frankd

The XS 1100, 850 & 750 all had the same driveshaft setup as the MK I Ventures, and nobody knew that they needed to be taken apart to be greased properly. There's a good chance that there may be some wear on the rear coupling, depending on how many miles on the bike.

Seeing that there is a way for people to pay the ransom, couldn't some agency just use the path of the payment to find this guy and arrest him?

That's basically how you check for spark. Seeing that you swapped the plugs with a good cylinder, you're relatively certain that spark plug is good. Pull the plug wire off the plug, put a spare (or a good used plug) in the plug wire, and ground the base of the spark plug. Start the bike, and look for a repeating spark. This will tell you which way to go.

Setting to disable ignition when first starting from 0~40 revs, helps clear cylinders out. That'd probably also help with hot starts. It'd let the engine start spinning and build up speed before the spark started and then it wouldn't kick back as bad.

I remember seeing them during the late '50s while we were driving up to northern Wisconsin. I used to love reading them, hoping that it was a new one that I hadn't seen before.

AGM batteries have higher cranking current available, less current drain during storage, longer life, and you never have to add water. They're a little more expensive, but I think they're worth it because they definitely help hot starts . Skydoc sells them and they are also available in other places. Mine is 3 years old and still acting like it's brand new. Actually both bikes have AGM batteries in them, but my brother hasn't ridden the 83 very much. They are both Deka batteries.

Said Farmer Brown Who's bald on top Wish I could Rotate the crop BURMA SHAVE

Jason, Brushes 1/2 the length of new will be fine. Did you find any obvious problems when you opened up the starter? Excessive DC motor current is caused by 3 things. 1) Excessive load---not your problem because your motor runs normally. 2) Shorted motor field or armature windings. Smell the starter. If it's burnt and been hot you may smell burnt windings. 3) Worn bearings. This allows the armature to rub against the field windings, causing a lot of drag. You may see scuff marks. When my 2 pole starter was cranking slow, I could smell the burnt windings as soon as I started to open it up. I just replaced it with a 4 pole starter because they are better. It's been about 5 years since I replaced it, but it wasn't that expensive. But if the starter on your parts bike is still good, I'd just use that one. Frank

The clicking you hear is the fuel pump. After the bike sits for an extended time, the gas in the carb. bowls evaporates and the carbs must be filled before it'll start. To to this, get on the bike and hold it relatively level. Turn the key on and listen for the fuel pump to run. The fuel pump will run for a couple of seconds, and then the ignition module will shut the pump off it the engine isn't turning over. To defeat this, turn the key OFF (on a 1st. Gen you can just turn the kill switch off. I'm not sure about 2nd. Gens, but they are probably the same) and then back on. The fuel pump will run again. Keep on repeating this until the fuel pump gets the bowls full and stops running. When this happens, you won't hear the pump run when you first turn on the key. Then attempt to start the bike.

Jason, You could have a shorted (bad) starter motor. I think I'd disconnect the positive lead on the starter itself, and move it to a position where the terminal isn't touching anything. Then see if the solenoid still clicks in and out. If the solenoid works normally, you could take jumper cables and a car battery and test the starter before you pull it, but you have to be careful. A bad starter can draw a lot of current and also charging batteries produce explosive gas and a spark near the battery could cause the battery to explode. I'd connect both ends of the positive cable (between the car battery and the bike starter), connect the car end of the negative cable, and then touch the bike end of the negative cable somewhere away from the bike battery, even though you have an AGM battery. Frank D.

I suspect that you have a stator with an intermittant short or gound. My 83 had the same thing a couple of years ago. I tested the regulator, and found it was good. I disconnected the stator wires from the regulator and hooked up three 120V-75W light bulbs to the stator. When the bike was first started, all 3 were equal. After a minute or so at about 3,000 rpm, 2 of the light bulbs went dimmer and the third stayed bright. This let me know that I did have a bad stator. Here is a picture of one light hooked to the stator, just connect the other two to the other stator lead combinations.

The regulator works by shorting out the stator when the regulator output voltage gets up to 14.5V. Then the voltage going lower causes the regluator not to fire the stator shorting triacs and the voltage rises, causing the regulator to fire the triacs, over and over and over. This means that the regulator can not do anything to damage the stator. The stator is designed to tolerate being shorted. The stator can't damage the regulator either. If the stator shorts or grounds internally, the output just decreases. Also, some here have cautioned that when jumping a Venture from an automobile NOT to have the car running because you will burn your regulator up. NOT TRUE. The only thing that will happen if you hook up a Venture to a voltage source that is above 14.5 Volts is that the regulator will fire the triacs (electronic solid state switches) that short the stator and this lowers the voltage. I verified this on my workbench with a variable DC supply connected to the output of the regulator and a VOM connected across the stator leads. When I brought the voltage up the meter indicated the triacs were firing across the stator leads, not the regulator output leads.

