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V7Goose

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  1. V7Goose
    Wood does not transmit sound well. A screwdriver with a hard plastic handle is the better choice if you do not have a mechanic's stethoscope, but it is still nowhere near as sensitive. When you are using a real stethoscope, be careful to not accidentally knock the probe against stuff - the sound will be VERY loud in your ears! Goose
  2. V7Goose
    The problem cannot be the ignitor - the tests have shown that the ignitor trigger to either rear cylinder works fine when connected to a good coil. Slight possibility that it is the plug cap since you did see a spark from the bare #1 coil wire. But I say "slight" since you thought that spark was weak and the spark from the #2 coil was strong. One easy test left to totally rule out the plug cap without an ohmmeter - just swap the plug caps on the coil wires. Whatever cylinder was cold should still be cold after the caps are swapped. At this point, everything is pointing to a bad #1 coil. PM me with your address and I'll send you a coil (without cap) for $10 Goose
  3. V7Goose
    Simply entering "flag mount" (with the quotes) in the search will find plenty of information. Goose
  4. V7Goose
    I keep my front forks at 6 lbs. I generally keep the rear at 30 for solo riding, and 45-55 for two-up and loaded touring. I believe the best test for most people of how their tires and suspension are working is to concentrate on how it feels in long sweepers at speeds over 45, and especially the curves where there is a bit of surface irregularity or dips/bumps in the middle. Pay attention to how steady the bike follows the line you set through the curve - if you find that you are having to correct the line regularly, you have issues to find and fix. When set up properly the RSV will take a line and follow it like it is on rails, making the curves effortless. Even a slight difference in fork pressure or worn out fork oil will have the biggest impact on this ability to follow a line. A worn rear tire with a somewhat square profile will have big impact on the way the bike holds a line as you first commit to the lean and begin coming out of the turn. For those curves that have some dips or bumps, pay attention to how the back of the bike feels - does it wag, wallow or seem to have some frame flex? That is often worn out shocks, old fork oil, weak springs, not enough pre-load. And for reasons I do not yet fully understand, an OVER inflated rear tire on the RSV will greatly exacerbate any tendency to wag the rear when the bike is heavily loaded. Of course, all of that assumes that everything else on the bike is in perfect shape. Any worn or misadjusted bearings, bushings, loose suspension bolts, etc. will all cause any of the problems I described above. Goose
  5. V7Goose
    Unstable is not the right word. Any vehicle with too soft suspension will wallow and feel generally cruddy when pushed hard in the turns. If you want to improve the handling, the suspension needs to be properly matched and tuned to both the weight of the vehicle and everything on it as well as the way it is being ridden. Tuning includes spring preload (that is what the air does) as well as dampening rates (that is what the oil does, and is rarely adjustable on street machines). Personally, I think the RSV handles like a pig with zero air in the rear shock. It is also very uncomfortable to me for a whole day if I run with less than 20 lbs when riding solo and unloaded. I weigh 250, and that affects anything I say about my own experience with the RSV. It does not feel uncomfortable when riding it with low pressure, and I never noticed it bottoming out, but I can normally ride 1,000+ mile days without discomfort, and 300-500 mile days are not even tiring for me on the RSV. One day I set the pressure to about 15 lbs when riding in the Rockies with my brother - bike unloaded - and by the end of a 300 mile day just fun riding, I felt absolutely beat to death. Next day I put the pressure back to my usual 30 lbs and felt terrific after another 300 mile day in the same conditions. My conclusion is that the overly soft suspension combined with fun riding on mountain roads caused enough extra wallowing and lack of precision in the curves to force me to use body muscles in a different way - not enough to be obvious, but enough to make me sore. Bottom line is that you need to ride the bike and test different pressures over typical roads to decide what is best for you on that bike. And like I described above, just testing a particular pressure for 20 or eve 50 miles probably is not going to tell you a lot unless you are already very familiar with that specific machine to notice relatively slight changes in the handling. And if you aren't pushing the bike hard enough to demand the suspension deal with significant cornering forces and some rough road, then just about any setting will probably be fine if you think it is comfortable. Goose
  6. V7Goose
