cowpuc

Thanks Silv, I LOVED building and riding em too - talk about fun!! Here is a shot of one of my favorite builds. I kept this one for a few years and actually rode it to the Sturgis Rally a few times from Michigan. I did a number of Hardtails and a couple of Amen Saviours (plungers - about 1/2 of spring in the rear) but this was my only one with functional rear suspention. The frame was a 69 Santee "Soft ride" - kind of rare because back in the day everyone bought and built hardtails cause they were "cooler".. Gotta tell ya brother, this "soft ride" with the 16 over springer was THE best riding highway bike I have ever owned. The key to building a long bike (over 10" of extended front end) is getting the "trail" geometry spot on "0" - no more than 1/2". Most bikes have to have positive trail in order to steer correctly - usually 3 or 4 inches - problem with a long bike is any existence of positive trail will cause the bars to "flop" at slow speeds and any negative trail makes em dangerously unrideable. This thing came out PERFECT (after 3 tries on the rake). It was like riding on a cloud and the most stable thing imaginable - lock the throttle at 80, lean back on the sleeping bag, set back and watch the world go by.. Those were amazing days!!

:scared:"Palladium",,,,, :scared:I like that even better than "PD" Tooch!!!!!!!! Only problem is I am not sure on the pronunciation of such a name so you might have to help with that in a short video or at MD or something... I think I got it and like the way it sounds - a real classy man's bike kind of a name = Pal - ah - dee - um but wont know for sure till you tell me cause I didnt pass chemistry or english

In the bottom of the master cylinder you will see two small orvices, one of these is feed for the piston to compress the fluid and force the slave piston to disengage the clutch, the other is a return hole to release pressure. It sounds to me like the piston in your slave needs to be repositioned against the rod that forces the pressure plate and maybe plugging off the return hole momentarily would assist in doing this. If it were mine I would stick my finger into the master cylinder and plug the return orvice and gently pump the lever until I felt resistance. Then remove my finger and see if I had a clutch and if it held.. Does any of that make sense? Sometimes I have some goofy, off the wall ideas and hard to follow so its ok to laugh if it dont

Brrrrr,,, just stepped out of the confines of our little nest and noticed a snow flake working its way down and instantly thought of my buddy out there chasing down another gorgeous scoot. Brother, I wish I was there with ya cause I would gladly share the joy of testing that Russel seat and spinning those WW's back to Oberlin if your fingers need a break!! Prayers Up that its warmer down yonder and your ride home is outstanding!! As for you, you gorgeous hunk of 2nd Gen Yamaha machinery - welcome to your new home and into the hands of the Master and Company. You are gonna LOVE it here!! You will never have to worry again about some $5 an hour untrained shop kid putting your rectifier in backwards and frying your circuitry. You are back home into the hands of the expert who, with his 100's of like minded Venture riding family members, know your heart better than even Mother Yamaha herself. We know your gonna be feeling a little like the prodigal son for a while and that is ok, it wont take long and you will realize just how much your loved. One of the things some of us in your new family like to do to welcome new Venture's back into the fold is to share in name giving. Because your new owner is not necessarily of that mindset, that order of business will have to fall unto the shoulders of some of the rest of us. Being of that mindset, I would like to contribute the name of "PD" (short for Prodigal) into the mix of names you might be offered. I do not offer this name lightly, it also has some implications concerning your new owner that we wont go into here but just know that, IMHO, "PD" is a very endured and welcome name. All that said. Freebird and PD, I hope the two of you have a marvelous journey home to the land of pond monsters and Maintenance Days and patiently wait for the many ride stories and pictures the two of you will share in the great years ahead!!

At one time I had a post in here with pics of cleaning those lock slides up with pics,, cant find it for the life of me.. Anyway, gotta agree with Dan - dont remember leaving the screws loose - sounds to me like you got something a little out of place or something under the slide. I would take it back apart and check it so it, you dont want them slackers falling apart inside and let you down at the wrong time..

Is it worse when the tank gets lower on fuel? Fill the tank and see if it helps..

Sorry about the hi-jack Black Wing,, its part of this Sanity thingy we was referring to..

Come to think of it DanL,, I aint never did get mine in the mail yet neither:think:,,, think someone might be trying to tell us something:confused24:... Oh well bro,, we'll just do the ol head bump routine at MD this year and declare each other certified,, more than one way to tree a coon!!

