled the head and want to remove the valve? What happened?
Frank
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You can use a Stant 11227 or a 227. I found mine at Oreilly's and I had to grind one of the ears off so it could rotate properly.
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For a cheaper radiator cap try a Stant 11227 or a 227. I found mine at Oreilly's and I had to grind one of the ears off.
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On my 83, I had the same problem and found 2 things that were causing it. The first thing, was the radiator cap sealing surface leaking and the pressure never built up in the cooling system just like Steve said. In addition the cooling fan wasn't coming on. I found the connector on the switch that turns the fan on (behind the fairing, on the right side) had oxidized, and and wasn't turning on the fan. As i remember, the MkII bikes have different connectors for this. Let the bikes idle and see if the fans do run.
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It wasn't the battery after all causing the missing at high rpm. That's the trouble you get into when you do 2 things at once to cure a problem. In addition to the new battery (the old battery was bad), I also drained the gas I had in it, and replaced it with gas from a different station. Then the bike ran normal again, it would rev to the red line (7500 rpm) and beyond. The first gas was non-ethanol gas from a local small gas station. I could see no evidence of water in the gas when I drained it. After a couple of tanks of regular BP gas, I decided to try the non-ethanol again. The miss at higher rpm at full throttle came back again. I ran the tank through the bike, and then switched to regular Shell this time, and when I had a chance to run it through the gears, it pulled good with no missing. It seems like something in the non-ethanol gas is coating the plugs. Any other explanations? I've been thinking of trying non-ethanol gas from a different station, but it all probably comes from the same refinery.
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Another place to look for the oil leak is the rear valve cover. The gaskets get hard over time. However, the stator wires are your most likely suspect. Is the whine heard when you are riding it or when it's running in neutral? Both of the 1st Gens. that I own do have some whine when you are riding, but at idle you don't hear any.
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Yesterday Barb and I took an interesting journey. We accompanied a bicycle rider from Manchester TN. to Chattanooga down old Rte. 41. It's only about 72 miles, but it was rough on a 21 year old girl named Hannah. On her bike she also had all of her gear for a 13,000 mile trip around the United States. The trip down was very slow, Hannah could only maintain about 4-5 mph. on the steeper grades. This was made worse by the fact that one of her ankles was swollen due to a sprain, and caused her to pull over for a rest only 8 miles into her trip, and the ground was still flat. When we got on the steeper grades, she was going slower than the 1st. Gen. could go in first gear, so because traffic on Rte. 41 was so light that I could stop on the road (no pull offs) and let her keep on pedaling, and just catch up and do it all over again. I was happy I had a new battery, because by the time we got to Chattanooga the battery was getting pretty low. Of course the fan was running on all the grades, and I had to run the 4 way flashers quite a bit. The trip took 8 1/2 hours. The trip home only took about 75 minutes, and that was no where enough to completely re-charge the battery. Now I'm topping it up with a charger.
The reason for her trip was to gather funds to help fund several non-profit agencies that have shelters and programs to help young people that are victims of Human Trafficking. She had contacted our church, and asked to talk with us. A police man at our church did a background check on her, and she checked out, and then Barb and I volunteered to have her spend the night at our house. Her talk was very informative, and she told us that about 300,000 youngsters are sold in the U.S. every year. I was amazed that more boys than girls are sold, and I assumed that all were destined for sex trade. I was wrong......more are sold into manual labor than the sex trade. Some are sold by their parents, others are kidnapped and then sold. A lot of those we see pictures of on milk cartons have had this happen to them. You can find out more by going to http://www.facebook.com/revolutionoflove2016 and also http://www.RidingAgainstTraffic.org
The father in me had a hard time thinking about a 21 year old girl who doesn't know a lot of the ways of the world to be alone on her trip. Yes, I know that is what SHE wants to do, but I am a father after all. At the start, we only volunteered to host her for the night, but her face lit up when she saw the Venture, and Barb and I both thought that we'd ride with her until she got to Monteagle, the top of that grade. With her ankle being injured, and her GPS giving her fits, we easily decided that we'd just ride all the way to her next nights host with her.
When I asked her if she had hosts secured for every night, and she told me she has quite a few that she doesn't. I thought of us VentureRiders, and told her that if she contacted me a few days before one of those nights that I'd ask here and see if any of you would be kind enough to volunteer. Hopefully we can help her.
Thank you,
Frank
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No, that's not a record. With the older Avon Venom rear, I regularly got 22-24,000 miles. Back when I used to use Dunlop E-2's they gave about the same mileage. I don't ride easy and most of this mileage is 2 up. I do not pull a trailer though.