I wanted to replace my quartz driving lights with LEDs, so the first place I looked was Walmart. I saw the LED lamps you are talking about, but notice that the box doesn't contain any info about current draw, lumen output, or beam pattern. I sent an Email to optronicsinc, and asked them about this information. They replied that the lights weren't very bright, and were mainly just marker lights. I decided to look around for others, and found tons listed on Ebay. I chose these New 2X12W Circle LED Work Light Spot Beam Driving Tailer Boat ATV Super Bright | eBay They aren't road burners, but they do add a lot of light to the road close to the bike. I've never had a car flash his lights at me to dim my lights, which means you can leave them on all the time. The pair only draws 1.2A. I had a switch/relay setup for my quartz lights, but actually you could wire them directly to a switch without a relay. THey have a 30 degree pattern, and maybe if I were doing it all over, I'd chose a 20-25 degree pattern. In the last 2 weeks, we put over 4,000 miles on them and everything is still fine.

This morning Barb and I will pack the bike and head home. It should take almost 3 days to travel the 1350 miles and the weather looks fantastic for the trip. Had a great chat with Brian (TX2STURGIS) via amateur radio on the great repeater system they have in New Mexico. He was down in El Paso driving his 18 wheeler and we had to take a few short breaks while he shifted gears. Frank

I've got Comcast for my internet, phone, and TV. They are a bit expensive ---$200/mo. for HD, but no movies. The phone is great, when we first installed it, you noticed that the signal had much better frequency response and less distortion than Ma Bell had. The internet is also great....very fast. They also give you a wireless/wired router. TV picture appears to have less resolution on some shows than either of my daughter's sattelite TV setups. Sometimes the pictures look fuzzy, other times great. It all depends on how much bandwith they alot. Things like NFL football games and Nascar races are good. Weekday afternoon TV is fuzzy. They have a feature called ON DEMAND that allows you to pick a lot of TV shows that keep on their home system for a month of longer and it's free with the service I suscribe to. This means that at times like now that I'm on the road for a couple of weeks, when I get home I can catch up on all the shows I want to see. Also a lot of free and pay movies. I've heard tales of terrible Comcast service, but I've always been treated quickly and good. If you channel surf, it's a lot faster on Comcast. On sattellite it takes a lot longer for the channel to come on. Would I chose Comcast again?? It depends on what internet service the sattelite providers can give us. The higher resolution picture would be an attraction for me. My daughter in Alurquerque has good internet from Direct TV. My daughter in Mufreesboro, TN. has sattelite TV and Comcast for internet. I'd probably go with a sattelite service because it is cheaper.

I checked into the local Alburquerque net about 7:45 this morning, but this is on the 145.33 repeater which is linked to the 444.000 repeater but not the MegaLink. I have the MegaLink on the HT right now (444.325 here in Albuquerque). Neither of us have our calls listed in our profiles so I can't just give you a call. My call is KA9J---give a call when you get a chance. Frank

Barb and I are at our daughter's house in Albuquerque where we'll stay for the next 4-5 days and then head home. We left home (near Joliet, IL) last Thursday morning with our friends from southern Illilnois. They ride a 2012 Gold Wing and pull a small trailer with it. We went to Pierce Ne. where they auctioned off the 498 cars that had been stored by the Chevy dealer. The cars went for big money (the first day of the auction was on TV---I don't remember if it was the Discovery or History channel) and the cars went for big $. We only stayed for the viewing day, but walking around looking at the lot was amazing. They had a 1928? Durant with wooden spoke wheels, a lot of 1960's Chevy C10's with 6 cylinder motors, and 4 speeds that had never been sold and only had 3-9 miles on them. I saw one of them go for $42K. Most of the cars were very rusty, and all of the motors I tried to turn over were frozen. Then we went into Denver and then west for a bit on I-70. I-70 just west of Denver is an interesting interstate highway. Very beautiful and some good grades and long tunnels. We headed south and ended up on the Million Dollar Highway, which was the first time for us. Great. We went south into Durango, and then west through "Pagosa Springs" (from C.W. McCaul's song "Wolf Creek Pass". