frankd

A dome light got left on in my 2001 E-350 w/ 6.8L V-10 engine, and the battery went completely dead. I hadn't driven it for a month or so, so I have no idea how long it was dead. I charged the battery (and found the dome light on), and the engine would crank, but not fire at all. I connected my Actron CP9180, and it would communicate some with my PCM, but would not find or show the enginge sensor outputs. I connected the Actron to my 2006 Freestar and my son's 1997 Taurus, and it worked great. I started checking things, and found that the E-350 had no fuel pressure, and the fuel pump was locked up and drawing a lot of current (20 Amps). I replaced the fuel pump, and the van started and ran fine....I thought. It still wouldn't indicate the engine sensors output. I tried resetting it with the Actron, but no help. Last week, my son had to move some tools to a friend's auto repair shop, so while we were there, he tried his friend's Matco scanner. It also would not indicate the engine sensors, but it did tell me that I had a P1000 error code (emission test not complete), but I couldn't get it to tell me exactly what test was not finished. My Actron also showed the P1000 error, but it indicated that the oxygen sensor test was not complete. I've only driven it about 300 miles since I changed the fuel pump, but last week I did travel about 50 miles on the highway. I think the O2 sensors test should have been competed long ago. Watching the gas gauge, I think it's using even more gas than usual. On a Ford forum, it was suggested that I disconnect the battery, short the battery terminals to discharge any capacitors and leave it that way for 30 minutes or so before I reconnect the battery. I left it disconnected overnight and when I drove it, the P1000 error seems to be gone, but it still says the O2 sensors and heaters haven't completed their tests and it still won't show the engine sensors. I drove it about 25 miles mostly at about 60 MPH. It appears to me that my Power Control Module (PCM) has lost some of it's program, but I'm not sure enough to replace it. Any ideas how to tell for sure, or what can be done to cure this? Anybody know of any forums where I may find somebody that knows about Ford PCM's? Frank

Barb and I got home safe & sound. Had a great time talking to everybody!! Another good job Mike. Frank

You DO NOT need to remove the radiator, just unbolt it and the hoses allow it to move enough to pull the starter. Frank D.

Enjoy yourself, it's a great ride. The bike will loose more power the higher you go, but so what. When you finish your visit at the top and start the engine to come down, it cranks real fast because of the lower compression pressure caused by the thin air. At this altitude (14,000 ft.), the atmosphere is only 2/3 as dense as it is at sea level. It was about 50 degrees in Colorado Springs the day we went up, and 28 degrees and very windy at the top. On the way up, the cooling fan on my 89 ran quite a bit (the bike was heavily loaded and 2 up), but our friends new Wing go so hot that we had to stop twice on the way up. I don't think your 2nd Gen has a heat gauge, so be careful. Both our friends on the Wing and us on our Venture came down in 2nd and 3rd gear depending on the grade. On the way up, both bikes used 1st. gear on some of the real tight corners with steep grades, mostly because we were behind slow traffic and pulling big grades. The next morning I woke up grinning because I was thinking how great this trip was. We'd been up there 3 times prior to this, but with 4 wheels. Frank D.

As Prairiehammer suggested, check your float levels, it sounds like they are way high. How's your gas mileage? My 89 used to start great without the choke until I found that my floats were all high. I set them to the proper level, and now if it's above 70F, it'll start without the choke, but it runs lean for a couple of minutes until the motor starts to warm up. This would go along with your pilot adjustments being set so lean. Another indication of this is having good throttle response when it's only been running a couple of minutes. When you pull out on a main road on a cool morning with the choke off and the engine cold, mine bogs a little when you hit the throttle. It had great cold throttle response before I adjusted the floats. High float levels richen up all the carb. circuits. Frank D.

