bongobobny

OK! The signal for the engine light comes directly from the ignition module. I'm a little hesitant to blame the module itself as there are other conditions that can cause the module to shut down such as a bad kickstand switch, bad clutch switch, bad start circuit cut-off relay, and so on! This one is going to be a little difficult to troubleshoot due to the intermittency issue. There are a few things like the kickstand switch that can be jumpered out to try to eliminate things but with each part there comes complications because you will be overriding some very important safety issues that you need to be aware of. I am kind of doubting there is an issue with any of your coils because you would have to have all 4 go bad at once to kill the bike. If just one or even two go out, the bike will still keep running but not as good. Actually, if only one goes out you may not even notice anything is bad. Two definitely makes the bike run like crap! To answer your first question, no, this is not a common issue at all. If you like I will give you a step by step procedure to begin eliminating the problem but it is going to be a long drawn out ordeal...

I just want to check for understanding, by the engine warning light, are you referring to the light on the left side in the middle on the cassette door side? That will help me to analyze from the wiring schematic just what the possible issue may be...

Just prayed, Peggy! The Elk raising thing sounds familiar to me, what was his screen name? On a side note, I saw a soccer mom SUV with the label Llama Momma on it, is that one of your cousins???

YUP!! Your problem IS the Starting Circuit Cut-Off Relay!!! That is the exact same symptom I had when mine fell off of the mounting tab and laid against the engine and melted!!! Once the plastic case is melted through, it puts a ground where a ground shouldn't be, and the result is both red dash lights on, AND the starter motor engages as soon as you turn the key on!! That relay, which is actually more than a relay, sets below the seat between the false battery covers about in the middle. You will need to remove your radiator overflow tank to get to it...

Yes, old Ford solenoids will work, I've heard of it being done. They are physically and electrically pretty much the same...

WOW!! It's been 7 years already???

One other possibility, I had this happen to me and it has happened to others as well. Check to make sure your Starting circuit cut off relay hasn't fallen off of its mount and is laying on the motor with its case melted. It is located near the fuel pump and overflow tank...

Yup, sounds like classic ignition switch contact failure! The radio goes through a separate set of contacts, the accessory contacts, so it will work when nothing else does. Have fun grinding the heads off of those anti-theft bolts! In the meantime, use DJH3's bypass kit to keep yourself riding!

Oh, it's on...:bighug:

First off, welcome!!! One common problem with the 2nd Gen Venture is the ignition switch. If your ignition switch is bad you will lose power to everything but the radio as the radio is on a separate set of contacts from the main ignition contacts. So, if you turn the key and everything except the radio goes dead that may very well be your problem. The second source of failure is where the battery negative cable connects to the frame gets corroded. The best way to determine if this is the problem is to connect your voltmeter black (negative) probe to the frame and the red (positive lead) to the battery when the problem occurs. If the ground connection is good then you will see pretty much the exact voltage you see with the probes directly on the battery. They should be within a tenth or two of each other. For example, if you see 12.84 volts directly on the battery terminals you should see maybe 12.79 volts with the black probe on the frame. If you see considerably less, then definitely clean the connections on each side of the negative cable. When you have the probes on the battery, make sure you have the probes on the terminals themselves and not on the screw that screws into the terminal. You can also test for the plus connection by keeping the black voltmeter lead on the battery terminal, and then placing the red probe on the red wire where it connects to your starter solenoid, which is attached to the side of the battery box. Get back to us with this, there are several very knowledgeable people on this site who can walk you through the entire troubleshooting process...

Just prayed!

This remark coming from Father Time?? Carl, I'm beginning to think you were born looking old...:backinmyday:

Yup, that one!

I just saw an ad for a Kompact Kamper motorcycle pull behind camper on facebook and it was being towed by a nice blue and black 2nd gen Venture!! Was it anybody here???

Here's a start for you, Graywulf. Happy research... https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=l123W4XXDoqUtQWrtK2ACQ&q=diesel+engine+oil&oq=diesel+engine&gs_l=psy-ab.1.2.0l10.7429304.7436302..7443119...1.0..0.100.1199.13j1......0....1..gws-wiz.....0..35i39j0i131.zVV270_Zgks I've been using Shell Rotella for a few years now but I've used others as well.

It might just be normal engine sounds. If you know of someone close to you that you can hear what theirs sounds like that might help. Also, what weight oil and type could make a difference. Normal oil weight should be 15W-45 but depending on your climate you may want to go up a little say to a 20W50. Ideally, you want to use an oil designed for motorcycle engines with a wet clutch. No automotive oils or any oils with friction modifiers. Some of us use Diesel engine oil with good results, cheaper than Yamalube, etc. Also, as mentioned, carb sync can sometimes cause strange noises kind of like a spark knock or sputter...

Yup! that's the usual cause, that wire is easy to accidentally knock off...

No, you don't break anything, they are stuck together with two-sided tape. Like Don, I stuck them back together using the same tape...

Sooo, let's do Letchworth State Park in a couple of weeks as soon as the colors are peak!

Wow!! It's going to be just like nothing happened with an identical ride!! Glad you two are doing fine, looking forward to seeing you at next year's WNY rally if not sooner!!!

Yup, a Strat "S" is pretty high on my priority list, I want to make it happen in the next year or two...