    Every time you remove a tire that has been in place for a long time it leaves behind little chunks of rubber, and after three or four tire changes, the bead surface typically feels like rough concrete. As far as I am concerned, virtually NO shop ever properly cleans the inside of the rim when they change a tire - they make money by doing everything as fast as they can, and properly cleaning the rim with a scotch-brite pad takes about as long as it does to actually change the tire. I does take some scrubbing, not just a quick wipe. That is one of the main reasons I change my own tires, and everyone who has ever asked me to help them change their tire knows I make them scrub their own rim before we put the new tire on! LOL Goose
  7. V7Goose
    Doug, thank you for pointing this out - it was a HUGE oversight for me not to have made that clear (sorry dkip)! Currently the orange wire triggers the left side coil to fire the #1 left rear cylinder, and the yellow wire triggers the other coil for the #3 cylinder. You simply want to reverse the coils, which means swapping the orange and yellow wires AND swapping the plug wires. BTW - you did not tell me what the resistance of the plug cap was while you had it off - did you measure it? That could easily be your whole problem (which is why it was part of the first test I wanted you to do). Goose
  8. V7Goose
    Here is a bit more information on the coil wires. All four coils have one wire that is the same color - this is the common wire and does not need to be switched. I do not remember for sure what the color is, but I think it is the wider spade terminal. You can check the color by referring to the schematic diagram, or just wipe off the wires on both rear coils and see which two are the same color. Each coil has one wire that is a different color than the other coils - this should be the narrower spade terminal. For the test you need to do, this different colored wire is the only one you need to switch. Goose
  9. V7Goose
    I have never had to remove the rear coils, so I cannot tell you specifics. Hopefully someone here will chime in. If not, I will take a look at it tomorrow and try to give you the details. I would still urge you to try and get a good test by switching the coil wires. Only two possible results - 1. same cylinder stays cold, proving that problem is NOT the coil, or 2. other rear cylinder gets cold but original one fires well, proving that the problem IS the coil. If you are sure you have a bad coil, I can send you one, but I have no idea what the cost of Canada shipping would be - within the U.S. it would just be $5. Goose
  10. V7Goose
    Thanx man. I have no idea what your signature used to say, but I am sure I was offended! LOL Glad you changed it - I guess I owe you one. Or not. It all depends. Who knows... Goose
  11. V7Goose
    The standard tail pipe probe obviously will not work for those ports. I just went to Ace Hardware and bought some aluminum nipples (short tubes in about the righte size) and cut threads on one end to put in the threaded ports. Then I connect the port to the analizer with a bit of EGR tubing instead of using the normal exhausts probe. Goose
  12. V7Goose
    I suspect you have a typo when you say you run 5psi on the front tire? Or were you talking about suspension? As far as problems with the 130/90 tire - the main issue is when the REAR tire begins to wear into a square profile - in that situation, the 130/90 front tire begins to handle like a squirrel on caffeine. This is directly related to how the square profile rear tire tries to jump surface irregularities on the road. A good brand of tire in stock size on the front handles much better with a worn rear tire on this bike. Goose
  13. V7Goose
    Well, the 2nd gens have individual ports on each header to sample the exhaust gas. I have no experience with them older things. If they do not have the separate exhaust ports, then I'm not sure what to tell you - I think you have a common collector that mixes all four pipes together? That makes it even tougher to tell anything from an EG analyzer. But if all your plugs are giving you the same problem, maybe sampling the exhaust at either pipe will tell you all you need to know? Worst case, if you think you have different problems with individual cylinders, is to just remove the lower exhaust and sample directly from the header exit points. Goose
  14. V7Goose
    First, do the exact same test for the other rear cylinder. This will allow you to be certain that the "weak" spark you think you see is actually weak. Assuming the other rear cylinder shows a strong spark from the bare wire, then the only test left to do is to simply swap the coils. Here is the easy way to do that. The two rear coils are mounted below the battery near the swing arm pivot. They are easily seen from under the right side of the bike while it is on the side stand. The most simple test is to simply reverse the wires on the coils, meaning the LR coil will now fire the RR plug. Not hard to do with needle nose pliers. The spade connectors are different sizes between the hot and ground terminals, so should be no problem to swap the wires without mixing them up. Make the change and see if the other header pipe is now cold - if it is, you have proven you have a bad coil. If the problem stays with the original cylinder, you have proven that either the ignitor is bad or the wires to that coil are bad. After you complete the test, do not forget to swap the coil wires back! The bike will not care, but you might go crazy in the future trying to trace down some other problem. Goose
