CaseyJ955

It's going to be difficult to diagnose running problems without a good synch. If you had the carbs apart already and when reinstalling them make sure they are completely seated into the intake boots, check for any other vacuum leaks. With the carbs off the bike and the rack separated they are almost certainly out of synch and that can account for erratic/high/hanging idle, lack of responsiveness, chuffing/popping and all sorts of stuff. I was going to do a homemade synch gauge, and I know some guys do pull that off well. I picked up a Morgan Carbtune and it's probably the best $100 I have spent on bike tools. Unfortunately these carbs are not really a set it and forget it. I synch as a part of routine maintenance on both my Vmax and Venture. I toss the synch gauge on at least a couple times a season to keep it sharp and happy. Find a way to synch the carbs and see where that lands you. When you pulled the carbs did you alter the float levels? Also make sure it's hitting on all 4 cyl. Not uncommon for the old coils and HT leads to fail where the HT leads go into the coils or at the caps. I like the downpipe spit sizzle test just for being quick, effective and easy way to make sure you have fire on all 4 pots. These V4s run surprisingly well with a dead cyl. Oh yea, welcome!

I'll have a look around, I'm using 7 now on my desktop and it rocks. XP was a good OS as I recall. I'm fairly sure I have a copy but doesnt it have some online reg/activation hassle you have to go through? I just bought a laptop with win10 on it and I lack the English words to describe how much I dislike that and how alarming the lack of privacy is, even after locking it down. I'm planning to do a duel boot system with Linux, which is probably a good option for you, and it's free. There are several different distributions, some very similar to windows I understand. I'll have a peek for my XP disk and if I find it you can have it. I'll update this evening.

Transcontinental seems to be a subjective term, but I think my interpretation of it matches yours. The videos were definitely not eluding to a dual purpose tour machine. I looked to me like they were talking to gen2 owners and HD owners looking for something better. With Polaris doing so well right now against HD maybe they want to throw their hat into that ring. It is a saturated market but there seems to be many buyers for these things. Creating a new model with this much hype for liter+ tour bikes that can do single tracks seems like an exercise in futility considering the narrow demographic and extremely competent competition. If Yamaha introduced a cheaper, less finicky model to compete with a GS1200 it would have my attention, but I think the buyers they are trying to get excited about this would be seriously disappointed in a dual sport of any kind.

The Vstrom in all it's subjective aesthetic glory is by many accounts one of the finest all-purpose bikes on the road. I was looking for a 1000 before I stumbled upon the Vmax and had an emotional response. If Yamaha makes a liter class dual sport it will have to compete with the BMW GS, Tiger, KTM, TL1000/650 and others I'm forgetting about. I could see more room in the market of large caliber dual sport before another narrow angle twin cruiser/tourer though. It would make more sense.

I got my first clue when I had to use a rubber mallet to get the damn OEM calipers off the rotor, they should wiggle off by hand unless there is a significant ridge around the OD of the rotor from wear, even then though. The R6 calipers still had some drag so I pulled them off to put HH pads on, used air to pop the pistons and cleaned them out good. Green scotchbrite on the pistons, pulled and cleaned the seals and flushed out the bodies. Back together, even with the old seals and they work as new now and I did find a lot of sediment and sludge in then, should have cleaned them out before install but I was being cheap and lazy. The OEM calipers have been on the bike for around 120 years (motorcycle years are like dog years) and I know a great many folks never do the 24 month flush. There could be some gunk in the calipers. "If it aint broke, dont fix it" to some riders/drivers means "if it aint broke, dont maintain it". Brakes and forks all to often get ignored until they completely cease to function, it seems to be the reality on our older bikes. I would have rebuilt my original calipers but the OEM kits were very expensive and the calipers are different sizes, my OCD nature would not let that go. I somehow doubt that the calipers are costing you 10-ish MPG unless they are hanging up bad, if it were me I might wait for a rainy weekend and pop them off and have a peek inside. I suspect your MPG issue lies elsewhere.

