No power

[kenblount]

Hello

My name is Ken and I have a 1983 Yamaha Venture Royale.

It was in poor shape when I got it. To date I have worked onthe brakes, the clutch, the master cylinder. Changed out the spark plugswith new ones. I have been using sea fome in it and let it run a while eachweek .It will start ,run at a idle but has very little power. what to do next?

[CaseyJ955]

Hey Ken, welcome! Your in the right place.

 

Can you be more specific about what happens when it is running? Its not uncommon for the carbs to get finicky if left sitting with fuel, especially ethanol. If it idles but bogs when you blip the throttle it might need a shotgun cleaning. If you can share some history and what its doing it might be easier to help. Has it always been like this since you got it or is this a new thing? How many miles? How long sincee it has been ridden? How old is the fuel and is it full? Have you done anything else to the fuel system? Does it rev when you give it throttle? Missfire? Smoke? It will not run well unless the air box and air filter are installed so make sure that is in place and seated on the carbs.

 

Carbs can be a pain but there are a couple other things we can check too. We should be able to start narrowing it down and hopefully help you get it sorted.

[BlueSky]

Remove the air cleaner and watch while you blip the throttle to see if the diaphrams are doing their job. Unscrew the plug caps and inspect them checking them for resistance. Should be 10k ohms or less. Inspect the spark plug wires to see if there is corrosion in the copper wire end. Clip off a 1/2 to 3/4" of the wire and screw it back in the cap. Would be a good idea to inspect the other end of the wires too at the coils. New spark plug caps are available at ngk.com and they have 5k ohms resistance. Don't know if the resistance drop is okay for the TCI. I assume so?

[RDawson]

All good info so far, check the exhaust pipes to see if its running on all four cylinders.

[van avery]

I would do a compression check. The valves maybe out of adjustment. IF your compression is low put a little oil in the cylinder and check again. If it get much better than the rings might be bad if not you may have valves out of adjustment our even a carbon buildup not letting them close correctly.

I had some bad valves once on a 88 venture. I put the cylinder at bottom use screwdriver to check then put some air pressure on the cylinder thru the compression tester hose and listened for the air tither thru the carbs or the exhaust.

Good luck

[cowpuc]

Yep,, all good thoughts IMHO... I would probably get myself in trouble and assume right away that its the ol plugged carb circuitry if it were mine.. Under that assumption I would probably rip the air filter out of er and check to see if the air box had become a mouse house (Michigan mice love LOVE to camp in mine).. Then I would take a long skinny screw driver and carefully push on the bottom of each carb slide and gently move them one at a time up into the carb body, release them and see if they move properly while their springs push em back closed.. Satisfied there I would fill my little spray bottle with gas, start er up on choke, move the choke off and spray fuel into the carbs while I fiddled with the throttle to see if I could get er to hit on all four (even one at a time) while I manually gave er a fuel/air mix...

If this showed promise,, I would do the old, fill my carbs with carb cleaner thru the drain routine in an effort to get er to run good enough that I could take er for a spin and figure out whether she is worthy of real deal, genuine carb rebuild/cleaning...

All in an effort to find out what I have or dont have before I went spending a lot of cash...

[bongobobny]

Yup!! Step 1, do a compression test both dry and wet! That will tell a tale for sure!

 

Step 2, get yourself a spark gap analyzer, available at most auto supply stores for about $10 - $15 and see how much of a gap you can draw. You should get at least 0.100", I think the spec is 0.110 or someplace around there.

 

Step 3 is the carb dance as described above. Torn diaphragms are a common issue.

 

Step 4, try to borrow a known good TCI unit. There may be a problem with the advance circuit inside. While you are at it, test your "boost sensor" or vacuum advance unit for proper operation.

 

Step 5, which actually could be step 2 1/2 is to check for vacuum leaks.

 

Step 6, check the sync on your carbs if out of sync and way out, it could cause the issues you have mentioned.

 

My bet is on the carbs itself, especially if they had sat for a long time. Be prepared for a lot of work and money to properly do the job. There are good videos out there but the best is Damon (forgot how to spell his last name, something like Ferrello).

[luvmy40]

The carb rebuild video is from Damon Ferraiuolo. He's got a couple samples(short clips) up on youtube.

