camos

Changing out the stator is not a very difficult job, I've now done three of them. The first one was the most difficult because I broke one of the screws that hold the stator in but the other two took about three hours to do... each of course. I'm not the fastest at doing anything.

I found it very interesting. Thanks for posting.

You will find the info you need here http://www.venturers.org/Tech_Library/?action=article&cat_id=001006&id=420.

That's a big plus to going ahead with your plan. I still think you need to know why this business is being offered for less than it appears to be worth. Owning and building a successful business is very rewarding. Statistically more people fail than succeed so it seems to me the best advice anyone can give is to rely on preparation rather than on luck. Something I have learned over the years is the more you know, the more you realize you don't know. You can take bigger chances when you are single but not so much when you have family responsibilities. Most cities have a small business association where you can likely get some general advice prior to proceeding without disclosing your potentially good deal.

That's a big question you are asking. It is almost inappropriate to be asking it here however, since we are almost like a family perhaps I am wrong about that. In any case, I'll take a stab at it. I ran a small business for 30 years so I know there is more to it than just having the skills to provide the service you would be selling. You should do a serious self assessment of you and your partner's qualifications to handle accounting and tax requirements as well. Can you manage sourcing and payments of necessary inventory and tracking or controlling the costs of rent and utilities? Do you understand that all the money coming in is not yours until after all the bills are paid? There is far more to running an auto shop than just being a good mechanic. Be realistic about your qualifications gained from military experience. Not meaning to be negative here but I currently work for an organization that hires a lot of ex-military. Many of the ex-officers who think they understand leadership roles don't actually know much of anything about running a business. The way governments and the military operate is far from representative of real life conditions in business. I have seen a couple of instances of people who created successful business partnerships but when they expanded, hiring more employees they started to fail because their employees did not have the same level of personal commitment. Then there is the phenomenon of owners working 18 hours a day. Not just 8 or 9 hours at the "shop" but another 4 or 5 hours at home doing the books or chasing down inventory...or whatever. Something else to consider is the shop you are interested in. Why is it not doing well? If part of the answer is location then perhaps you won't be able to do enough to turn the business around. This is a big step and creating a business plan with an accounting firm and or a bank would likely be a very good thing to do prior to committing yourself to going ahead. I don't know if that helps but you did ask. Good luck with your decision.

Tape deck??? I had to laugh, just couldn't keep it back. Didn't keep track but there were quite a few requests for a CD changer. That's about the same as requesting a cassette deck. Talk about dinosaurs in the best tradition of Yamaha. For all of those who wish for accessories up to and including the kitchen sink, remember for every dollar spent at the factory the end price goes up a 100. To have everything you would probably be looking at $35,000 out the door. A Bluetooth enabled radio with the ability to connect to satellite and plug in a thumb drive or MP3 for music and storage. A couple of small Bose speakers would give decent sound while parked or, I hate to say this, while riding without a helmet. Headsets are the only way to go while on the highway. The FJR 1300 is very close to what I would want in a 3rd Gen. All Yamaha would have to do is remodel the rear end to be more like a 1st Gen with larger bags and a trunk and a comfortable seat for two. This would not require very significant changes. Mount the controls in a neutral position with the option of moving them forward or back about 6 inches to suit the kind of riding most would be happy with. Dual purposing the basics is a great way to make a profit while broadening the appeal to more folks. Something like that would have no competition from other vendors.

A couple of days ago I was planning on removing my new crash bars for a paint job. While taking off a few things to get at them I noticed a couple of cracks in the bottom of the right fairing. Thought I should take care of them first and found eight more breaks including a couple of tabs. So much for painting, spent two days fixing the plastic. Funny thing, after I was done there seems to be more sound coming from the front end. Mostly wind noise but perhaps some engine noise as well. Just a guess but perhaps having the plastic all connected makes for a better sounding board.

You most likely have a set of feeler gauges and some oil. The oil make dirt clump a bit and the feeler gauge can be worked around to persuade any dirt under the seal scraper to the outside.

Putting in the forks is pretty straightforward. I recently did mine and there were two fairly obvious things I got wrong. I did not notice the brake lines were behind the forks rather than in front. The other thing I missed is the right side air collar has a locator pin that fits into a slot on the backside of the upper triple clamp. Oil the o-rings inside the air collars before assembling. I used Q-Bond before and it was OK but I found it difficult and expensive. I use a mixture of MEK and ABS now and find it works very well and is quite inexpensive. There are a few threads on the forum where I have described the process. If you have more questions about it don't hesitate to ask.

I have never had any dental repairs done without first getting a shot. I can still remember the feeling of that needle, however, for the past 10 perhaps even 15 years or more that has not been an issue. My dentist now rubs a topical something or other on my gum prior to getting down with the needle. I can feel when he is poking me with the needle but there is absolutely no pain. Think I'll stick with being a wuss.

