luvmy40

Found the rubbing noise. It was not the brakes. Not sure if it's always been there and I just did not notice it or what. I can't imagine what could have changed to bring it on suddenly as I have done nothing at all to the front end since getting the bike. It was the mounting screws for the front fender chrome extender rubbing on the tire intermittently. There's a nice groove in the tire right at the tread line. Not deep but certainly there. She seems to running fine now except the fuel efficiency is terrible. 33mpg on the last 2 fill ups. I'l probably do a proper rebuild on the carbs this off season. All I've done to date is a thorough cleaning with new pilot screws and bowl gaskets. I hope it's not the TCI. Would the Boost circuit effect the mileage this drastically? I haven't checked to see if that is working properly.

So the electrical issue was indeed a blown fuse. Fixed(and new horns installed[no relay, too lazy today]). I also pulled about 1/3L of oil to get to about 2/3 sight glass. She's not smoking anymore so it must have been oil burning on the exhaust as suspected. I'll take a good long ride tomorrow to verify that all is well. Next issue. I topped off the rear brake reservoir as I had been getting intermittent warning lights for it and now the front brakes are dragging just a little. Just enough to make noise but I can't feel the drag. Here we go again.

Well, I keep at least 5 gallons of oil on hand. Usually in gallon jugs but with 3 bikes, 5 gallons is a slow season.

They won't even run and EGA test on it? I'm pulling the plastics and and sensor port screws so they don't have to worry about snapping them.

I like to bench sync with slivers of business card. You can get pretty close if you're careful. I set my pilot screws to 2-1/2 turns but had to make pretty severe adjustments to get a good burn with the color tune. I didn't take notes but I'd guess mine range from 2-4 turns after tuning. I do plan on having the local Yam shop run it on their EGA ASAP. I'm very interested in seeing how close I got it.

I've been running Shell Rotella T 15/40 in my wet clutch Nipon engineered bikes for years. No problems as of yet.(Hopefully this is not an issue with the oil its self.)

That's a very real possibility. see my thread http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?124299-What-did-I-do-to-irritate-the-motorcycle-gods

Yes, I drained it first. Drained on center stand. No I did not drain the transmission. It's possible but not likely that the o-ring is pinched or the spring/washer are wrong. I keep a pretty close eye on that as I've been changing oil with these types of filters for many years. The smoke seemed to be coming from the exhaust rather than off the muffler, but it was dark so it's possible that it was not from the engine per se. I haven't had time to really look at anything yet. I'll pull the air filter and do a visual inspection some time this weekend. As far as the electrical issues go, I did attempt to install new horns the other day. One did not work OTB so I took them off and in the process, found a bare wire on one horn line. It's extremely possible that it shorted out during me puttzing with it and I blew a fuse. Again, I'll check that out sometime this weekend.

Well, I certainly filled it past half way on the glass. The XJs want a full sight glass and I filled to the manual's spec of 3.5L which did fill the sight glass completely.

No, it's definitely engine oil. She 's pissed at me for some reason. See my post in The Watering Hole.

I just finished the valve adjustments, cleaned, tuned and synchronized the carbs and got the Venture all back together. Did about 150 mi. shake down then changed the engine and final drive oil. Another 60 mi. ride and parked her last night. This morning there's a puddle of oil under the old girl. I'm hoping it's a just the plug seal in need of replacement. Tonight I start her up to move vehicles around and the front bling lighting, the volt meter, tachometer, neutral indicator and bright light indicator are not working. Then I notice copious amounts of smoke coming from the exhaust. This bike has never smoked even a little bit. The last time I had a bike smoke like this was when I first got my Katana. The PO had "Cleaned" the carbs and left one of the main jets loose and it worked its self out completely and was dumping raw fuel down the intake. I guess I'm pulling the carbs again to make sure I didn't do the same thing. Will it never end???

I know I should be used to it and expect it since I keep buying 30+ year old motor cycles, but it's frustrating! I fix one issue only to find three or four more. My Venture has an oil leak now. It was seeping a bit around the No. 1 cylinder valve cover. It still is even with new gasket and bolt seals, but it"s not enough to justify the puddle I found under her this morning. I just changed the oil and everything seemed to be sealed up just fine after but something, somewhere is leaking. Hopefully it's just the drain plug gasket that needs replaced. I won't have time to look for the issue for a few days.

