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Venturous Randy

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Everything posted by Venturous Randy

  1. Venturous Randy
    That was a great article Nick and I look forward to the next one. One suggestion I know you already know it doing the "step-up" thinking when buying a first bike or getting back into bikes after many years away. An example of this was after riding as a teenager, I got away from bikes for over 20 years. My wife and I went to the Bahamas and due to a cancelled snorkle trip, we ended up renting a Honda scooter. We had a blast getting away from the "tourist strip" and exploring the island, even though it was doing it on the "wrong" side of the road. When we got home I was interested in getting back in to motorcycling and found a great deal on a Yamaha 850 Special with fairing and hardbags. After a new clutch cable and starter clutches it became a good running bike. I then one day sat on a Venture and knew where I wanted to go next. I ended up getting a good deal on an 83 with 23K miles and sold the 850 for twice what I paid for it. My wife and I have now put almost 100K more miles on the Venture and love it. The thing is that I would probably never have bought the Venture if that had been my first choice as it would have been too big for me. But, after the 850, which was even taller, the Venture fit good. Another example of the step-up bike was our grandkids and trail bikes. My son bought a nice Honda Z-50 and the kids rode until they got bigger bikes. When it came time to sell it, it was cleaned up real good and needed maintenance was done. When a couple came to look at it, they thought the price was a little high for a small bike. We explained that the Z-50 had a great following and the thing to do was buy a bike that would sell good and they would get their money back. I think the step-up thinking is routinely over looked. I see first time riders go buy a big Harley and end up not riding it because they are not comfortable handling it. If they had gotten some good seat time on a smaller bike, the step up would have been natural and they would have enjoyed motorcycling. RandyA
  2. Venturous Randy
    Looks real good. My only suggestion would be to paint all the mounting strips black and they would be less noticable. You did a real nice job. RandyA
  3. Venturous Randy
    I worked on a friends Venture that had a dead cylinder and it ended up being a corroded resistor in the spark plug cap. It may fire on the tester, but not the plug. Pull it off and take it apart. And, change the plugs. RandyA
  4. Venturous Randy
    On the 83's, I think it is more typical for the fan to come on just as the temp gage gets to the red line. On later 1st gens I think this was changed. RandyA
  5. Venturous Randy
    With the 2nd genners, it is more of a "Chirp" than a click. The best tool bag that I have found is one of the canvas Army tool bags. They are very flexible and have several side pouches for stuff you do not want mixed in with everything else. If I had an "original" Yamaha tool kit, I would still have one that I made up. RandyA
  6. Venturous Randy
    You da man!!! I am very glad you have been able to get her back on the road. These truely are great bikes and I hope you get a bunch of great miles on it. Oh, by the way, it is never really done. RandyA
  7. Venturous Randy
    Wow, I have never seen that before. RandyA
  8. Venturous Randy
    Actually, the 1st and 2nd gens have the same rearend gear ratio. The difference in gearing is like comparing the four speed car transmissions of wide ratio and close ratio. The 1st gens have a lot closer transmission ratio thru the gears, therefore keeping in the sweet spot from one gear change to another. I also believe the 1st gens had larger carbs, especially the 83's but not positive. Another thing to consider is a good running 1st get will pull good to at least 8,500 rpms and that is way more than a 2nd gen. In reality, a 1st gen is a lot more of a "hot rod" than a 2nd gen, especially the 83's. RandyA
  9. Venturous Randy
    I have one of those 215 CI Buick all aluminum V-8's out in the garage. It belongs to my son and he will probably never do anything with it. RandyA
  10. Venturous Randy
    Check for a good ground. Obviously if a big jar on the system made it come on, you got a loose connection somewhere. RandyA
  11. Venturous Randy
    On the 86/93 rearends any grease that you put on the rear splines will end up in the rear end lube. The area that the rear end of the driveshaft splines go into is lubed by the rearend oil as there a couple of holes that feed lube into that cavity. This is why there is a seal. And, if you pull the driveshaft out, it can damage the seal. This was the fix that the MKII's had because of the MKI's not having grease added often enough and damaging the splines. And, I bet you that if you pull the driveshaft out and turn the rearend up on the mounting bolts, lube will run out. RandyA
  12. Venturous Randy
    On the 1st gens there is a set of pins that if you loose one, it will affect that gear. Usually it is just a matter of finding the pin and replacing it and bending the holding tab back. I am not sure the 2nd gens are the same. RandyA
