M61A1MECH

You better believe that was one of the first things I looked at, fiddled with the shifter with my foot to see if it was loose. I had previously lost a billet engine mount bolt cover, not sure if it was on my 98 or the Venture, but it made a similar noise, it hit a couple of things on the way down finally made it to the pavement and parts unknown. I stopped right after it happened and then went back and walked the road side a few times looking for it, cagers thought I was nuts, poking around in the grass with my foot.

So I was riding back home the other day after looking at a used 98 Tour Classic just like the one I had before the Venture and I hear a Plink --- Tink noise, look around as best I can going 50 MPH and nothing seems a miss, so I chalk it up to some sort of road debris that hit under the bike. When I get to a stopping point I give the bike a quick once over looking for any damage or missing parts, nothing, so I journey on. Two days later I embark on a 300 or so mile ride thru Central Florida and over to Barrycuda's place and back, no issues everything is fine. Today for who knows what reason I glance over and look at the right side of the bike and immediately I see that the fuel tank mounting hard ware (chrome cover and screw) are GONE!! , So I say to myself, Oh crap that is what the noise was, I bet they don't sell those anymore:depressed:. But as luck would have it, the screw stayed in the cover and the both wedged up on top of the front valve cover, "Great" I say ! Until I notice that the end of the screw is broken off! I Pull the other side to see how much I am missing, a good 1/4 inch is missing. Sure enough it is still inside the threaded hole in the frame. After trying to turn it out with a sharp punch it is obvious there nothing to do but drill and blast. After carefully center punching the remnant I was able to drill a nice clean hole straight thru. Insert and set an easy out and out she comes easy as pie no damage. Now to find a suitable replacement 6-35 Metric screw, hopefully ACE is really the place, I will be checking their Metric SS stock first thing in the morning, otherwise it will be someplace like McMaster Carr. So the moral of the story is "If you hear a funny noise, do a very complete inspection before you chalk it up to nothing more than road noise"

Have tried leaving the handle pulled back for a prolonged period? With the relatively long vertical run from the master cylinder to the calipers it is easy to get a bubble caught in the lines, and as you try to bleed the system you just move the bubble back and forth or up and down. The viscosity and surface tension of the brake fluid are such that bubbles do not always rise to the surface as quick as you think especially when they are caught in side the lines. I had trouble bleeding mine a while back after I removed and cleaned the piston in the master cylinder. Every time I slowly pulled the lever back and held it for a bit I could see bubbles come up slowly. So I tied the lever back and left it over night, next morning when I released it and exercised the system no more air bubbles and I was able to complete the bleeding in a very short time.

Barry, Thanks for the kind words, just consider it as paying forward, I have gotten so much good advice and learned so much from this group, things like this are just one small way to pay back to the family, you will do the same in time I am certain. Dion, Same back at you, good meeting you , I am sure we will cross paths again. Here is the link to the muscle car place I told you about in Punta Gorda, by t he way this would make a perfect place for a meet and greet on the lower west coast of Florida. http://musclecarcity.net/

Does look like a Utopia, and I agree looks like it is not assembled correctly.

There is a retired Air Force gentleman , named Mr. T, here in central Florida that I ride with on occasion, the last time I rode with him he had something on the order of 365,000 on his 99 Venture, l would not worry about the Venture as far as longevity.

I had the exact same thing, was giving my wife whiplash every time I tried to break slowly for a light or stop sign, suddenly the lever would pull down and I would be jamming the breaks on. I first thought it was the pivot point , so I lubed that ,seemed to help, but was very short lived. Finely seeing that the brake fluid was getting discolored and needed changing, I removed the old fluid and while the master cylinder was empty I pulled the piston that the lever actuates, out and cleaned it and the flushed the bore with clean brake fluid. Put it all back together, refilled the master cylinder and flushed the lines with clean fluid, bled the brakes and all is good again. Just be very careful not to spill brake fluid on any painted surfaces or plastic parts. Probably could have been avoided if I was not so lazy and would change the fluids when they really need it , rather than pushing it and hoping it will be OK, but that is just me I suppose. the old pay me now or pay me later syndrome. Hope your fix is as easy as mine was.

I think the slow speed handling is not as bad as it is made out to be. This is a big heavy bike, make not mistake about that, but if you remember your basic instructions like, do not use your front brakes when doing slow speed maneuvers, especially avoiding the front brake when the bars are turned. Also remember to use a light pressure on the rear brake while using your clutch friction zone and throttle to control your speed you should not have any issues. If you have sufficient inseam to accommodate an extra 3/4" in seat height, the addition on leveling links will improve the nature of the beast in those slow speed turns.

