BlueSky

This thread prompted me to look on craigslist to see what was for sale. One pro mechanic is retired and in bad health and is selling all the tools in his garage which includes one of those snapon huge double chests full of tools as well as many other things in his garage. Price $20,000 Another guy is selling one of those 56" long Matco tool boxes empty. Price $6,000 Seems to me the prices are a little high but that's just me. They probably spent that much and more when they bought it but still... The harbor freight US General box that size which gets great reviews is less than $800.

My faovorite color! Congrats!

Now I hate tankless hot water heaters even more after hearing what you paid. There was one in an apt I rented in SC. When taking a shower, the hot water demand wasn't high enough to keep the thing on so the shower water would go cold. I had to turn on the hot water at the sink while taking a shower to increase the demand enough to keep the silly thing on. I recently replaced the hot water heater in my home. The 50 gallon heater cost just over $400 at Home Depot and I installed it myself for about $25 in materials.

One thing to look for is rust pitting on the front forks. If they are pitted fork seals may not be able to seal. Now I do remember that one of the rear shocks on my ZN700 had some evidence of leakage so I replaced them both. I went to the on line Progressive catalog and selected some that had the correct length, eye size, and springs. On some bikes they list shocks for that model but my bike was too old and/or too rare so I had to figure out what fit.

I bought my 85 ZN700 with 1k miles on it in 2009. The PO died. His 50ish nephew tried to get it running and keep it but gave up. I think he attempted to clean the carbs. Then I bought it. It was running ragged on 3 cylinders. I put a bottle of Valvoline Fuel Injection Cleaner in a tank and ran it through. It then ran smooth on 3 cylinders. After checking spark to the plugs, I removed the carbs and cleaned them but they were already fairly clean. Then I finally realized one of the original plugs was dead. New plugs and it ran great. If you are the one starting it for the first time in many years, perhaps you could spin the engine on the starter a few times hopefully getting some oil up to the valve train before firing it up. Maybe even squirt a bit of oil into the spark plug holes before spinning it. My bike was a great buy in my opinion and has been reliable so far. The biggest repairs have been stuff like fork seals and the speedo cable broke. Nothing serious. 74hp in a 500 lb bike makes it a blast to ride around town.

I live in a hurricane zone actually part of Wilmington NC but not officially within the city limits. Snow is a rare event. When a hurricane strikes the east coast, it almost always comes to Wilmington. So, we have to deal with those storms. being close to the city, the power lines are underground. that combined with the fact that priority is given to the cities with their concentration of people and traffic lights the power is restored within a day or two when a storm comes our way. But, I also bought a generator to power the lights and refrigerator and I use my propane camp stove to cook food. People who live in the country where the power lines are above ground often go without power for a couple of weeks. I would definitely have a larger back up power system if I lived in the country cuz I'm getting old and I don't like to be inconvenienced. Okay, I'm a crabby old coot! LOL!

This kind of cold in Texas is so rare that they were not prepared for it and they had problems with all of their different kinds of generating plants. One nuclear unit shut down due to something freezing but it is back up. Many fossil fuel plants shut down but most are back on line. The majority of the wind generators are still off line. I think I heard on tv that due to the warmer weather in Texas, theirs does not have the capacity to deice the blades. I'll be interested to see the final report on what caused all the loss of power. Our modern civilization does not exist without electrical power. For the record, I spent my engineering career working on nuclear power plants and I think the country made a mistake not pursuing more nuke generators. No carbon dioxide coming from nukes. About 70% of France's elec power comes from nukes because they didn't want to spend their money buying coal and gas from other countries.

Search this venturerider site. One of the members whom I can't remember his name rebuilds these shocks. A new one is available here. https://www.partzilla.com/catalog/yamaha/motorcycle/2005/royal-star-tour-deluxe-xvz13ctt/rear-suspension

Geez, how much fun can you have? Right! Man, they should have given you a good dose of demerol. I had a couple of injections of demerol way back when the doc set some bones. I could still feel the pain, but I didn't care! That was some good shxt!

really basic stuff

Any oil that meets the JASO spec for motorcycles with wet clutches. Many riders use Rotella because of it's price.

