cowpuc

Definitely was not Tweeks, Tip and I but just gotta say,,,, WOWZY WOW WOW WOW do I miss riding/dropping tent and general chasing the front wheel in Utah!!! New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North and South Dakota too... Hot dog brother,, you sure got this beat up ol varmints mind wandering now.... LOL

JF,, did you take a peek at the video I posted and is your summation posted above in response to that video? I am trying to make sure we are all on the same page of understanding.. You are more than welcome for the help,, its a way of life in the VR club..

Hot off the press,,, JF if you cant successfully run thru this test I highly doubt that your issue is clutch related.. Take a quick peek and see if this works for you: Copy for the video I just posted on my youtube channel reads: ''I have a friend, JFootman, who is working on his 1983 Yamaha Venture and trying to determine whether the motorcycles inability to shift is clutch related or transmission failure related. Here is a simple test I have used for years that has helped me in determining where to begin a repair.. JFootman, I hope this little video helps you in some small way!!"" and here is the vid:

You are welcome @JFootman... Thinking this thru a little more,, it might be best to just to a quick "rocking test" 1st thing.. Its real easy to do.. Would you like a short video of the process?? I can put something together for you if you would like.. The main thing is to use your fingers so you can feel the tranny gears dropping in and out while rocking back and forth so the gears ramp up with ease.. Many times, while watching customers looking at bikes in my dealership I would catch them trying to run the bike thru the gears with bike off, the clutch pulled in but the bike sitting still = BIG MISTAKE and VERY hard on shift forks.. Sort of like working with lock tumblers, gentle movement to align things and the gears should click in and out like butter without the use of the clutch (motor off).

1st and foremost I would do exactly what Corporal Newkirk mentions above. Set the bike upright in a fashion that you can turn the bars and end up with the clutch master as level as possible. Put rags under and around the master/banjo area to soak up brake fluid. Open the master cover and check the rubber seal under the master.. Move the lever in until you can feel resistance and hold it there while you carefully open the banjo - when you start to see fluid seeping and as the lever slowly sinks toward the bar watch the banjo for air bubbles. When the lever gets close to bottom close the banjo and slowly release the lever. Do it again.. Now refill master to the point you just have a tiny amount of air bubble on top of site window. Now pump the lever slowly and watch the tiny hole bleedback hole in the bottom of the master (not the big one that feeds the piston, the tiny one) and make sure its bleeding off - careful when doing this as that little hole has squirt fluid in more than one persons eye over the years.. I personally have never been real successful in getting a good clutch without doing exactly as Newkirk mentions.. Even a couple tiny air bubbles at that highest point in the system (the banjo) will give enough of a clutch loss that getting into gear, especially 1st, can be troublesome at best.. For me, a really good simple test to see if its tranny or clutch related is to, with the bike shut off = while rocking the bike back and forth gently and me leaning over its seat - move the shifter gently up and down to run it thru the gears while not touching the clutch.. If it will fall gently into and out of gear while rocking it back and forth it is more likely to be clutch related than anything else.. If it will not fall gently thru the gears doing this method, there is a really good chance you have a shift drum indent/pin issue. The end of the shift drum that carries the engagement pins that is held in place by a little cam follower is located under the clutch basket on the right hand side of the bike.. Very common a MX bikes because of the abuse that mechanism takes from landing jumps and abusing the shift lever in doing so is very common.. I have never encountered it on any of my MK1's but have read of owners who have.. Probably the most common issue on the MK1's relating to this that I have heard of is the pins getting loose or actually falling out.. The repair is fairly simple and does not require a tranny job (splitting of the cases,, engine removal).. I would DEFINITELY check into both the suggestions above very closely BEFORE I offed the bike as,, in no uncertain terms, the bike you have is fully capable of serving up numerous hundreds of thousands of mile of unspeakable fun if it really does only have 65k miles on it - even with no second gear.. Congrats on the find, I hope it all works out and you end up finding the joy these bikes have served up to many of us long time Venture riders.. Puc

And then, remembering how helpful to some viewers on youtube the short video we did for @VentureFar about slow riding Tweeks was (determined by the view count/comments and "liked" count), I thought maybe a short video on throttle/brake control might be helpful to older people like ourselves attempting to get back into "biking" and entering the E-Bike world too. Practice practice practice still seems applicable IMHO.. At any rate,,, here is a peek at that video too for anyone interested.. GET OUT AND RIDE YOU BUNCH OF LOP EARED VARMINTS!! Here is copy/paste of the "copy" for this video too: ""Years ago a friend of mine ask me to produce a "How to slow ride a touring motorcycle" video demonstrating how my wife and I control our touring bike in tight crowd conditions (think Sturgis Rally environments) or off road conditions and it was a huge hit on youtube (search my youtube channel if interested in that). I have been spending hours in a parking lot working with my riding partner on developing muscle memory responses for controlling her new E-Bike under similar conditions as mentioned earlier and as commonly found on many bike paths in populated areas. She is finding this training VERY useful not only in crowds but also in preparing to cross intersections and is doing GREAT!! If you are brand new to E-Bikes or, even bicycles for that matter, I implore you to find a parking lot and practice practice practice these, and other safety practices BEFORE heading out to the open road of adventure. Puc""