  13. Venturous Randy
    On a ride the other day I noticed a vibration when under power. If I pulled in the clutch at speed, the bike was very smooth. I figured that before I started down the mechanical road, such as checking the u-joint, I would check the carb sync. After a ride to get it up to temp, I shut it off and hooked up my four tube mercury sync tool. I started it up and it was slightly off so I tweaked it a little and my idle got a little smoother. One of the things I also do is bring the bike up to about 3000 rpm's and see how close they are at that point using the throttle lock to hold rpm's. I noticed this time that I had a bit of difference from carb to carb. I adjusted to bring them back even, but when I brought it back down to idle, I was off a little again. I have not checked my diaphrams yet and am planning on replacing them but I was wondering if anyone else runs their engine to a higher rpm when syncing carbs. You just need to bring the the rpm's slowly down to idle if you are using a mercury sync or it will suck the mercury into the carbs. RandyA
  14. Venturous Randy
    If I were you I would check on the heavy duty replacement springs, They cost about $10 and unless someone has glued the gasket on, you can ususally get by with just pulling it off. Just do it on the side stand and you will not loose any oil. Just take them off one at a time and the only difference you will feel is your clutch will be a little stiffer. The vast majority of times when you check the clutch plates they will be in spec. RandyA
  15. Venturous Randy
    Ed, what you are encountering on the leak is fairly normal on the 1st gens. It is simply the o-ring needs replacing. The screw that is there fits into a grove that keeps the plug from coming out. The head on the screw is not very big so are you sure the screw is broken off? If I were you, I would try just spinning it around several times and see if that gets it to stop leaking for the time being. The correct position will be for the tops of the letters to point toward to the 5 oclock position. The best time to replace the fuel filter is when you have the rear tire removed. RandyA
  16. Venturous Randy
    7 Brings up memories of the Biltmore Winery I do believe. Bob, you are doing just what I was hoping to get done as a winter project and didn't. RandyA
  17. Venturous Randy
    We have the Bristol Nascar race this weekend locally and this time of year can bring anything. Last year it was about 70º and the year before they were having snowball fights in the pits. This weekend it is to be about 60º on Saturday and 65º on Sunday. RandyA
  18. Venturous Randy
    Hey gerald and tim, I would like to be included on your get together. As we get closer,we can work out the details. Tim, I just sent you a PM. RandyA
  19. Venturous Randy
    What a bummer, No pun intended!! But, I guarantee you are not the 1st to have that happen and won't be the last. RandyA
  20. Venturous Randy
    You should only have to grease the splines that go into the u-joint. The part that goes into the rearend is greased from the rearend lube. RandyA
  21. Venturous Randy
    I got one that is purple, that matches my bike!!! RandyA
  22. Venturous Randy
    Spring gets here at 7:44 am EDT. I went out to the car to leave for work and windshield was covered with ice, not frost, but a think layer of ice. This has been the longest winter I can remember in my life. We may still have some winter weather in the mix, but it won't last long. I just pray we have a good safe riding year. RandyA
  23. Venturous Randy
    I want to remind everyone of the dangers of using bungee cords. My supervisor at work had a bungee cord come loose as he was trying to secure something and it popped him in the center of his left eye. At this point he will have to have a new lense put in to get any use out of that eye. I have also almost have this happen and it could have gotten me, but I was lucky. Year before last, Laura were coming to the campground at Vogal and she wanted some firewood to have a campfire(it did not matter that it was 80º outsire). We stopped at a little store and I bought a bundle of firewood and realized I had not pasked my good bungee cords. I went back into the store and bought some of theirs and as I was stapping the bundle of firewood on the trunk grill, one uncurled on the hook and came loose, just barely missing my face. So, I know how quickly this can happen. If you are going to use bungee cords, and they can be real handy, just make sure that if it did come loose when you are pulling on it that you are not in the line of fire. These things can pack a lot of punch. RandyA
  24. Venturous Randy
    There are some of us 1st genners that don't have CLASS, because we are standard, but if we had CLASS, we still wouldn't have any class. RandyA
  25. Venturous Randy
    I think the politically correct term for this is " electrically challenged". I think they are doing away with the word retarded. RandyA
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