New venture owner

[Rapid Rod]

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

[Yammer Dan]

Leave it on reserve. It will probally break if you try to move it. Lot of threads opn here for fixing plastic. You have too much air in the front. It may have progressive springs and a lot of folks on here don't run any air at all with them. I run about 5 lbs. You can stop that collector rattle by smacking it on the bottom with a hammer. But I broke one like this. Smacked it too hard.

 

Oh and you will have to stop and wait for your son to catch up every now and then...:rotfl:

 

 

 

WELCOME!!!!

[Flyinfool]

First of all some of the rules here.

If there are no pics, it didn't happen.

We like to look at pictures on this site.

 

15 in the front is right near the MAX limit of 17psi, allowable range is 11-17psi.

15 in the rear is right at the bottom limit of 14psi, allowable range is 14-71psi.

 

I am running 15 front since my springs are old and worn, as Dan mentioned, when you convert to progressive springs many people find that zero in the front works best.

 

I run 40 in the rear with the damper set at 2 or 3 (depending on how much junk is in the trunk) and I only ride 1 up.

 

If I run less than that I tend to bottom out a lot.

 

As for getting it up on the center stand, I thought it was impossible, until a 120lb woman showed me the proper technique. Now it just jumps up there when I throw my big fat carcass at it.

 

 

Welcome to the loony bin.

[Rapid Rod]

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

[bongobobny]

As far as the mic cover on the preamp module, all I do is cut out a piece of material and glue it in after taking the faceplate off and gingerly removing the green plastic that's in there...

[GaryZ]

That's a beauty, and welcome aboard!

 

I will chime in on air shocks; I ran 12 - 14 PSI in the front until replacing the wore out springs with Progressives at 60,000 miles on the clock. Now I will run 6 PSI fully loaded and 0 PSI the rest of the time. The rear shock usually runs between 40 and 50 PSI. Your front sits up like it may already have Progressives.

 

A simple test is when sitting on the bike, raise your weight up off of the seat with both feet planted, and sit down firmly. The bike should squat somewhat evenly front and rear.

[latchkey]

nice looking ride

[dingy]

A Burgandy, The quickest color,

 

 

To check for progressives in the front, let all the air out, if it squats down much at all it probably doesn't have progressives, anything more than an inch. Also try setting on it with low air in front, apply front brake and lean hard and fast into handlebars, progressives won't give much. Nowhere near bottom, which worn out stock springs may do.

 

Gary

[Rapid Rod]

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.

[Yammer Dan]

Mud Daubers plugged the intake line on my compressor. Made me scratch my head a few times before I found that one!!

[Rapid Rod]

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)

[Yammer Dan]

Just stop at the Dairy Queens and give him time to catch up...

 

Hope 5th is a easy fix for him.

[Rapid 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.

[wecruz]

Congrats o the new ride,and I see you were lucky enough to get the fastest color!!!!!

[dingy]

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.

 

I am not aware of a CLASS equipped bike having schrader valves in a stock configuration.

 

Someone may have modified it due to CLASS not working & bypassed compressor system.

 

The compressor is under trunk, remove trunk and cargo rack, then plastic compressor cover and see if lines have been disconnected.

 

Gary

[dingy]

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.

 

When you have CMU head apart, there is an rubberized type connector that connects the LCD screen to the main body. Clean both sides of this contact with rubbing alcohol.

 

Gary

[Rapid Rod]

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

[Rapid 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?

[twigg]

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?

 

They are regulars on eBay.

 

You can still get new units .... for about $500!!

[OldGazer]

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?

 

 

Try evil bay. I've seen entire dash assemblies there from time to time. If you have the patience, you can use a soldering iron to over cure the conformal coating so you can get to the circuit runs. Used to be a 2M Inspector/Instructor. If I had the thing in my hands I might be able to fix it.... Even then, the hard part will be keeping the board from failing again.

 

BTW: Welcom Aboard Shipmate....

[VentureBob]

Does any one know where I can find the circuit board?

 

I have a complete dash unit out of an '89 I would like to sell. PM me if you are interested.