Flyinfool

Odds are your clutch is just fine, it is the spring that goes kaput. The spring dying is an age thing unrelated to miles driven. Skydoc_17 in the member classifieds sells a stronger spring and also sells the parts to replace the half friction disc with a full disk to get even more grip, as does a few other places. Don't forget to order the gasket with it. If your bike has a good lean while on the side stand the clutch spring can be replaced with no loss of oil. If you look at the Barnett setup, be sure to get the heavy duty springs and not the standard springs.

Well here are a few pics to wet your appetite. It sure does not look a lot different from when I started, but there is a lot of time wrapped up in it already, most was filling and sanding and the early parts of paint prep. The pulse jet is just temporarily mounted to get a rough idea on where the CG is headed. It looks like everything needs to be as far forward as it can go and I will still need a lot of lead in the nose. This also means that there is no reason to skimp on any structure up front. @cowpuc

How big of chunks are we talking about here? Bob, unless he has one of those special copper magnets....................

The most logical place to have tied the wires together is near the side stand switch. But since you say the the side stand indicator on the dash is working correctly then it is unlikely that someone tied the 3 wires together. Try this, at the connector where the side stand relay is supposed to be, connect a temporary jumper wire from the black wire to the black/white wire. This should prevent the bike from starting and it should kill the bike if it is already running. This will prove out that half of the circuit is or is not working correctly. Try unplugging the side stand switch connector, the bike should not run. if the bike does run with the switch unplugged, then you have an issue with the blue/yellow wire that will have to be tracked down.

The MK1 and MK2 hitches are not interchangeable. Different frame dimensions and mounting points on the rear of the bikes. $400-500 is also ridiculous. For a new hitch.... http://www.motorcycle-hitch.com/Yamaha.html They come up fairly often on ebay. Just watch close to be sure all of the parts are there. Sometimes when they remove it from the bike they do not take off all of the brackets to include in the sale, and sometimes the intentionally break up the parts into separate sales. When I bought my hitch there were sever sellers that had broken the hitch into separate auctions, boy were they all POed when I bought some parts from each of them, now they were left with incomplete hitches that would be almost impossible to sell.

When you say shavings, are you talking visible chunks or just ultra fine particles like iron dust? My understanding of the 2nd gear issue is that there is a washer that is not hard enough and it will wear. That wear will show up as iron dust on the magnet. If you have visible chunks, it might be time to worry.

It might even tell you where it is in the owners manual or service manual, It does in the 1st gen manuals.

Price is going up quick, it is already up to $30 + $9 for the safety strap.

Unfortunately the place I got my HID from (HID Country) started out as a great place,I bought 7 HIDs from them for various vehicles and they were all great. But they went down hill and changed to all China systems and started ripping people off till they went out of business, reopened under a new name but kept the poor practices and shoddy Chinese junk and again went out of business. Not sure if they have again reopened or not under another new name. Really a shame, they originally had great stuff. I did some research and it looks like they are open now as The Light Pros. I have no info on this new place good or bad. Only that when I entered the HID Country web address this place is what opened.

Unfortunately the place I got my HID from (HID Country) started out as a great place,I bought 7 HIDs from them for various vehicles and they were all great. But they went down hill and changed to all China systems and started ripping people off till they went out of business, reopened under a new name but kept the poor practices and shoddy Chinese junk and again went out of business. Not sure if they have again reopened or not under another new name. Really a shame, they originally had great stuff.

A lot of those LED adds still bother me. When they list the amp draw as a nice small number, and then list the wattage as a big number because many people equate wattage with brightness, but the numbers do not add up. One place they say 2200 lumens per bulb and another says 4000 per bulb. They say there are 3 LEDs per bulb, the LED that they are using draws 1.2A each, so 3.6A per bulb, The LED outputs light at 120° but they claim 360° beam pattern, yet the picture shows the 3 LEDs all in a row pointed the same direction mounted in a metal heatsink, Last I checked Scotty has not yet given us the formula for "transparent aluminum", for the light to shine 360° thru the heatsink. And now with telling you it is shipped, and then later telling you that it is not in stock. That seller is raising red flags. For those interested in all the technical dodo here is the data sheet for the LED chip they claim to be using. When a LED bulb supplier tells me which LED chip they are using, I always look up the specs. If the math don't work, then I have a hard time trusting the parts of their claims that I can not check out. The LED technology does exist today to equal and possibly exceed the output of a HID system. But I doubt that it will be found first in the bottom end of the price spectrum. I am hoping the LEDs actually do get as good or better than HID, before my 6 year old HID burns out. They are getting real close.

A new plate is 3mm (.1181 inch) thick. The wear limit is 2.8mm (.1102 inch) thick. Not much difference from new to worn out.

Mama, bring your tent stakes................

I am another one that never touches the petcock. With a full tank of fuel the fuel level will be above the float level in the carbs, So if the pump and float valves fail it could allow gas to drain thru the carbs. the overflows should let the gas drain out on the floor before overflowing into the engine. I would really hate to turn that thing, crack it without noticing the crack (because they are soooo easy to turn) and then have it fall apart on the road and leave me stranded with no gas and a tank that will not hold gas.

I find it interesting that these are aluminum slides with a hard anodize coating, the OEM are plastic. Hard anodize is really hard and abrasive, I would worry about wear to the bore in the carb body. Gas is a lousy lubricant. Being a different material I think you would want to replace all 4 as a set, just so they are all the same weight and all the same diaphragm characteristics, and then should all have the same response time. The ebay add does say that there have been 53 sold, so someone has tried them.

All bikes are welcome, this is about the people not the bike. If it is not a venture, you may have to put up with some good natured ribbing.

Congrats! Let the fun begin.

I broke that same bone in my right hand, I was still a kid and broke it doing something stupid that I was not supposed to be doing, had I told parents I prolly would have had other broken bones from them...... It eventually healed, even though a bit crooked. The good thing was I learned to be ambidextrous and still am, always looking for the silver lining.

I seem to remember something about Barnett having 2 different springs for your bike, you want the heavier ones not the standard ones.

It is pretty common to get the stackup wrong when you put it back together. Make sure that the parts are not 180° out of phase. There is only one correct way to put it in but there are 2 ways it can be put in.

So how do you have the phone mounted to the handlebar, I was looking for a way to mount mine. None of the ways that I have looked at look secure, If the phone were to hit the road at 75 MPH there would not be enough left of it to bother stopping to look for it. It is built in to all newer smart phones that are running android. you may have to turn it on and do some setup, and give it permission to do what you ask, but it is there.

Describe acting like metal on metal, I have never had brakes metal on metal.........yet.

How old are your spark plugs. These bikes really like fresh plugs.

My bike is always ready willing and able. I have started it in as low as 10°F. It took full choke and 3 seconds on the starter instead of the half choke and split second on the starter it takes in the summer. My bike will not start with no choke unless it is over 100°F, or the engine is still warm from riding.

Beautiful, absolutely beautiful...............