frankd

OOOPS..... I looked and saw that Ragtop had commented and in my mind I'd thought that it was he that started the topic. He used to live near Detroit and MIchigan uses tons of salt on their roads. Salt rots cars and trucks, and thinking the rotted hitch was his I made my comment. Sorry about that. I see you live in Ohio. Do you guys get salted bad? We used to live about 50 miles SW of Chicago and Illinois uses a lot of salt so our cars fell apart quickly but MIchigan was far worse. Fran k

Jay I just came across this topic. Did this truck come down with you from Michigan? Frank

5K is a bit early for the 2nd gear issue. Yamaha used a soft thrust washer on the transmission shaft that has the 2nd gear slider on it and it tended to wear a bit and then the transmission would hop out of 2nd gear. ALL the bikes made before the middle of '85 had this problem. My 83 made it to about 75K. Another thing you might want to do if you get it running is to pull the rear tire, and then the shaft drive unit and grease the drive shaft splines with heavy molybdenum disulfide grease. If it only has 5k on it, it may NOT have the updated alternator stator cooling modification. This was a recall done twice. My first stator only lasted about 7500 miles before it became grounded. Yammie replaced the stator and installed the first version of the modification. A few months later, everything was fine with my stator, but they came up with a 'better' cooling mod. and they replace the stator again and installed the new kit. The 83's had a weak frame and the cross bracket that the rear shock attaches to twisted. My frame broke at about 90,000K. I replaced the frame with one from a 84 which was way stronger where it broke. My brother is riding my 83, and it is running fine with 140,000 miles.

N9OHM Nice call!!!! Frank KA9J

I've had this identical problem with both of my 1st. Gen. bikes. The first time I had it, is was on a trip and had ridden most of the previous day in rain. After a bit the bike ran real rough, but if I gave it full throttle, it would run better for a little bit. I put up with the poor running all the way home, and by after about 300 miles it was better. Then I was going into work at 3AM and it got real bad. I fought with it and by that afternoon I was pretty convinced that it was water in the tank. I pulled out the fuel filter and blew it out putting the contents on my driveway and you could see the water separated from the gas. I pulled the petcock from the tank and drained the water out of the bottom of the tank. Then I opened the carb. drain screws and drained the carbs. Once again I could see water in the gasoline drained from the carbs. Put it back together and it ran great. A couple of years later, I got caught in a gully washer, and the bike began to run rough again. When I got home, I had to drain the water again. This was before there was 10% Ethanol in gasoline, so water would just lay in the bottom of the tank until it was drained. I figured the only way for rain water to get into the tank would be through the vent. I traced it's path and saw it was right in front of the rear tire and as gas was drawn out of the gas tank, a vacuum would form and it would draw some of the water that was was in front of the tire, which would go up into the gas tank. I cut a slit in the vent hose so that a strong vacuum wouldn't form at the lower end of the vent hose. I never had problems again, until I purchased the 89. I hadn't had this problem for so long that I never did anything to prevent this on the new(er) bike. My wife and I were on the way to Maintenance day and on the Ohio Turnpike it rained hard for a bit, and the bike started missing. I knew what was wrong but couldn't do anything where we were, so we just soldiered on. Now the gasoline was mixed with ethanol, and could absorb some water. After we filled it up with fresh gas, it got better. After the 2nd fill, it was mostly cured. By that night it was fine. After we got home, I cut a slit in this vent hose also. To verify if you have water in your tank, pull the fuel filter, hold it vertically with the filter element up, and then blow through it (using a hose) on to a hard surface. Look at what's on the ground and if you have water in your tank, you should see some mixed in with the gas.

What is your issue with the clutch?

How is the radio interfearance (RFI) with this lamp? About 6 years ago, I had an LED headlight installed. The light was OK, but after we moved 70 miles SE of Nashville I noticed that I couldn't receive hardly any radio stations. I found that interfearance from the LED headlight was making it difficult for my radio to receive weaker stations. I'd appreciate it if somebody who has one of these SuperBright LEDs installed could tune in a weak AM and also a weak FM radio station with the key in the accessory position and then turn the key to ON to bring on the headlight and see if you notice interferance.

