cowpuc

Heyyyy - Hi Rodney!!! When I have had problems with that backflow preventer thingy it plugged right off - stuck shut so I could not blow air thru it at all and the bike would only run till the tank pulled enough vacuum that it couldnt flow fuel - then it shut off completely.. I just stuck a piece of ink pen in where the valve was and rode it like that trusting I would be there if the bike ever tipped over and started to leak fuel out of the vent... I suppose it would be possible for it to become partially open and create enough vacuum to prevent flow the fill rate to the pump down enough to starve the carbs.. If I were you I would just spice the line - try it without the restrictor - take the cap off and double check the vent hose to be sure it was good and clear and see what it runs like - those tank vents can cause all kinds of issues!! By the way - let cha in on another little tidbit of info.. If you have a fuel pump failure on these 1st Gens and you carry a piece of gas line in your Maintenance Department you can splice the line above the restrictor - blow into the line and maintain enough pressure on the fuel in the tank with your lungs that the bike will run just fine.. It only takes a couple pounds of pressure to keep things working!!! This works AWESOME if you happen to have one of your kids with you out in the middle of nowhere.. Impresses the daylights out of them thinking their Dad is a miracle worker cause they didnt have to walk AND it gives em something to do while they are sitting on the back of the scoot :checkeredflag::checkeredflag: By the way,, if you try that and the kids forgets to breath out instead of in and gets a mouth full of fuel - you didnt hear this from me brother!!!

Getting some awesome advice happening here IMHO.. There are a number of things that can cause hard/slow cranking on the 1st Gens.. Thought I might toss this one out too - because our starters are a sealed unit with no where for the brush dust to escape to I have found that the dust gathering on the commutator and armature can cause hard cranking issues too.. I took a hard cranking starter apart a number of years ago - cleaned it up really well (was shocked at how dirty it was) and WOWZY - was amazed at how well it cranked!! Thinking that carbon dust can really short things out in there!!!

I am right there with Fool on this one Annsi - you got way to much time and effort into the project to not risk tossing some creative fix at it before you give up.. I would leave the motor in the scoot as it is - cover all parts and pieces so no grind dust could get in - take my dremel and "V" cut the outer edges of case break and the broken piece to prepare for the Tig repair. I would be careful to leave plenty of original broken edge too though so I had something to position the broken piece into for alignment purposes. I would then find a piece of round stock the exact size of the shaft that fits into the hole - Mic the shaft!! It wouldnt hurt to use brass for an alignment pin but steel will work fine.. Put the broken piece back in after weld prep - clamp it into place across the piece and case protusion so the area to be welded is between the clamp pads.. Tighten up the clamp just enough to hold the pieces together. Slip the dowel pin into the hole and tighten down the clamp. Leave the pin in and tack weld the part starting at the rear of the piece. Use short butt welds to avoid over heating the case - that area appears to have ample room for cooling but dont take to many chances. Get all done, let it cool, pull the dowel and she should be good to go.. DEFINITELY worth a shot IMHO..

Wish I could have made it MJ = looking forward to ANY and ALL pics you can provide!! Tweeks, Tip n I heard about the Cannon Ball when we were out at Sturgis one year.. Left the rally and beat foot it in their general direction.. Tent flappin in the wind and Tweeks all revved out - Tip peeking over my shoulder making sure I wasnt breaking our agreed upon speed limit of 100 mph when Tip yells in my ear = WHATS THE HURRY? I yelled back into the slip stream leading to my riding partners pretty face and said = we are talking gargantuan amounts of pre-1930 scoots heading for Frisco from NYC.. You just gotta KNOW that if we follow em to Frisco sooner or later one of em is gonna break down and I am gonna get a chance to work on one of those beauties!!! Three days later and

