Rough ride......high fuel consumption. Cause? Cure?

[Semi-retired]

So is that fouled plug from cyl number one then?

and if so it is not getting spark to it I guess.

 

Crappy looking plug is from right front, actually. (Not sure what "number" that is!)

 

The one that wasn't firing (left rear) was actually one of the 'better' looking ones. Mind you, they ALL looked like crap.......relatively!

[Semi-retired]

 

Hope the plug maintenane got you up and running.

 

RSTDdog

 

I tried a short, tank-still-off, start up........and YEAHHH BABY........the pipes ALL got warm real quick this time........so I'm going to assume I'm good to go!

 

Thanks for asking! And thanks for the stats on the dogbones. (I haven't invested in a torque wrench yet..........so I just 'reefed' 'em back to the same amount of 'reefing' it took to get 'em undone!!)

[Cougar]

that would be number 4 cyl then. thanks

glad ya got it fixed

[Semi-retired]

All I need to do now is look into those pesky valve shims.

 

Took Bertha for an 'energetic' spin yesterday...after installing the new plugs. Figured I'd kill two birds with one stone: 1. see how she was performing now that the new plugs were in place.......and, 2. head up to Kitchener to visit my new(ish) granddaughter, who will be riding before we know it!

 

But, I digress....

So, I had her up to 105 MPH, (the Yammy, that is......not the granddaughter).....and over the 140 mile return trip from St. Catharines to Kitchener and back, I would have to say I've never felt the bike seem so......"frisky".

 

Truth is, I don't know how I even maintained an IDLE earlier this season, based on how smooth it felt with the new plugs. Haven't yet run the bottle of Sea Foam through it, but, at least got the opportunity to check Canadian Tire's automotive "liquids" department while out in Vancouver last week, and found that they DO handle the product. (will buy and pour this week)

 

Next on my list of "sorely neglected maintenance" duties, however, is my valve adjustment.

 

Without even consulting the owner's manual, I thought I'd survey you guys first........and find out actually how many of you have surpassed the 30,000 mile (mine's 47 thousand Kliks, so about 30K miles) on your odometers WITHOUT performing a shim adjustment. (I'm not sure how to do an actual yay/nay survey on this forum.......but, perhaps I can have a show of hands?) Anyone else out there with 30 or 40K miles on their Ventures who haven't bothered to do the shims?

 

I bought the bike with 17K kliks (about 10 thousand miles) on it......from a VERY anal (i.e. thorough) guy....so, if the manual says to do it WITHIN that period, I'm guessing he would have done it.

 

How critical is it that I do them again RIGHT NOW?

[Squidley]

Next on my list of "sorely neglected maintenance" duties, however, is my valve adjustment.

 

Without even consulting the owner's manual, I thought I'd survey you guys first........and find out actually how many of you have surpassed the 30,000 mile (mine's 47 thousand Kliks, so about 30K miles) on your odometers WITHOUT performing a shim adjustment. (I'm not sure how to do an actual yay/nay survey on this forum.......but, perhaps I can have a show of hands?) Anyone else out there with 30 or 40K miles on their Ventures who haven't bothered to do the shims?

 

I bought the bike with 17K kliks (about 10 thousand miles) on it......from a VERY anal (i.e. thorough) guy....so, if the manual says to do it WITHIN that period, I'm guessing he would have done it.

 

How critical is it that I do them again RIGHT NOW?

 

Mike,

 

For the most part, the majority of the ventures, both 1st and 2nd gens that I personally have owned or helped work on, didn't need valve adjustments before 50K miles (thats our K not yours) I know others may come on here and say "I had to do mine at 30K and 4 were out of spec" That may be true, but in my experiences with this bike, anything before 60K is somewhat a waste of time in my opinion.

 

Now if you had leaky valve covers, I would say look at them, but just to open it up to "Check" them, I wouldn't, and dont. It is a very time consuming job and you have to rip a lot off the bike to get at them freely....

[Carbon_One]

I'll 2nd the Squid. I did my valves at the 50K and only found 3 valves that were off of center spec wise. There was one that was on the tight side so after swapping shims around plus exchanging a couple at the dealer I was good to go. I don't think I'll need to do this job again till another 50K is on the clock.

A couple other bikes I worked on this past winter had the same results.

Larry

[Semi-retired]

Yeah, baby....that's what I was hoping you'd say.

