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Lunchtime at Patty's

Yah,, there are more than one interested parties, pictures man pictures!!!

Hey All, I was wondering how the first day went?!?! How was the temps? Do any riding? Any pics? "Help a brother out! Earl.

Will be leaving tomorrow around noon, which should put us there around dinnertime.

(The information in this post would serve well to be included in the tech library with the other coolant change information.) I changed my coolant the other day for the first time. After reading all of the very helpful posts and the Tech Library, the only thing I noticed was that there were no tips on how to do it without creating a mess, especially when draining the cylinders. Sooo, I spent more time visualizing and figuring than I did actually draining the coolant, but I did come up with a method that resulted in no mess on the engine or floor. This will make my, and hopefully your, next coolant change a little easier and less messy. As well, I found that at 2 inch long screw of the proper thread size was easier to use for pulling the cylinder side drain plugs than using the cumbersome spark plug. I didn't repeat the steps on how to get to the radiator cap and how to remove of the side covers, as this information is already well documented in the tech library. PHOTO 1 - Side Cover Drain Bottle Get a 16 oz soda bottle, the type that is smooth sided because it flexes better. Cut an angle across the bottom end and cut out room for your fingers to pull the plug on the top side. You can do a few test fits with the bottle to get the angle right. You will need the cap screwed onto the bottle when you use it. PHOTO 2 - Draining Radiator Put the bike on a jack and raise it high enough to clear a 5 gallon bucket. Remove the radiator cap, then the radiator drain plug and the radiator will speed dump with no mess. - - - - - - - Next, you will want to grab a large bath towel (preferably not the one your wife just bought at Kohl's). While I only dripped about 1 ounce of coolant onto the towel while draining cylinder 3, I used under the drain bottle on each cylinder to catch any dribbles (and this was the first time I tried this method and didn't know how well it would work). Photos 3-5 illustrate how I placed the towel and the drain bottle for cylinders 1, 3, and 4. (I saved cylinder 2 for last, as it involves making a chute out of packing tape to flow the coolant to the bottle.) The drain plugs are in place in all of the pics, as I took the pics after I drained each cylinder. The coolant in the drain bottle is from the respective cylinder pictured. PHOTO 3 - Draining Cylinder 1 PHOTO 4 - Draining Cylinder 3 PHOTO 5 - Draining Cylinder 4 - - - - - - - - The last step is draining cylinder 2. The location of the drain plug for cylinder 2 does not allow for the angling of the drain bottle. I saved this for last because it took a little construction of a chute made of packing tape. Tear three strips of packing tape long enough to go from the side of the cylinder to about 2 or 3 inches past the side of the chrome engine cover. One strip will be the middle strip with the sticky side down. The other two strips get folded in half lengthwise over the left and right third of the middle strip. Then abut one end of this tape contraption to the side of the cylinder and press the center portion down so it sticks to the top of the engine and along the groove of the chrome engine cover. You now have a little rain gutter to carry the coolant to your drain bottle. PHOTO 6 - Cylinder 2 tape chute PHOTO 7 - Cylinder 2 tape chute viewed from side angle PHOTO 8 - Cylinder 2 draining - - - - - - - - - - My coolant drain amounts were as follows: Radiator - 80 oz (2.5 qts) Cylinder 1 - 5 oz Cylinder 2 - 2 oz Cylinder 3 - 2 oz (this accounts for the 1 oz that spilled into towel) Cylinder 4 - 3 oz Reservoir - 10 oz (was at the "Full" line) Total - 102 oz (3.19 qts) I didn't drain the water pump. Every post I've read and folks I have spoken with said they only got 4 oz, at most, out of the water pump and the headache of getting to the plug outweighed the amount of fluid I would get out. Hope this has been of some help to others out there. Phoenix (If anyone would like higher resolution pics, let me know and I can email the high resolution originals to you.)

Adjusting Steering Head Bearings Today we are going to look at a very simple method of adjusting your steering head bearings. Loose steering head bearings are a fairly common problem on both the first and second generation Venture and probably the Royal Star also. At some point, you will most likely want to do a true service on these bearings. That is a much more complicated and time consuming job which requires completely removing the handlebars, top tree, and on at least the second generation Venture, the front faring..inner and outer. I've done that job and it takes several hours. It should be done at some point though because you will probably, at some point, want to repack the bearings and that requires the more complicated method. If your front end seems loose though and you simply want to tighten it up a bit, it's a very simple job that can be done in about 30 minutes. You will need a lift to do this job as the front must be completely off the ground. As you can see from the following picture, it does not need to be high in the air...just make sure the front tire is not touching the ground. Once you have the bike lifted, gently push the handlebar one way or the other and see how loose the front is. In my case, the front would fall to one side or the other without me even touching it unless I had it perfectly centered. That is too loose. The front should stay where you have it and if you gently push it one way or the other...it should gently come to a stop but not be binding or hard to push. If you gently push the bars so that it bounces off the stops, it should rebound gently and stop...maybe even ever so slightly oscillate back just a tiny bit but if it oscillates back and forth 2 or 3 times, it is definitely too loose. http://www.venturerider.org/steering/lifted.jpg The next thing you will need to do is slightly loosen the top nut just below your handlebars. An open end wrench works great for this but if you don't have the right size, you can protect the finish with a rag and use a pair of Channel Locks. http://www.venturerider.org/steering/topnut.jpg If you look just underneath the top fork brace, you will see two locking nuts. These nuts are slotted and locked together with a locking washer with a tab. You do not need to pry out the tab as we are going to simply tap and tighten both nuts together. http://www.venturerider.org/steering/lockingnuts.jpg Believe it or not, we are almost done. Simply take a long screwdriver and place the blade in the slots in the nuts. Tap lightly with a hammer to tighten the nuts. Be careful here. You will be amazed at how little you have to tighten these nuts to make a big difference. http://www.venturerider.org/steering/screwdriver.jpg After tapping, gently swing the front end. If you gently swing the front end to where it gently hits the stops, it should rebound slightly and come to a gently stop. It should not bind or be stiff but should not oscillate back and forth. If it bounces off the stop, and then rebound and hits the stop again...it is too loose. If it rebounds and gently stops....you are about right. Once you get it right....simply retighten the top nut and you are done. Very simple job that takes about 30 minutes.