Holy kapoly and WOWZY kapowzy = now THAT is GORGEOUS Sonshine = endless !!!!! Hmmm,,, totally get your drift on the perdiciment you done put yourself into youngman,, thats a toughy.. Not a lot of changes thru the years so your 07 should be right on par with the 2012.. One of the things I have noticed is how quickly scoots seem to depreciate these days. Being a newer scoot, with a year of warranty left and super low mileage may mean some elbow room to make some bucks on a resale.. Maybe do a mix and match if the new one has some bling on it you want to switch over onto yours before you moved it.. The trailers is WOWZY = icing on the cake for sure!! Just dont wait to long to clean er up, freshen up some fluids and stuff and put her on the market - that warranty is a good sell item but your on the clock of depreciation - IMHO. How many miles on your 07 Doug? You topped 100k yet? In my line of thinking, 200k and over are where they seem to get more expensive to keep em running and higher probability of road side wrench spinning.. Figure if your 07 has 110k on it, you sold it for 3500 USD (just pulled that number out of my hat to get us to 5000 USD). Kept the 2012 and trailer = 200k for 5 grand is far better than 100k for 3500 - at least in your ol Daddy Cowpuc's line of thinking.. If you dont need the trailer and can resell it = this deal is getting better by the minute brother!!!!!!! Another thing you could do is take some of the savings and check on an extended warranty program.. Not sure if Mom Yam offers such but, I am thinking that Harley Davidson dealers offer an extended warranty that can be applied to any bike 5 years old or newer with less than 75k miles on em.. Might be worth doing a little digging around on - see if you could keep the 12, sell the 07, use any savings you realize on the numbers I shared to purchase a 4 year extended unlimited mileage.. Then take 5 years off work, hit the road - go to far off places like Michigan where endless free Hot Dogs are plentiful and just ride the new 12 till the tires fall off with NO worries about break downs:sign bring it on: Ok,, I'll shut up,,, Doug - she is a BEAUTY!!!! Dad PS - if that 2012 were my new bike I would name her "Bagheera" after the Black Panther in the Jungle Book (one of me and Tippies favorite characters).. I would do this long before we entered that jungle out there we all love so much!!

Now let me see if I got this right Peppy,,, you walked into a Harley Shop and came out with a motorcycle that will easily carry you well over 200k miles for under $1000? Now that right there is note worthy in and of itself brother and WAYYYYYY COOL:clap2:!! ,,,, FYI = you may have over spent on the VR Club dues here though. Pretty heavy yearly $$'s for a bunch of lop eared varmints who will rescue ya if ya break down, feed ya if your hungry, give ya a bed to sleep in if ya forgot your tent, help ya find nationwide part supplies, have a 24 hour tech info line, give ya a side ache from so hard, cry with ya if your hurting and even give some pretty dog gone good Marriage Counseling if needed.. You might should have priced one of those Extended Warranty things that most HD shops offer - may have saved you some yearly dues money too !! YA DID AWESOME ON THE SCOOT PEPPY, GLAD YOU FOUND US AND WELCOME ABOARD!! Puc

:dancefool::dancefool::clap2:!!!!!!!!!! Outstanding and THANK YOU RAGGY - those are GORGEOUS pics!!! So,,, ,,,, now I gotta ask,, where did you find that really cool BongoBob kite and how did you get it to fly so perfectly with no tail?? And:scratchchin:, did Slowroller ride that yellow 2nd Gen down the mountain with that Deer on his shoulders like that?

Yep, was one of the last tires we wore out on Tweeks before I retired her.. I usually dont spend the big bucks on tires but got caught in a need and the Michelin was about all the dealership had. The salesman who sold me the tire declared it to be a super high mileage tire because of its "harder rubber" but, after staring out the window at our bike - warned me about slamming my scoot in the twisties cause "the Commander doesnt have the stickiness like the cheaper tires do".. Found out he was correct on both counts - got almost 7k miles out of the Michilen (probably the highest mileage rear tire running fully loaded in the Desert we ever had) but it definitely handled differently. Something I noticed about the Mich was that I could lock it up in the rain fairly easily and even on dry pavement - my 1st Gens have all had brakes that defied lock up (MK1's come stock with a rear brake that was designed to speed up the bike when engaged = IMHO) but the Commander made it possible. Definitely a hard core long distance hot pavement winner but probably better tires for less money if your a canyon carver.. Oh yea,, another point - if you hand mount your own tires with spoons,, heating the Commander with a torpedo heater is about the only way to get it good and pliable - most tires you can just lay em in the sun for an hour or two and they will soften up nicely - didnt work as well with the Commander. I am no tire expert but have a buddy who uses those 300 dollar Dunlop/Harley dual compound tires on his Ultra. Was checking them out and I think the "hard center" on that tire is about the same consistency as the Commander tire was.. Have never tried a dual compound but there is a good chance that that arrangement would offer the best of both worlds.. All I know, my brain is empty..

