Flyinfool

When you changed the oil, did you drain it on the center stand the side stand or a lift? Did you drain the transmission? Most of us do not drain the trans unless you are flushing out a problem like water or gas in the oil, but the oil left in the transmission will require less oil for the refill. Mine always takes a bit less than 3.5 quarts.

Morgan Carb Tune. http://www.carbtune.com/

I check mine once a year, have not had to touch them since I set them 5 years ago.

If you have not messed with anything then it is not likely that the sync would change in just 3 months. But it no big deal to check it at any time.

The guy that explained all of this to you, DO NOT EVER LET HIM TOUCH YOUR BIKE! Might not want to even let him look at it.

6 Months is not so bad. Up here in the land of the SNOW machine it is normal for a bike to sit for 6 months at a a time. When I went thru my heart issues the bike got put up early in October, Never had a chance to do any PM on it for storage and was not able to ride it again until September of the following year. It sat for 11 months with a half tank of crap gas and no treatments in it. It ran a bit ratty for the first couple tanks of gas but it did run and the Seafoam did clean it out. 2 Months later I had to put it to bed for the winter again. Get a battery and some Seafoam in there and crank it up.

There is a whole bunch of them dragging trailers big and small all over the country with no issues.

A battery ttender and a battery charger are two different things. A tender is only to maintain the charge of an already fully charged battery. There are some tenders that also have a charger built in and can do both functions. I would not rely on an single light on any charger or tender or anything else to tell me if there are issues with the charging system. Your best is to install a digital voltmeter to monitor the system. As long as it stays over 13.5 while riding (it may drop lower while stopped at idle) all is good with the charging system. If it drops to less than 13.5 while riding, you either have to much stuff turned on to where the charging system can not keep up with demand, or there is a problem with the charging system. Either way you know that you are not charging and can take proper action before you are left stranded.

The oil level is measured with the springs out and the fork tube fully compressed. You are correct that the more oil you put in effectively increases the spring rate because of the air being compressed. That is why oil level is part of the tuning process. The oil level is adjusting the strength of the front springs. Hydro locking the front forks would not be fun......................

Volumetric efficiency is not usually calculated unless you have some really fancy software. It is normally measured. It is easy to calculate the theoretical flow at 100% efficiency. Displacement in cubic feet X RPM ÷ 2. You will only ever hit 100% flow if you have some kind of forced induction like a turbo or super charger. Yes it is possible to get better than 100% flow naturally aspirated with some highly tuned systems but we don't have those. A realistic Volumetric efficiency for a V-Max is probably close to 90% and closer to 80% on a Venture, these are purely guesses on my part.

Dirty connections is also a common culprit. Check both ground and positive sides, both ends of each cable. You can narrow it down pretty quickly with a voltmeter.

And as for the oil weight and amount to add, that is part of the tuning the front suspension to your preferences and riding style. That is what I am going thru now. Tweaking to get it to feel the way I want it to feel. Since I never rode a new bike I do not know what it is "supposed" to feel like, Others ride much more aggressively than I do so they may want a slightly different setup, same as others that ride less aggressively than me will also want a different setup. It also matters what kind of roads you have. Wisconsin has the 2nd worst roads in the country. Connecticut is the worst. What I call smooth roads is what others call off roading. In fact there are dirt logging roads that are better than some of our highways. So I do not think there is any one right answer as to how to set up the front end.

The special tool for getting pins out is nothing more than a piece of tubing, that slides over the pin to depress the locking tab, mounted in a pretty, and easy to hold handle. I have often used a very tiny jewelers screwdriver to reach in and depress the locking tab to remove the pin. It is not nearly as fast or elegant as the tool, especially in tight places, but then I am not taking pins out for a living where time matters. You have to look closely at the pin and socket to figure out how they are held in, once you see and understand the system it is simple to release it. Ahhh, Dielectric Grease. This subject is closely related to oil, tires, politics and religion when it comes to discussions. But I will toss in my 2¢ anyhow. Dielectric grease is supposed to be an insulator, It is an insulator at both low and high voltages, That much we can agree on, that is also why it works in connectors. It was invented and made to be put into connectors to keep water and air out. Dielectric grease does not add anything to a connection, but then it also does not degrade anything from that same connection either. What it does do is keep air and water away from the connection so that corrosion can not get started. It does nothing to help an already corroded or otherwise bad connection. The use of dielectric grease in a connector requires that the connector is already capable of making a good connection. IF the application of dielectric grease does degrade the connection then there were already other issues with that connection. Dielectric grease is very thin and a good connection will push it out of the way and still be an equally good connection but now sealed against air and water intrusion. I doubt anyone on this site can show me a case where they can even measure an increased voltage drop or increased resistance from using Dielectric grease on one of our bike connectors that is already clean and making a good connection. Now come back in 5 years of being out in the weather and road dirt and salt spray if you got close to the ocean, and make that same measurement and see which connector held up better. Of course there are applications where dielectric grease is not the appropriate thing to use and would be very bad to use. Our multi pin connectors are one of the places dielectric grease should be used. The only places it should not be used on our bikes is on the switch contacts of high power switches like the inside of relays and inside of the solenoid were arcing during make or break is likely, but those are generally sealed and you can not put it there anyhow. There are "conductive greases" available, actually the grease is still an insulator, but they add powdered metals to add some conductivity, You do NOT want to use conductive grease in your multi pin connectors since it just takes a smear or fingerprint of it in the wrong place to short things out and if it is not the correct type for the specific connection it can make things worse than using nothing at all. If dielectric grease was so bad in a connector, why is it used in aircraft connectors, Why is it used by every auto maker, Why is it used in marine connectors? Surely that many engineers cant all be wrong, or can they? Here is some good reading on dielectric grease myths.

