MiCarl

Too different, and I keep busy with the Asia stuff. Just do tires on them. Back to previous discussion --->

Not necessarily. I repaired an '05 RSTD that had been rear-ended this summer, gently enough he didn't even go down. He'd pried the fender up and he rode it 60 miles home. Rear fender, saddle bag, tail light, turn signals etc. $3,803 with labor. This was a bike you had to look close at to know it was hit. At least 50% of the crashed bikes that are ridden into my shop leave on the scrap wagon.

Did you take them the whole bike? If so I'd say they owe you a collar. If you just took the wheel in it's probably in the trunk/back of the truck etc. I try to check every wheel as it comes in the door and place the loose stuff back in the customers hand.

The insurance people seem to use NADA values. You can look it up on the NADA web site.

The first three years I had my shop the HF lift was the only thing I had. I still have it, but for the most part use a better air powered lift. I never had a problem with it being "tippy". The HF lift has a number of challenges with the Venture: - That trap door has a bar under the back of it. A 2nd Gen Venture is long enough that the bar interferes with pulling the tire off. You have to jack the bike up quite a bit so the tire can go forward to clear the bar. You can just get the wheel off a 1st Gen that is on its center stand. - On my lift the pressure release on the jack won't let me lift a bike the weight of the Venture without lifting on the passenger grab bar to help it start up. Once it's up a few inches the mechanism has some mechanical advantage and it'll lift fine from there. - The wheels on the Harbor Freight lift are at the ramp end rather than the vise end. The problem is when you're pushing the bike up the ramp the weight is on the wheels and the lift tends to slide away. On my air lift the wheels are at the vise end so the motorcycle weight helps it stay put. I solved the problem by attaching a block to the floor at the vise end to keep it in place. - They drilled the lift for the tie down U-bolts at the center of the lift. That won't let you jack up the rear of the motorcycle. They need to be up by the vise. I drilled holes up there for the U-bolts. Like all lift tables it takes a lot of floor space. From that standpoint a jack is much better. There is really only one reason I haven't replaced the HF lift. Mine is the hydraulic with the low vise. That low vise lets me load motorcycles with long fenders, low pipes or bags on backward. I cannot do that with the air lift that has a tall L shaped vise. So, I can do front end work (tires, forks, steering bearings) on bikes that won't go on the air lift backward. Otherwise it only gets used for quick jobs when the air lift is tied up for something major. I've talked here and in other posts about putting motorcycles on lifts backward. That is a skill they had us practice every day in school, with junk bikes and a spotter to help out if one got away. It's something I do fairly regularly so I keep in practice. It's not something I recommend for the occasional user, except for maybe a very light bike. I can load a bike like the Venture backward and tie it down without assistance, but if all possible I wait until an extra set of hands is available. As a general rule, you're going to want help even loading it frontward. So, if your goal is to get the bike up for general maintenance and you have the floor space it's not a bad option. Not very practical for tires.

90387-200J2-00 COLLAR #23 in the diagram The oil seal in your picture is #15

As mentioned previously - Your Venture is just over 8' long. If you put it in the pick up bed you'll have a lot of weight out on the tailgate. You'd also have to get it up and down. I'd rent a trailer.

They will still pay their taxes. Every company that operates in the U.S. pays U.S. taxes on their income here. The problem is we also want to tax the foreign earnings that any U.S. company brings home - money that was already taxed where it was earned. So if BK keeps their headquarters here they will pay Canada AND U.S. tax on the Tims earnings when they bring them back to the U.S. We're just about the only country that tries that global tax reach. Not only does it hurt our competitiveness, but it encourages our corporations to leave their foreign earnings overseas (to invest in jobs there) rather than bringing it home to help our economy.

I would not submerge/soak them. There are seals on the butterfly shafts that are not designed to be removed. Soaking them in anything that will clean the carburetor can ruin them. I use spray can cleaner. Disassemble as much as you can, set the rubber parts aside and put the jets in a little cup that has some of the carb cleaner in it. Spray cleaner through all the passages in the body then follow with compressed air. Spray through the jets and used compressed air to blow through them. Reassemble.