Many moon ago I did a TON of business selling parts thru Ebay - I used USPS Priority Mail almost exclusively, ordered their FREE shipping boxes (came in a variety of sizes) and just passed the cost on to the buyer. I never ever did have an issue shipping this way. I also sold and shipped over 500 antique BB Guns using those tubular Priority Boxes before I sold out the remainder of my collection in bulk - same deal, never a problem. I liked using Priority cause it offered "free" insurance, tracking and sign for it upon receiving. Not sure if they still do it but USPS also used to offer a "box" that you could ship for one price - no weight limit. Just shipped a HUGE box of parts to VanRiver thru UPS - it was way over the weight limit for USPS so it had to go UPS. Total weight was 83 pounds and, if memory serves me correctly, USPS has a 50 pound limit. I could have split the package up and shipped USPS but thought it wise to keep all the parts together so nothing got lost.. Or, I think UPS did a really good job (maybe Riv will jump in here and verify) in handling the shipment as I did not hear anything bad about the condition of the package suffering or it taking a lot of extra time to get to him.. Of course, the best way to ship parts is to tell the buyer to come to a Meet n Greet and pick em up in person - save some cash, eat some Hot Dogs, pet some goats and make some new friends..

Our new 83 has a non OEM - complete Progressive rear shock and it sets a lot lower than the stock shock. Low enough that the side stand should be altered for its ride height - because of its progressively wound spring - it handles our two up weight really well BUT - we have yet to run it fully loaded with all of our gear on it in the two tracks and stuff - I have a hunch that i will be switching back to OEM for more travel rather then contacting Progressive for a heavier spring (I have 3 stock shocks to work with) - would be willing to sell the progressive at a reasonable $ if I did - thinking it should fit all 1st Gens - got about 15k miles on it. Ride height ride now is at about 28 inches.. I was reading in the info the Larry gave me on the bike and, if I recall correctly, it is a "420" series shock - might be worth checking into.. May still be available new too.. Another alternative is to go with Progressive springs in the front forks with no preload (or very little - just enough to keep the forks from making noise "topping". I run an inch of preload in my forks and it gives lots of travel - perfect for two tracking 2 up fully geared with no bottoming. Gotta imagine that lowering the forks by removing the preload and running progressives would be no problem as far as bottoming out for a one up application and would run it down easily another 1/2 inch or more.. You would want to run no air pressure in the forks and run at baseline oil height or maybe even a little low (I usually run an extra 20cc of oil for added stiffness). How did your wife do with the Beemer Geo? She handle 28 inch height ok? I can totally understand the Vision "feel".. I test rode a Vision 8 Ball (think that was what it was called) a couple years ago = AMAZING SCOOT!!! I nicknamed it the "weeble" because it reminded me of that ol song = weebles may wobble but they wont fall down.. I could THRASH that Vision in the corners and it felt like you couldnt make fall over if you wanted it to. Definitely think a person would be very hard pressed to get one of these old Ventures to handle like that - totally different frame geometry happening there I think..

