Rapid Rod

I was having a little trouble with my 89' when I first started it, couldn't get the idle above 500 and missed a little and popped. The PO told me he put a new battery in. I thought maybe it was the fuel pump and read the trouble shooting chart. It needs about 11v and my battery held 10 over-nite and went to 8v under load. After riding it long enough to get it charged up idle was good and no popping. The next day, same problem. I put in a new battery and the problem seemed to go away, fuel pump is clicking away. hope this might help. rod

I found my Computer Monitor System board has a crack after I soldered the broken joints. It would work for a second and go away. I can't jumper the front of the board so It's toast. Does anyone have a board (working or not)? Mine has the clock includes with the monitor. I sure would like to see the fuel level and all the monitor stuff working. rod

I got the computer monitor to run for a few seconds but it wouldn't stay up. I pulled it back out and inspected it better and found that it is cracked from the middle of the plug mounts all the way across the board. I jumped the broken foils on the bottom of the board but there is no hope for the top, it has alot of foil and is epoxied. Does any one know where I can find the circuit board?

Thanks, Gary, on both fixes. I will get pictures for the next post. The schrader valves are nicely done so I thought it was stock. rod

Well, I pulled the dashboard(not as hard as I expected). Soldered all of the board connections for the external plugs and put it all back together. , , , Then I tested it. Somebody should know better. The display came up for a couple of seconds, then blank, then on and off intermittently at no set pattern. I didn't check the pins for the jumper to the lcd. I must have missed a bad solder joint. Still no clock, fuel guage, or gear position so I think it must be in the power going to the unit. Second time in should be a cakewalk.

Truckee has gone about 800 mi. since he dropped 5th. He told me this morning that he was getting 44 mpg now. (he was getting 32 mpg commuting 20 miles to work and back using 5th on the freeway). I guess his 1300 is happier at higher revs.

I will check for that. They are real bad out here in the desert. BTW, Dan, My son went on a road trip and lost 5th gear. Now what do I do about the comment in your first post??? Give him a head start then wait for him at the other end anyway??(I posted the information about his bike on the 2nd gen. forum)

My son(vegastruckee) set out on a 4,000 mi. road trip from Las Vegas a couple of days ago, on his 2nd gen 2002 VRS. Yesterday morning when he left Sacramento, Ca. he lost 5th gear. It was like he shifted to neutral. He called me at his next gas stop and I hit the forums. I made a couple of calls from the VR assistance list and Tim helped me find a place for truckee to get some help. I searched all over the forums for the problem and found some solutions by the time he made his next stop. I set him up with Justin at Pacific Motorsports in Eureka, Ca. They drained the oil and didn't find any fileings or gear parts in it, so truckee is continuing on. I think, from the way it sounds, he may have the old "pin" style gear change pawl, and the retainer clip has bent/broken and allowed the pin to partially dislodge. I will be going out to Vegas next month and ,if he completes his trip with no other issues, I will help him take the cover and clutch basket off and show him how smart I am. He expects to have to drop the motor and split it. I told him he shouldn't have any trouble in 4th if he watches his temp., fuel mileage, and keeps it under 75. His previous motorcycle was one of them Hiabussa's, so the last step might be hard for him.

My son set off, from Las Vegas, on a 4,000 road trip and lost 5th gear the second day.(I'm in west Texas) I hit the list and found Tim in Ca. and he helped us out alot. Thanks again VR and Tim. THIS IS AN AWSOME SITE!!!! My son is vegastruckee (on a second gen)

I made the class module solder repair this morning and it came up. I have the front at 12psi and the back at 17psi by way of the schrader valves on the rear fender. The CLASS doesn't see it and shows 0psi on both. The compressor comes on to bring them up and registers up to about 2psi then drops back to 0. It times out. I can hear the solenoid switch from front to back but the pressure at the schrader valves never changes. I will have to check on the supply lines from the compressor. I don't know how long it hasn't worked, no signs of anyone working on the solder joints. They probably capped off the line from the shocks and left the compressor open to the atmosphere. I would have posted pics. of the class repair, but it looked the same as all of the other great instructional posts that I found on here. The CMS/CLOCK/FUEL GUAGE are also non-functioning, I guess I will have to remove the faring to get to it? I suspect cold/broken solder joints on it as well. It took me longer to find a bottle of fingernail polish, to lock the board mounting screws, than it did to make the repair. (Those new stick-on fingernails did away with polish.) I used to fly R/C airplanes and it was a rule of thumb - for every 1 hour of air time it took 10 hours of bench time. It looks like the inverse for my 89 VR.

I had the pics, just no time to get them posted until now.

Well, I got the paperwork all done and now I’m the proud owner of a 1989 Venture. I started looking at it about a week ago and found this site through my son, who is already a venture rider(second gen.) and member. I read through the first 35 pages of the first gen. forum, and found all sorts of good information. Now about the Venture. It has 56K miles, and all the leather is in very good shape. The trunk, saddle boxes, faring and windshield are in very good condition. The dash has some areas where the screw holes are broken off, and some of the vent louvers are broken or missing especially by the motor. The collector ‘rattles’ on start-up, but goes away after a couple of minutes, I can live with that for awhile. It has a Dunlap 491 on the front and a Avon venom on the rear, air pressures are good and the casting whiskers are still visible near the outside of the tread area. All of the electronics seem to be working, except for the CLASS, which has the E-4 problem. I have an electrical/mechanical background and the information posted on about page 12, of the ‘first gen. forum’, gave me the information I need to get that repaired.(Thanks) The water resistant paper on the amplifier ‘road noise pick-up mike’ is damaged, so if someone knows of a replacement product, that would help. Using the Schrader Valves mounted on the right rear fender, I found the rear shock pressure at 40 psi. and the front at 0 psi. I reduced the rear to 15, and increased the front to 15. (When I checked the pressure for the forks, oil leaked from the Schrader valve.) The pressures have been holding steady for about an hour. I will probably have to purge the air line back into the forks. The dampener is set on 4 and I will reduce this to 1 because I will be riding ‘1 up’ for awhile. (BTW- somewhere in the forum was a tip to put a 2 by 4 under the rear tire to help in getting up onto the center stand, I don’t think I could have done it any other way. A 2 by 6 by 16” is now part of the tool kit in my right saddle box.) The previous owner kept the fuel valve in the reserve position, is that a good idea? I used to ride,, back-in-the-day , early 70’s. I had a ‘65’ 650Triumph Bonneville when I was single and in the Navy on the west coast. This Venture is a little bigger and I am a little older so it will take some time to get comfortable and confident again. rod