I've checked my oil level alarm a couple of times when I have the oil drained. What surprised me was how little oil it took to turn it off......a little over a quart!! Frank

You may want to check the water pump and see if it still has the plastic impeller. Yamaha changed it to a metal impeller on the later bikes. Many years ago, I did the 2nd gear rebuild on my 83, and when I took the water pump apart, the impeller had a big crack in it and was close to breaking free from the shaft. Also, the water pump seals do go bad, so it's time to replace the seals even if the impeller is already metal. Frank

Is your ENGINE clean? If you've had an oil leak, a lot of crud accumulates on the engine, preventing the air from cooling the motor. Believe me, I realize that the Ventures are 'water cooled', but they still dissipate a lot of heat in the air that moves over the engine. If you're wondering about the accuracy of your temperature gauge, measure the temperature of the motor and compare it to the temperature gauge. You could use an infra-red thermometer. Harbor Freight has both of them for a decent price. Or you could put a small thermometer in the radiator cap opening of the radiator. The fan switch has no effect on the heat gauge. It only turns on the fan (through a relay) when the temperature gets up to about 205F. On a Mk II, that's about 3/16" below the top of the green band on the gauge. On a Mk I, it's right at the top end of the green band. http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?q=thermometer

Does the clutch lever feel normal or does it pull in real easy? If it feels normal, then your clutch plates are probably sticking together. I used to have a DT-175 that used to do this real bad if it sat for a while. The 175 had a grannie low first gear, so what I used to do was start it in neutral, start the bike gliding down the hill in my drive way, pull the clutch in and slip it into first gear. Then when I rolled the throttle on and off a couple of times, it'd break free and be OK until it sat again. If your clutch lever feels normal, I'd pull the lever in and rock it back and forth aggressively. If you have a good hill nearby or a couple of people to push the bike and get it moving pretty good, you can try the slip it into first approach.

Universal joint problems on 1st. Gen Ventures are not very common. On my 83 (purchased new), at about 100,000 miles, I had the seal behind the u-joint start to leak, so I had to pull the U-joint to get to it. I saw a slight wear, and since I had it apart, I decided to change it. On my 89 (owned for about 6 years now and had about 65K on it), I started to hear some clunking when I'd let out the clutch or changed gears. Then about 10 miles later, the noise stopped, but when I rolled off the throttle at about 65 MPH, the bike had a pretty bad vibration. When I rolled the throttle back on, it went away. I pulled the shaft and the swing arm, and I found that one of the arms of the u-joint was broken and the one 180 degrees away was about to break. The bearings on both sides were red powder. The other pair were fine, but had very little grease on them. I replaced the u-joint and the yokes on both sides. As for the shaft drive unit lubricant, I use Mobil 1 synthetic. I used to use regular 90W. On the 83, the only difference I noticed was the shaft drive unit ran a bit cooler. That's understandable because the synthetic moves easier, using less energy. However, on my 89, my wife and I both noticed that the bike had less whine when I put in the synthetic. The funny thing was that I didn't think that any of the whine was coming from the shaft drive unit.

Puc, You had a lot of gas left.....1st Gens hold 5.3 gallons. I know this for a fact because I've run mine dry. Heck, a lot of times I've put 5 gallons in. On most of the 1st Gens. the reserve alarm comes on when you've used 3.9-4.0 gallons. That means you have over 50 miles left before you run out. Enjoy the rest of your trip!!!! Frank

I'm planning on coming, but Barb is still not sure if she'll be able to get away. Frank D.

How warm was it when you were riding? How clean is your engine? If it's covered with crud, it'll run a bit warmer. Today it was about 70F here, and when I was cruising about 50MPH and 2 up, mine indicated a little over 1/4 of the meter scale. Are you using 50% water, 50% anti-freeze?

You can also nuke it. I don't remember how long, but just do it in 30 second intervals, and stop after it all changes color. Frank

I had the cable unscrew from the front tire several times on m 83, and finally I cleaned all the grease from the threads and used Loc-Tite to keep it from unscrewing. After this, I just use a pair of vice-grips to loosen it when I want to pull the front tire. On my 89, I haven't had to do that yet, I've just made sure it's tightened firmly. Be careful though so you don't over tighten it.