Skydoc is recovering from surgery. He may not be able to help you at this time. I don't know.

PrairieHammer was the person collecting the info and it was just announced on the forum that sadly he has passed.

I would also pour a can of seafoam in the gas tank, or a bottle of Gumout with PEA to start some carb cleaning.

Just wild guessing, I suspect it's running on 3 cylinders.

Yep, governments reducing tax revenue is a rare event indeed. Reducing spending never happens. Okay, the latest in my covid saga is that my wife went back to work a couple months ago to an office where many other people work. One guy's wife caught the virus. Now, another guy has it. She was feeling poorly all weekend and is feeling worse today and is going to be tested as we speak. Crapola!

I don't know how they make the vaccine now but I think back then, they injected you with a "dead" or "weakened" virus. Anyhow, I'm convinced the vaccine gave me that terrible bout of the flu back then. Mistakes are made. It's that simple. I did get the first Pfizer vaccine yesterday. Seems to be going okay so far.

My county has been getting sporadic doses of the covid vaccine. The priority 1B folks (over 75) are eligible now and I called when I was noified a week or so ago and couldn't get through until all of it was gone. Today I was able to schedule a shot for this Sunday through the hospital's web site. It's going to be the Pfizer vaccine. Hope it works. The last flu shot I got over 30 years ago gave me the worst case of the flu I could have ever imagined about 3 weeks after the shot....

My wife is a big believer in taking supplements. And she has convinced me. I'm taking several, one of which is Turmeric for my arthritis twice daily and glucosamine chondrointin once a day. I'm convinced the Turmeric helps. Twice a week I'm also taking a mulitvitamin, zinc, selenium, vitamins C, D, B, garlic, fish oil, and CoQ10 along with several prescribed meds for ailments. I remember when I was 50 and didn't take any meds... At 76, it seems to take a lot. All these modern meds prolong life but the side effects are so bad, you wish you were dead!

The upper line is a vent and does not need to be connected to anything. I haven't used mine on my Venture but I think the bottom line should be connected to the suction side of the fuel pump. I have used mine on my Kawasaki but it doesn't have a fuel pump.

Yep, I use only ethanol free gasoline in my motorcycles, boat, and lawn tools. I also mix gumout with PEA with the gasoline for those engines. It helps. My wife will only buy ethanol free premium for her hot rod 325hp EX37 Infiniti. I'm too cheap for that. I use the ethanol gas in my car and truck.

Yep, my Kawa ZN700 4 carbs will plug up really quick from sitting. I use gumout in the fuel a lot and try not to let it sit for more than a couple weeks without running it.

Use one of these to check the level while astride the bike holding it upright. If the level is too low or too high you can lean the bike to one side or the other until you see it. https://www.zoro.com/ullman-inspection-mirror-replacement-3-12inl-k-2r/i/G9992297/feature-product?utm_source=google&utm_medium=surfaces&utm_campaign=shopping feed&utm_content=free google shopping clicks&gclid=CjwKCAiAouD_BRBIEiwALhJH6F10mR-RE4w7PS9rN_gNtoEUVuzbu8gNIYVi617-TvjAO-lNlHaa-hoC4vYQAvD_BwE

Well, my 81 yr old sister came home or rather to her daughter's home today with an oxygen bottle so hopefully she will survive this virus. She didn't have any major health issues before. Her daughter and her husband have already recovered from the virus.

I'm not sure you can believe the reporting from many countries. The USA is over reporting the covid cases and many countries are underreporting. If India loses a few million old people, they might be happy about it. Same with China. China has a big problem in that their one child policy has resulted in relatively few workers to support the old people in retirement. If they lost a few million old people I'm sure the communist leaders would be happy about it.