I know,, VR is not an E-Bike forum but I bumped into something yesterday that some of you might find applicable to your future touring needs. The "copy" I included with the video reads: "Clark is the person who, fortunately, my wife and I bumped into before beginning our new adventure on E-bikes. He introduced us to the Rattan line of bikes and we are thankful he did - these foldable, 750 watt motored machines are AWESOME. We already have over 200 miles of fun (no where near Clarks mileage of over 3000 miles on his) exploring the gorgeous area here on West Michigan's shoreline with endless ride ops. In this video Clark demo's his addition of an alarm system/tail light system that is FOB controlled (please excuse our impatience with the system during the filming of this, the alarm actually works PERFECTLY when not in a hurry LOL). Due to the expense of these bikes and the ease of which they could "walk off", I think our new friend is onto something!!! Thanks again Clark for all the info!! More Rattan E-Bike vids coming folks, keep an eye on my Youtube channel if interested!! Puc"

@Flyinfool,,, GURU ALERT!! Fool who is no fool,, so what is happening here? Is the meter reading the difference of what is available in voltage at the source (battery) and what is available at the device?? Trying to put it in laymens terms so I can attempt to say what I mean = lets say you have 12vdc at the battery but, because of resistance/volt drop, at the device you only have 11.5vdc.. Will the meter then show .5 or a half of volt dropage on its readout?

Depends on where I am mounting the pegs.. On my MK1's I always mount them to the crash/engine guard bars and have found that the ultimate way to secure them in my case is to get em where I want them and then drill thru the mounts and into the crash bars and tap/thread it and pin it permanently.. That way I can even stand on them if I want to without fear of them moving. I also mounted them on the rear crash bars for Tippy, my wife - BFF - permanent ride partner in the same fashion so she had an extra place to move her feet to when riding those 16 to 18 hour ride days and found "pinning" them to be the best solution on those rear clamp on highway pegs too. Keep in mind, they still fold up and down for convenience.. Now if we are talking frame mount highway pegs I would not do so for fear of loss of integrity of the frame. In the old days, clamp on frame mount crash bars with highway pegs were fairly common.. It was also not uncommon to see a bike frame ruined by an over tightened "U-Bolt clamp" and/or a bike having fallen over on the crash bar and bending/tweeking the frame where the crash bar was clamped on.. I only mention that so your careful mounting directly on the frame if the bike you are wanting to mount highway pegs to is of that type.

@Sylvester, let me fix that for you Sly.... WOWZY brother,,, are Tip and I having a BLAST with this new little shooter!!! Tip says its "dainty" and I named it "Dinky Dalton". The reports I got was DO NOT BUY = JAMMOMATIC but in over 300 rounds of Aquila 40 grain HV NOT ONE JAM!! Got an extra complete slide with it and currently looking for a lower receiver to build another one. Jennings J-22 if you happen to run across one in all your chasing.. Love ya brother!! Puc

Last years lakeshore flooding created the PERFECT opportunity for off trail adVenture... While I did take the loving husband approach to walking Tips E-Bike over the cave ins she did do an amazing job riding the single track off trail dirt path thru the weeds that we followed to get around over 2 miles of unrideable bike trail on this adventure.. SOOOO MUCH FUN!! GET OUT AND RIDE!!

Being a Puc is a blessing and a curse... I am certainly pleased the jury is still out @saddlebum and encourage them to stay that way... Juries and I never did get along well LOL

Marcel, when rechecking those slide diaphrams pay special attention to the area where the diaphram contacts the carb body. A seperation there, under the lip that sets into the groove on the carb body has fooled many carb repair guys. Also make sure the o-ring under the diaphram cover is not missing when putting back together. Please remember I am coming from experience with the MK1 V-4's, your bike may differ but, concerning the question about the cruise control removal causing this. Assuming your cruise is vacuum controlled as is the spark advance, I wonder if when removing the cruise components, the vacuum source for the spark advance got closed off or overlooked.. Possibly your bike is running without control of the ignition advance... Just a thought.. Puc

Darn straight!! THAT is an AWESOME epic adventure!!! THANK YOU for allowing us the ride along!!