Motorcycle tires are constructed the same as passenger car tires (Bias Ply ones anyhow...) and of similar materials. Yes they are heavy duty, but also are subject to heavier stress. They are prone to the same age related failures as passenger car tires. Like passenger car tires the odds that yours actually has an age related failure is pretty low. On the other hand a motorcycle tire failure pitched over in a turn is a catastrophic event. I wouldn't use one that was more than five or six years old.

Constant Velocity carburetors are very sensitive to intake pressure and airflow. You might find getting it properly jetted and tuned a major undertaking.

By the way: If you had a problem with a broken pinion at the final drive it would growl when coasting but sound fine steady or accelerating. Middle gear would be similar, but perhaps opposite - I've never had that one fail.

I think it's more than that. The engine slows down a bit then speeds up as each cylinder undergoes compression then ignition. Without any load the transmission can coast ahead of it then there is a knock when the engine catches back up. Ends up making a rattle sound.

When you have the powertrain uloaded and idle in gear the transmission will rattle. Nothing to be concerned about.

If you've got a buzz in 4th gear that goes away in 5th at the same speed I'd be looking for something with the exhaust system. I believe there is a baffle in the collector box that tends to break loose. Your other noise is probably tires or wheel bearings. Check the bearings when you have the wheels off.

Isn't that what happens: You almost collect the whole set and they release hundreds more.......

.com, .gov, .org etc. are called top level domains. Theoretically .com is commercial, .gov is government, .org is nonprofit and .net is the networking people...... In reality most of them aren't restricted. Somebody already has BigLenny.com. BigLenny.net, BigLenny.co, BigLenny.us and BigLenny.org can each be had for less than $10/year.

Be aware that you can have multiple bad connections. I had a customer bike once that wasn't charging but all the components checked ok. Turned out there were smaller drops across each connection that added up to a couple volts. PITA to work through and fix.

Mine aren't very noticeable.

Good idea on just checking the voltages Frankd. I'd add a pin in the black and check red-black, then you've eliminated almost everything. Every Venture I've ever checked the R/R seems to clamp at about 13.9. 13.3 or 13.4 would be consistent with a weak stator OR bad R/R.

Typically you'll need some new ones anyhow. Here is how it do it: Make a map of clearances and shim thicknesses. Figure out which ones need to be changed and write them down on a list. This is your "pool". Then map from your pool where the shims go back in. The ones you can't do from your pool get new shims. When the new shims come in work backward - install the new shims, freeing up the old ones for the pool. Put the ones from the pool in their new spots, put the ones removed in the pool. You work like that until done.

That's what I meant. Although an alligator clip might be light, it could be a lot of current depending on state of charge and what is turned on. You might also do the same thing black wire to the battery (-).

I don't think the stator is your problem. Even if that 3-1 pair were dead it should do better than 12.3V when you rev it up. The diode check on the R/R only checks the rectifier circuit. The regulator portion could be bad. Or you could have a bad connection. The Rectifier reads the voltage at its own output. If you've got a poor or broken connection to the wiring harness or battery the Regulator could be at 14V but it doesn't bring the rest of the system up. If it were mine I'd be looking at connectors and checking resistance between the R/R red connection and the battery (+). If that all looked good I'd run a jumper from the R/R + to the battery + and check again. If the voltage didn't come up I'd be inclined to replace the regulator/rectifier.

Doing the valve lash is time consuming (The price you got is about half what I'd charge in my shop!) but not particularly technically challenging. You've got the only special tool required. If you're comfortable spinning wrenches I'd go for it. Your plan is the best approach. I priced out putting together a shim kit once. Using educated guesswork you'd be North of $300 on the kit and it wouldn't cover every possibility. Plus, it's winter so you don't need to turn them around in a weekend. Take your time, use the manual. If you aren't clear on something stop and ask for help.

Three possibilities I see right off the top of my head: 1) No spark at rear cylinders. 2) Idle mixture wrong or jets dirty on rear cylinders. 3) Carburetors not synchronized, fuel/air cut off to rear cylinders at idle.