Neil86

The RR black vs the battery negative stays very low or creeps up as you increase RPM?

Your voltage readings are tested on the RR side of the plug, not the harness side?

You might want to verify your ground point is good....ie test it vs the battery negative for low resistance...or use the battery negative as the ground point in the test.

Engine off Stator Connector (3 whites) unplugged from RR Test between stator whites and a good ground should be open to ground

I think they switched back to stock caliper mount but left the lowering links on the bike.

He added rebuilt title today to the ad.

One site shows the starting engine serial numbers like this 86 1NL-000100~ 87 1NL-010100~ 89 1NL-027101~ So it appears it is an 86 engine.

or crank it over with socket on rotor.

Nice thing about Pinwall showing the original bike....no chance of error.

Well even on a healthy 1300 with the electric antidives you will see a slight dip on voltmeter with brakes on...factor in a bad charging system or connections and it gets worse. You are seeing voltage dips as you go down the road too...are the brake lights coming on for no reason?

Here you go... http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?p=808351

Pretty sure a 1NL is an 86 1300 engine.

Yes they made Royal Stars from 1996 on...just cautioning folks about searching for Venture starter...might get the wrong thing. Yamaha has a habit of reusing model names for bikes , snowmobiles etc Sounds like you got a good deal!

Don't forget that newer engines get their fuel by "wire" too....

It it were me...I'd have one person handling the meter probes, the other gently rotating the harnesses (the 3 whites) and the RR outlet one at a time to try and recapture the 14.8 V scenario. Have you ever performed the stator ground test with the engine hot? Trying to understand why you had a great RR side reading of 14.8 V then when you try next time its back to square one. Wondering if heat soak is opening a short in the stator.

Yamaha didn't make a Venture motorcycle from 1994-1998. They did make Yamaha Venture snowmobiles...any chance its a snowmobile starter?

so the 13.2 V is on the RR side of the plug....reads same vs black or to battery ground cable? If it reads higher on one side of plug than other...its a plug issue.

Sounds like you tested on the Whites...they're the inlet side, from the stator. Okay...you want to test on the Reds of the outlet plug...so it will be DC. We want to know if there is a voltage drop occuring somewhere.

Have you tested voltage at the RR outlet connector...with it connected, bike running. In other words...you test on the back of the connector...sometimes needing a backprobe like a paper clip slid in to test, rather than jamming the meter test probe. Test both sides of the connector. As for the ignition....is the intermediate connector on the pickup coils good and clean and secure? (right near the RR plugs).

Any chance the shop gave the lowering kit parts back to your friend? I wondering if they left the lowering links on, thinking they looked the same as the originals. He can measure the links hole spacing to see if the spares are the lowering ones or stock.

Did you try the stator short test by going right back to the negative cable terminal on battery, sometimes a ground we test with isn't a good ground.

So no increase in voltage idling vs sitting?

How low is your battery voltage sitting?

DOT 4.

One thing to check...the dash voltmeter is tapped into the SIGNAL fuse circuit, as are the antidive solenoids. If you have a bad connection the "indicated" voltage might drop more than normal. You might have a look at signal fuse clips....test voltage on both sides at the crimp with brake lever on at idle.