Yep,, that oil sending unit is located on the underside of the engine, left side right next to the front exhaust header and in behind the oil filter mount.. Between the oil filter and the oil drain.. Its a little flush mount critter with two small bolts holding it in place and one small wire leading to it.. Its fairly easy to test because all it really is is a float switch of such - has one wire leading to it that I believe is provided voltage from the Monitor (cmu) itself. Thinking that when the float switch makes (closes) that it completes the circuit and bingo - light comes on. Fairly common for em to flicker - especially if your on the throttle and running close to the bottom line in the site window - on my high mileage scoots as the motors got worn a little I would use the ol "hit her hard and watch for the light" to know when its was add oil time - worked great but important that the sending unit work properly.. Be very possible for that sending unit to be cruded up sticky and not getting full movement - flicker or even stick on.. If you pull it - drain the oil first or ya instantly got a real mess..

My new scoot has one of those Marks collectors on it too Sys - pretty interesting contraption I tell ya!

Hey Crader,,, it always amazes how one tiny little air leak at an exhaust gasket can cause huge backfiring issues - it dont take much fresh air to get drawn into the pipes and cause this ailment. If I were dealing with backfiring - thats the first place I would check. Another common spot to check is manifolds for air leaks (causing lean condition) or vacuum lines.. Truthfully though,,, make sure your exhaust system is sealed tight with no pin holes first As far as tweeking on the low speed circuit - I always like fine tuning on the metering rod before rejetting.. I have no idea if your dealing with a 2nd Gen as I type this and have never had 2nd Gen Carbs apart. I do know that U.S. models of the 1st Gens did not have normally "e" clipped metering rods but - lots of us have fine tuned very successfully with nylon washers. IMHO - the metering rod adjustment makes a little more sense because it can be manipulated and tuned without removing the carb to rejet and,, in my case - been fine tuning off the metering rods on scoots for years..

,,, ,,, ,,,, I thought my ears were ringing - NOW I GET IT!!!!!! I know,, I know,, Patience is a virtue and those Knackers Yard amazing musicians are WELL worth the wait :guitarist 2::guitarist 2: I just see me know with my feet propped up, eating hot dogs while listening to that AWESOME music and watching the grass regrow where I made a path to my mailbox checking it everyday

,, OUTSTANDING JD:thumbsup: - sounds like a RIOT!! If you folks are coasters (Tip n I are - stick the scoot in neutral - shut her down and see how far we can coast) - there is a spot on the Blue Ridge that is in the top ten records for longest non stop coasts for us.. If you leave Cherokee and are headed north on the Parkway you will come to a welcome center on a mountain top on the left hand side.. Been a while since we did this but it seems like you could see the actual building for the welcome center wayy up on the mountain on a drive way.. Anyway,,,, pretty cool place with GREAT overlook views BUT the funnest part if your a coaster and your headed north - WOWZY you can coast a longggg way - think we did 22 minutes non stop!! Watch for bears if your camping or night riding and the other kind if you tend to get bored with slower paced riding (those National Park Ranger type bears run a pretty tight ship ).. Hope you folks have a BLAST chasing the wind down yonder!!

,, we LOVE 's and touring tales:thumbsup:!!! Duey,, 99.99999 percent of time, IMHO, the biggest struggle I know of that folks have with getting pics to load on the site has to do with them (the pics - not the people) being to large.. If you put your curser over a pic and the little pop up window says it is larger than 1100 by 750 (guessing here - someone smarter than me, like @Freebird or @Marcarl will have to give you exact size limit) it will have to be resized - I use "Paint" to resize and it works great.. Other than having to resize a few rogue pics (usually have my camera set to economy 640x480 so have no problems) - it is VERY easy to post pics around here - IMHO.. Look forward to seeing some brother:thumbsup: Puc

