Jump to content

Gearhead

Expired Membership
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    971

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Gearhead

  1. Gearhead
    You can just get a new socket at an electronics store - I did. It's a 5 pin DIN connector. Jeremy
  2. Gearhead
    Yeah. Go to the link from Squeeze, then click the "thread" in the upper RH corner and check out what I did based on what Squeeze's source recommended. Of everything I found, pretty much all was in good working order and looked OK except for the internal starter ground which looked weak. I did also clean out the brushes, grease the bearing, measure everything which was well within spec, and solder some of the battery cable ends. I haven't tried mine yet as I'm doing a fair bit of maintenance on the Venture, interrupted by fixing and upgrading my failed shop air system, supervising the painting of my house, garage and shed, playing in the band, wife, 4 kids, work and life. I hold high hopes that the starter will crank like a banshee once it's back on the road. You don't have to guess if your cables, solenoid etc are the problem. Measure for voltage drop. First, connect the volt meter to the pos batt terminal and the starter power lug. Now watch it as you crank the starter. It will display total voltage drop in the hot leg of the circuit. I'd say "normal" is maybe a half volt. Much more than that and you're wasting power as heat in bad connections, bad solenoid contacts, etc. If you measure high voltage drop, isolate the problem by measuring from the batt to the solenoid, then across the solenoid, then from the solenoid to the starter. Do the same on ground - measure from neg terminal to the starter body. (The only thing this doesn't check is the internal ground mentioned earlier.) On the ground side you should have more like .2 volt drop or less methinks. Dragon, you didn't mention the state of your battery. Do you know it's good? That's probably the most common source of this problem, since it's a regular maintenance item. Jeremy
  3. Gearhead
    Hmm...well...I dunno. Maybe I spoke out of turn. I can just tell you my experience with my 87. The headlight has always worked properly except when a bulb lost hi beam, and then the CMU and RLU worked as advertised. The white dash light behaves as I described. The only time it's not lit AT ALL is when the bike is off! I've always found it a little odd that the white light is dimly lit at all times, but then Neil here mentioned the same thing as being normal. Ultimately it comes down to this - is your headlight working? Personally, I find the whole alert and RLU system to be a bit overcomplicated and ridiculous. If my bike loses a beam, I know it! And I can switch to the other beam with a flick of my thumb. There's my 2 cents! Jeremy
  4. Gearhead
    I agree. Glad you said it, pegscraper. Jeremy
  5. Gearhead
    Years ago the one in my Virago rotted. There is a retaining ring on the outside that taps in to hold it in place, and an o-ring or gasket for sealing. I replaced mine with a dime. Yes, a dime. Not much for seeing thru, but it's done the trick for 10 years and provided much amusement for my daughter. Jeremy
  6. Gearhead
    I disagree. First, the tail light sensor won't light if only ONE bulb is bad, BOTH have to be bad to trigger it (at least that's how it works on my 87). Second, 2 bad bulbs or LEDs will trigger the tail light system with the flashing red light and an icon on the CMU, but NOT the white light by the hi-beam indicator, that's headlight only. Jimbob, if your white light it on VERY dimly, that's normal. If it's on bright (the difference is obvious when you see it), you either have a bad bulb or something wrong in the system. Jeremy
  7. Gearhead
    My wife doesn't doze easily but has ALMOST done it on the back of my 87. My 3 kids have all dozed on the back. It's a little freaky but they all seem to stay upright and just bob their head back and forth. I rode one mountain road with my daughter doing that and for some reason I felt compelled to keep on hand on her calf most of the way but she never budged. If I can't see their head in the mirrors they are either upright behind me or gone totally. Well, there was the one time that my son fell off. I live on a dirt road and was bringing him home from church one evening. The last few minutes he was dozing, which I detected by the head-bobbing. I had to cross a wash which, though not running, was stirred-up by the monsoon season and the sand was softer than I thought it should be. Bertha started to push the front end and just plumb went over on the crash bars, followed by my son tumbling off the bike and onto the sand. He kinda rolled onto his feet with a dazed look on his face. Jeremy
  8. Gearhead
    I second this. Jeremy
  9. Gearhead
    Yeah, that.
  10. Gearhead
    IMHO, if anything, the front seals last longer without air pressure in the forks. Yeah, "CLASS" is a VR thing. It's something 1st gen owners have and 2nd gens do not...hehehe. Ya know, you're taking a risk, mainly the risk of the bike quitting and you getting stranded. But with all the recent service and new tires, the risk is pretty low. And what fun is life without risk, anyway? I'd ride it without air in the suspension; not ideal but not dangerous IMO. If you can borrow a CLASS controller, all the better. Pack light, bring a few basic tools, a service manual if you can, and have fun! When are you going to PHX? A little farther south and you'd be in my neck of the woods. Jeremy