I have one of these EPA junkers. I converted it into oil waste and just put a solid lid on it. I use older gas cans for my saws, mowers and trimmers. I guess gov has solved so many of the problems that really plague society that they have directed the EPA create these virtually unusable, needlessly complex spouts. Heres my workaround, I hit garage sales, it's like clockwork finding older quality gas cans with normal spouts for a buck or two each. A couple of mine are so old that the spouts may need to be replaced before the cans do so this is a great link to see. Please update how they work and what the quality of the materials is.

Not a one, but MT is always one of my favorite states to end up in for no reason at all. I was in states beginning with S, W, C and N

That too, I had replaced all my calipers. Get it on the center stand and make sure they wheels spin without binding up. If you can get this big obese turd up on the center, it's a chore. While on the center is a good time to inspect steering head bearings and rear swing arm bearings.

Nope, it's not enough to knock that much off. On my bikes and in my car ethanol is enough to see the difference in MPG and feel a hit to power. Your bike should be somewhere around 40-ish and ethanol alone wont come close to knocking it down that much. Indirectly it can start gunking up the carbs if left to sit with ethanol for a length of time and that could knock performance and MPG down significantly. I use seafoam to counter the ethanol when I do have to use it.

Mine is an 89 and I noticed some clutch knock at idle/neutral, it is on the right side though but that guttural tap can carry. I had a few moments of panic as it really sounded like a rod bearing starting to get sloppy. When I put some pressure on the clutch lever it went away. I stopped being concerned, it works great and no slippage, it gets this bike to triple digit speeds pretty quickly without any hint of problems. I just took a trip over 4 states, no issues, no worries. I dont even notice it anymore.

2nd, 3rd and under light conditions 4th dont mind 2500 rpm but in the hills and against headwinds 4th and 5th like 3000+ or it lugs and fusses a little. Unless I'm basically coasting I dont even kick into 5th gear until i'm at 60-65mpg.

There are a lot of re-builders out there that really dont understand CV carbs, probably any carbs. The only guy I know and implicitly trust on these CV carbs, with a proven track record and a trail of satisfied customers, is Danny. I know he's quite familiar with the Yamaha V4 and quite a nice guy. http://www.vmaxforum.net/brc.jpg If it's overflowing like that than he probably used some of the cheap-o Chinese rebuild kits that are known for this sort of thing, or as Cimmer said, wrong year parts.

That is low, I was fighting MPG in the high 20s for quite a while. Is all your maintenance current, fresh plugs, valves adjusted, tire inflation etc? Running ethanol free fuel? Assuming all is right with the engine and it's hitting on all 4 cylinders I would suspect carb floats out of adjustment or worn emulsion tubes. There are other things it can be but those are two well known MPG issues. I fixed mine with Skydocs shim mod and it got me up to the 40-ish range that I need. I'm pretty sure the PO of your bike set the floats already, I know he was in the carbs several times. Heres a thread I started a while back, started out as forks and got turned into a lot of MPG discussion, good info here too. http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?128796-Blown-new-fork-seal-fresh-rebuild-metal-shavings/page3 and the Skydoc shims I used that finally got me to the 40mpg arena. I suspect different needles and new emulsion tubes might be the ticket next time I pull the carbs but really not trying to spend tons of money now. I tried it and it worked. Runs strong and I just took a trip over 4 states and got around 40, even riding into headwinds. http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?51100-Needle-Shim-Mod

Dayum! Glad your alive and in one piece, thats quite a ballup. I too would be interested in knowing why that happened. This seems to have had the potential to be so much worse, glad your still with us and hope you get to feeling better soon enough. On a brighter note, now you have an open space in the garage for this new tour bike Yamaha will unveil shortly.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-Pcs-Carburetor-Slide-Diaphragm-Yamaha-V-MAX-1200-VMX12-VMAX-V-MAX-1985-2007-/281761118293?hash=item419a457855:g:3c4AAOSwrklVXmxv Check with the seller for your application but this is the seller I used and all good.