Gave your thread here a 5 star rating Stat :thumbsup::thumbsup: When I was a kid my first real motorcycle was a 59 Sears/Allstate, two speed on the grip, pedal start moped (still have its remains in my basement) - this was a few years ago,, back in the mid 60's. One day while practicing my burnouts with it in the High School parking lot that adjoin my parents property its throttle stuck wide open - I remember that little 2 stroke motor going to hyper R's as I pulled the clutch in and I came to a halt. I was pretty sharp mechanically even back then but, similar to today, I was somewhat electrically challenged. As I leaned over its little gas tank while standing on the left side and grabbing the metal shrouded spark plug cap to unplug the plug wire and shut her down - I received a "crash" course in how much zap a secondary ignition coil being charged by a high winding magneto could produce.. I dont remember actually hitting the ground and having my bike land on top of me but I do remember my body flapping like a flag in a strong wind as the current passed thru it though.. ,, another one that I do remember actually hitting the ground.. We have this event every year called "The Blessing Of The Bikes" in Baldwin Michigan. I used to LOVE to ride one of my homemade Choppers "up north" to this outing and show off on it - slow riding, riding wheelies and all that stupid kind of stuff. One year the line of bikes was backed up and down to a 1/2 mile an hour "crawl" of bikes.. As usual, people were sitting on the side of M-37 (main road thru Baldwin) in lawn chairs and stuff = tons of little kids waving at the real deal genuine bikers passing them by - the kind of setting that can get a show off in trouble fast.. I made sure I was in the outside lane of traffic so I was as close to my future followers as I could be - stood up on the boards of my Santee framed Honda 750 Chopper and began to show off my slow riding skills to the crowd.. They loved it as I demonstrated a one handed bounce showing how durable the rockers are on one of these old school California 18 over springers and how steady a long bike can be even at a crawl when its built right.. Little did I know that my right pant leg had found itself draped over the kick start (remember those) of the SOHC Honda motor and as the traffic came to a stop with my bike and I in perfect alignment with no less than 20 of my followers standing up cheering my antics on, I came to a perfectly executed stop - went to place my right foot down and it refused to move off the board:Cartoon_397:!!!!!! Wowzy did my bike and I hit the ground hard... I remember looking up into the face of some kid standing next to his dad who was trying to lift my bike off me and hearing those infamous words that all show off's love to hear = WOW - NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THAT BEFORE DAD = from the mouths of babes so to speak!!

:scared::scared::scared:,,,,,,,, :95:(TEARS OF JOY FROM BOTH OF US HERE IN MICHIGAN!!!!:big-grin-emoticon:),, and a HUGE :clap2::clap2::dancefool::dancefool::dancefool:,,, WITH AN UNENDING = :ice_thy-vi101212101 LORD FOR PROTECTING OUR FRIEND AND BROTHER WHILE HE SERVED YOU AND OUR COUNTRY OVER IN THE MIDDLE EAST!!!! A HUGE THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE CHRIS - :usa::usa::usa::usa: Tech Sargent Coffey - WELCOME HOME SONSHINE:sign Rock On:!!! Hope you and that precious family of yours are settling back in nicely and that all is well there !! Prayers Up and Blessings Down that all goes well with the selling of Exodus and that God fulfills your car needs to His usual perfection (you KNOW he is going to!!).. :scared::scared: IT IS AWESOME TO READ THIS COFF - THANK YOU FOR TAKING A MINUTE TO TOUCH BASE WITH US!!! THANK YOU LORD FOR PROTECTING MY FRIEND AND BRINGING HIM SAFELY HOME!! :thumbsup::thumbsup: Memories pics will have to do till have a chance to make some new - Puc n Tip!!

Pulled in to camp in an old graveyard about 2 a.m. out in Bend Oregon one time. Shut off the lights and coasted to a stop by an eary old tree away from the Tombstones so as not to disturb anyone.. Kick stand down, bike on stand, Tip jumped off, I jumped off, turned our backs and CRASH - stand was on a tree root - thought someone pushed Tweeks over.. Cousin and I were at a gas station filling up in Caliifornia. He rolls his Virago over to my fully packed (carrying his gear and mine on my Venture) scoot and points to his overflowing fuel tank - asks what to do.. Told him to lean it down and dump some gas out of it - hot tank, cold gas,,, stuff was streaming.. I grab his left grip while balancing my scoot between my legs to help him lean it. He slips on some fuel - ends up under his bike - me between the bikes and my loaded out 1st Gen on top of us.. All those folks watching the Puc n Rip Comedy show were laughing and they werent even our friends Stat

