lonestarmedic

Bob- I have the entire southbound end of a northbound 1986 venture still hooked to a transmission and a frame. Let me know if anything might be useable. It rolls without any noise but this carcass was never on the street under its own power by me. JB

Manuals and the best site for the mini-wing. http://drop.io/CX500_GL500 This site is flakey. Goes up and down. http://choppercharles.com/cs/ The last link goes to a forum that has more info than you can read in one day. Watch the front of the motor. Water pump leaks to inside of motor. Gets ugly. Do the research and fix now before it's too late. Kinda like our early 1st Gen 2nd gear thing. It is not if but when. I have worked on a few of these. I do have the manuals on digits but they are big files. Oh, if you want to unload it let me know. Been looking for a Silverwing as a commuter bike. Solid little suckers that are a bit underpowered but thrifty on fuel. Fairing on a factory Silverwing is the same as a Goldwing. All parts fit. At least on the Interstate models. JB

Glad to hear you found another 1st Gen. You know where to find me if you need something. I do understand the other bike. I get the itch to get something different once in a while. However, the 1986 just keeps pulling me back. On lighter note, I spend a lot of time riding with my cousin now. He has a 2008 Electra-Glide. Although I can dust him when I want to, I will say we have run thousands of miles now side by side and that Harley hasn't missed a beat. Out on the highway, I think that his 6th gear is better than my 5th. He pulls about 4-5 mpg better on the highway. We get a lot of looks pulling up to his favorite watering holes! I am often the only non-Harley in the place. But, the commonality of 2 wheels always prevails. V-4s unite! JB

Ok- sniffing solder fumes and heat shrink tubing today. I think I will have about 10-12 sets. I am making them with an extra 14 gauge lead on the positive and negative. I have found a way to attach to the + side. When you open the main fuse holder, the bike side has a ring terminal and screw. The battery side has a blade for the quick detach. However, the blade is held on with the same screw system. So, remove the blade and put the new lead on like the other side. Problem solved. Better connection and less parts used. I will make the lead long enough to accomodate the length and put a ring terminal on. The (-) will still need solder or the Posi-Lock connector unless I can strip the harness on the 1986 parts bike and see where the ground ends up. Might be able to eliminate the quick-connect on that side also. I will have them finished and ready by mid-week. House-hunting keeps getting in the way. I think I can keep the price down to $40.00 shipped in the U.S. Gotta figure the snowback surcharge. Thanks for being patient on this folks. JB

Larry- I went through a lot of e-mails to Japan, Canada, and Germany to make sure that the size is correct. The sizes get mixed up in translation!!! Reiny Rooster has the correct items lined up for us. I know several members have purchased from Flea-bay and Canada with no problems. Make sure you get the diaphragm inner lip into the groove completely. JB

I applaude all of you for donating to Don and this site. I too believe it is well worth more than he is asking. However please consider this opposing point: Don does have a financially devastating disease. So have/do others on this site. I believe that others might feel slighted because no-one jumped up to put on a benefit for them. Please think carefully about how we might help more than 1 person with our efforts. My fire department used to have a fund created by yearly donations from the members If a member needed financial help, a set amount was given. This might not work here because it requires the appointment of a committee to oversee the money. It also requires rules for collecting and disbursing the funds. Thanks for reading my ideas, JB

So, I have been up and riding for the past week. I tore the muscles in the back of my right calf back in January. Had to stay off the bike until the first of March. Went for a short ride with SapperMedic a couple weeks ago. Found out that although healed up, the muscle got real stiff by the end of the day - kinda cramped up and needed large quantities of Grunt Candy (Motrin). So, I scaled back and stretched and waited. Got out today and managed about 100 miles without discomfort. Dang wind tried to lift me off the saddle today but it felt good. J.B.

