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Gearhead

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Everything posted by Gearhead

  1. Gearhead
    And to answer your last question, I consider 39 US MPG to be about normal. Jeremy
  2. Gearhead
    Did you check float levels? Jeremy
  3. Gearhead

    35 mpg

    Gearhead replied to FROG MAN's topic in Trailer Talk

    Heck yeah, that's good to me, I'm lucky to get over 35 IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCE, and I don't even have a trailer! OK, actually I average 37, no trailer. Jeremy
  4. Gearhead
    When you did your compression checks, did you open the throttle all the way while cranking? You should. Jeremy
  5. Gearhead
    I posted about how my bike blew over in a T-storm last Thursday. It sat for a couple hours completely horizontal. I picked it up and checked it over for a few minutes before starting it up. It started quickly and ran fine, but the idle has been low ever since. I had it idling in the 900-1000 rpm range before, and it probably dropped 3-400 rpm, such that it tends to die before fully warm. It's hard to find an effective choke setting that keeps the bike on a fast idle. Today I increased the idle speed thumbscrew setting to get the idle back where it belongs, but I had to screw it in, oh, maybe one full turn. That isn't right. What could cause this? I could understand if it idled slowly right at first until the fluids stabilized in their normal places, but not for several days! Ideas? Jeremy
  6. Gearhead
    The thing is, you never quite know in the morning how the wind will shift in the afternoon. That said, in my parking lot the wind almost always comes from one of two directions, and it's kinda seasonal. Regarding the cover, my bike sits out in that bloody lot in the direct Arizona sun for 9 hours a day, every work day. After a while that really beats up the paint and seat. However, I have certainly felt the downside of using a cover. Jeremy
  7. Gearhead
    Specs say 5.3 gal total with 1.1 of that being reserve (which is when the red light comes on). I've put just over 5 in mine before. Once the warning light comes on you have around 40 miles before literal pushing begins, so my policy is to fill within 30 miles. Now my question to you is, how did you go 167 miles, heavily loaded, 75-85 mph, and only use 4.1 gal???? Jeremy
  8. Gearhead
    I've got Progressive Suspension front and rear which makes the bike sit a little higher. It's similar to having the stock suspension with MAX air in both ends. Before, the bike was a little more upright on the stand, but now it has a nice lean to it. I've read that the bike is actually more stable on the kickstand than the centerstand, as long as there's some lean. It's because the 3 points of contact (both tires and the stand) are farther apart than the 3 points when using the centerstand (front tire and two stand legs). Jeremy
  9. Gearhead
    From LondonGreg's table, average seems to be mid-high 30's for mileage. I use Castrol GTX 20-50. Many use Rotella T 15-40. Mine has a front wobble during tight turns too. By tight I mean doing a u-turn in a parking lot. The bars oscillate a little. That sensation has endured a new tire, greasing the head bearings, Progressive springs and a fork brace. Mine also has a tankslapper-type wobble in the front, worst at 30-40 mph. BUT - it only happens if I take my hands off the bars, so I just don't do that! It has also persisted thru the above work, but the new tire reduced it greatly. Jeremy
  10. Gearhead
    ...during a big ol' T-storm at work. It was parked near the security guard shack; as I was walking out he asks me if I know who's bike that is. Yeah. Poor guy felt really bad for me; he kept apologizing, like he blew it over or something - hehe. A couple years ago I had a 440 lb, 600cc bike blow over, but it didn't lean very far over on the kickstand. I figured there was no way this 800 lb monster would blow over, but it did. In both incidents the bikes were covered - read, they had a sail attached, and they fell away from the kickstand. After the first incident I was paying attention to the prevailing winds, location of wind breaks, and which direction my bike was leaning while parked at work. Over time I kinda forgot to keep doing this. It was completely sideways. It musta hit the crash bars first (which did their job), but it had enough momentum at that point to keep going until the mirror and upper fairing near the mirror stopped it. It could be alot worse. The pavement was rough, so everything that touched down (mirror, fairing, crash bars) got a good roughing-up. Hiway bar just moved on its mounts, front