The armrests are "glued on" so it takes a little persuasion to break them free. Sorry, I did my conversion a couple of years ago and I'm 71 so I'm getting a little senile so I can't help you out much more...

PS I missed the last part about you already switching your headlight, so as I mentioned that is actually a huge power saving...

OK, for what it's worth when I changed over to the Kenwood speakers the system sounded a lot better, but on the highway, I have to run it full blast to hear it clearly using the speakers. The magnets are pretty big, probably the size of those Hertz you are looking at, and there was no issue with the rear speakers fitting. My investment was around $100 for all four speakers. I did buy a couple of power amps but never got around to installing them, their cost was around $25 each from what I remember but that was a few years ago. They are still sitting on the shelf. More power would be a definite plus but once again I wonder if it would be really worth it due to the fact that 4-inch speakers will NEVER sound as good as 5 1/2-inch speakers no matter how much power you ram into them! I can see where a 4 channel amp would save on space but at the time I never considered them due to the difference in price between them and two 2 channel ones. As far as extra power from the Venture electrical system, well consider this. Ther accessory plug uses a 5 amp fuse which at 12 volts equates to 60 watts. Allowing for a certain amount of inefficiency of electronic circuitry let's say it can handle an additional 50 watts of audio power. So, how can we gain some extra power?? Switching to LED lights will save some, but with certain complications. With the turn signals unless you like rapid fire indicators you need to install resistors on the LED bulbs and guess what? Those resistors eat electrical power! So to avoid this, you need to modify your flasher to slow down the flash rate. This is actually a fairly simple mod and is documented here on the site, it requires a resistor and a little soldering. But let's forget about the turn signals and brake light because they do not run continuously, just when you are turning and stopping. So, with just the running lights you may be able to save another 10 to 20 watts. Now, if you want to save a whole bunch more watts, switch your headlight over to LED! Now, unfortunately, to do that you can't just plug in a LED bulb, you need to change the whole headlight assembly in order for your headlight to work the way it should! This gets a little complicated and expensive to do because the stock headlight assembly is not very conventional and some cutting of metal and fabricating is required. Ultimately what you will gain are a better and brighter headlight and huge electrical power savings, probably enough to power your amp! You can convert to a higher output stator which will give you more overall electrical capacity but high output stators don't last as long as the regular stator because more power equates to more heat which is the ultimate demise of your stator. Switching to an AGM battery will help improve the overall capacity of your electrical system as AGM's have more CCH's but of course, you need to increase your charging system to keep up if your load on the system increases. You can only take out what you put back in! I'm not trying to discourage you, I'm just trying to point out what can be done and point out that anything you do will hit you in the pocketbook! Yamaha Larry, just like David I would like to know how things work out if you do decide to pursue your plans with a power amp. Like David, I too am concerned about heat dissipation inside the fairing and wonder if a 12-volt muffin fan would help alleviate some of the heat. Of course, there should be some kind of ductwork to get the hot air out of the enclosed fairing...

PS here's a little information to help you wade through the confusion. As far as power rating goes, the speaker specs are just how much maximum power you can feed into the speaker. The louder the volume is turned up, the more power is being delivered to the speaker. When the power capability of the speaker is less than the power being pushed into it, distortion happens! So, make sure you pick out speakers with a power capacity that is greater than what the amplifier is capable of putting out. My best guess with the RSV is that it is probably around a 30-watt total system, so divided by 4 speakers, that's 7 1/2 watts each. Now, the dirty little secret that amplifier manufacturers don't want you to know, the power rating game! I hate to say this, but nobody is honest!! First off, what is power or watts?? In its simplest form, power is volts multiplied by amps! Now with AC, it gets a little tricky. With a sine wave, there is RMS or root mean square, peak, and peak to peak power! I'm not going to confuse you here, so I will just say these properties can be manipulated by manufacturers so that an honest 20-watt system can be pawned off as a 100-watt system!! So, getting back to speakers, how do you know how honest the manufacturer's rating is?? Well, the two main factors are the voice coil of the speaker and the magnet size! You can't very well see just how good the voice coil is but you can tell how big and heavy the magnets are! The bigger the better!! So, what am I trying to tell you? Go with a speaker that is rated high in power capacity so it can handle whatever you put into it! Just because a speaker is rated at 125 watts does not mean you need that much power to make it work. At low volume, you are probably listening at around 1 watt or less. At normal listening levels, you are probably listening to less than 5 watts! Another speaker spec is SPL. In easy terms, this is like an efficiency rating. The higher the SPL the better. You want something in the high 80's to low 90's. There is a lot more to this as far as matching up systems and enclosures but once again I'm not trying to confuse you with details. Bottom line, the higher the SPL the crisper the sound. As far as frequency response goes, the ideal is 20 - 20,000 Hz but most of us can only hear up to about 16,000 Hz. Bass is the low numbers, generally, from 20 Hz to 200 Hz, midrange is 1000Hz but starts lower than that, and high starts maybe around 5000 Hz. Unfortunately, the lower the frequency (Hz) the larger the air volume is needed. So, for a 4-inch speaker do not expect much bass out of them. Any number under 100 is good, and I would expect the top number to be close to 20,000 Hz even though the average person can not hear that high. Hope you find this information useful in your decision and I hope I haven't made your head spin...