Flyinfool

Start by cleaning the battery pos and ground connections. Then we can get into more detail.

It could be a temperature sensitive component in a module. It could be a loose connection that is getting hot and when it gets hot and expands it breaks the connection until it cools off. The bad part is that it is nearly impossible to find it when it is running perfectly. You have to catch it in the act. You have to find the way to make it malfunction so that you can find where the fault is.

It looks like you may have the dreaded electrical intermittent. Unfortunately, as long as it is running there is no way to find the fault. The best you can do is to start it up and then start jiggling wires till you find the one that kills it.

I am not sure where the difference comes in between the 1st and 2nd gen, but it is well documented the the 2nd gen has to much rear brake and the 1st gen even delinked does not have enough rear brake. It may just be the difference in the geometry of the brake peddle and riding position that gives you a lot more leverage on the brake peddle, but the difference is there. The fix for a delinked 1st gen and the fix for a 2nd gen are very different and doing the wrong fix could be dangerous.

Yes the 2nd gen has its own rear brake issues, BUT the OP is trying to figure out his 1st gen rear brake. The 1st and 2nd gens are very different as far as rear brakes are concerned.

Back to the beginning. When it is cranking but not starting, is there power on the red/black wire at the ignition coils? At one point you did not have power and then you did. Is there power on the red/white wire at the 6 pin connector on the TCI? If you can get to it?

Yes those look like the load resistors for the LED turn signals.

I KNOW WHERE HE LIIiivs.....................

Yes the 2nd gens have to much rear brake and it is real easy to lock it up so many people use organic pads to get less rear brake. The first gens have weaker rear brake so you need to use a more aggressive brake pad to get good braking on the rear. When it comes to the rear brake the 1st and 2nd gens are opposites and have no similarity.

A few things that you mentioned. There are several brands of spark plugs, replace them all with the proper NGK plugs. The recommended plugs work great and are cheap. You mentioned running with the air filter removed. These bikes run absolutely terrible if the air filter is removed or even the cover off or loose some have tried to drill some holes in the air filter housing to let in more air and ended up taping the holes shut because it made the bike run bad. It is not uncommon for someone new to the venture to be running on just 3 cylinders and never know it. they run really well on 3, just the MPG and power will be a bit down, but if you do not know what is normal for these bikes you might not notice that it is a bit off.

I finally got my saddle bag lids painted and cleared this weekend, Now I just have to replace the hardware and the bike will be ready to put up for sale.

What brake pads do you have. The HH do have a lot more grip. I have to hit the rear really hard to get lock up, but you really do not want to lock brakes on a bike. I played with the peddle height to get the rear braking to be just shy of lock up. I have to make an effort to get lock, so that I am unlikely to lock the rear in a panic stop.

I have delinked my 88 and went with all SS lines from Skydoc_17. The stock linked brakes were really bad for where I drive. I have to drive on pavement with a LOT of loose gravel on it. With the linked brakes there was no way to stop without locking the front tire and risk going down. I completely removed the proportioning valve and plugged the Master where the line goes to the front. I put on HH pads all around. The rear is capable of locking the rear tire if you really stand on it. You can not get more braking power in the rear than that. You do have to make both front brakes work with the front master or the total braking power will be really bad.

I was playing with converting my 1st gen to EFI. http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?128079-EFI-for-the-Ventures

Some people should be slapped when they even look at a wire......... Can you post a pic of the heat sink you are referring to? If it is the load resistor, there should be 2 of them, If there is only one then it is something else.

You are less likely to need a tip over switch on a trike, but we also have several members that have gotten their trikes shinny side down. If you manage to flip it you will want it to shut down.

You already identified a fault. might as well keep chasing what you know to be an issue. No power on the red/black wire at the coils. The red black wire gets its power thru the kill switch Via the red/white wire. The red/black wire is not powered by the Starter relay, the red black wire is providing power TO the starter relay. I would check the kill switch to see if there is power on the red white wire at all times when the ignition is on. Cycling the kill switch should then cycle power to the red/black wire. And since it is at the other end of the red/black wire the power at that one coil that you can get to should also cycle with the kill switch. You may have bad or dirty contacts in the kill switch. Once we know if the kill switch is good, that will tell us which direction to head from there for additional testing.

Just for you........

It would be a lot easier to just buy a new one. http://www.motorcycle-hitch.com/Yamaha.html They also come up on ebay fairly often.

Servant, Oh heck no, That is just how we work together. I do what I do well and she does what she does well. You obviously have never been in my basement............

At least when I have to cut holes in walls or ceilings, Cleaning is NOT part of my job description........... It is my job to make the unholy mess and install the cool new features......... Great if you can get away with it:duck:

Sounds like it may be time to play LED wars. Connect some LEDs to the circuits that can cause an issue and you will see the led flicker whenever that circuit is malfunctioning. Sometimes that is the only way to catch an intermittent issue. But this sounds like more of a continuous issue now. You need to start checking for power where there should be power and ground where there should be a ground. You can do the check for spark as a start to verify the it is an electrical issue you are chasing. Your assumption that the grounds are good because the starter spins good is in error. The starter has its own ground path and everything else uses another ground path thru another wire. Somewhere near the battery is another black wire that is smaller than the one for the starter, that wire has a one pin connector on it. You will want to verify that ground. You will have to verify the the TCI has both good power and a good ground.

Yes their is a tip over switch. I suppose that it is possible that a high G quick turn could fool it into thinking the bike fell over? But I think it is supposed to be a self resetting switch, so as soon as the side load is gone it should turn the ignition back on.

IIRC @Freebird posted his plans somewhere for adding a center stand to a 2nd gen. He used to sell a kit.

I do not think that they went to make it hard to check. They went for accurate. On the side stand every bike will have a different lean, resulting in different oil levels way at the outside of the engine. Lean angle will be affected by tires, different brands and models have slight differences in diameter, Tire pressure has a big impact on lean angle, Suspension settings have a huge impact on lean angle, slope of the ground will also make a big difference. add them all up and there is probable a possible difference of a half a quart. On the other hand, vertical is always vertical and is a repeatable consistent reference point. Besides, they took that engine crankcase from a bike that has a center stand to make vertical easy. It would have cost a lot to change the method of checking the oil.