Neil86

Since its cranking over, but ignition is totally dead, one quick check would be pickup coil resistance. -Remove the riders left side cover panel. -On a 90-93 locate a 2 wire harness, Orange & Black wires. Unhook and test resistance between the 2 wires going down to engine. Resistance should be about 81-121 ohms at 68 degrees F. Typically when the pickup coil fails, the resistance tests open.

Yup...part of my routine.

Since Eddie reported during the no start that the hi water temp and low oil warning lights come on pushing starter button, that indicates a good ground path through the starter button. These lights self test by grounding through the starter button when its pressed. The clutch switch is only needed for starting in gear, and then the clutch switch and sidestand switch need to be satisfied for the SCCR to operate. If the bike is physically in neutral, the neutral switch should allow starting regardless of clutch or sidestand position. During the testing was the bike tried with sidestand up and clutch in even though the neutral light showed?

While you have the engine out, remove the float switch on the bottom of the oil pan....inspect float. Sometimes the ball float can be sludged up and stick down when oil level drops during acceleration.

Probably testing at the harness for the SCCR when the fault occurs should pinpoint power from the starter relay (solenoid) on the L, power out on the L/W. No power out...test Lg wire for ground through neutral switch and for ground on clutch & sidestand switch on the B/Y. Power in and out, check starter button.

They say unhook coupler from harness....the coupler is the pigtail attached to the component.

Before tearing apart carbs....remove tank and inspect the bowl vents for the left side carbs....they share the same vent hose, right carbs share another. It can do wierd things if pinched shut, hose end facing into airstream etc...

Yes, you are testing the relay with it unhooked from the harness. The difference is the relay is totally isolated from the bike harness, so you are testing only those contacts. With key on, yes you have may have power on the R/B, but if the relay coil isn't grounding through any of the interlocks (neutral switch, clutch switch, kickstand switch) the relay contacts remain open. Hooking up the relay to a battery ensures the relay coil is energized.

Sailor.. The way its wired any time you have the key off and back on, the cruise has to be restarted again with its rocker switch. It should return to center position after turning it on....is the cruise power light on everytime you turn on the key?

The R/B and the B/Y are for the SCCR relay coil....so if you energize the coil, you should have continuity through the relay contacts ie the L & L/W wires. If you tested with power off you will have continuity between the R/B and the B/Y, thats through the relay coil, but you should be open (no continuity) between the L & L/W.

The two wires on the thermoswitch are power supply in, and power out to fan motor, no ground at the switch. The fan motor has a ground wire. The earlier single wire thermoswitch grounded the fan relay coil to operate fan (no relay on the 2 wire design).

hope you are feeling better real soon Buddy!

On an 86 you have a 2 wire thermoswitch (to operate fan) so the ground wire is for the temp gauge circuit. On earlier Ventures with a single wire thermoswitch it grounds both the temp sender and thermoswitch.

Pretty sure its the ignition fuse.....the engine kill switch is in the RUN position?

No....you can't just buy any Mitsuba SM-13 starter....some rotate opposite direction. different tooth count etc. Find one that came off a Venture/Royal Star 1300.

The original 4 brush starters are Mitsuba SM-13...you're fine.

Yes there are drain ports on the spark plug wells....if you remove the rectangular plate (one screw) from the side of each cylinder, you will see the drain. Make sure the engine is cold before removing the plate as it also covers the coolant drain plug and without the plate they can blow out under coolant pressure. The gas cap fill area has a drain hose that should go to the ground...very small drain hole...easily plugged so check its clear too. Was the tachometer bouncing erraticly during the misfiring...if so chances are the TCI (ignition black box) was wet. Many have relocated the TCI to the airbox area so it stays dry.

I know of one case where a short in the audio system caused this issue. It might get expensive if it goes that way.

So the YICS is unhooked and capped off now? Airbox in place?

It's a lot easier to test first on the circuit. Since it sounds like your high beam is fine, it indicates the dimmer switch is getting good power supply (common to both beams). If you have windshield off, and the hood over top of dash off....go to the large plug behind CMS display. The headlight circuit has an input to CMS and output to the headlight for high and low beam. Connector hooked up, backprobe the following wires versus a good ground. High beam selected should be battery voltage on Yellow (input) and Yellow/Green (output) wires. Low beam selected should be battery voltage on Green (input) and Green/Red (output) If good voltage in, but low out, check CMS unit for solder joint issues. If low in, check dimmer switch and wiring to CMS. If good voltage in and out, inspect wiring from CMS and socket.

Any chance something dropped around one of the belt pulleys and jamming up?

May be an issue with the starter interlock circuit too...good idea to jumper the solenoid to prove out the starter/starter clutch is functional.

You might want to test the sender resisitance first before blaming sender and tearing into tank. Unhook connector, test between green wire and black on tank side. Specs... Less than 30-44 ohms for full tank. Approx 160-180 ohms 1/2 full. Greater than 270-300 ohms empty. A no bars reading on the CMS would usually require a high resistance or open circuit on sender, the harness, CMS solder joints, etc.

Yes....plugged in. You need the current flowing through the wires to get a good test of the connections to the RR.

PMelah... If this is a 1984 you are working on, is the YICS system removed...the large hoses off the intake ports and the chamber above front cylinder. The chamber can be bad for vacuum leaks as they age.