Thanks for the info about the rebates guys. I may try a pair of E-3's
Frank
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I just looked at the condition of my rear Avon Cobra on my 1st Gen. and I see that it's time to change it. It's got about 18,000 miles on it and that's a little less than I used to get on the Avon Venom. I'll probably put Avons back on, but I'm thinking of trying something else. Does anybody know of any tire sales going on?
Frank
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Yep.....pull the back tire, then pull the pumpkin (4 nuts in front of pumpkin), then pull the driveshaft out. Grease the front spline, and reinstall the driveshaft. Sometimes you have problems getting the front spline to go into the female half of the coupling, but leaving the transmission in gear helps and when you can't turn the driveshaft you know it's engaged. Grease up the rear spline with heavy molybendum-disulfide grease. I also put some grease in the pumpkin half of the spline. Some of it is wasted, but this coupling needs grease to keep from wearing out. Then you re-install the pumpkin, but leave the nuts just snug until you get the back tire and rear axle re-installed. Then tighten the pumpkin nuts.
On my 83, I grease the rear splines every 10-12,000 miles. By this time the grease on the rear spline is starting to break down. I think 20K is too long.
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My wife and I moved to Manchester TN. last summer and love it here. Manchester is half way between Nashville and Chattanooga, and it's a town of about 10,000. We moved here from the Joliet, IL area, and the differences in the weather, the friendliness of the people, the great roads and mountains, the cost of living, and just about everything else is amazing. Here we have 3 man made lakes that are all about 75-100 ft. deep and loaded with fish. There are a few adjustments we had to make after we moved from the big metropolis----you end up ordering more things online because a lot of the stores we got used to aren't in the area. I didn't store the Venture this winter, the longest it sat was about 3 weeks, but this was a mild winter. Barb and I used to dance to country music up in Joliet about 25 years ago, but this became much less poplular and now you almost can't find a place to go dance. Down here, a lot of the senior citizen centers have dances every week. Some even have a pot luck dinner with them. Down here we dance several times a week and it's great exercise. The state sales tax is a little more than IL, (I know IN. is a bit lower), but the property tax on our house is about 1/5 what it was in IL. Gas is cheaper, but now it's up to $1.75 or so---it was down to 1.42 2 weeks ago. Religion is much stronger down here, but it is the Bible Belt. We went to an auction when we first came down, and before the auctioneer started, he asked every one to bow their heads for a prayer. Our daughter lives in Murfreesboro and things are a little more hectic there---a lot of traffic and the houses are a bit more expensive. Tennessee is one of the favorite places for retirement. Come on down and look around. If you want to get together and talk while you're down here, send me a message .
Frank
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I finally gave in and pushed the Win10 button and ugraded my Win8.1 laptop. A few things are different, but nothing major. Heck, my wife even has no problem with it.
My resolution is the same as with Win 8.1
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Did Don have too much time on his hands?
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Trader,
No matter if you find the old one or not, it looks to me that I'd be important to replace it so the camshaft is lubricated properly. In fact I believe the manual says to verify that the plugs are all in place before you replace the valve cover.
Frank
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It looks like you could. The hardest part will be removing the old seal. You probably will have to puncture the seal carefully (so that you don't scratch the mating surfaces) and then carefully pry the old seal out. Installing the new seal should be easy. How bad is it seeping?
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In the picture, the bike looks like it's got a MK I headlight. Maybe it had a front end impact?
I have a friend with a 1500 Gold Wing that had one of these kits installed, and like others have said it extended his riding. He likes his.