You may try digging into the parent sites of the links I posted, like KOYJAY, they have a wide variety of connectors available, I just grabbed one page that looked a little promising.

That looks like a Delphi connector, as soon as I can get to my personal computer I will send you some links to folks I have been dealing with for my harness connectors. In the mean time try taking a ty-wrap around the fixed side and trap two other ty-wraps under the first one before you cinch it down, these will act as straps, loosely wrap a 4th ty-wrap around the flying lead and mate the flying lead to the fixed connector, put the 2 ty-wrap straps thru the loose ty-wrap and cinch it up, now put the ends of the strap ty-wraps thru their respective heads and cinch them up. That should hold you for a good long time. Provided you can get in there to do all of that. Here are some links that could be helpful, I think KOJAY is your best bet, plus they are on your side of the pond. http://kojaycat.co.uk/epages/950000457.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/950000457/Products/RFW-4WF http://terminalsupplyco.com/Store/Default.aspx?CAT=TERM070&PCAT=54221#Categories http://www.bmotorsports.com/shop/index.php/cPath/109_222_225 Good luck

Brake pad wear is dependent in a large part on the individual riding habits of the driver. If you are heavy on the brakes they wear out sooner than someone was has lighter touch or different riding style. On the Venture it is common for the pads to wear unevenly, many of us inspect frequently and swap the inside and the outside to even out the wear. If one of the pads is gone and the other is only worn half way down, then you could be the victim of a pad de-bonding from the "shoe" that it is attached to, if that happened you would have been pushing the metal "shoe" right on to the rotor every time you applied the rear brakes. That should have made a heck of a racket. That will definitely ruin a rotor in a short period of time.

Run between 46 and 48 and you should be fine, Metzlers do have a history of throwing chunks of tread off when they are on Ventures, Metzler always blames under inflation as the problem. I ran a set at those pressures for about 15,000 miles with no problems. I just tried to check the fitment guide on their website, and they must be having problems, because it keeps showing "NO RESULTS FOUND" on almost every page I check.

Here is a link to an article on this from Motorcycle Daily. http://www.motorcycledaily.com/2013/06/lotus-motorcycles-why-super-premium-motorcycle-brands-have-a-particularly-tough-road/

Rain-X is not recommended for plastics, will cause yellowing and possibly crazing.

If Alexander Graham Bell had his way this post probably would have started with "AHOY".

I am not sure about one on line , but Microsoft Streets and Trips has three functions that will do someting like you want. 1. You can select your starting point and then go in and ask it to find near by places, in that query box you an set the radius for Streest and Trips to lok at and the result is a circular grid overlaid on the map. 2. You can ask Streets and Trip create a drive time zone that wil show where you can get to within a certian period of time. 3. In the tools bar options of Streets and Trips there is an option to draw a circle on the map, pick a start point and drag the circle out as you go it tells you the length of the radius of the circle. This is a program you have to purchase, but I think it was pretty cheap and is very useful, I use it all the time for trip planning.

Try this link from Delphi forums. http://forums.delphiforums.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=royalstar&msg=9384.4

Count on me, I will be there.

Very unique wind driven mobile. http://www.wimp.com/windmachine/

Check those round guards that are mounted on the top of the left and right rear valve covers. They have been known to fracture right at one of the mounting screws. The two ends rub on each other and make the most annoying sound. It tends to be reflected off the inner front fairing making it sound like the noise is coming from some place forward. Had it happen a couple of times on my 98 TC. You need to actually push on each end where they a fastened to the valve cover to see if they move, the fracture is so clean it is almost invisible and you will not see it until you force it to move.

Mike, I think the extra wire is for the back up lights, you will need those when you put the GW in reverse to back the trailer into a spot. You did get the back lights as an option on your trailer , right?

The clutch is hydraulic, there is no adjustment. Could be the fluid is old and has moisture in it or the system has air in it, either or both will cause the system to try to compress the air or dirty fluid. Compressing the the fluid uses up travel in the master piston, so when you get the lever to the bottom of the stroke it has not moved enough fluid to disengage the clutch fully. If the fluid in the master cylinder is dark brown, change it and then pump fresh fluid through the system by pumping the lever while opening the bleeder valve until clear fresh fluid is coming out. That should take care of it.

Here it is , here is the next Venture , soon to be on the streets, well sort of on the street. rare_footage_of_new_Venture

Specific to the 07, some head bolts were not torqued properly, dealer can tell you by the VIN if that unit is affected and if it had been previously taken care of on that campaign. All years could suffer from clicking noise in the rear end, when backed up, there are 2 tech bulletins out to address proper alignment of drive shaft to rear hub and also greasing of the spiders in the rear end.

Nice work Jeff, looking forward to seeing in person at the next Meet and Eat.