Dave, Unplug the cb connector from the radio chassis (2nd plug from front) and see if the noise goes away. Another VentureRider had the cable between the CB and the radio chassis damaged and ignition noise was getting into the radio. Then unplug the intercom cables (the back 2 connectors) and see if one of these is your problem. Remember that when you unplug the front intercom cable, you will have to check the noise in the rear intercom connector. Frank

Welcome to Venturerider.org--and yes, joining will be the best $12 you ever spent. There is a lot of experience here. There are a lot of us that have been riding and repairing Ventures for a long time. In fact, I bought one of the first Ventures in March of 1983, and it's still up and running, and being enjoyed by my brother. It has 140,000 miles on it, and could go on a long trip anytime. Be very careful---the bike is pretty heavy and fast for a brand new rider. Take a riding course, and take you time. The brake pedal (which is for the rear and left front brake) on my '83 used to be very soft. In fact, it was so soft that I'd run out of rear brake pedal travel before I saw good braking. What I did to fix it was first to replace the brake hoses with stainless steel brake lines. Old rubber hoses expand when pressure is applied, causing a soft brake pedal. While you're doing this, replace the brake fluid. First Gen Ventures (83-93) have a brake line that runs up along the frame, and near the steering head, heads downward to the left front brake and anti-dive valve (more on this later). Air tends to collect at the high point of this line (near the steering head) and is a pain to get out. Mk II bikes (86-93) have a bleeder there that can be accessed easily, but MK I (83-85) bikes don't. The only way that I ever found to bleed the air is to remove the tank and right fairing plastic and then loosen a brake line there to get it to bleed. Replacing the brake fluid and bleeding the system is the first thing you need to do and this may make your brake pedal tolerable. I said tolerable because it will still be a bit softer than you'd like. To make it like a rock you'll need to install the braded steel lines plus.......The anti-dive valves on the Mk I bikes are operated by brake line pressure. Look at the valves near the bottom of the forks and you will see where the anti-dive valves are "T'd" off of the brake lines to the front brakes. The fork springs in MK I bikes are pretty soft, so a lot of us replaced them with Progressive springs and now run no fork air pressure. Progressive springs are much stiffer than stock springs and really don't need anti-dive to keep from bottoming out on hard braking. That means you can eliminate the lines from the front calipers to the anti-dive valves. I did all of this about 20 years ago, when I had everything apart to fix 2nd gear. Last year, I had to rebuild the rear master cylinder, but it was leaking brake fluid and still pumping fine. Some have found that the master cylinder bore was so worn that it couldn't be rebuilt. Mine rebuilt OK and is fine now. The O ring between the reservoir and the master cylinder isn't available from Yamaha, but I went to Grainger and purchased a bag of properly sized O rings. If you need one, let me know and I can send one to you. 83's have another problem that wasn't mentioned yet. Some of us have had the frame break near where the rear shock and center stand are attached. Mine broke at about 90K and I replaced the frame with one from an 84. Yamaha beefed up the frames on the 84's and later bikes. Changing the frame is a BIG job---I had parts everywhere because the last part you pull of the old frame is the first you put on the new one. Some have welded the frame to repair it, but mine was metal fatigued and not safely repairable. Frank

As Carl said, you may want to flush any garbage from the needles and seats, but I did this a different way, and I think it'll work better. On the left side of the bike, (underneath the left cover) you will see a 2 wire connector near the passenger left foot peg. Put the bike on the center stand, start it, and disconnect this connector. This is the fuel pump connector. When the bike starts sputtering (about 2 minutes) plug the fuel pump back in and the bike should recover. Do this a couple of times. Frank

Now that I've thought about it, something else that I found was---there is a DIN connector underneath the passenger seat (you have to remove the seat to find it). Mine was not quite all the way together. I unplugged it and plugged it back in several times, and then made sure that it was in all the way.

I 'had' to buy a bigger tire one time, and it did fit. We had a trip planned and on the day before we were scheduled to meet our friends, I noticed a nail in my Avon. I called all of the local shops, and about 30 miles away, a Yammie dealer told me he had a Dunlop in stock. I drove up and they mounted the tire. When I got home, I went to roll the tire into the bike, and it was wider than the distance between the drive hub and the right side of the swing arm. When I checked the size on the side of the tire, I noticed that it was a 150, but I don't remember the aspect ratio. It was a Dunlop 591 Harley tire. It appeared to only be a little wider, so I let the air out of the tire and then it would fit. I installed the axle and pumped the tire back up. I had room on both sides of the swing arm, but it was pretty tight. The tire only lasted 10-12Kmiles and I went back to a correctly sized Avon when it wore out.