  15. V7Goose
    Your first post was titled "Life Span of a Spark Plug?" The answer to that question is pretty simple (but not necessarily the answer to your problem). Any standard plug in and engine using unleaded fuel should provide reasonable service for a MINIMUM of 20,000 miles, and generally anywhere between 30,000 and 50,000 miles. AFAIK, no plugs are particularly susceptible to damage from strange electrical issues with an engine, so nothing that might be wrong with your ignition should affect the plug performance (except weak spark). If your spark is actually good (and your posts suggest it is), then the only thing that can cause a plug to go "bad" is deposits from incorrect combustion. Next step would seem to be an exhaust gas analyzer - even a simple CO test should identify any major issues there that you need to focus on. Goose
  16. V7Goose
    The first step would be to see if you have any spark at all from that coil. Start by removing the plug cap from the wire (unscrew it), stick a small nail in the end of he end of the wire to contact the copper core, hold the wire with insulated pliers so it is near the engine case or frame (bare metal, not painted), then start the engine. You should see a very strong spark jumping from the nail. If not, troubleshoot the coil. If you do have a spark from the bare wire, next step is to check the resistance of the cap - should be about 10K ohms. Let us know your results and we'll identify the next steps. Goose
  17. V7Goose
    No, I am not. I made it quite clear that 5th gear was fine for 45 MPH and steady riding or mild acceleration, which is exactly what the OP said he was doing. Goose
  18. V7Goose
    First of all, I want to say that I strongly disagree with most of the comments above that say you are in the wrong gear. As long as you are only doing steady riding or gentle acceleration (such as riding behind any typical econo-box cage), 5th gear is absolutely fine all the way down to 40 or 45. But the moment you feel any vibration or shaking at all, you are lugging the engine and really should have downshifted. If you are doing anything but the most mild acceleration, then the advice to not use 5th until you hit 70 is totally valid. Now, about that whine - if it is the common clutch basket gear whine that many of these bikes have (but not all of them), it will be there in any gear at the same RPM and engine load. The RPM band is not the same on all engines, but 2,400-2,800 is typically close. With a tach it is quite easy to check for the sound in 4th and 5th at the same RPM. Without a tach it may take a little more playing around to find it. I know there is a chart available in some threads that shows the RPM/speed for each gear, but I cannot tell you exactly where it is without searching myself. My best guess is that if you have a significant whine around 45 in 5th, then you should probably hear the same thing around 35 in 4th under the same road and acceleration conditions. If you are certain that your noise is only in 5th gear, I'd be worried about a transmission or final drive problem. (but if it is final drive, it should be there at 45 in any gear, just harder to hear in lower gears because of the engine noise). Goose
  19. V7Goose
    Looks like you have already done some searching and reading - THANK YOU! It is great to see someone trying to help themselves before asking other people to spend their time doing it (and there are an awful lot of newbies on any site that seem to think their time is worth more than ours). Anyway, here are some brief comments to your questions - Raising the rear of the bike reduces the trail - this makes the handling quicker and reduces the tendency for the front wheel to try to stay centered at speed (fighting your attempt to turn). It also reduces the tendency for the front wheel to try and flop over in a slow speed turn. As for the difference in tire sizes, the SHAPE (profile) of the tire has a much bigger impact on the handling than the size of the tire. A more rounded shape will give a much more neutral response at any point in the lean of the bike, and it will be much less affected by road irregularities, grooves and raised edges. The 130/90 front tire makes the bike feel so much better at low speeds because it has a much more rounded profile than most 150/80 tires. But the smaller footprint makes it less stable at speed and more susceptible to frame motions when the REAR tire catches ridges or grooves on the road. IMHO you will find that a QUALITY front tire in 150/80-15, such as the Avon Venom or Dunlop E3, will provide all of the benefits that a 130/90 tire does with none of the drawbacks. Stay away from cheap garbage tires in any size - they will always handle like the garbage they are. Much more detail can be found in lots of older threads. In particular, do an advanced search for posts by me that include key words of "leveling", "narrower" or "tire size". Welcome to the site! Goose