Ok - I should get a couple sets made this week. Sorry for the delay. Been making big changes and decision in our lives. Decided to start house shopping and get out of the rental place. Started back on my RN degree treck. And been putting in all the overtime and comp. time possible. I think Skydock17 gets the 1st set. Once he puts them on, and lets me know how the installation went I will ramp up and make 10-12 sets. They will be less than $40.00 including flat rate shipping to the U.S. Who knows about the snowback clan. Will figure that out later. J.B.

My filter hides behind the lower spoiler (cowcatcher) pretty well. I have never seen a dent or ding in almost 20,000 miles. As to the Fram reptation, I used that number as a starting point. Choose the brand you like. I like NAPA Gold series and Baldwin. Never bothered with the fancy filters and the racing stuff. JB

Often available on e-bay for a bit cheaper than the Rivco. Both take a Fram PH3950 or equivalent. Don't go longer than the PH3950. Makes it difficult to remove. Been using one for a long time. Works great. Make sure the original gasket comes off with the old filter. If not, double gasket blowout and an oily mess at the very least. JB

Yup - been using them for a long time now. Never had a quality problem. I just made them send me engineering drawings to verify the thickness. Most ends are terribly thin and bend by hand. The ones they have should be a lot better. I have designed these cables with a pigtail for the ground and main fuse. I have picked up Posi-Lock splices to attach them to the factory wiring for those who don't have solder or crimp capability. Best way I could figure for a wrench only installation. I see my order was on the way today. JB

I am still waiting on the flag end terminals. Everything else is ready. Sorry to be picky. I just want the heavy ends so they don't bend or crack. They tell me my stuff should be here soon. I order from a place in Michigan. I am getting enough parts to make around 10 sets. JB

Rick - there is one hanging on the 1986 sitting out on the back porch. JB

Guess I will have to look closer when I take the steering apart again. I would have sworn that there was a taper just below the threads. Might be that it ends at a stepped area. Anyway, the "teeth" are not pronounce like a shake-proof washer. The edges right at the castellations are just very squared compared to the side against the rubber ring but they doo turn upward a tiny bit. I have a Furber fix washer waiting to be installed next time I get into the steering. I still cannot figure out how the upper nut came loose. The lower nut was not excessively loose. I did not have a clunk when moving the fork for and aft with the front off thhe ground. It just felt like it had too much slack. JB

Gearhead- I used a straight edge to check the "teeth" versus the tab washer. The teeth do protrude a touch higher then the flat of the washer. I had NOT been into the steering before this finding. I too put the stack back as per the manual. I too wonder about having the rubber on top and then torquing down the upper casting nut. The position of that casting can be effected by several things. As the stem is tapered, the casting needs down on the stem. Any change that raises the casting would cause it to be loose on the stem. Also, since the front of the casting clamps around the fork tubes tightening the clamps before torquing down the crown nut might cause a bind on the front forks. I set the tubes level and then torque the crown nut. Then I go from the axle up tightening and torquing the clamps etc. The last item I tighten is the fork brace. JB

I had to grind the slot about 1/4" or less on the left muffler to raise it level. My problem is the body of the muffler on the right side is almost 2" longer measured from the tab to the back tip of the muffler. Don't know what to say about MAC being the only game in town. The first set (rusted) were good on the length and vertical alignment. I think MAC is being chicken -fecal material on the grinding. How does relieving the bolt slot make the muffler too long! JB

Ok - How many have installed their MAC mufflers? I got mine with the last group purchase. They came in pre-rusted for me. Condor got them sent back for another set. The second set won't hang correctly. I had to die grind one slot (left) to get vertical alignment. It needed to go up. Would have rather ground the right to go down but there would not have been a slot left! Now as I look, the left muffler sticks out from under the bumper about an inch. The right is recessed under about the same. Maybe I am too picky. However I notice it when I look at the rear of the bike. Anyone else encounter problems or am I looking crooked? The stock mufflers fit perfect, I put them back on just to measure!! JB