crash bar had to be bent out a little, mirror OK except for scratches. The upper and lower fairing broke some mounting tabs and exacerbated some already-existing cracks near the mirror mount and the rear mounting point. It has Baker Air Wings. The wing is OK, broke off the mount at the nylon screws just like it's supposed to. I think the lower wing mounting arm is what hit the ground and caused the lower fairing mounting tabs to break. However, when I installed them I fabricated and installed extensive reinforcement and the fairing did not break at the wing mounting points. I rode it in again today. Partly makes me glad it wasn't pristine. The other part of me wants to fix and paint it and make it pristine. I'm certainly glad I wasn't on it and nobody got smushed. Oh well, nothing some more JB Weld and TIME won't fix. Just yesterday I was reading about PermaPoxy for fixing fairings. I think that was a bad omen :-) I'll have to go get some. Jeremy
  11. Gearhead
    Yeah, I bought parts from him as well, and he is a patient and trustworthy individual. If memory serves, my 87 has 3 lights on the on the center cruise console - power, set and resume, as well as the power switch. I doubt if the same harness would connect right up. I bet you could get away without using any of those lights, but you'd need a power switch. Jeremy
  12. Gearhead
    Zanotti at http://www.zanottimotor.com/ has good prices too. I bought one new side vent (the triangular ones) for arouind 70 bucks. As you may know, those let out hot air on your legs, very nice in the cold, and close it off when the weather's hot. IMHO, grease would make the vent even floppier after 3 or 4 cycles. I tightened up mine with tint e-clips. I took a vent into Ace and found E-clips that would fit on the little plastic posts where the linkage snaps on. It only needed one or two clips on one post to tighten up the whole thing (per vent, that is). Jeremy
  13. Gearhead
    My guess is that it's related to your speed and the resultant wind drag. In the mountain riding you were probably averaging much lower speeds than on the hiway. Speed kills - gas mileage, that is. Jeremy
  14. Gearhead
    Clay, I'm looking at the part fish for the 86-87 models (should be very close to yours in design) which I think I got from this site. I'm looking at the "shift shaft" and "shift cam - fork" diagrams. I'll say this - that bloomin' shift linkage sure goes all over the place! Will you take a look at it? Then maybe you could say which rod is stuck. Is it the one at the top, #10, "shift lever assembly" which appears to go all the way thru the engine to the RH side? If so, then it's likely the pin problem behind the shift basket that some guys are talking about. Jeremy
  15. Gearhead
    What you describe sounds JUST like my 87 in terms of behavior in different ambient temps, fan cycling, etc. The ONLY difference is that my gage consistently reads maybe 1/16" lower than yours for any given condition, which is consistent with what Squeeze said about them being recalibrated after 83. Jeremy
  16. Gearhead
    I forget the status of your bike. Has it ever, in your possession, run and shifted properly before your cluch hydraulic problems? When you tried to shift it, is the engine idling? If not, have you tried applying pressure to the shifter while turning the rear wheel? Sometimes these things need a little motion to slide into place. Does this apply only when holding the clutch lever in, or all the time? When you pull the lever do you see the center move outward a little? When you turn the clutch center by hand, does the rear wheel turn? The center (boss/pressure plate) and outside (basket) of the clutch should always be locked together UNLESS you're holding the clutch lever in, then they should be free of each other. The disconnect point between the engine and rear wheel due to being in neutral is inside the tranny; you can't see it from the outside. Jeremy
  17. Gearhead
    I think your 84 has different anti-dive than my 87, so I can't speak of the adjustment. However, I can say that: If there are no oil leaks, the seals are OK. Bad seals won't cause the fork to stop working (until the oil is gone). I suppose it's possible something is installed wrong in the forks. You never know. Springs don't really care which way they're installed. Could this be old, floppy springs? YES! They all have old, floppy springs. I think the springs were old and floppy the day they were first installed :-) Seriously, mine maybe wasn't as easy to bottom as yours, but I've found it to be true on both my 87 Virago and the Venture that the old, stock springs were horribly inadequate. I remember on the Virago finding that it was riding about 1" from bottoming out, just with me sitting on it (called static sag). Progressive Suspension springs did the trick in both bikes. The Virago is a little stiffer now than I'd prefer, but it's much better w/o the bottoming. The Venture rides pretty nice. There are people on this site who prefer Sonic Springs. Jeremy
