helomech
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Everything posted by helomech
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You stole my post! I could have written this one too! Exact same story on mine!
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One Thing I came up with on several web searches is that deceleration backfiring is usually caused by idle mixture being too lean. I could try to explain it, but I'm currently climbing up the steep learning curve on this stuff too and I don't want to get it wrong. Suffice to say it has something to do with unburned lean mixture entering hot exhaust pipes, and I'm trying to get my brain wrapped around it. Mine was backfiring BEFORE I cleaned my carbs. It doesn't anymore, but from what I gather, my current setting of 1 1/4 turn out from bottom on the idle richness screw is much leaner than most end up with. From the responses I've received recently, 2 to 2.5 turns out from bottom is more common. If you've gone through the carbs, I'm assuming all is well with your deceleration diaphrams. The effect of what they do, from what I see in my shop manual diagrams is to richen the mixture further whenever the throttle butterfly closes rapidly, causing a change in pressure in the throat which, in turn, moves the bleed valve in the decel' circuit. Anyone jump in and correct me if that is not the case... -
I would contend that flames are not trendy, they are timeless. That being said, I have an idea for my bike that does not involve flames, but you'll all have to wait untill next spring!
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All I can say is Uffda! I hope no one photoshops THAT into the pics of my kids!
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Carb Overhaul on 1st Gen
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How do you do this part George? Shop manual is useless, says "factory set, don't adjust." Nothing in tech that I can find. I have found a few internet articles about Idle richness for other bikes, but the gist of what I came up with is, if it backfires a lot, richen the mixture, and if it smells bad, lean it out. Is there a precise way to adjust the carbs either together or indvidually without expensive smog sniffing equipment? I suppose you could use one of those point and shoot infrared thermometers to compare cylinder temps, but I'm clueless as to what the procedure or result of "fine tuning" should be. For now, I've settled on each of the mixture screws at about 1 1/4 turns out from bottom. no backfiring, no smell, clean exhaust, idles at 1000 rpm. The bike seems to be running great, except the mileage is lousy. Thanks for the help. As to your suggestion, I will do another sync ASAP.
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I started riding to work this morning, but changed my mind about half way and turned back to get the suburban. As it turned out, my ride home would've been dry, but we got pounded pretty well here in the St Cloud area too. Lots of tree branches and limbs lying around.
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Yeah, that seems to happen a lot here when someone throws a pile of parts out there! My bike hasn't got enough nice parts on it to part it out, so I just have to keep it running!
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[ame=http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=629_1187712839]Check out this vid![/ame]. I bet there were some soiled undapants after this encouter!
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I did the carb cleaning this weekend. On Monday, I took it out for about a 50 mile test drive. I feel like I have a new bike! It was strong before, but now it is silky smooth as well. I had absolutely no backfiring at all for the first time since I bought the bike. Anyway, that carb cleaning was long overdue, why did I suffer so long? When I opened the float bowls up, I found significant quantities of fine rust colored powder in all four bowls. I'm sure that rust was the main reson behind the inconstant performance. All of the diaphrams, o-rings, and valves were in good shape. When I got them back together, I did the float check and found the float settings were all over the place too. One was barely letting any fuel in at all, and another was pouring all over the place. the remaining two were a full inch below spec. The list of parts you guys gave was pretty good, and thanks, but some of those items are big ticket items for my tiny bike budget. I figured I'd just hold off and take a look first to see how everything looked before I dropped several hundred dollars for all those parts listed. The only problem now is that when the bike is hot, the idle speed drops to about 500 rpm. Yes, that's what I said, it idles as 500 rpm! Yes I know thats too low, but it did it without dying! I think that means I still have a little work to do as far as getting the right Idle mixture settings. When I took them out for cleaning they were only one full turn out from bottomed on all four. I've turned the mixture screws out a quarter turn to see if it helps. It seems to for now, after the adjustment, I was able to adjust the thumbscrew back towards the cold setting a bit. Now I'll have to let her get cold and see how she does then. I'm pretty sure the mixture is the key to the dropping idle, but I want to creep up on that setting slowly because I don't want to dump any more fuel in there than I need to.