I won't buy anything on eBay that is shipped other than by USPS. All the courier companies operate as extortionists when it comes to cross border shipping. It is also rare to be charged either customs or tax on goods shipped from the USA via USPS/CanPost. Have never lost anything either so it has been reliable enough for me.

I don't know about other dual compound tires but the E3's are not super soft on the sides and the center still wears out first. That's mostly while commuting with a mix of highway, back road and city riding. It could be just the rider, of course, but I have noticed there seems to be less of a tendency to get a flat spot in the middle compared to what I see on tires of other bikes around here.

While it could be the tires, Bridgestones and Metzlers don't have a very good reputation lately but I would check the front bearings anyway.

Beside the gasket thickness something that may cause slow cranking would be how the gears were installed. The small gear cannot be installed in just any position. It needs to be rotated until it meshes easily with the larger gear.. In some positions the gear will not go in and in others it will go in snugly but it needs to go in easily. If the gears are not meshing properly then that could cause difficulty turning over when starting.

It is more sophisticated than I thought. Good thing you told me before I actually made a bet. Having holes rather than being more open would probably cut down on false positives from surging.

As mentioned earlier, there was some pressure from the springs when RnR the bolt cap. There was enough pressure to require leaning into the ratchet when starting the bolt cap. It just wasn't as difficult on the 89 as I recall it was on the 90.

My non-progressive springs look like the one on the right. There is no mistaking the lack of those spacers. From the pic it looks like part of the spacer fits into the spring and the other end fits into the aluminum cap with the o-ring on it. The springs on the 89 must not be OEM although they were long enough to require some compression to get the bolt cap started. I do recall that 5 or 6 years ago when I had the 90 forks apart it was a lot more difficult to get the bolt cap started.

Well, that was an oopsie. Don't know how I got sidetracked to the starter. The stator cover gasket is a medium thickness so closer to the thickness of a cereal box rather than a sheet of paper. Generic gasket material should work just fine. If the gears are binding on the cover there should be a sound that would indicate such a thing happening. Perhaps the problem is somewhere else.

Seems like a lot of money and a lot of work to put out and still not get good sound at highway speeds. A decent Bluetooth headset would appear to be a better solution for listening pleasure. Then there is the issue of sound pollution while driving in traffic. Imagine if every vehicle had their trunk filled with massive speakers and all bikers rode with a ghetto blaster strapped to their back. Just sayin....

My avatar is made from ASCII codes. It was put together in 1987 when I was using DOS and after moving to Win 95 I made a graphic of it because of the way MS Word messed with the spacing in a somewhat random manner.

It could be that my description is as confused as I am. The springs look just like the pic in the manual. They have two types of windings, close at one end and looser at the other. Describing them as linear to me means each type of winding is the same until it changes. Progressive springs do not have linear windings because they progress more or less evenly from close to loose. I put a set of Progressives in my Virago and that is how they looked. They are definitely dual rate. I did not think to measure the length of my springs so they may very well not be stock. That is the only reason I could think of that would make them work well without the spacer. That was my thought too, gathered from what I have read on this forum, and is what has prompted me to ask the question.

I have been following several threads on forks which has made me wonder about the setup on my 89 VR. Recently I had the forks apart to change the oil and found there was no long spacer (26 and 58 on the fiche), just a washer, the short aluminum cap (28 and 60 on the fiche) and the threaded cap bolt. The springs are OEM not Progressive since the winding is linear with the top having a tighter winding and a wider winding at the bottom. The handling is good with no bottoming or pogoing. It would seem there is no normal pre-load. From what I have read about the experience of others, with the setup my forks have there should be issues and yet there aren't any. Does anyone have any idea why? http://www.partzilla.com/parts/search/Yamaha/Motorcycle/1989/VENTURE%20ROYALE%20-%20XVZ13DW/FRONT%20FORK/parts.html

I would bet the oil sensor is not as sophisticated as a float switch. The single wire is most likely hot and when the sender switch is covered with oil the circuit is closed and when the oil level is low then the movement of the bike will make the oil surge and break the circuit. There would likely be significant issues with engine crud if an actual float was used.

I have never had my starter apart but I would think it is very unlikely for it to be running in an oil bath. It is electrical after all. The gasket would logically be there to prevent water from getting into the motor and, of course, to allow enough clearance for the gears not to bind. I could be wrong so was there any indication of oil being in the motor?

Jack and Randy got it and mine makes three. When you pulled the drain plug was there not a magnet attached? Walmart normally carries Rotella T 15W-40 which is a very good choice for motorcycles. You can pay more for "motorcycle" specific oil but you are just paying for advertising or low volume sales. Watch for when 5 gal buckets of Rotella T come on sale. Not just at Walmart but they tend to be very competitive,