  18. Gearhead
    Remember, your bike is, what, 24 yrs old? Not that far from 30... Yeah, I'd like to believe that report, too. I've gotten 42 mpg, if memory serves, exactly twice in 2 years, and those were slow, lazy cruises with a kid on the back seat. I average 37. My present tankful is worse. I went down to one bar at about 110 miles, which is particularly poor, probably heading for about 33mpg. The bike is evidently thanking me for the kind attention I gave it over the weekend, replacing the plugs, oil and checking the plug wires. It has this habit of getting worse mileage the first couple tanks after I do something that, if anything, should help mileage. That said, there are a few guys out there claiming better mileage. I'm still searching. Jeremy
  19. Gearhead
    My Virago got 23k out of a 2 different rear E2's. I could only hope the E3 I installed on the rear of my VR would do so well. Now it has 18k+ miles on it and still has life left in it, so I expect it will end up at a similar mark. Vaseline for bead lube? I bet that worked well. It doesn't cause tire slipping on the rim or any other ill effects? A lot of people like the Avons, but I bet they don't come close to the E3 in mileage. I change mine using an old car rim for a holder and 2 large and one small iron, each with a straight end and a hook end. I use cut up anti-freeze or oil bottles for rim protectors. I wouldn't ever say it's easy... Jeremy
  20. Gearhead
    In that case your bulb is OK. When either beam is burned out, a part called the RLU (reserve lighting unit) switches immediately to the other beam. The white light next to the blue hi beam indicator glows and the headlight icon comes on, causing the red light to flash. It's a standard H4 bulb. I don't remember the wattage, but one of your numbers is a misprint and 5W isn't enough to cause the system a problem. nyuk, some guys have issues with the CMU circuit board where the solder joints crack and lose contact. Another possibility is that somebody rewired the headlight in some fashion. I tried to do that thru a relay, to get better voltage to the headlight, thus making it brighter. Guess what? It made my indicator light all the time, so I put it back to stock. igya, does your CMU work? Do you get LCD indicators that cycle thru when you start the bike? Or is the CMU panel dead and all you get is that blasted red light? I velcro'd my garage door opener under the dash in front of the red light. Nothing is broken on my CMU. It's just that the fuel indicator drives me nuts. When it goes from the last bar on the fuel gage to "warning" mode, the red light flashes for a minute or so before going on steady; the flashing is distracting to me. That wouldn't be so bad except that every time I brake and accelerate for the next 5 or 10 miles the lower bar comes back on and then goes off again - another minute of flashing. Jeremy
  21. Gearhead
    Hey Jack, where do you get the IPS products? I've been happy with JB Weld repairs, except it dries slowly (faster with a heat lamp) and runs in the meantime. This paste stuff could be handy. Jeremy
  22. Gearhead
    Wow, that's clever! And Craftsman extractors - I'll have to remember that. Jeremy
  23. Gearhead
    Airbox mods are a good point. Not that you should NEED this to make is run right. Conversely, if there are TOO MANY extra holes in the airbox lid that can cause problems. These bikes in their stock state carb tune are very sensitive to the airbox configuration. If you remove the airbox lid and then start the engine, most find that the bike will idle but won't take any throttle. I have (4) 9/16" holes in my lid (airbox, that is) and I really don't think it made much difference one way or another. Jeremy
  24. Gearhead
    My Virago is an 87 1100, and I don't notice this either. My windshield is smaller, I'd call it mid-size. It does not have hand wings. I have floor boards mounted in the stock peg position, and looong homemade hiway pegs. When my feet are on the hiway pegs I notice air ramping up my legs and under my jacket, etc. I also wear a full-face helmet, so maybe I wouldn't notice it anyway. Jeremy
  25. Gearhead
    Never heard of high voltage on the primary winding before. Could there be an internal short between the windings? Jeremy
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