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Carb designs
helomech replied to ctraylor's topic in Venture and Venture Royale Tech Talk ('83 - '93)
I suspect there would be a loss of efficiency due to the fact that the stock carb's main venturis feed pretty much vertically into the cylinder with only a slight bend, no added resistance from the extra length and bends that any adapter intake manifold would require. -
My current job keeps me pretty well anchored in central Minnesota, but it has taken me to Lafayette, Dallas, and Denver a couple of times. Travel, that's one thing I'm really going to miss about the Air National Guard. There was some pretty good travel with them. Active duty in the Marines took me all over the Pacific.
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The Bike is running horribly again. I can't seem to keep it consistant. The Idle wanders, ocasionaly I lose power during roll-ons and it is using waaayyy more gas than it should. I think its time to do the carbs. The instructions in Tech are great so I don't think I need help there. My problem is I can't find a kit on-line. I don't want to go to my local dealer because they are SSSLLLOOOOWWWW with regard to ordering parts. I've been to both DGY and Flatout, they don't appear to sell a kit, just individual parts. Having never done this before, I have no idea what parts are needed, nice to have, or a complete waste of money. If no kits are available, how about a list of parts? Might be a nice addition to the tech article. DGY and Flatout appear to use the same indexing system and numbers. Thanks guys!
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It Looks Like I'm Down.
helomech replied to NLAlston's topic in Venture and Venture Royale Tech Talk ('83 - '93)
I had the same problem last fall through the spring, my stator did seem to fail gradually, possibly masked a bit by a strong battery until the repeated deep cycling of the battery caused it to fail as well. my stator was around the $160 mark after shipping, Gaskets added another 20, I also replace cracked water pump impeller, bearing, and seal at the same time. Make sure you seal those wires where they come out of the cover well. I didn't and will be pulling it off again soon to fix a harlyesque style puddle producer. -
I made one of these too, but didn't buy anything! clear medical tubing, got clean unused from the trash at work, Used two long neck michelob light bottles, just had to remove the liquid first. I didn't bother with rubber stoppers, I just used an old tube of clear silicon RTV rhat was in my garage to fill the bottle openings and seal around the tubes. After the RTV had set, I siphoned in about 10 oz of water mixed with three drops of blue food coloring.The homade toolworked so well that that old worn out bike will lift the front tire in 2nd gear
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are water punps sappose to make noise ?
helomech replied to Thom's topic in Venture and Venture Royale Tech Talk ('83 - '93)
I just went through all of that myself, I found the impeller cracked, the seal was leaking through the bearing into the oil, and the bearing was making a lot of noise too. I bought a new impeller, bearing, Gasket, and seal from Flatout MC. All were ordered as individual parts, not a kit. The replacement was a cast metal impeller, the original was plastic. The bike runs a bit cooler now too. Thank goodness the guys on this forum pointed me in that direction. I thought I was going to pull the heads to find the source of water in the oil. It's finally on the road again, but seriously in need of the carbtune treatment. I also learned why one should never to use a gas can to store kerosene. -
I had tried pulling all of the fuses but still got the 47k-ohms I've also removed all of the accessory lighting, (I kind of like the clean look). The only thing I can think of that is hot wired all the time is the clock, but that should be a very large resistance value. I know 47k-ohms are a very common value in electronics but I figure the clock should be much higher resistance with a insignificant voltage drop across it. Right now I have no radio installed, the cigarette lighter is disconnected, the CLASS is disconnected(inoperative, need a replacement unit or parts for it), I guess I'll have to check the solenoid tomorrow. Drat, gotta remove the dang fairing again.....
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Well, the battle I've been fighting with my electrical system since last fall continues. I replaced the Battery, main ground cables and rectifier. I still can't seem to get any life out of the battery. I charge it up with the battery tender, I starts fine, Charges fine while it's running, and starts right back up if I don't wait too long, but if I leave it for a couple of hours, I can barely get the engine to turn over once. I measured the resistance of the entire system between the battery cables with the battery disconnected and key off and read 47 kohms. Is this normal and if not, what might be causing the draw? I haven't yet replaced the cable between the starter and the solenoid yet, I intend to, but I don't think that is the problem. I'm getting real tired of watching everyone else's bike through the windshield of my suburban while mine sits in my garage because I don't trust it to start if I stop anywhere.