I think the confusion was the difference between moving the wheel along by the cogs using a common or actually using a Phillips from underneath. I just grab a common and make minute adjustments until I'm at around 1050-ish

I find it a little tricky to get my fingers in there so sometimes I'll just use a common screwdriver against one of the cogs on the wheel and turn it that way.

So glad you got to take the ride. I had the first grand spring ride not long ago and just got back from WY, CO and NE. I really enjoy the first ride stories, I can almost feel the rush of sunshine and open roads. Theres just nothing like that first sunny clear day in the spring. I'm self employed also and I'm damn glad I am, I can make time to do the rides and rallys. Ride what you like and enjoy it. Rides like this make everything alright with the universe.

It stayed consistently goofy but the engine never missed a beat for the whole trip of around 800 mi. I'll set the dwell back to auto in case a short dwell is messing with it's ability to read the signal. If I still have a problem then I guess I'll have to get in and see if it's the signal to the tach or the tach itself. On a side note, the 85 heading south down WY is amazing all the way down, I came back up through NE, took the 71 all the way into Hot Springs and dayum that was a fantastic ride. Cant say the SW corner of NE was very impressive but from around Kimball north it was pretty awesome. Nobody on the road, it was pretty vacant and the scenery went from some rock formations/trees, wide open farm land and rolling hills to the Oglalla Natl Grasslands. The vastness of it is awesome, weather perfect. People in NE seem to be about as nice as they come.

G'mornin' friends! I covered around 500mi yesterday. I have noticed the tach dropping occasionally, also if I pull the clutch in and give it a rev the needle races down rather than up. It seems to be acurate when enjoying a steady cruise other than the occasional slight dip. Its running well and this is not accompanied by any missfire or lack of power/smoothness or I would have suspected the Ignitek. I would be more nervous if there were a missfire with it. im still 4-5 hours from home. It does have ignitek and COPs. Also noticed it starts hard with a knock and backfire through carbs if I even think about touching the throttle while cranking. I thought I cured that by setting dwell on short, but nope. Aside from these it runs strong and smooth. Figured I would get some house hunting done but other than admiring some small towns I got very little of that done. Once the bike is completely sorted Ill do a weeklong search. Im about to get under way, I found some awesome rural open roads, its fantastic. All of yestarday and much of today.

I'm a total paint noob but I got some direction and guidance on the Vmax side and painted/clearcoated my Vmax and it looks damn near pro. It took some time and I bought from an auto body. Picked color and went to it, spending decent amounts of time on prep. It's very doable. This is the part where you pick out a saphire blue or a she-looked-18-to-me red. I would always be happy to share what I learned painting my other bike. If/when I paint mine I probably wont worry about going two tone or striping. I may go pearl white or a slightly darker blue than my Vmax came out.

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?258-Syncronizing-the-Carbs A great writeup, it's on a 2nd gen but same procedure. The right (iirc) has two screws and left has one, right between the carbs and nice and obvious. Get a big common screwdriver and watch the bars as you turn the screws. I'm OCD so I go back and fourth making micro adjustments until it's as close to perfect as I can get it. The second time you have to do this it will be a lot quicker. Do this at operating temp and definitely let us know how far out it was and how much improvement you see when it's dialed in.

You would have to weld some tangs on. You would probably have to use the entire fork, while it does have shocks and discs it bears no resemblance. I guess you will have to keep Flintstoning that mofo to a stop for now. Be careful bruddah.

Look man, if you had the nylon handlebar streamers installed you would have had enough wind resistance to think about maybe stopping somewhat a little bit! Glad you didnt get run down. I have an old parts bike here, a mtn bike that has some disc brakes on front, nothing high end but if you think any of that might help you get some brakes going shoot me a PM with your # and we'll get you hooked up.

Nice project! very cool. Brakes are for sissies anyway, no need to worry about the trivial details.