Hey Reiny - sup brother?? Got the buzz happening eh?? Got good advice happening thus far - out of sync can cause the buzz - may as well double check for pin holes in the diaphrams and slides for any form of stickiness if your gonna recheck your sync.. With the scoot having been a buzzer since day one I would check some other issues too. Run it to highway speed - get er buzzin and pull the clutch in and see if it quits.. Does it buzz if the bike is stationary and you rev it up? If the buzz is motor rpm related - some things I would look closely for would be motor mounts for tightness,, exhaust pipes and muffler frame connectors to make sure they were put together properly (you wanna make sure that all rubber mounts are not captured/compressed with an out of place flat washer to the point that the flat washer is making contact with the mount area around the rubber buffer - hope I am making sense here,, I know it sounds nuts but any form of such contact will cause all kinds of buzzing). Look at the engine and connecting parts as a tuning fork that is singing away - now check all over the tuning for area , i.e. - between pipes and frame for a rock jammed in somewhere - or a clutch line bracket bent out and touching the frame, for anything that is taking the buzz from the motor.. Another vague possibility has to do with engine harmonics, things like a slightly bent rod from a former hydrolock can cause it or a crank out of spec but dont panic cause it seems like by now it would have gotten worse if that were so.. If its buzzing changes as you slightly alter your engines pull at highway speed it could be something as simple as needing grease on the drive pins or other drive line parts such as splines. Could also be a cracked yoke for the u-joint, dry u-joint bearings or even dry splines.. Here's another thought.. Few years ago Tweeks, Tip and I took a couple months and found ourselves at one of our Rallys out west called Venture West - held at The Dalles Oregon.. While partying out there with those west coaster I befriended a fellow gear head and brother VR member named @GeorgeS.. George was a blast (now that I think about it - all those lop eared Venture West varmints were a blast LOL) - I had a riot picking Georges amazing Venture gear head for probably 2 hours or so.. One of the things that George mentioned to me was a flaw from Yamaha when setting up the rear end on our bikes. We were talking about odd brake wear = apparently there needed to be a shim added at the pumpkin connection to the swing arm to correct this ailment. I later checked into this oddity and, sure enough,, on some bikes a shim was needed and, as I recall, they screwed up the alignment on some scoots so badly that GEAR WEAR could result with ODD vibrations being common.. All that said - I cant remember what bikes were affected BUT I can remember somewhat of a simple check.. First thing is to take a peek at your brake pads on the rear and see if they are wearing at an angle.. Another check is to raise the bike - remove the axle nut and slide the axle out until the larger end of the axle that the pinch bolts clamp the right side of the swing arm to the axle clears the opening it sets into.. Now look at the space around the smaller diameter of the rear axle and see if the space around the axle is equal.. If its not - there is a good chance the rear end needs to be realigned... Ok, ALL that said - I have NO idea if any of all that writing applies directly to your 2nd Gen - never owned one, never worked on one.. I do consider you my friend though and, if someone chimes in here and says ol Puc is crazy but suggests something that may help you - then my day is made!! Puc

,,,,, ,,,, I aint much of nuttin when it comes to this stuff but I gotta say,, it just doesnt seem like a regulator could/should get warm enough to melt the wires feeding it or on its output.. For some reason - the thought of that scenario speaks more of resistance associated with the wires themselves to me.. Maybe a bad ground, amp demand to high for the wire size, grease or corrosion on the terminal block, stator getting warm from being loaded up and having a short somewhere in its windings that is causing a small overload on the wires coming from the stator and on and on.. Years ago when I got my first 1st Gen it came to me with a bad stator.. I found out right away that Mom Yam forgot to provide ample oil coverage to cool the stator = heat ate the windings alive = new stator with updated oil supply and splash plate.. Tossing on a higher output stator alone would have solved nothing.. All that said - is there a chance you have out classed the cooling system on the stator by going High Output to meet higher amp needs and its baking itself and causing low output Sho? Have you done an amp count of all the devices you are trying to run on your scoot and then tossing an amp probe on the system to see what its actually pulling - both hot and cold? If you do this and you find that you are drawing more than your device count tells you your suppose to be pulling? Thinking it may or may not be a bad idea to give this a shot before building a cooling plenum for the regulator.. Maybe lets give people like bongobobny , Flyinfool , yamagrl , Prairiehammer a shout here before I get ya all twisted up with my dangerous lack of knowledge..

