cold cylinder

[terry hutchens]

sitting on the bike it's the front left. so i took off plug cap and found a dime thats right a dime! i thought boy was i lucky, put the cap back on still no change:( i guess i got some testing to do. i dont know how long the bike has been sitting. i've been reading some threads on this problem so hopefully nothing major. already got a little seafoam in it. gonna check for fire first and go from there. this is a great site a lot of useful info thanks!!

[Black wing]

a dime in the plug cap...? like in the spark plug boot?

[terry hutchens]

no it was laying outside the boot. lol

[Black Owl]

Boy, don't you just hate it when someone drops a dime on yah... You also may want to consider switching out the OEM plug wires and boots.

[Black wing]

ya second on the new wires, did that to mine when i got it and i cleared up alot of issues, all you ned is 9mm or 7mm wire (cant remember im sure someone will correct me in a post lol) and ngk screw on caps. one you pop the sides of the fairings off you can get to the sides of the coils and there is just a cap you unscrew and the old wire pops out.

[Yammer Dan]

I think it is 7mm. I use Parker Yamaha to order the wire but haven't checked them for a while. New wires & plugs do a Sea-Foam soak and most running problems go away.

[terry hutchens]

thanks guys! got home couldnt take out plug for the lack of the right tool but pulled cap off trimmed wire reattached cap used an old plug got spark. removed air filter cover,and started poured a little gas in the carb while running and the pipe started getting hot.sooo i didnt want to pull the carbs. maybe check for kinked fuel line? any ideas? thanks in advance! tell me more about the sea-foam soak.

Edited February 21, 2013 by terry hutchens

[Black wing]

if you had a kinked line all your carbs would dry up the lines between carbs cant really get kinked. (though i did once connect the fuel line to a overflow tube and flooded the cylinder ) but most likely cleaning up the end of the wire got it going again. if you get fire when feeding the carb gas and not when its running on its own it may be a stuck float try to just start the bike and tap on the bowl with the end of a screwdriver handle a couple a times. if still no luck on getting fire without feeding then your carbs gotta get rebuilt

[KIC]

Was the dime on the inside of the cap between the cap and the cylinder wall ? I found a quarter in my front left cylinder the first time I changed plugs. Does this have a meaning ? Is it a good luck deal or something ?

[Yammer Dan]

A good soak will cure "most" carb problems.

 

Here we go again. You will need: Sea-Foam:

:Piece of fuel line about 18 inches long same size as on rear of fuel pump. About any cheap line will do.

:1/2 Pint or so of fresh gas:

:Set of small vise grips

:Screwdriver to open drain plugs on carbs:

:Container to mix Sea-Foam and gas.

 

Mix about 2/3s can of Sea-Foam with about 1/3 fresh gas. I have done this with pure Sea-Foam but restarting is hard.

I use vice grips to close off fuel line coming from tank because those old petcocks do not like to be messed with. Deal with that later but if your petcock works good just shut it off. If not here we go. Remove side panels to get at carbs. Find rear of fuel pump. On left of bike as you are sitting on it. Clamp off line going to rear of pump and rmove from pump. PLace your piece of line in it place. Leave for now. Take screwdriver and open all drain plugs and drain as much as you can from carbs. Drain screw is on bottom right corner of carbs as you face them on bike. Hopefully you will get something out of each carb. When you have them drained close them, Place line into Sea-Foam and turn on switch. You will hear fuel pump clicking. It should suck the Sea-Foam into the carbs. Let it cycle until you think carbs are full. Start bike and let it run a few minutes. Watch your mix and don't run out. When you are sure carbs are full of mix shut bike off. Rehook everything as it was. Don't restart now. Leave it sit at least overnight. I've left them 2 or 3 days. Won't hurt a thing probally helps. When you restart it will Cough.Smoke,Fart, Belch,Sneeze and a few other things. This has cost me a set of plugs at times. It will bring stuff out of there that will scare you. But after you get the Sea-Foam out I BET it runs better. I have done this several times on stubborn bikes. Using Sea-Foam as recommended with prevent 95 per cent of carb problems. I have used other mixes for this but Sea-Foam is safe and will not harm carbs. I use a mix of BerryMans Chem Tech, Sea-Foam and gas on really dirty ones and have used pure Chem Tech. Get it at Wally World.

 

 

Don how many more times am I going to have to one finger this??

[terry hutchens]

update; took the air filter box off for a look see. took out the drain plug gas came out,turned the switch on,gas came out put plug back in. tapped on carb. started bike heres what i found, gas coming out around needle on all carbs.one of the carb slides has some chips but seem to work fine. so poured some gas into problem carb and pipe started getting hot. also the slides flutter when giving throttle. maybe a weak plug? i don't know. thanks

[mraf]

My old 83 was bad about plugs. New spark plugs are relatively cheap. The Venture does not like to run smooth with the air cleaner top removed. It will miss and backfire. As your looking down into the carburetors while its running look to see if all the sliders are fluttering about the same. If so,good. Check to see that the connector from the stator is OK. You will find this about half way up the frame rail on the left side of the bike. About top of your ankle. This connector will burn and cause bad mojo. Some clean it some cut and solder the wires. Whatever you decide. If the sliders are not fluttering relatively the same in the carbs, inspect why. The diaphragms could be bad. They are easily removed. Dans advice on the Seafoam is spot-on ,do it. Just peruse the service Manuel on this site for all its worth. Right now $12. Best $12 ever spent. Good luck and ask away until you get it running right.