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About 3 weeks ago after I installed the Progressive fork springs, it was nice and warm here, so Barb and I went out for lunch and a nice ride back by one of the big lakes near here. We were stopped at a stop sign, and when we started again, I cranked it on in first gear. Things were fine until it got to about 5,500 RPM and then it started breaking up (missing). I shifted to 2nd and it pulled good on all 4 cylinders and then started to miss again when the engine got to about 6500 RPM. The strange thing was it seemed like it was missing on all 4 cylinders randomly. I tried it several more times and it still had the problem and I started to think that it had water in the gas. The last time I filled it, I put in non-ethanol gas, but I thought everything was fine and I was pretty sure that I'd run it through the gears after gassing it up a couple of times. When we got home, I drained one of the carburetors into a can, but couldn't see any water in the fuel. I pulled the fuel filter, and there was no water there either. I changed the fuel filter because it'd been in there a while, but afterwards, it still ran the same. I thought about it for a couple of weeks ( the weather wasn't too good) and decided to drain the tank and put in fresh gas. I drained the tank almost completely and put in 2 gallons of fresh 90% gas/ethanol. When I went to start it, I found that the battery had bit the dust. I ordered a new battery and finally got my old one to accept enough charge to go for a ride. The bike still missed at higher rpm at full throttle. Before the new battery arrived, I figured I should check my charging system. Normally my 89 measures about 14.5V, but now it was reading about 13.95V. The bad battery almost acted like it had high resistance, so I reasoned that the voltage regulator was switching too low because of the higher charging spikes, or higher ripple. Seeing that I hadn't found water in the gas or bad gas and it was all 4 cylinders I started wondering if I had a TCI going bad. I'm using the stock TCI, but I also have one of the Dingy specials on the bike also, so I could switch to it. First I decided to try the new battery. Maybe the pulses on the charging system were doing something to it? Not likely but maybe. The battery arrived last week, but the weather wasn't great and I was busy with another project anyway. Today it got up to about 50 degrees, so after church I took it for a ride. When I cranked it on it pulled up to the red line perfectly, so that proved to me that the bad battery was causing the miss. I'm glad it did so I didn't have to get serious to find the problem.
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MarCarl, I don't own a 'smart' charger. When I first connected my 10/50 amp, the battery acted like it was almost open.....the charging current was only about 1 amp. I left the charger connected for a couple of hours to try to re-activate the battery, but no, she still acted the same. I connected the floating charger (13.5V) and left it over night. After being on the float charger for about 24 hours, the battery acted a bit better. I wanted to let it crank for a little bit, but even without any choke or throttle, my bike started almost the instant I hit the button. I tried it 4 times, and it sounded like it was cranking 'normal' as well as I could tell with the little bit the starter had to be engaged before the bike started. I went for a ride. Of course, I made sure that Barbara knew where the jumper cables were in case she had to rescue me. When I got home, I shut it off and restarted it. It started great.....the first time. The second time it cranked over briefly and then the battery voltage collapsed.
I've decided to purchase another Deka AGM. I could have bought an off brand AGM for a bit less, but decided to stay with one that's made here. Yes, I've had good luck with conventional lead/acid batteries and I could have purchased one for about 60% the cost of the AGM, but I like that added cranking power and zero maintenance of the AGM. Jeff, I agree that if mine lasted only 14 months I'd be looking for something else. What brand was yours?
BTW, my battery was never run down, my charging system works great, and I thought I'd get a little more life from the AGM. When I lived in Illinois, I used to charge the battery with the floating charger every couple of weeks. Here, the bike doesn't sit long enough to worry about that. Hopefully the new one will do better.
BTW, yes car batteries have gotten a lot better than they used to be. When the OEM battery in my 97 Taurus got to be better than 8 years old, I replaced it with a new one just because at 8 years old it 'had' to be used up. I also own a V-10 powered Ford Econoline. At least 3 times the battery was run completely dead (interior lights got left on and the van wasn't used regularly). The OEM battery lasted 11 years!!
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It's in the low 60's here today, and every time I walked past the '89 it would start crying that I hadn't ridden it for the last 2 weeks. I got cleaned up, got my riding gear on, climbed on the bike and went to start it.....A couple of half hearted spins and then the starter solenoid started clicking. I connected the battery charger, but it won't accept a charge. The battery is toast. I looked it up on my maintenance log and I see that it's just shy of 5 years old. BTW, it's a Deka AGM. I've gotten 5 years from a conventional lead/acid battery, and I thought that AGM batteries were supposed to last longer than conventional batteries.
How long have AGM batteries lasted for you?
Frank D.
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Jason,
Thanks for your recommendations. While I was replacing a fork seal, I also decided to install Progressive springs. I installed them on my 83 30 years ago, but they're pretty stiff and I didn't want the 89 anywhere near that stiff (yes, I've got too much oil in the 83). When I set up the 89, I used a 7/8" spacer, and 360cc of 10wt. oil. I have about 2" of sag. The oil measured 9.5" down from the top of the forks.
The bike rides just a bit harsher than the OEM setup, but after about 10 miles it was hard to notice. When I got to a curvy road (2 up), something that I wasn't prepared for was how much more precisely it steers. Even my wife noticed how much better it was. I'll measure the sag again after the springs have time to settle.
Frank D.
broken frame
in Watering Hole
Posted
I'm not sure that a 86 frame will be exactly like an 84 or 85. It does have a different part number, but as to the what is different???? i think I'd try to find an 84 or 85 frame. As I remember when I installed the 84 frame on my 83, I had to enlarge a couple of holes to get the bolts into the front sub-frame.
Frank