'89 Venture Royale 1300 Rehab Project - Advice needed

[wilerdr]

Funny you mention the 4 brush starter. I just browsing starter threads last night and found a couple that were very informative RE: what models to get a used one from. Good intel on starter replacement with thermostat housing off. In for a dime, in for a dollar, so I guess I'll source a 4 brush and install it while the thermostat housing is out. I don't care at all for the slow starting when hot. Thanks!

[Flyinfool]

On mine I just did the starter cable upgrade to #4AWG welding wire. That also helps the start a lot even with the 2 brush starter. The stock #10AWG wire just can not pass the amps, especially when hot. I still have the original 2 brush starter but with the ground mod and it starts fine hot or cold, Yes it turns a bit slower hot but has never failed to start. If I am ever going back into that area, I may put in a 4 brush, but I am not going to make a special effort just for that. As mentioned I believe that the thermostat housing has to come out to get the room to pull the starter out of where it is.

 

Forget trying to adjust anything with the air box off. It will run like poo with the air box open, if you do get it running right with the air box open then when you put in a filter and the cover it will then run like poo. The intake is sensitive enough that even drilling a single 1/2 inch diameter hole to let in a bit more air is enough to make it run bad. Many have tried and most have a piece of duct tap over the hole. If you are going to mess with the air box be prepared to be putting new jets into the carbs and going thru a whole tuning procedure to get it all working right again.

[wilerdr]

4 brush starter from a 96 RSV with 22K coming tomorrow from Pinwall ($57). Don't think I'm going to break into it for the augmented grounding mod per the forum posts I've read. May, however, run an additional ground from the lower starter mounting bolt to the motor ground on the front right. Not sure yet. Opinions?

 

I've also read several forum posts re: thermostat housings and how they warp over time. So more new guy questions:

 

-Should I just go ahead and get a new thermostat housing while the front of the bike is apart?

-If so, does it come with that thin o-ring that sits in the groove in the housing?

-Anyone know a good source and/or part number for the thermostat housing?

-Bought the NAPA 156 thermostat. Anyone have a source and/or part number for the appropriate flat rubber gasket to replace the stock gasket with the notch? Went to Autozone to try to find one tonight with absolutely no luck.

-Anyone have a source and/or part number for the thin o-ring in the thermostat housing?

 

I've had good luck sourcing part numbers on yamahapartshouse, and I'm sure several posts address some of this stuff but thought I'd try to tap the resident expertise and save myself some searching time.

 

Here she is in all her disassembled glory.

[cimmer]

As far as I know, the only place to get a new replacement thermostat cover is from Yamaha. They still list them in the parts listing as well as the o-ring and thermostat seal. Look under the water pump section to find them. Depending how far you wanted to take this, you could also replace the o-rings for the joint pipe that connects the water pump to the thermostat housing and also the o-ring to the drain cock assemble. (this is in the radiator hose section).

When I replaced the hoses on my 89, I found the thermostat cover in good shape and not needing replacing but I was experiencing a small leak from the drain cock assemble in the cold parts of the winter and would have antifreeze on the floor. I used Skydoc_17 FIRST GEN. (1983-1993) RADIATOR DRAIN UPGRADE KIT! This is available in the member vendors classified ad section. This seems to cured my winter leak as so far this winter I have no antifreeze on the floor.

Hope this helps you out.

Rick F.

[videoarizona]

Here are pics of the Air Control Housing that I broke the rotating studs off. What I'm thinking is instead of trying to find a new (used) housing, that I can rig up a sheet aluminum 'wrap' around it, to which I can secure new metal studs. Tolerances aren't tight, so I don't think that would be an issue. But that one is well down the list at this point. I would have tried to do some type of plastic fusing the studs back in place, but they disappeared when I broke them off and haven't seen them since.

 

Will get some decent pics of the bike in it's current state of disassembly this week.

 

 

Thanks for the pictures and sorry for the delay...

 

I suspect those broken tabs are sitting there inside the fairing. If you take off the panel that the CLASS system controller resides in, you should be able to find the parts then do the plastic repair thing. There is an inner fairing under all that stuff that catches wayward runaway bolts, nuts and plastic. In fact, you can probably McGiver something with plastic, or weld/epoxy a washer or two and a bolt or something similar. It really isn't rocket science on these bikes. Whatever you can come up with will probably last longer than the original.

 

BTW, if the screw mounts that hold that whole right side panel on are broken, you can cut small square pieces of black ABS plastic and melt them/epoxy them underneath the holes (found that fix on the forum) or even use small washers pressed in the holes in addition to the bottom repair above (did that too). Stronger and looks fine. There are all sorts of tricks I learned from searching this forum. I have the attitude that I'm not the 1st to have this problem, and then see if I can find out who solved it. Fun Stuff, really!

 

Regardless...I'm watching to see what you come up with...maybe I can find some of the posts I was talking about and save you some time...I'll look but heading out of town in morning....

 

Found one of the posts....here's the link...I found the 1st response to be excellent info on working with plastic. I found the 2nd response easier for me to deal with on my repairs for the panel. This is what I was talking about above....

 

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?106178-Repairing-RT-side-dash-panel-with-ABS-MEK&highlight=Class+panel+repair

Edited March 2, 2018 by videoarizona
found link