Heyyyy,, a brand new family member (at least the first I have met you I think) = to VR Pep!! Glad to have ya aboard!! Thinking that springy thingy is pretty important if you wanna maintain clean oil.. Gotta hunch its designed to help the filter maintain a seal so the oil is forced thru the filter.. Whether that is right or wrong - I wouldnt put it back together without those parts in there,, way I figure it - Mom Yam dont usually make a habit of tossing in spare parts for no reason:big-grin-emoticon: Let us know if you have a hard time locating those parts - lots of parts bikes floatin around this place..

,,, now dont that just sound like a mayhem filled, chaotic cross country riot Raggy!! crossed brother!! ,,, got a fresh box of .45 ACP 200 grain XTP Hog Killing Hollow Points for my 1911 - perfect for knocking Pigs out of the Pine Trees on the way up and over should the need arise ... Sure sounds like a winner to me Raggy!!!

Wheeliehappy eh? Classy name encompassed by a touch of youthful adrenaline rush - my kind of varmint I tell ya!!:welcome1:to VR Wheelie!! Always liked the looks of those Drifter/Indian clones.. Saw a 1500 out at Sturgis that someone had spent a fair amount of time and money finishing the job that Kawi started.. Had a kick starter on it and all that.. I had an early Chief that I restored, fun bike but way to much money to leave sitting in a parking lot without supervision - also, not exactly the sort of scoot that the wife and I would head out for a month, do the two track camping and all that and expect to find repair parts along lifes trails. Was telling the guy who did the Drifter that one of the things I really liked about his AWESOME creation was it was TOTALLY cross country rideable PLUS, those beach bars he had mounted just screamed COW TRAIL ME COWPUC!! Definitely cool scoots.. Would LOVE to see pics of your 800 Wheelie!! Concerning the early RSTD's,, as usual - thinking these guys have got ya covered.. Only thing I may add is that I am almost for pure sure that the 98's did NOT have a balance shaft.. Owned my fair share of Harleys thru the years and know that HD differenciates between their balanced and unbalanced motors by calling them an "A" motor for the unbalance shaft and the "B" motor for the one with the balance shaft.. Mom Yam on the other hand never really did anything like that that I am aware of.. Kind of shame too because, IMHO - this could be a significant factor - depending on what your future plan is for the motor.. I know one thing - I would ask around a bunch here on the site before I started looking at spinning the unbalanced motor up.. Seems like @StarFan may have had some experience along the line of doing that.. Maybe @DarrinGT too.. Good possibility I am wayyyy out in left center field on this one Wheelie (I have a habit of doing that - went over backwards a few times trying to be a happy wheelier like you and bonked my beaner:missingtooth:) but thought I would toss it out there for .. Concerning the rideability of the RSTD cruiser version of our family of scoots.. I have a really really good friend from Wisconsin (ok, he's a faithful cheesehead but he is still a good friend of mine ) who's known around here as @eagleeye.. I rode some distance following the Eagle on his RSTD while he towed his trailer to Ohio for a Maintenance Day.. I also know that after the Maintenance Day Eagleeye proceeded to do a major cross country tour on his scoot. He sure looked mighty comfy on that bike!! Only concern that I can think of has to do with the fact that I believe Steves riding is mostly 1 up.. I have spent a fair amount of time 2 up on the tour and prefer a full blown touring scoot (actually,, I am kind of partial to the 1st Gen Mk1's but thats a whole nuther story) but, after admiring the shear beauty of Eagleeyes cruiser I have often wondered if some of the same seat mods done to the RSV's could not be done to and RSTD to make em a really nice 2 up cruiser tourer.. ,, I suppose some other consideration would be finding out how/if their suspention differs.. Well,, there ya have it,, a whole page of and .. Hope it results in drawing some attention to your thread here and ultimately nets you some answers from some lop eared varmints who have a clue .. In the spirit of familiness, fun and shear enjoyment!! Puc