If you can not find the 4 way, there are a few ways to fix it. 1. It looks like it is either plated brass or steel. If so you could sleeve it inside with a piece of thin wall brass tube and solder/braze it all back together. 2. Find or make/modify a fitting to fit into the carb body and add tubing and Tees to make it all work. 3. If you wanted to get fancy, you could solder/braze/weld up a new 4 way out of 3 fittings.

Man that is scary. Glad you 2 are both pretty much OK after you both spilled. Bikes are a lot easier to fix than bodies. So are you going to buy her a really good helmet for this day forward?

Nice work Gary. It is obvious that you need to keep all the pizza and beer to yourself so that she does not backfire anymore.................

Some things to check on the trailer you are looking at. Tire wear, be sure that the wear pattern is even across the thread. towin or towout will wear the tires quickly. Tire date code. Tires more than 7 years old are in need of replacement. Make sure all of the lights work.

There is no better ground than direct to the battery. Are you sure the battery terminals are clean? Looking clean is not good enough. If direct to the battery does not fix the dimming then there is a bad contact in the power side somewhere between the battery and the bulb. If it is still dimming then the power source is in question, in this case the battery and/or the charging system are not capable of supplying enough power to operate everything that is connected and turned on.

There has been all great advise above. And most of my thoughts are already spelled out. I had the opportunity to buy the company that I worked for really cheap back when I was in my 30s and single with no responsibilities to anyone other than my self. To this day I still keep kicking myself for not taking the chance. You will never know for sure if you have the right stuff if you never try. One of the big points is to have legal help to be sure you are protected in the future, best of friends do not always remain best of friends once they become partners. I have seen it with to many of my friends. No such thing as an agreement if it is not in writing. This is a business and no longer a friendship. You have to treat it that way. Not to say that you can no longer be friends with your friend, but treating business as business will maximize the chances of remaining friends. Verbal agreements always are remembered differently over time. The words on a paper do not change with time. My sisters hubby along with a partner worked at an auto repair shop right out of high school. They were of good character that just could not go along with the shop owners requirement that the bill be padded with unneeded parts as often as possible. You know the cheap easy stuff like air filters and PCV valves. The 2 of them started their own shop and made the reputation of not being the cheapest place around, but the bill was low because they made a real effort to reuse any part that could be safely reused, even if it made the job a bit more difficult for them. If they knew a customer had money issues they would patch something up for cheap but make sure that the customer knew it was a temporary fix to get by till they could fix it right. AND ONLY replace parts that really need replacing. That alone accounted for a huge amount of word of mouth advertising that made them so busy they had to turn work away at times. I wish you the best of for which ever road you choose.

You let them get that close, and behind you, and with a sharp object???????

If it is just for clearance of the clutch spring, then maybe I can make it work. Now I have to wonder, I was planning to cut the middle of it out to put in a window so a clutch spring clearance issue may go away. I have an early 85 disassembled engine sitting in the basement with a bad 2nd gear.

Go get it done. I fully understand the pride of a job well done my me over just writing the check. I have done many projects where I was criticized because I could have just gone out and bought it. But then you miss the fun and accomplishment of doing it yourself.

Does anyone know if the clutch cover from an 85 will fit onto my 88? The part numbers are similar the '85 is 26H-15431-01-00 and the '88 is 1NL-15341-00-00. I do not care about the markings or emblems, just the mechanical fit.

I am pretty sure that the damage was done here. http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?123748-How-bad-do-I-need-choke-to-start-Choke-plungers-are-stuck-and-2-studs-broken&p=984953#post984953 For gluing or the aluminum solder I would not grind the V. The but joint of broken edges is giving you alignment and if you are going to wrap the joint the but joint is just a tack, the more rough edges you glue the better the alignment will be. Most readily available nuts that big will have a fairly coarse thread, I would be worried about the depth of the thread weakening the boss even more and having it snap off right at the base. Hey Bonehead......... (well you asked me to.......) You were right the first time, TIG will have a much smaller heat affected zone than using a torch for the soldering. The nearby seals will be much happier with TIG. With TIG the heat is concentrated to just the point of the arc, the torch flame will be heating a 3 to 4 inch diameter area. The TIG melts the metal almost instantly compared to having to hold the flame there for quite a while to get up to temp. The paint and the crayon are the same stuff, the paint is a little cheaper than the crayon. Here is the equivalent 900° crayon. Again I am sure this is available in Finland. It might even be a good idea to get a second heat indicator maybe around 300°F to put by the nearest heat sensitive point, like a gasket or a seal. So that you can tell if the whole case is getting to hot where it might damage something else. You would know when to stop and let things cool down.

A Dremel tool will be good for small parts and details, for the bigger flat areas it would work much better with a bench mounted buffing wheel.