LukeMacPU

Got a chance to do a little work today when I got home from work. Drained old gas, put in about a gallon of fresh. Drained the oil and replaced with new. Figured I try to start it and see if it fired... Turns out my starter is not working well enough to get it going. With battery charged and booster attached, it still would barely turn over. Voltage dropped when trying from 12 (middle of gauge) to 8 in the red. I tried using a jumper cable to go directly to post on starter and it still wouldn't turn over. Sounded just like when I pushed the starter button. The guy I got the bike from said starter was problem for him before he quit riding it, I just didn't think it would be that bad. I've read you can make a big improvement in some cases just by cleaning the internals of the old starter. I plan to attempt that and bench test it. Anyone have much luck with the re-build kits that are being sold for $20? I'm not opposed to buying a starter in the long-run if I can get the bike sorted, but I'd like to get it running before I sink $120 - $200 in a new starter. My CLASS is acting strange. I think my valves are not opening correctly. Pumps up rear shock from indicated 0 to indicated 45 in about 3 seconds. I'm afraid all it's doing is building pressure in the lines or the valve assembly back there. As soon as I hit the rear button to check pressure its right back down at 0-10 psi. Front seems to work fine. I get an E6 code occasionally and the valves at the back don't release the pressure after pumping when it happens. If I tap on the valve/solenoid back by the compressor it'll click and then the code goes away and it goes back to not really pumping up the rear. Is that correctable?

I pulled the luggage seat and side covers while I was home at lunch. I attempted to hear the rear suspension leak so I turned the key to accessory and set rear to M. Pump came on, pressure went up, it shut off and there was an air dump. Couldn't hear anything leaking, but I figured I'd have a better chance with more pressure. Set rear to H and it quickly pumped up to 70 psi. No air dump after the pump shut off and now I've got an E1 code. CLASS screen showed E6 briefly, then switched to E1. I turned it off and back on and it worked briefly then went back to E1. No air dump when compressor shut off and now E1 code. This a symptom of the bad solder I've read about?

Just looking over my title today. According to the paperwork, the previous owner bought the bike in 2009. It had 39,125 miles on it 4/25/09. It now still has less than 39,200 miles so... I either have a non-functional ODO or the bike has been ridden less than 75 miles in the last 6 years. I doubt it'll fire up, but I might give is a shot just to see how bad it is.

Here are a couple photos. Haven't cleaned it up at all yet, just unloaded from the trailer. http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/20/1e1efeddbe28dd54859372650ccb2ba3.jpg http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/20/97b9235feea6256e8e96043404316ec6.jpg VIN - JYA31M000DA000822 My thumbs did this on a tiny keyboard so cut me some slack!,

I've got a copy of the service manual on CD that came with the bike. I had a hard time finding where it covered removing the seat, but it's a little tough reading through it in PDF format. I just haven't had an opportunity to work on the bike at all since I picked it up Saturday. I pulled the faux gas tank off and charged the battery, but that's it. I'll pull the bags off and get into it a bit before I post any more silly questions. I was thinking there might be a keyed seat release or something obvious that I just hadn't located yet. In supplemental manuals on the CD it talks about cruise control. As far as I can tell, my '83 doesn't have cruise-control. It that correct for the year? It has Royale badges and keys, which I though was the fancier version with all the bells and whistles. Can't find any cruise control switches on/near the right handle-bar, but I could be missing something.

Thanks for the info, much appreciated. Hope to get started on it this week. My thumbs did this on a tiny keyboard so cut me some slack!,

This is an obvious newb question, but how do I get the seat off? My thumbs did this on a tiny keyboard so cut me some slack!,

Just picked up an '83 Venture Royale that's been sitting for a couple years. It's got just under 40K miles on it. Word on the street is that it ran well when parked, but did have trouble with starter dragging when hot. I've looked around here a bit and learned that the starter drag is fairly common, but I've not found the fix yet. Is the fix to install the ground wire to the cover? I read up on that and could easily do it, just didn't know if that was the cure or I need to rebuild the starter. At this point, I've literally done nothing yet other than charge the battery and play with the CLASS and radio. Seems to air up front fine and hold pressure at 14-15 psi for M setting. Rear will pump up to 70 for H or 40-something for M, but quickly drops back down to 0-10 psi. You can hear it release the air right after the pump shuts off from pumping it up. Is that a valve problem or bad rear air shock? Since it's been sitting, my plan was to drain fuel, oil, and radiator and replace with fresh. Also planning to pull carbs and clean. I'd like to think it'll start after that, then I can sync carbs and lube everything else up. How do I go about draining the fuel? These have a fuel pump so I'm not sure how I can just empty it. Is tank removal necessary? Any tips would be much appreciated. I'm looking forward to getting this bike road-worthy and putting some miles on it.