:scared: FINLAND? As in the country of Finland? HOW COOL IS THAT!! Gonna try and help you Arx but its going to cost you a LOT - as soon as I am done here I am gonna send you a "friend request" which you will have to accept :big-grin-emoticon:.. A man can never have enough friends!! Yes, you can start these scoots with no `choke fairly easily. One way is plugging off the carb throats with your hand and a clean rag. Also, I have used a squirt bottle of gas to prime engines up many many times - just shoot a couple tablespoons of raw gas into the throat of each carb, open the throttle so the butterflies allow the fuel thru and crank er up. Be careful you dont get over a couple tablespoons of fuel into it - you dont wanna hydro lock it. Personally I do not care for starting fluid - ruined a little 2 stroke many many years ago firing it up on starting fluid and have used raw gas in a squirt bottle ever since (I use 2 stroke mix on everything). Have used LOTS of starting fluid on diesel motors but dont use it much on gas engines - just a personal thing.. If the motor has not been run in a long time I would personally make sure she is prelubed internally before I fired it up. Back when I was doing a lot of restoration on SOHC Honda's I would always take the valve caps off, pull the plugs, toss a drill motor on the crank, shoot couple teaspoons of mystery oil into the plug holes. Spin the motor up with the drill motor while squirting motor oil into the valve cap holes while spinning the motor.. Wasnt unusual to go thru a quart or two of oil before I was totally satisfied the top end was well lubed.. A friend stopped by one time, said he picked up one that hadnt been run in a while - wondered where to begin. Told him to prelube it before he tried to fire it up - took the risk and didnt do it - ended up snapping the camshaft cause it siezed from lack of lube.. It dont take much to gaul the cam journals. Our V-4's are like most Jap scoots in the top end, they are NOT ball or needle bearings on the cams, they ARE ground cast steel cams laying in aluminum line bored journals that totally rely on a thin layer of oil to maintain their integrity. Start em dry and their gone.. Knowing the valve covers are kind of a pain to remove to prelube and not knowing how long its been since you did the valves - I would strongly suggest that you mystery oil the jugs as mentioned, change in some clean 10/40 and at least spin it on the crank for a couple minutes to allow the oil pump to get things moving.. Should be able to pull the little cover on the right engine cover to do this - I would use the starter with the plugs out and kill switch on if nothing else - 8 or 10 five second burst should do it so you dont damage the starter = better than nothing.. The key for me in all this was figuring out a way to find out what I had without having to invest a ton of money into carb repair kits and stuff before I knew whether or not the bike was worth putting money into it - always figuring out a way of finding out without ruining parts in the process - TALK ABOUT FUN!!! Bongo mentioned the Metering Valve on the neck of your scoot in talking about your braking problem. That valve is important in getting the rear brake to function properly. One of the main problems associated with the valve that I have experienced thru the years is that its the high spot in the linked rear brake system. In the beginning (1983) Yamaha chose not to put a bleeder on that valve - because of that we 1st Gen riders have had to bleed that Valve from the line to get air out of it - this is a MUST do!! If you kneel down on the right side of the bike in front of the radiator and look above the radiator you will see the metering valve on the neck (it will be right above the radiator cap). The brake line you want to loosen will be on the left side of the metering valve. You will probably need a box end wrench with a cut out for sliding over the line - think its 10mm if memory serves me correctly. Just put a rag under the valve - after breaking the line loose, reach back with your foot and slowly press down on the rear brake peddle and while watching the little bubbles appear - tighten the line and release he pedal - do until no more bubbles.. I am not sure what year Yamaha finally put a bleeder on the valve - I just noticed yours is an 84? It may have the bleeder - if so you will find by looking at thru the opening beside the emergency 4 way flasher switch. If you see a bleeder in there on the right hand side of the steering neck consider yourself fortunate All for now - hope this helps!! Your FRIEND Puc