Ponderosa

Learning that the "chorme" caps and rings are part of the grips clears up my thinking.....don't know what I was thinking for sure, but that shinny stuff had me scratching my head. Have used the compressed air method on dirt bikes for years.... but they were all "bling free". Now all I have to do is find replacement grips that suit my taste.

How do you deal with removing/installing the grips on a first gen? Are the chrome caps on the end of the bars removable or do the old grips have to be cut off and the new ones stretched over the end caps? I have an 84 VR that the PO put leather grip covers on, which make my hands feel like I'm holding onto the fat end of a baseball bat. Want to remove the covers and set something up that is a little smaller in diameter.

Since my initial post I decided to chance it and took the bike out for a ride (had to run into town to pick up some Sea Foam anyway). Rode to a job site, then to town, made several stops there, then returned home... about 70 miles. No reccurence of symptoms, the bike ran normally. It's hard to diagnose it and fix it if it won't stay broke. As soon as I get a little time (perhaps towards the weekend) I will do the Sea Foam treatment as suggested, as I too consider sticking floats to be a possibility. I will probably be looking a little deeper into the intake system in the not too distant future as the PO mentioned that he had disassembled and cleaned the carbs. A comment like that always gets my attention, as I don't think most people have any business inside of carburetors. When I had the air box off I noticed a few things that are goning to need a little attention, some sooner than others. PO had duct taped off the spiggot on the bottom of the air box where the crankcase vent is supposes connect and I couldn't spot the hose from the crankcase vent..... will have to track that down and make sure proper crankcase breathing and filtration is happening (real soon). Also noticed that with the engine running and blipping the throttle that the slide on number four is pretty lazy and doesn't like to come to the party until you nail it pretty hard and the tach gets into the 5G territory....... probably looking and diaphrams and syncing the carbs (can wait a little bit) Also a question....On all of the other "vintage" Yamahas that I have worked on, the float bowl overflows were connected to tubing that routed any potential overflow to a supposedly preferable location. There doesn't appear to be any tubing present that would perform that function. Should there be?

1984 Venture Royale: I've owned it a few weeks, been riding it to work everything has seemed to be working well. Filled with fuel and came home and parked the bike. My wife got home a little less than an hour later and suggested we take the bike and go out to dinner, "great idea Honey". I get the bike out of the shed, clean the bugs off the windshield, fire it up and we head out the driveway. Everything was functioning nomally up to this point. As we headed up the driveway, the engine stumbled a little, then caught, then stumbled again, acting like it wasn't getting fuel, thumbed the choke for a second, she caught, then stumbled and quit. Tried to restart,she would fire and run a few seconds but wouldn't take much throttle, and quit again. Same thing three or four times. I thought hmmmm clogged fuel filter? malfunctioning pump? restriction in fuel line? plugged tank outlet? Pushed home and parked in the driveway and took the pickup . Next morning tried to start it, same thing, run a few seconds and quit. Didn't havetime to tear into it so left it sit for a couple of days. Came back disconnected fuel output line from filter, flow was good.... disconnected fuel line from carbs and cycled ignition, flow and pressure were good?????hmmmmm. Hooked everything back up and she fires up and runs fine.... ??????? Am a bit nerveous to get the horse too far from the barn. Any thoughts?