I will stand on this fact,,,, my rolling journal covering 6 MK1's beginning in 1987, covering +1,000,000 miles of Venture adVenture:

Took the words right out of my mouth @Squidley

Hi @marcelmot in Romania and welcome to VR from Puc in Muskegon Mi USA!! Glad you found us! If you and your friend on his Royal Star pulled into my driveway and told me of the issue his bike was having and also told me that the bike had been running fine I would have him start it up and let it idle. Then I would put some spit on my finger (or use an infra red temp gun) and check each exhaust header to make sure it was running on all four cylinders at an idle. If it had a dead cylinder or two I would pull the plugs on those cylinders and check them for spark.. It is not uncommon for these bikes with their small "D" plugs to foul out from over choking,, he may need some plugs.. If it is indeed running on all four at an idle I would pull the carb diaphrams that @BlueSky suggested and check them very carefully for tears/holes. What happens is those diaphrams, by use of vacuum, control the slide/main jet needles that provide fuel for high rpms. If a diaphram is torn that slide will not be opening to full throttle causing exactly what you describe. I have actually rescued several Yamahas that were suffering from what you are describing that ended up being those diaphrams but start with the spit check 1st and keep your fingers crossed in hope that it is plugs because those diaphrams can be pricey if they are not repairable...

@BonoNot sure on the 85 MK1 but I do know on my 83 MK1 they are different devices, the flasher relay is number 16 and the canceling unit device is number 17 in the parts fish link here: https://www.partzilla.com/catalog/yamaha/motorcycle/1983/xvz12tk/electrical-1 Both part numbers are listed but only the relay is available. Not sure on the speed sensor @saddlebum mentions. Perhaps that is a device that is used in conjunction with the cruise control system as I have never ran across a need to tweek on that device in my 83's and only my first MK1 back in 87 (it was an 84 MK1 Royale) had factory cruise and in just under 300k of CTFW I never had issues with the flasher canceling or cruise control..

@jryan, are you asking about the clutch basket ID itself? As in whether or not you have an anti-whine "I" basket or not or is your concern pertaining to disc installation info?

Also make double sure you are getting the rad cap screwed on fully, the second notch on the cap that finishes its capture to the rad can be tight...

I always lived by the theory that the thermostat was added into the system to stop the flow of coolant long enough for the coolant in the radiator to be cooled by air passing thru the rad veins before it re-enters the water jackets surrounding the combustion chamber/jugs.. If that is so than removing the thermostat and leaving it out is probably not your best option. Besides, if your going to take it apart to remove the thermostat you may as well replace it with a new one so you dont have to redo the job. I also wonder if you may be just experiencing a bad rad cap.. Another theory of mine is that the system is designed to operate under pressure as the pressure actually assists in boiling control as does using coolant instead of water. Maybe make sure your bikes cooling system has proper coolant mix as well as a good radiator cap that will not allow pressure release until above spec pressure in the system has been reached would be a good place to start.

another thought,,, make sure the water pump impeller is not mounted backwards on the pump shaft.. It has been a long time since I rebuilt one but something in my memory makes me think/remember it is possible to put the impellar in backwards so the fins of the impeller are not moving coolant.

Yep,, I am 100% with @RDawson @greg_in_london,,, that sure sounds suspiciously like a stuck thermostat to me...

That was/is soooo well put @skydoc_17!! THANK YOU BROTHER!! IMHO, many many times, whether be upgrading brakes or even starters to 4 brush the maintenance of/to the original set up to see if it can be restored to full OEM new functionality is often overlooked and when it comes to stopping power this is critical,, also IMHO... @Idrys, I would, at a minimum, clean the caliper pistons as shown in the video below to make sure they are moving with unobstructed ease before going forward with upgrading. Also lubing all brake pivot point on the levers including foot brake. Another often overlooked issue is the little back orvice in the masters,, even a tiny amount of blockage there will cause major grief. The one in the rear brake master is xtra special cause when it fails it can cause braking issues both front and back being linked. I have gone both ways, linked and unlinked and have never experienced issues with linked that cause me pause. Set up right, and fully maintained I actually like OEM linked system on my MK1,s. Our current MK1 does have stainless lines on it that a previous owner installed and I do "feel" a difference in those lines under hard braking BUT I am not so sure I would swap out fully functional OEM's for stainless. On the other hand though,, if the lines were showing signs of dry rot or compression loss due to loss of integrity I would DEFINITELY get ahold of Earl and do the stainless routine... I do this when ever I swap on new tires,, sometimes 4 or 5 times a year, might be worth a try: and here is another Venture braking video of mine you may find of interest:

Welcome! Running lean, torn/holed carb diaphrams, being out of sync and/or not running on all four can also attribute to running hot but as mentioned, making sure the water cooling aspect of the bike is fully functional is job 1 imho too. Either way, you definitely come to the right place for hammering out what ever is troubling that gorgeous old scoot!! Congrats on the awesome find for an awesome $$$!! You did good @DrasticScars,,, REAL GOOD!!