[terry hutchens]

update: doing a pure sea-foam soak on problem carb, been 24 hrs. fired the bike up this evening just to pull the sea-foam through it. of course no fire. pulled plug cap off and inserted a new ngk found little to no spark, once or twice good spark, pulled on spark plug wire at the cap and coil with no change.going to try a new wire then check coil and connections. if that don't work change coil. i'd like to put a set of dyna coils on it. put a set on my xj when i got it really made a differnce! thanks.

[terry hutchens]

update: just finished doing the check from the left side of the ignition fuse to the plug cap. if i'm reading the ohm meter right it reads 20k. going to do a search and see what i find out.

[dingy]

update: doing a pure sea-foam soak on problem carb, been 24 hrs. fired the bike up this evening just to pull the sea-foam through it. of course no fire. pulled plug cap off and inserted a new ngk found little to no spark, once or twice good spark, pulled on spark plug wire at the cap and coil with no change.going to try a new wire then check coil and connections. if that don't work change coil. i'd like to put a set of dyna coils on it. put a set on my xj when i got it really made a differnce! thanks.

If you change coils on the Venture to a set with a lower ohm value on the primary side, you will more than likely burn the TCI up somewhat quickly.

 

Reason this will happen is the lower ohm primary allows greater current flow through the primary, which will overload the circuitry in the TCI. This is a known issue on the VMax side and the VMax TCI is extremely similar to the 1st Gen Ventures.

 

One of the members there makes a harness kit for the Coil Over Plug units which includes a ceramic resistor in each coil lead. I haven't been able to pry any info out of him about the particulars on this resistor. If you are interested in this, PM me and I will hook him up with you.

 

Another option, which could possibly be your problem is a replacement TCI. Just so happens I have a few brand new ones on hand. These have an adjustable dwell time that allows the use of the lower ohm coils without damaging this TCI.

 

Main thread on this TCI is linked below.

 

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=40414

 

Thread below is my last group buy of these which I still have some left.

 

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=74234

 

Gary

[terry hutchens]

sounds good gary. had a problem on my xj1100 like there was water in the gas ,bought a used box trouble went away.so there you go. let me do a few more checks,i've got a real weak spark gonna switch coils and see if that helps.but still interested in one of these units. thanks

[Venturous Randy]

Have you checked the resistor in the spark plug cap? They can corrode and cause this condition. The cap unscrews from the inside where the plug goes.

RandyA

[terry hutchens]

checking the cap was one of the first things i did. thanks. today i took the plug wire from the rear cylinder and placed it on the front with new plug,no change. plug looked dry afterwards. compared spark on both plugs they looked about the same. so its got to be fuel-related right? thanks.

[terry hutchens]

it will run when pouring gas in the carb means it's getting spark, so gonna fill carb with berryman b-12 and let sit for a day or two. if that don't work i'll pull the carbs and give them a good cleaning. no stranger to carb cleaning. was hoping i could get by without having to. oh well no biggie!

[dingy]

it will run when pouring gas in the carb means it's getting spark, so gonna fill carb with berryman b-12 and let sit for a day or two. if that don't work i'll pull the carbs and give them a good cleaning. no stranger to carb cleaning. was hoping i could get by without having to. oh well no biggie!

 

Leaving the Berrymans in it for an extended period may have a bad effect on rubber parts it contacts.

One of the sources of idleing issues is the 37.5 idle jets that are located in the main jet block. Only access to these is by removing & disassembling carbs. These idle jets are very small & plug easily. Once plugged, in my opinion soaking them will have a marginal effect on opening them back up. Will possibly work sometimes, but not always.

Gary

[terry hutchens]

24hrs? berrymen is some nasty looking and smelling stuff! it ought to clean real good. all the carbs i have rebuilt/cleaned were on inline fours, these are a whole different ballgame but a carb is a carb lol. the bike came with the genuine yamaha service manual.need to get a good set of screwdrivers tho. need to get to know these carbs anyway. thanks gary!

[dacheedah]

Another trick is to take something that vibrates mildly like an old aquarium pulp and bungee it and it helps fluid move a bit. I don't think you have room here, just sayin. . .

[terry hutchens]

heres where im at, took the carbs off gave them a good cleaning paid close attention to the problem carb. reassembled put back on bike. didnt hook up cables or tighten boots in case i had to take them back off. hook up fuel line fired it up no change until i put my hand over the carb two or three times now it seems to be firing on all fours. gonna wait until tomorrow and try again if all goes well will hook up cables and such. must have done something right. lol

[Yammer Dan]

Sounds like you got the fuel flowing now. Might use whatever cleaner you want for the next few tanks. My personal choice would be Sea-Foam or Marvel Mystery Oil. Not harsh enough to hurt anything and will help open things up.

[terry hutchens]

gonna go back in and run a wire thru the pilot jets. the pipe is not getting as hot and as quick as the others, but i think i'm on the right track sluggish on the bottom end. as far as the weak spark wiggled the connectors at the tci. now got a big fat spark! so got some cleaning to do there. remember this bike has only been rode 2365 miles since 1994! wheres the fuel filter on this thing? got to name her too. gonna post some pics when i get her done. thanks to all for helping!