WOW ZZZZZZ WOW WOW WOW ORLIN - JUST BEAUTIFUL BROTHER!!:cool10:!! That sweetheart sure brings back some AWESOME memories for yours truly - NOTHING,, and I repeat NOTHING sings my song like a good old SOHC 7fiddy Honda!! That dry sump motor was absolutely BULLET PROOF! Those 4 over (guessing) tubes sure bring back the memories too .. Seems like that was the "cool" thing to do back in the day around here, our highschool parking lot had a number of scoots (mostly 350 Honda's, your bike would have been considered a "REAL" bikers machine back then:Cartoon_397:) with extended forks - how bout yours Or,, same same? About what year was that picture taken Or? Now I gotta let you in on a secret,, I destroyed a number of those gorgeous old machines in my life just to get at their mighty motors to build Chops out of. I did use a number of those 4/4 pipes like you were running back then too - WOW did they sound purdy,, especially all tached out till the valves were just about to float.. What a song,, what a marvelous song!! THANKS Orlin for the memories!!

Think I may have misread this in my last response.. Sounds like your talking about the stand being to long and the bike falling away from the stand (which was what Fool was referring to)? If that is the case, this is not uncommon when the front fork springs are sacked. Let the air out of the front forks, lift the bike up to center and see how much travel you have in the forks, you should have well over 2 inches of travel. Sacked front springs are common. Replace them with Progressives and preload to your satisfaction - I like 3/4 inch. Drain out old fork fluid, replace with 12.5 wt Bel-Ray, snap it back together and watch that scoot settle into that kickstand like a new scoot.. By the way, no air pressure in the front forks needed from that day forward!!

Yep,, lift the bike up off the stand and check the movement in the stand. Should be fairly tight side to side against the tab that the stand mounts to the frame on. If its loose be very careful how much tightening you do on the bolt that goes thru the stand - its a shoulder bold that will not withstand a lot of over tightening. Take the stand off and you may find that opening where the frame tab slides into has been sprung open - easily corrected by taking a hammer and smacking it with concrete behind it or the back side of a vice. Now put the bolt back in it and make sure the its squeezes the stand enough to snug it up against the tab. If needed you can shim out the bolt with a washer but you need to do this from the head of the bolt. Word of advice, dont put to much pressure on that stand until you get it corrected. Have actually broke one off under conditions similar to what your dealing with - not a pretty site and can be dangerous if your leg is under it OR, even worse if it falls on a child who was playing on the bike. Stock length and maintained, those kickstands are a good length and bike should be perfect even with top pressure in rear shock and new progressive springs in the forks with max preload. That said, even a small amount of wear/play in the kickstand mount WILL show up as a non friendly "lean".. Any of this make sense?

and BOOTS!!

Could be as simple as a hung up float from when you went thru the carbs. Turn the key on and off until the fuel pump stops cycling - means the carbs are full. Open the drain on the #2 and see how much fuel you get out of it. If you get none, leave the drain open - reach in and tap on the side of the carb with a screw driver handle. Turn the key on and off occasionally and see if you can free the float in the carb. If its filling to proper level, try the syringe method to reclean carb.

Wisconsin White Wash Machine

By the way @Condor , THANK YOU for keeping us updated about this terrible situation - your a keeper my friend and GREATLY appreciated!!

Almost missed it myself Beej.. Thankfully Mama had LOTS of Pizza and Bacon left over so no one starved. Missed ya brother!! Did get to see a picture of Brenda's pretty RSTD during a discussion of White Wall tires.. Another of our club members announced he is leaving the cold of Wisconsin for warmer climates in the south.. Oooppsss,, all that slipped,,, what happens in Chat is suppose to stay there, hope I didnt just lose my chat license.. Anyway, just a touch of info to entice others to join the action may not hurt..

Dag nab er Bongo,, I cant stand the taste of crow but gotta admit,, looks like crow dinner tonight - right back to almost 50/50 again...

Yep,, probably some of mine DanL,, you know what they say - birds of a feather flock together,, no idea how that applies to our marbles but it sounded good

Now thats what I call WOW ZZZZZZZZZ WOW WOW WOW AWESOME!!!!:clap2::clap2::clap2::dancefool::dancefool: GREAT JOB BLACK WING!!! :thumbsup: May your hard work and attention to detail pay off with THOUSANDS of great miles out chasing the front wheel my friend!! BEAUTIFUL!! By the way,, I LOVE your concept of a bike lift - AMAZING piece of work there brother!!

I LOVE that outfit:guitarist 2:!! ,, put fold down seats in the boat - make em so they fold into a bed, little canvas top - be ready to camp on land or on water = the PERFECT machine!!