If you look, the nuts have shall we call them "teeth" on the castellated corners. These need to contact the upper and lower castings. In stock configuration the lower nut is tightened and then the rubber washer is installed. Then the upper nut is hand tightened against the rubber. Not to the point that it distorts and squeezes out from in between the nuts but firm. Finally the locking ring is slid over the nuts. The upper nut may need to be rotated slightly to align the notches so the lock ring will fit. Then the upper casting is installed. The upper casing retainer nut is torqued down and in theory pushes the casting against those "teeth" preventing movement. Now, if the stack works as designed, the tension between the upper and lower castings locks the bearing nut in place. I myself found the upper nut loose and rattling around without any tension when I pulled my steering head apart. I bet my bearing preload was about 2 pounds!! As I did not have an aluminum Furber washer I re-insalled the stack factory style. I am going to re-torque the stack and install the Furber washer this week. The stock repair corrected a lot of stability problems but I am not satisfied. Many folks take the rubber washer and move it on top of the nuts. Then they torque the lower nut and use the upper as a locking jam nut. Then the rubber washer and lock ring become spacers. The folks with V-Maxes do this often. It seems to help. Good Luck JB

Earl- Place a dab of dielectric grease on your forehead and you will be ok. Here is an excerpt from an article on how to remove the reserve lighting device. I am putting it up because it shows where the magic volts run. Look for the various plugs and test for voltage. I have seen one of these die and leave a bike without a headlight. Also, as folks have mentioned find the circuit on the start switch and check it our headlight is shut off by the start switch to momentarily reduce the load on the battery during cranking. When I get home this evening I will try and find which color wires you can check. In the meantime take a look at this article. I wish I could remember who wrote it so I could give credit. How to remove your Reserve Lighting Unit and still have proper headlight operation Yamaha included a silly device called a Reserve Lighting Unit that will automatically switch your headlight to Hi-beam if your lo-beam burns out. It also lights up an idiot light to tell you that your headlight is out. If this unit fails you won't have either lo-beam or hi-beam and your idiot light won't even work. Look at the connector in the wiring harness and find the blue/black and blue/yellow wires. Strip a small section of insulation from those two wires and twist them together and solder. Or, if you are serious about this, just cut the wires right off the connector and splice the blue/black to the blue/yellow. Now you have headlights again. The indicator for the high beam has two wires coming from it, a r/y and y. (red/yellow and yellow) the r/y goes to a 9 pin plug. The yellow goes to the connector where the RSU was. The easiest fix is: before cutting the rest of the wires from the connector (other than the ones you are going to short together to bypass the RSU), connect the yellow/green to the yellow ( I built a jumper from the old wires). Then remove the r/y wire on the lamp side of the 9 pin connector, and connect it to the black wire in the middle of the 9 pin connector. (Ground). Originally, the yellow wire was pulled low by the RSU to indicate high beam. If you are very technical, you could build a transistor switch (called an invertor) to do the same, but the wire fix is simple enough. The indicator is actually a bit brighter than the original. BTW, the Venture Royale has a 'computer monitor' that also tells you if your headlight is burned out. The reserve lighting unit is self checking the system for an open circuit (infinite resistance) in the headlight bulb by comparing voltage on opposing circuits. If you have excessive voltage drop due to a higher than normal resistance between the headlight and the reserve lighting unit the light should start to glow because the reserve lighting unit is essentially reading a partial failure. Pay special attention to the high/low beam switch. In many older bikes (even very clean ones in good condition) corrosion builds up over time on the internal contacts of the switches. Start with the switch. Take a fine grit sand paper or emery cloth to the contact surfaces. You do not want to take away any significant material but you do want to make these surfaces bright and shiny once again. Apply a light coat of dielectric grease to the contact surfaces. Reassemble the switch and test the continuity of the contacts through the switch's multi pin connector. Ideally your readings should be under .2 ohms but up to .5 ohms is acceptable. Then clean and reapply dielectric grease to the multi pin connectors at the headlight and at the reserve lighting unit and the switch. Re-test the continuity of the switch contacts by testing the circuit from the headlight connector to the reserve lighting connector. The reading for the entire circuit will ideally be less than .5 ohms but acceptable up to .9 ohms. Then connect the reserve lighting unit and the headlight. Retest the contacts of the switch by probing the back of the multi pin connectors at the reserve lighting unit and the headlight connector with your meter set on VDC. This is looking for a voltage drop. The voltage drop must be less than 1.0VDC. Test battery voltage. Then test the connector at the headlight with the meter set on VDC and the negative meter lead on frame ground. The voltage at the headlight should be no less than 1.0VDC less than battery voltage. If it is then you are having too much resistance due to corrosion at your connectors and switches beyond the reserve lighting unit ... clean contacts and retest until you can bring resistance and voltage drop level into specifications.