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Well it looks as if my battery is belly-up. What are the opinions on replacement batteries for the 1st gens? I'd like to go maintenance free if possible, but looking for the bang-for-the-buck factor. Don't want to throw a wad of cash out, but will spend a bit more for a better battery. Also, does anyone have a good way to do a load test on a battery to make sure if it is the problem or not? I could hook up a 12 volt load to it, but I have no idea how long it should last. The battery reads 13 volts after a couple of nights on the battery minder jr, but won't crank the starter more than a couple of revs before the relays chatter. Fluid levels are good, battery light is off. I ran a new cable I made out of heavy guage aircraft electrical wire to the starter. I've looked at the archives, but I think many good battery threads, must have been lost back in the crash. The dang electrical problems ended my season early, and I want this thing running well before spring. Any other ideas will be appreciated.
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Advice? Switching to V-Max cams
helomech replied to BadPigg's topic in Royal Star and Royal Star Tour Deluxe Tech Talk
This all sounds really cool, and I'm thinking I may try it someday. I have one question though. What, exactly, is a 'Dyna 3000k'? -
Well, I wasn't able to get away for the funeral, but I plan to call his wife again Tomorrow. I'm not too worried about her, she's strong and has prepared herself and her son as well as anyone could for the inevitable. For the last few months he had to be in a nursing home, and she was there for him with their son every morning for breakfast and every night. I feel really bad for his son, and want to do something for him someday, but I don't know what. I thought I might put together some pictures of him on the job, but can't seem to find any. I know I have a few, but I find myself wishing I had brought the camera to work more often. I'm open to any kind of ideas anyone might have for things to do for the boy. Things that maybe won't mean much until he is older. He's only three and a half years old right now, but I'm trying to think of somthing for when he is around ten or so. It's hard to describe the feeling you get when you watch a three year old spoon-feed his dad. It warms your heart and breaks it at the same time.
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Well, not a good day today. I just got word that a good friend and former coworker finally passed away after a cruel battle with ALS. That's Lou Gehrig's disease. He was a helluva helicopter wrench who used to take care of an EMS helicopter with me in Fargo ND, and for the past six years he took care of one in Neenah WI. He was diagnosed back in December and it hit him like a sledgehammer over the next several months. He was the nicest guy anyone could ever want to meet, and was always willing to help anyone. He had more common sense than most people I know, and his word was good as gold. He just turned 41 this summer, less that 2 months before I did the same. He couldn't wait to teach his three year old son how to ride his mini-z, but he never got the chance. I can't imagine my 3 boys having to grow up without their dad. At least there are plenty of uncles around to give his son those experiences. His first loves were snowmobiles, helicopters, and his HD Sportster. He got me involved with vintage snowmobiles, and there are a lot of pictures of him and his sleds on my website. A lot of medical crews, pilots and patients owe their lives to him as a direct result of his expert and timely maintenance that kept his aircraft ready and safe. Fortunately, I was able to pack my family up in the car and go visit him last month. His wife didn't tell him we were coming, and he lit right up when we walked in the door. It was worth the trip just to see him light up like that. Unfortunately, he, and the rest of us, all knew it was the last time we would see him alive. I told his wife that I didn't know if I'd be able to make the funeral, but she said she was much happier that we took the time to visit when it still meant something to him. The funeral is Friday or Saturday, If I can't take the family again, I might try to ride the bike. It'll be an iron butt ride, but I don't know if I'll be able to go anyway, it's the nature of the job. http://homepage.mac.com/helomech/.Pictures/lakerun.gif
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What did the full-face style have to do with it? I would think that any helmet with a malfunctioning movable visor could be sobject to somthing like that happening. I ride with my visor in a half down position all the time because the windshield provides protection that is too good and it gets hot quickly with the visor all the way down. As long as your visor clicks firmly in all positions, nothing short of riding in a hurricane should lift it. I expect that sometime I will get a open face helmet, but for now, full-face works great, at least for me... To each his own I guess.