The plug is empty on my 89 also. I was chasing the intercom noise on mine several years ago when I found the connecter. I tried connecting different capacitors, and it had no effect on the noise, which is probably what Yamaha found out. There is a filter network for the radio mounted in the left pocket of the fairing, just in front of the radio chassis. It contains filters (actually a much better configuration, an L-C filter that consists of an inductor and capacitor). I beefed this filter up by adding capacitance, but it had no effect. This filter is made up of 2 different filter networks, one for the radio memory circuit and one for the actual radio. To eliminate DC line noise from the radio, I temporarily connected the radio to an external power supply, and I still had the noise when I revved up the motor even though the radio was being powered by a filtered, regulated DC supply. I found that on mine the noise was coming into the intercom via the intercom mike cables, and I found several things that reduced the noise significantly. I added grounds, cleaned connectors and opened up the radio chassis and tightened all the ground screws that hold the PC boards down. I also found that the noise which sounded just like ignition noise, was actually voltage regulator noise. That's why it was quiet when the bike was idling, but when you revved up the motor it got loud. Frank

If you can't get a DC clamp on ammeter, maybe you could borrow a wire tracer similar to one of these..... https://www.google.com/search?q=wire+tracers&tbm=isch&imgil=UFBdXzXtbdZUNM%253A%253Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fencrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com%252Fimages%253Fq%253Dtbn%253AANd9GcT3a3Q_sf3-gc2zSCQEQvHkzxnshNwiI1cMVRcNVg9aKyjTdn4lHQ%253B640%253B480%253BE2C8DZlMqzmcGM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.burntechshop.com%25252Fcable-wire-tracer-tracker-tone-probe-p-213.html&source=iu&usg=__xza1InsZ2pSGxIK0fTqWsvO2B2s%3D&sa=X&ei=FK-ZU9LmFM6cyAT8o4D4Cg&sqi=2&ved=0CD8Q9QEwAQ&biw=1366&bih=638#facrc=_&imgrc=UFBdXzXtbdZUNM%253A%3BE2C8DZlMqzmcGM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.burntechshop.com%252Fimages%252Fms6812a.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.burntechshop.com%252Fcable-wire-tracer-tracker-tone-probe-p-213.html%3B640%3B480 Then basically do the same procedure, except instead of the charger and headlight, you use the tracer connected to the black RR leads (bike side) and chassis ground.

Then adjust the low cylinders (by turning the screws for them ccw) until they go up and match the higher ones. Then raise the idle speed back up and do it again.

I agree with Flyin Fool, now that you know exactly what the problem is, you can concentrate on finding it. What I probably would do next would be to: 1) Unplug the voltage regulator output leads (red, black and brown wires). 2) Connect a jumper from the bike side of the RR plug black lead(s) to 1 pin of a spare car headlight. Then from the other pin on the car headlight connect the positive lead of your battery charger. Connect the negative lead to the bike chassis ground. Turn on the battery charger and the headlight should light. What you have done here is to cause a couple of amps of current to flow through the black wires to where they are connected to the chassis. 3) Then I'd take my DC clamp-on ammeter and follow the path of the current to where the black leads are terminated. I suspect you'll find the connections behind the headlight. You may find a connection that has been hot and is discolored. An infra-red thermometer combined with step 2 above may also help find the dirty/loose connection. Is there a chance you could borrow a clamp on DC ammeter from some where? You also could take your digital meter and measure the voltage where the jumper is connected to the RR black wires...you should read a small DC voltage (connect the meter common to bike chassis). Then you could check all the black leads behind the headlight and see what you read.

If you hear the water bubbling in the expansion tank, that means that the water in your cooling system is boiling. Cars, trucks, and water cooled motorcycles prevent this by allowing the pressure in the cooling system to rise to 15psi before the radiator cap vents. At 15psi and with a 50% water/anti-freeze mix in the system, coolant won't boil until it reaches 265 degrees F. This indicates that your system isn't holding pressure. When this happened on my 83, I found that the radiator cap rubber seal had gotten hard and no longer sealed correctly to the radiator. I replaced it and everything is fine now. I bought the cap I used at O'Reily's Auto Parts, but you have to grind one of the ears off of the car cap to allow it to turn on the Venture. I think the replacement was a Stant 1127, but I also think I've read that 2nd Gen caps will also work.