Hey- I took a look and I think my 1986 has spare carbs. About 3 of them. If you would like I can unhook one from the storage bracket between the 2 Cylinders of my V-Twin Venture and mail one up to you. I am sure that my uneven fire engine only needs one of them to feed both cylinders. I think I might have the high performance model though. I seem to have 2 spark plugs per cylinder - kinda like my old dirt bike. JB Who needs Boomer to put a really good tag line here!

I currently have 52,000 miles on my 1986. I keep it in a good state of tune. I get 40-42 U.S. miles per gallon in the city and 46 on the highway at 70-75 mph. These figures are with about 60 lbs of luggage and one person. With 2 people and about the same luggage I get about 38-40 mpg at 45-50 mph. I get about 33-35 mpg. with 2 people at 70 mph. Now, if you get a bit heavy on the throttle, you will see a dramatic drop above 75 mph. At 85 mph I get about 34-35 mpg running one up. At just under triple digits I drop under 27 mpg. Go above 6000 in 5th and you don't need to be watching mpg!!! JB

Get Brand and model number of radio. Possible to check via Mfg. website or installer harnesses. Colors listed are usually correct. Check the 1st Gen wires. There are 2 fuses (ATC) for the radio. Same fuses supply the CB power. So, does CB turn on if ignition is in acc. or on position? Look for noise filter forward of the Am/Fm radio position below the LH speaker. It has 2 sets of wires. One set hot all the time (memory) and one set hot on ign. switch. JB

The new 660 is a nice wide screen GPS. Has a lot of new features. However when looking at the price remember that it has no XM capability. This may not be an issue for a lot of users. Lack of XM capability did keep the price down. Now, with that in mind I bet that the price of the 550 will not fall dramatically for a new unit. The 450 will probably drop like a big rock! JB

I will be making a few sets as needed. Right now I am awaiting the flag style terminals for the battery end. I didn't like the thickness of the local stuff. Probably have them by the end of the week. Once in I am going to make a set and figure a time and materials price. Also want to put up a couple pictures. Don't know what most folks want/need for the accessory wires. I have picked up Posi-Lock splices as a good possibility. Some folks may just want bare wire and do their own soldering. I plan on offering the positive from the battery, the positive from the solenoid, and the ground. They will be constructed of 4 gauge battery/welding cable (should be fairly flexible) and plated copper ends. I hope to keep the price to the original $35.00 mark that TupperJ had. I will know when I see the shipping charges. Sorry if I missed a PM. My laptop went on a bit of a vacation a couple weeks ago. JB

You can go to wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapper#U.S._Army for a history. It is one of only 4 rockers allowed above the unit patch in the Army. A sapper is a special army engineer that goes with the forward infantry and inital invasion or manouver. The sapper clears minefields, builds roads and bridges, and prepares the way for the rest of the troups. So, a Sapper Medic is one who not only maintains their skills in the medical field but has also been trained in specialized engineering tasks, land navigation, and a host of other skills. JB