Showed these pics to Tip. Tippy and I wish we were there to give Z and that lady in the picture a big hug, cry with them and help them sort through that aweful disaster.. What a heartbreaking situation Z...

Pull the breather cover, slip a screw driver into the carb throats and slide the slides in and out and make sure they move freely (careful not to damage them if they are stuck - the material they are made of scratches and breaks fairly easily). If one is sticky, pull that one and clean the slide with carb cleaner. Also soak a rag with some carb cleaner and reach into the throat where the slide slides and clean it real well - will probably be covered with black gook. Slip it back in and test it, should slide real easily. If all looks good when you check the slides thru the breather, put some gas in a spray bottle and spray fuel into the carb throat that is not firing and see if it will fire when you spray fuel into it.. If it does hit right off you probably have plugged jetting somewhere. Go to an Ag store and get a 50cc syringe. Fill the syringe with carb cleaner. Pull slide, open drain on carb, attach syringe with carb cleaner to drain hose on carb, inject cleaner until it comes out of main jet orfice (where metering rod attached to slide enters into main jet opening). Pump syringe to agitate carb cleaner in float bowl. Best way to check for pin holes in diaphrams (IMHO) is to pull diaphram into full extention and pour gas into cup shape of diaphram and carefully roll diaphram and watch for leaks. If there is a pin hole or crack the diaphram will get wet on dry side..

OUTSTANDING Mr. Bossman!!!:clap2::dancefool: Prayers Up and Blessings Down as you travel the road of bringing home yet another AWESOME new scoot!! I got Fool all hog tied and his White Wash Machine unplugged so at least you shouldnt need snow tires:hurts:. I was up at 5:30am and thought there were a few snowflakes mixed in with the rain drops falling here. Headed south like you are and running a day later when you chase down that pretty black 2nd Gen with the white walls you should be in good shape as far as anything else being white. I share in your excitement Boss, thank you for including us in all the excitement brother!! WHAT A BLAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ride safe my friend! Puc

With FRIENDS!!

People often comment to me about my being stuck in the "old school" days. This doesnt only effect my love for certain types of bikes, it also effects everyday life around the Puc and Tippy home. An example of this is the fact that Tip and I dont do the modern day Android phone thingy like most civilized people do.. We do however have a little Trac phone that we use on occasion. This morning we wake up to a strange noise in the kitchen. It was a warning coming from our Trac phone that we were OUT of "days" and it needed to be fed - it had plenty of "minutes" but the "days" had run out.. In response to this extreme emergency we fly out the door, jump in the car, go to the local gas station and buy an airtime card = 200 minutes and 90 days worth of feed. Our sweet little Trac Phone came with a "double minute" feature so we get double minutes, giving us a total of 400 minutes and 90 days to be added. When we got home I remembered getting a Christmas present from Trac Phone that was a little book full of "promo codes" to get extra minutes. Having no idea where that little Christmas present booklet ended up, I asked my lovely Bride and keeper of my brain if she had any idea where it may have landed after I had read it months ago (Tip is the BEST of the BEST at taking care of all that type of stuff). She reached in a drawer in the kitchen and handed me the Trac Phone booklet.. I sat on the couch, airtime info in hand, and started the process of feeding that cute little phone of ours.. Hit menu, hit "add airtime", enter PIN, have a promo - clicked yes,, the little rascal ate the PIN but gave me no chance to enter the Promo number - ahhhh ohhhh I said to Tip who was doing dishes.. Sure enough, all's well but no promo minutes added.. I want my Christmas present really bad so I called the 1-800 number in the booklet.. After dialing the number and entering 1 for the language I speak (english) and a bunch of other 1's and 2's and a couple of 3's I finally got to chat with a foreign sounding women somewhere in a little mud hut in Zimbobway.. After explaining to her that I wanted my Christmas present promo minutes she had me go thru a 5 minute process of entering some wierd codes into my little Trac phone. After doing so she had me turn my Trac phone off (good thing I was calling on my home phone) and then back on again. After the Trac Phone rebooted she asked me if my Christmas present minutes now appeared on the screen.. I looked, a little and then told her I had no idea cause I couldnt remember how many minutes the poor little thing had on it in the 1st place:confused24:.. After a brief moment of silence on her end she said she thought they were successfully added cause her computer screen said the Promo minutes were successfully added.. I then noticed that she had added an extra "Day" of time on my phone giving me 91 days until the Phone would need to be fed again and this whole crisis would be played out again.. I told her thank you and that I looked forward to speaking to her again in 91 days. She didnt ,, more of a response..