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MiCarl

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Everything posted by MiCarl

  1. MiCarl
    Riding in the tail of a group tonight and not watching my gauges. Radio started cutting out. Then at a stop the bike completely died. Turns out the connector between the regulator/rectifier and harness had melted apart. Fortunately some digging pieces out of the molten nylon with a pocket knife and a bit of electrical tape got it patched up. A push start later and I was rolling. In hindsight it's kind of obvious this one needs to be cleaned and tightened just like the stator plug.........
  2. MiCarl
    Some more thoughts for you, if my brain weren't so old they would have made it to the original post.... I have a friend whose stator passed the resistance tests but was only putting out 2-3VAC on the leads. A new stator solved his problem. My only guess is that the insulation on the windings can break down but not show as shorted with the low voltages from the meter. The higher voltages created by a running engine cause current to "leak" through the insulation. The reason I didn't meter the AC output of my stator for him is I permanently soldered it to the leads from the regulator/rectifier. We did probe the wires though and got something in the neighborhood of 12VAC at idle. To me that seemed like a reasonable value because having it connected to the regulator/rectifier means it's driving the bike electrical system. I think a disconnected stator should show at least 15VAC at idle and more than 20VAC at speed. If you see differences between your 3 readings that probably means the stator is bad.
  3. MiCarl
    Well, I don't think the manual has an AC voltage check, but if you're doing one you should be doing it between pairs of stator wires - not to the battery. You should check resistance between each pair of stator leads. I don't recall the spec but anything between .5 and 1 ohm is probably ok. Then check each resistance from each lead to ground - should be infinite.
  4. MiCarl
    I'm going to withdraw my offer to fire up the grill since I've now got some other stuff tugging at me. Larry, isn't there a Leon's on Michigan Ave in Dearborn? Perhaps that would be a good place near the hotel.
  5. MiCarl
    Your problem may not be old brake fluid. If you adjust for too little free play the return hole in the master cylinder is blocked. As the brakes warm the fluid cannot return to the master cylinder and they get tighter and tighter, eventually locking up. Your pads (rear and left front) are probably glazed too. You're not the first to do this.
  6. MiCarl
    Ever tried to take off in sand or gravel? Hard to go fast if the ground aint fixed!
  7. MiCarl
    That's a pretty good idea Larry. SWMBO is out of town. My daughter was supposed to visit but had to back out. I'm planning to spend at least part of the weekend working on the house. With a little arm twisting I could probably be talked into throwing the carcass of something on the grill. Maybe Sat. or Sun. since they'll have lots of miles Friday and Monday.
  8. MiCarl
    Gary - I had one of the K&L ones I sell come back broken. The fracture appeared to have a very coarse grain structure. There was no visible sign of plastic deformation. The part number on the tool appears to be "molded" rather than stamped or cut. I'll bet the things are die cast, and not of the best tool steel either. They appear to be blued as the dark finish wears off the ramps after just a few uses.
  9. MiCarl
    I haven't been in quite a few years, but they are wonderful places. My preference is the museum. As I recall seeing either takes a full day.
  10. MiCarl
    I suspect the real truth lies in the marketing department. They probably think the mark gives an impression that the tire is not a quality product or maybe they just think it's ugly.
  11. MiCarl
    Maybe it was $35 for gas and $65 hush money?
  12. MiCarl
    And here is how to do it using the stock horn switch, placing the relay into the connectors from the original horn:
  13. MiCarl
    The Avon rep here claimed there is not dot because they want to force the installer to balance them rather than putting the dot at the valve and calling it good. He said they recommend rotating the tire if 3 oz won't balance it. When installing tubeless tires I always find the heavy spot on the wheel and align the dot with that. At least half the time the heavy spot is not at the valve. 9 times in 10 the heavy spot doesn't change with the tire mounted, which tells me that tires are generally better balanced than wheels. D404s seem to be the exception. It seems like they are often way out of balance. In my experience Avon (or Michelin and Pirelli, who also do not mark the light spot) are no better or worse balanced than most other tires.
  14. MiCarl
    When you're syncing you're moving the throttle plates on the carbs. That will change the idle speed. Short of some automated mechanism on the idle stop screw you're out of luck.
  15. MiCarl
    To think I thought the pet rock was stupid.......
  16. MiCarl
    Thanks a lot for posting! About three years ago my family donated some items to the planned Missile and Space exhibit. Glad to see they got it up and running. I guess we'll have to get down there when YAMA MAMA and Moped go again.....
  17. MiCarl
    You are correct - properly adjusted valves make some ticking noise, and they get tighter as they wear in, not looser. Absence of valve noise is not an indication that they are in spec. On some bikes it's very hard to hear the valve noise. Just because you cannot hear it does not necessarily mean they are tight. On the other hand the Venture engine has 16 valves. Being able to hear valve noise does not mean that they are all ok either.
  18. MiCarl
    As you're getting at, it needs to be refilled to the same point to get an accurate reading how much fuel you actually used. There isn't an overflow tank on the Venture. The tank is full when the fuel level is at the bottom of that collar below the fill cap. I think maybe you're filling into the collar and then waiting while air bleeds out the vent letting gasoline rise around the collar. That collar is meant to leave an air pocket at the top of the bike. The gasoline comes out of the ground and is often cooler than the air temp. As it warms up it will expand. Without an air pocket any expansion would cause gasoline to dump out the vent. So, just fill it to the bottom of the collar. Realistically that collar doesn't hold much fuel so it's not going to impact your numbers much. To be more precise you can do your calculations over multiple tanks. 33 is pretty close to what I get on my 89, 2 up pulling trailer. A bit less even at freeway speed.
  19. MiCarl
    We could export some to you. Exchange rate works in your favor right now. How many you want?
  20. MiCarl
    Wow! Just wait until someone goes down rushing for free gas. The trial lawyers will be swarming worse than mosquitoes around a swamp.
  21. MiCarl
    That might be a bit high. I figure it's about a 5 hour job to check them. In my shop that'd run $350, a dealer might be more like $425 - $500. If any needed adjusting there would be an extra charge for shims. If it only needed a couple I probably wouldn't boost the labor, but if it needed half or more I'd tag on some extra labor too. The valve cover gaskets would probably run another 60, on a Venture I won't warrant leakage unless the customer pops for them. On bikes that are simple to get to I'll re-use gaskets if they look good. But you are correct - listening tells you nothing.
  22. MiCarl
    That's the sintered pad for the rear of your bike. The organic pad is FA123.
  23. MiCarl
    Depends on what you mean by cheap. We use the lowest price J&M and are really happy with them. Our model is gone but I think the newer models have smaller mics which would be good. Try Sierra Electronics or Wingstuff.com (Venture uses the same headset as GoldWing).
  24. MiCarl
    The problem is if you have a valve get too tight you'll likely ruin it before you notice a performance problem.
  25. MiCarl

    Pick up Coils

    MiCarl replied to Pam's topic in Watering Hole

    The choke does not affect any part of the ignition system. If the choke keeps it running it's not going to be anything electrical. Sounds like carbs to me.
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