Late to the game as usual--- My '83 handles like a dream at low speeds and is as stable as can be at highway speed. The problem is there is only about 2" travel on the fork tubes and she bottoms out if I look at a bump in the road. My local Venture guru told me to install progressive springs and ad an extra 50cc of 10w oil, no air. So, who make st the best progressive springs? Is the 12.5w oil recommended for the newer bikes or is it a general "upgrade" I should consider? Thanks!

I got the old girl up and running, finally! I'll schedule some time for this get together. I might even figure out how to RSVP on the VR calender. Maybe!

I just noticed the spec for compression on the 83' 1200cc venture is 142 psi -156 psi per the Yamaha service manual. My compression numbers were mostly above those(150-190psi) when the valves were severely out of spec and are all above that(185-190psi) now that the valves are in spec. Is this a typo/mis translation/bad conversion? What are you Other MK1 1 12TK riders seeing for compression numbers?

Changed the engine oil and final drive oil. Finished reinstalling all the bling parts and figured out everything I need to address this winter.

My Venture was purchased sans tool kit so I have no final drive dip stick. Can anyone give the measurements for on so I can make myself one? Thanks, Rich

No, not a fiberglass guru! I do quite a bit of plastic fabrication though, Mostly thermo/vacuum forming. The repairs I did involved forming a backing of Kydex and cementing the broken bits to the backer with Devcon Plastic Steel epoxy. I've got a few more fixes to do but It's all together securely for now. I also took her out to my Yamaha dealership and their Venture Guru gave me a big thumbs up as far as the carb tuning and her performance. I guess I was just expecting it to sound more like the in line fours that I'm used to. He did say that I'd probably benefit from having them run it on the EGA for fine tuning. 1/2hr labor if I pull the plastics and make sure the probe plugs are freed up before I bring it in.

Well, I got it all back together as best I could. The parts are all in the right places but I'm missing a few screws and there are a couple tabs broken off that are critical. I think maybe something did break in disassembling it as the main left side panel was secure before and now has nothing holding it on at the top front. I took her for a test spin without the side covers and discovered that they are an absolute necessity! I'll have to dig in and see if I can fix them up somehow. I'm still not sure everything is copacetic with the ignition. The Colortune shows good burn at idle but there's a hesitance when accelerating and it doesn't pull as strong from 4Krpm to 6Krpm as I'd expect. Anyone have a known good TCI for swing test?

Four cylinders Color Tuned, just rich of perfect combustion. Four carbs synchronized to near perfection. The plastics are going to put me in an early grave. I gave up on trying to fix the broken bits. There's just too much busted and no frame of reference. It was holding together when I got her and nothing broke taking it apart, so I should be able to get it all back together in some semblance of correct, right???? I think I have the throttle cable linkage block in the wrong place. Outside of something instead of inside. The main fairing on that side won't pull in tight so it's coming back off tomorrow. I lost my light this evening so I had to pack it in. At least she's running right now! I'm celebrating with the first Dogfish Head 120minute IPA I've ever laid hands on. Delicious!!! Back at it tomorrow. Oh, BTW. I flushed the cooling system with distilled water and filled her up with fresh antifreeze.

^^^^^^^ What he said.

Got the carbs all back together and installed yesterday or so and finished up with the air box and cables and such this evening. Applied about 3/4 enricher, turned the key on, remembered I had the petcock turned off, turned the key off, opened the fuel petcock and tried again! Key on, "choke" on, fuel on. Hit the starter and turned her over for about 20 seconds when she caught and rumbled to life! It sounds much better but I only ran it for 30 seconds or so as I have absolutely no ventilation in my garage. I need to mover her back outside to tune the pilot circuits and synchronize the carbs. Then to button up all the plastic...I should have taken some pictures, huh? Been there before. I'll figure it out. BTW, the exhaust tips for a 1986 XVZ1300 are ever so slightly different that the ones for my 83 1200. Maybe it's because I have the big chrome rear skirt? I don't know. They look almost identical and the fit on the mufflers perfectly but the connection points for the spring retainers are different and wont work with the springs that came with them. I tapped one on as tight as I could get it without damaging it and bent up a couple springs. I got them to kind of fit but they're certainly not right. Hopefully they stay in place and keep the tip from falling completely off if it loosens up. They really aren't doing anything to hold it on though. I may just drill a hole from the bottom and run a self tapping screw up into it.

Just to keep the side line conversation going... The L is the red headed step child of the GS world. I've got mine set up with a Vetter fairing, GK Bag kit and a double bucket touring saddle. It's very comfortable but the limited fuel capacity is a major drawback.

I got a 1982 Suzuki GS850L for sale... Just sayin'...

Well, That's the part missing in the OP pic.