The antenna on the left side in the pictures is a television antenna with a rotor. Because it looks like a higher gain antenna and has rotor, I suspect you live between 2 cities a few miles away. Did you get the rotor control box? The antennas on the right mast are PROBABLY for 144MHZ (aka 2 meters) and the other probably for 440 MHZ (aka 70cm). I can't tell too much from the pictures, but If you pull them down you could find the model number and I could tell a lot more. They look like there are mutliple antennas in each giving them higher gain. The mast looks like a 'push up' mast so if you can see how to release the sections you could release the guy wires (on a calm day) and then lower the antennas down one section at a time. I can't tell for sure from these pictures, but the wire that has an insulator on it and is attached to the TV antenna mast 'might' be a dipole antenna. Just a length of wire with a coax cable attached to the middle. None of these are worth a lot of money, but the 144MHZ and the 440MHZ antennas probably cost $100-$200 new. You may be able to sell the push up mast too.

Chief, This is a bit off topic, but....Failed lifter & cam (replaced) and the latest BIG issue was a failing of the final drive bearings or gearing. If your engine damaged a lifter and camshaft, you had metal particles in your engine oil circulating through your engine and transmission. The oil filter would have caught most of them, but some would have gone throught the filter bypass on a cold start. This may have been the cause of the final drive unit/gearing going bad and getting a new engine was great.

Yes, shaft drive units on 86's and later are different than the 83. The parts diagram shown has #30, #31 & #33 circled and I thought that the seal you had problems with was the seal coming out of the middle gear unit. The seal I had to change on my 83 was the midde gear seal and I also replaced it on my 89 when I replaced the U-joint and yoke even though it was stil dry. Sorry about getting which seal wrong.

The only thing I can tell you is that I did change that seal on my 83 and had no problem doing it. The seal came out easily. I will tell you that depending on how many miles are on your bike is that you may want to replace the universal joint now. On my 83 the grease in the universal joint had dried up and the cups were galled at about 100K. On my 89 with about 80,000 miles on it the grease had dried up and the universal joint had worn to the point that one of the bearings had come out of the cup. If you decide to replace the universal joint be advised that it only come with 2 caps.. You have to buy the other 2 caps separately (#35) and also 2 ea. of #37. I think I bought the yoke with the universal joint. If you don't replace the universal joint at lease disassemble it and inspect and grease it.

I don't see any RTV sealant on the stator grommet.

One thing I should have said is that the reason the vacuum gauges are moving so violently is that the only time there is flow through the carb is when that cylinder is on an intake stroke. Then the vacuum is high. When that cylinder is on a compression, ignition or exhaust stroke, there is zero flow through the carb and the vacuum is zero. I seem to remember that the gauges will indicate about 9.5" of vacuum when all the carbs are synchronized properly. This reading is on my First Gen, but Second Gen should be close.

To read the intake manifold vacuum, you need to restrict the hose to the gauge so that the vacuum at the gauge can average out. I've tied knots in the hose near the engine and then just adjusted the knot tightness to restrict the vacuum signal. I've also taken a 1/2" bolt, and drilled a hole in the bolt big enough to pass the gauge hose through. Then you thread a nut onto the 1/2" bolt adjusting it to restrict the vacuum signal. You could also use a needle valve to restrict the vacuum signal. Whichever method you use, when you have the engine running, you should see the gauge moving a tiny bit. When you shut the motor off, the gauge should slowly move to zero.

The 83's (and also later) Ventures do have fuel shut-offs. It's on the right side of the bike, at the bottom of the fuel tank. As memory serves, on the 83 Ventures, the shut-off wasn't accessible without removing the right side main cover. Look at the lower part of the cover, and below the very bottom of the black section is where it's at. On the 84's and later Yamaha put a notch in the lower edge of the cover so you could get to the shut-off without removing anything. When you turn the shut-off you've got to be careful or you will break the actuator, especially if it hasn't been moved in a long time. I think I'd spray it with something like WD-40 and let it sit before moving it gently. You may want to also check and make sure that it's turned to "RESERVE" so you can use the full capacity of the tank (5.4 gallons). Get this fixed immediately. You have a very dangerous situation. Gasoline fumes can explode. Any spark or even your gas hot water in your garage tank may cause ignition. Also while turning off the shut-off is a good idea, if the leak is small it'll take a while for the trapped gas to run out. What I would do is to put the bike on the center stand, remove both side covers, and get down and inspect the fuel line from the shut-off, thru the gas filter (under the gas tank) into and thru the fuel pump (also under the tank). If you don't find any evidence of a leak, follow the red hose up to the carbs. One clue might be does your fuel pump run quite a bit after sitting for a few hours?