 

 

I bought the V-Max carbs and engine rebuild combo. Well worth the $20.00

 

Here's his email: Damon_Ferraiuolo@msn.com

Edited February 10, 2018 by luvmy40

[kenblount]

This bike sit for a long time in a shied, it hadrust in the gas tank I got it clean out and put on a new gas filter. I havebeen using sea form in it trying to clean the carbs and they do seam to begetting better. The bike will idle with the coke off, but as soon as you put itin gear ,you have to gave it a lot of throttle. I have not taken the carbs off to clean them that is something I have not done before and do not wont to make a mistake. It has 16084.8 miles on it and I have not put on a mile as of yet. But did redo the kickstand it was to short, I would have to look down to use it. I did try to sync the carbs and they sysnc on the lower it on the tool, I use a four inline synce.

Edited February 10, 2018 by kenblount

[van avery]

Sounds like you need to suck it up a do a good carb cleaning. Take your time and do one carb at a time make sure you have all the small ports open. There will be several that will disagree but you don't have to change out all the rubber parts if they are still in good shape. Take them apart slowly and pay attention to the springs that fall out around the sync screws. Work in a clean area so if things drop, fall or spring away you can find them.

Most likely your pilot and main jets are plugged. Don't forget to wear your safety glasses when spraying the carb cleaner...

[CaseyJ955]

Sounds like you need to suck it up a do a good carb cleaning. Take your time and do one carb at a time make sure you have all the small ports open. There will be several that will disagree but you don't have to change out all the rubber parts if they are still in good shape. Take them apart slowly and pay attention to the springs that fall out around the sync screws. Work in a clean area so if things drop, fall or spring away you can find them.

Most likely your pilot and main jets are plugged. Don't forget to wear your safety glasses when spraying the carb cleaner...

 

What he said. It could be a longshot but a "shotgun" cleaning might work. With rust having been in the tank and it having sat up for awhile I tend to concur that carb removal and cleaning is the way to go. I have shotgunned my Vmax (same-ish engine and carbs) with compressed air after letting it sit with ethanol and had some success but thats hit/miss with the possibility of rust deposits in the bowls.

[kenblount]

What he said. It could be a longshot but a "shotgun" cleaning might work. With rust having been in the tank and it having sat up for awhile I tend to concur that carb removal and cleaning is the way to go. I have shotgunned my Vmax (same-ish engine and carbs) with compressed air after letting it sit with ethanol and had some success but thats hit/miss with the possibility of rust deposits in the bowls.

Called a shop to get some carb work done and asked how much will it cost he said 2k,to 3k I said thank you and hung up the phone.

[cowpuc]

This bike sit for a long time in a shied, it hadrust in the gas tank I got it clean out and put on a new gas filter. I havebeen using sea form in it trying to clean the carbs and they do seam to begetting better. The bike will idle with the coke off, but as soon as you put itin gear ,you have to gave it a lot of throttle. I have not taken the carbs off to clean them that is something I have not done before and do not wont to make a mistake. It has 16084.8 miles on it and I have not put on a mile as of yet. But did redo the kickstand it was to short, I would have to look down to use it. I did try to sync the carbs and they sysnc on the lower it on the tool, I use a four inline synce.

 

Hey Ken,, mind if I ask what you did to clean the rust out of the tank? I only ask because I know of more than one instance where the rust got cleaned out of the tank, new filter put inline and carbs cleaned/rebuilt only to have it all go south again in a very short time. I have personally yet to find filters that were tight enough/small enough in the openings for fuel to get thru that would not still let some rust particles get thru - basically fuel filters wont stop rust from contaminating the carbs... In the end, if the tank is rusted it either needs to be replaced or treated before addressing the carbs to any real extent..

Trying to save you headaches down the road..

Puc

[CaseyJ955]

Called a shop to get some carb work done and asked how much will it cost he said 2k,to 3k I said thank you and hung up the phone.

 

I got a quote from Danny at BRC (revered on the Vmax forum for his work and pricing) to sort out a set of carbs for a coming Vmax headed Venture project I'm doing, it was a fraction of the price you got. Of course I will be taking the rack off and sending it to him, but hes a proven and known magician for these types of carbs and a 100% straight up guy. I think the shop you talked to was just trying to tell you they either dont want to or dont know how.

 

I'm okay with carbs so I went through mine with guidance from folks here and on the Vmax forum, and got them sorted out. If I were to hand the carbs over to someone else I would expect parts and labor to run 300-600-ish if I pulled the carb rack off the bike myself. Thats assuming they were installing some new parts.

[bongobobny]

Yes, unfortunately, to do a proper rebuild of your carbs it can easily cost $400 to $800 in parts alone! Of course, we are talking a complete rebuild of all 4 carbs with new parts! There is also a large amount of time involved as well!