  11. Gearhead
    Good point. Jeremy
  12. Gearhead
    I don't think so. The HD VROD engine was. Jeremy
  13. Gearhead
    Do you mean pull the clutch in and let the engine idle down while the bike is still going? If so that sounds like something in the engine to me. Wow, all these driveshaft gear problems are a little scary. My 87's speedo is right on. The rider, OTOH, does not wear a Speedo... Some time back GeorgeS did a detailed write-up on lubing the speedo. It may be in the tech library. Jeremy
  14. Gearhead
    The best advice I can give you is this: GeorgeS has given charging system testing advice many times on this site. Search it out and follow it! Jeremy
  15. Gearhead
    Is this with the engine idling? Running 3000 rpm? Gotta be specific. A little coolant will go to the bottom, so you might not see it in the sight glass. Very much, though, and your oil will start to look like a milkshake. There's a post going on right now about oil in the coolant, check it out. Jeremy
  16. Gearhead
    Are you sure it's from the driveshaft area? Reason I ask is that it sounds alot like a dry speedo bushing. Jeremy
  17. Gearhead
    The turn-downs are just tips that slip on the end-cones. Yeah, I was just thinking about that, if I had a 3/8 or 1/2 drill bit that was like 2 feet long... There are 4 different baffles per George's pics. That "tail pipe" section goes thru the rear two. If I could drill 3 or 4 holes in the forward two baffles, that might let just a bit o' growl out. The tips require the rear cones to slip onto. Anything else would be a custom job left to the discretion of the rider! Jeremy
  18. Gearhead
    No. See here: http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=3365 If you do figure something out, let us know! Jeremy
  19. Gearhead
    Funny, the original description of the "waddle" sounds like somebody's version of how a car tire felt in the back, walking back and forth! So Carl, the problem started from scratch when changed tires in April, but has now persisted to another tire? Weird. What about the front tire? Although normally front tire problems cause the mid-speed "wobble" or shake. Reduced air in rear shock has positive effect - this makes sense because it lowers the back end. So does a passenger. This increases the rake angle and trail of the forks which contribute to stability but make handling slower. You rarely hear of weaves and wobbles (at least I've not heard of it) on cruisers because their front ends are raked out more. Jeremy
  20. Gearhead
    Daveg90 moved the coils on his Super Sport mod. You can find info at: http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=12739&highlight=coils I've seen that writeup with the pics before, but they don't seem to be in this thread. Coils don't go bad very often. But I would think, and this is just a thought, that just about any standard coil should work. The TCI is indeed just a ground switching device, like electronic breaker points. Jeremy
  21. Gearhead
    JB, I'm working on my rear hub as well and I pulled and pried a little at that center drive hub before I saw the snap ring buried in old grease. Didn't pry too hard, though... :-) Is there a thread about your death wobble experience? I can't seem to find it. Is that why you're doing all the bearings? Did you have any wobbles or handling problems prior to this? Jeremy
  22. Gearhead
    Cool JB! Thanks for taking the time to post all this. Jeremy
  23. Gearhead
    You should have conductivity through the boot, from the screw on the top to the plug terminal on the bottom. You should register the 10k or so from the resistor. Strange that you don't read conductivity on a boot that fires. Corrosion is the only thing I can think of. Sometimes there can be a gap in a cap or wire and the spark will jump it and still fire the plug. This is demonstrated by pulling the cap from a running engine. The spark will jump from the cap to the plug and fire the cylinder up to some distance before the engine starts missing. Jeremy
  24. Gearhead
    E3 in the front size has been promised but not delivered for 3 years now. I run an E3 rear / Pirelli MT66 front, handles well. Jeremy
  25. Gearhead
    Thanks. Per the manual, the "AC generator" is rated for 14V, 30A at 5000rpm, which is 420W. However, it also says the Rectifier has a capacity of 26A, which @14V is 364W. Dunno what the rectifier does with that extra 4 amps that it's not rated for. I understand why higher RPM produces more current. My question is this: if I run the motor at 5000rpm with no electrical load vs running it with a huge electrical load, is the current through the stator any different? Or is stator current just "what it is", and in the first case all the excess goes to ground (which serves as the load) while in the second case it gradually drains the battery? Jeremy
×
×
  • Create New...