 

Thanks, Larry and Brad for saving me from tearing this thing down right in the peak of riding season. (yes.....it's SUPPOSED to be only a one evening or one DAY job.....but these things have a way of getting "protracted"!)

 

There's no particular clickety-clack going on within my "rocker covers".....so I'll let my sleeping dogs......'er, ponies, lie!

 

Cheers, and thanks again,

Michael

[allwx]

I'll throw a bit of cold water on this by relating my own story about valves. This was on my 97 RSTD. Same engine, less horsepower due to intake and cam differences.

 

Anyways, at right around 26k miles I opened up the top end to check the valves. All were within spec except one intake valve. That lone intake valve, (I can't recall which one, but it doesn't matter for purpose of this conversation) was almost completely closed against the cam lobe. And this was with motor cold!

 

My smallest feeler guage was something like .0015", and it would NOT go into that gap. Naturally I was horrified, and very grateful for having checked the valves at the proper interval.

 

It probably came this way from the factory. Yamaha has had quality control problems in a few areas, such as final drives, so it shouldn't surprise anyone that once in awhile a motor doesn't get set up quite right. Because of this, I don't think it is a good idea to skip the first valve adj interval. It's a lot of work, and almost certainly unnecessary. But if it happened to me, it could happen to anyone.

[XV1100SE]

.......and, 2. head up to Kitchener to visit my new(ish) granddaughter, who will be riding before we know it!...

 

Next time you are up this way.... let me know ! Live in Kitchener and work in Cambridge.

[kyle]

43,000 miles with no adjustment, runs great, starts right now. only get about 36-39 miles per gal. sync carbs twice a year. it will get valve adj. this fall...maybe...

[Semi-retired]

43,000 miles with no adjustment, runs great, starts right now. only get about 36-39 miles per gal. sync carbs twice a year. it will get valve adj. this fall...maybe...

 

Ya see now.......there's yet ANOTHER thing I've never done......is sync the carbs!!!

 

Wondering how 'critical' THAT is, too!?!?

 

I used to do it with a piece of garden hose (back in the day) before all these sexy vacuum tubes and stuff were around. Course, back then I was only doing TWO carbs.......a pair of SU's on the MGB.

 

Is it possible to do them "by ear" on the Venture, too?

[XV1100SE]

Ya see now.......there's yet ANOTHER thing I've never done......is sync the carbs!!!

 

Open offer again... if you are up this way again, I have a carb-tune.

[Semi-retired]

Open offer again... if you are up this way again, I have a carb-tune.

 

Thanks, Don! I really appreciate the offer.

 

Kitchener's my home town and I have a daughter as well as a new GRANDdaughter there, so I'll try to arrange my next family visit to coincide with a time when you might be able to have a look at my carbs.

 

How long a procedure is this normally?

[kyle]

ya see now.......there's yet another thing i've never done......is sync the carbs!!!

 

Wondering how 'critical' that is, too!?!?

 

I used to do it with a piece of garden hose (back in the day) before all these sexy vacuum tubes and stuff were around. Course, back then i was only doing two carbs.......a pair of su's on the mgb.

 

Is it possible to do them "by ear" on the venture, too?

 

 

gotta gotta do that a.s.ap. Night and day difference.

[Seaking]

How long a procedure is this normally?

 

The whole carb synch procedure doesn't take long once you get used to it.. just a matter of removing four vacuum plugs, hooking up the manometer to the four vacuum port and doing the adjustments via 3 different screws (two screws accessible from right side, one for each pair of carbs, while the one on the left adjusts to match the two sets..). The longest part of the whole process is the adjusting the synch, depending how meticulous you want them to be.. you end up adjusting the pairs of carbs, then match them up, then re-adjust the pairs if they fall out of synch, and match them up.. fine tuning the adjustment can take a while but with practice the whole procedure can take less than 15 minutes.. I just did mine today after changing the pipes (Rineharts replacing the RKs) and the synch was out enough to need adjusting again... Some people find that locating the adjustment screws tricky but once you know where they are, its all easy-peezy.

 

I used a carbtune in the past but was suspect of it not working properly (rods sticking, needing a cleaning?) then used the dial gauge type but the bouncing needles were, for me, hard to see properly.. I've since purchased a calibrated liquid type manometer and the difference is like night and day as to how precise you can get the synch done up properly.

 

The task is simple and easy to do, I typically check the carb synch after an oil change..

 

There is a guide in the tech library that shows you how it's done.. easy to follow.