  20. V7Goose
    Any gauge can be used to check the pressure in the rear shock, and most compressors can be used to set the pressure in the shock, as long as you adjust the regulator on the compressor to 55 lbs or less. Your tool kit came with a cheap pencil-type tire gauge. The front forks are different - they hold such a small amount of air that just touching them with a normal gauge or pump will change the pressure by a significant amount. Furthermore, at a max pressure of only 7lbs, use of any standard compressor to add air is begging for trouble. You must have a suspension pump combined with a gauge and a zero-loss chuck. For proper handling, it is critical that the forks be IDENTICAL in pressure; even a 1/2 lb difference will affect handling (but many riders are not experienced enough to detect it). Without the proper tool to check/set them, it is best to make sure the forks are both at zero. This subject, including the options for suspension pumps has been discussed in many many threads on this site - do some research. Goose
  21. V7Goose
    I do not think the Voyager is "that bad", just not that good. Fit and finish didn't seem as good as it could be - not up to what I expect from Kawasaki, anyway. Plastic much too flimsy. Storage too small. Tank too small. Does not come with all the stuff the RSV has, so price too high. Warranty too short. Lastly, no way of knowing yet how the bike will hold up past 100,000 miles - my RSV still runs like new with 100K on the clock. Goose
  22. V7Goose
    Caution, the following comments are simply my opinions - they are not intended to please or anger anyone - they are simply my thoughts in response to the question asked. The RSV is a gorgeous bike to me, it is certainly the most comfortable touring bike currently made, it has lots of power and lots of features, and it is sold at a fair price. Could it be better? Absolutely. Is anyone else making a better touring bike? No way. I think any bike covered in tupperware is butt-ugly. I think the Wing is absolutely the most UNcomfortable bike I have ever ridden. I find the corporate attitude of HD unacceptable and the technical design of their products completely laughable. And even if I thought they were good producs, the price is an insult to intelligence. I have owned BMWs in the past, and I would never give that company another cent - overpriced products with lots of problems and poor support. The Victory Vision makes me ill when I look at it. There are other European and Japanese companies that I would be quite happy with, but they do not make any touring bikes that I find acceptable at this time. Here's hoping that everyone is as happy with their choice of bikes as I am - no matter what their reasons! Goose
  23. V7Goose
    IMHO Iridium or platinum plugs have absolutely NO value over normal plugs except longer plug life. Many tests by many sources have proven this over and over, including my own side-by-side tests with another RSV. Note that I do not consider my basic tests for fuel mileage as "proof", just that my results were consistent with more valid technical tests from other sources. I cannot explain why you think you perceive a difference in your bike - perhaps there is something else wrong? And anyone who insists that the iridium plugs are better in some way are certainly free to believe that. I just do not want someone who hasn't already made up their mind about this to blindly accept a statement that they are better. Do your research and then decide for yourself. Goose
  24. V7Goose
    If your bike is still under warranty, have the button replaced for free. It is not particularly uncommon for that button to fall off (along with some other specific screws), and Yamaha will replace them. As for the search function on this site, I think it works just dandy. Don is correct that the Google search option is great too, but I rarely ever use it, simply because the default search does an excellent job for me. The only significant limitation seems to be the need to use key words of four letters or more, and the Google search removes that limitation. Just because person "a" does not seem to be able to use a particular function, that is not proof that the function does not work. Here is a result from the very first search I did, using "button fell off": http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=22453&highlight=button+fell+off Goose
  25. V7Goose
    It absolutely DOES have a full 6 gallon tank. Reserve on the majority of these bikes is a full 1.5 gallons (not the 1 gallon in the manual). You cannot completely fill the tank if you do not punch vent holes in the neck. These and many other things have been discussed in HUGE detail on this site - it is all here just for your looking. Goose
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