Working the bugs out New(to me)'83 XVZ12t

[luvmy40]

Four cylinders Color Tuned, just rich of perfect combustion. Four carbs synchronized to near perfection.

 

The plastics are going to put me in an early grave.

 

I gave up on trying to fix the broken bits. There's just too much busted and no frame of reference. It was holding together when I got her and nothing broke taking it apart, so I should be able to get it all back together in some semblance of correct, right????

 

I think I have the throttle cable linkage block in the wrong place. Outside of something instead of inside. The main fairing on that side won't pull in tight so it's coming back off tomorrow. I lost my light this evening so I had to pack it in.

 

At least she's running right now! I'm celebrating with the first Dogfish Head 120minute IPA I've ever laid hands on. Delicious!!!

 

Back at it tomorrow.

 

Oh, BTW. I flushed the cooling system with distilled water and filled her up with fresh antifreeze.

[luvmy40]

Well, I got it all back together as best I could. The parts are all in the right places but I'm missing a few screws and there are a couple tabs broken off that are critical. I think maybe something did break in disassembling it as the main left side panel was secure before and now has nothing holding it on at the top front.

 

I took her for a test spin without the side covers and discovered that they are an absolute necessity! I'll have to dig in and see if I can fix them up somehow.

 

I'm still not sure everything is copacetic with the ignition. The Colortune shows good burn at idle but there's a hesitance when accelerating and it doesn't pull as strong from 4Krpm to 6Krpm as I'd expect.

 

Anyone have a known good TCI for swing test?

[videoarizona]

Richard,

 

I've been quietly following the thread and enjoyed your progress. Appreciate your sharing.

 

Regarding plastics. Yep, bits and pieces fail easily on these beasties now, because it's old and brittle. However, it's easily fixed.

 

First, check both sides for what's broken and what isn't. You can use one side for a guesstimate on a broken piece if it's intact on the other side. I repaired my plastic with simple epoxy and fiberglass cloth. I layered it inside the plastic pieces to get everything together. I used 3 or 4 layers of 6 ounce cloth, then sanded it to look better once it had hardened. On the outside, you can add some epoxy to the cracks and holes left over then sand that down to the level of the rest of the plastic. We, in the boating world, call this "fairing". What you are doing is building up the plastic then "fairing" it down to the level of the rest.

 

ABS plastic is easy to obtain and you can easily add pieces of ABS to the fairings you have where needed by simply using a soldering pencil to melt the two together in a type of tack weld (so to speak), then fiberglass the inside to make it strong. You can then melt some ABS into the groove on the outside or fair it with epoxy and thickener (what I did) There are two different types of plastic repairs kits out there, but I've found them to be harder to use then good old fiberglass and epoxy.

 

There are a number of older threads I used to learn how to put my 89 back together and get it looking decent. Here is my thread on it....FWIW,

 

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?119659-Doing-some-repairs-to-89&highlight=plastic+repairs

 

Other threads will be down at bottom of each page.....and there are even pictures floating around of how the plastic tabs and holes are supposed to look!

 

Hope this helps. If you are a fiberglass guru...ah well..then you can chime in and teach me more! I'm always all ears...

david

Edited September 19, 2016 by videoarizona
add

[luvmy40]

No, not a fiberglass guru! I do quite a bit of plastic fabrication though, Mostly thermo/vacuum forming. The repairs I did involved forming a backing of Kydex and cementing the broken bits to the backer with Devcon Plastic Steel epoxy.

 

I've got a few more fixes to do but It's all together securely for now.

 

I also took her out to my Yamaha dealership and their Venture Guru gave me a big thumbs up as far as the carb tuning and her performance. I guess I was just expecting it to sound more like the in line fours that I'm used to. He did say that I'd probably benefit from having them run it on the EGA for fine tuning. 1/2hr labor if I pull the plastics and make sure the probe plugs are freed up before I bring it in.

[luvmy40]

I know I should be used to it and expect it since I keep buying 30+ year old motor cycles, but it's frustrating!

 

I fix one issue only to find three or four more. My Venture has an oil leak now. It was seeping a bit around the No. 1 cylinder valve cover. It still is even with new gasket and bolt seals, but it"s not enough to justify the puddle I found under her this morning. I just changed the oil and everything seemed to be sealed up just fine after but something, somewhere is leaking.

 

Hopefully it's just the drain plug gasket that needs replaced. I won't have time to look for the issue for a few days.

[BlueSky]

You sure it isn't the clutch slave cylinder leaking brake fluid?

[luvmy40]

No, it's definitely engine oil. She 's pissed at me for some reason. See my post in The Watering Hole.

[snyper316]

No, it's definitely engine oil. She 's pissed at me for some reason. See my post in The Watering Hole.

 

Well maybe she was enjoying the ride and wanted to stay out longer...

[gaj1917]

I know I should be used to it and expect it since I keep buying 30+ year old motor cycles, but it's frustrating!

 

I fix one issue only to find three or four more. My Venture has an oil leak now. It was seeping a bit around the No. 1 cylinder valve cover. It still is even with new gasket and bolt seals, but it"s not enough to justify the puddle I found under her this morning. I just changed the oil and everything seemed to be sealed up just fine after but something, somewhere is leaking.

 

Hopefully it's just the drain plug gasket that needs replaced. I won't have time to look for the issue for a few days.

I've used oil dye to trace oil leaks. Works wonderfully. The stuff I used was - Tracer Products TP34000601 UV Fluorescent Dye.

[Trader]

Might be a stupid question but Any chance the oil is over full?

1/2 way up sight glass with bike level and balanced is where it should be

[luvmy40]

That's a very real possibility. see my thread http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?124299-What-did-I-do-to-irritate-the-motorcycle-gods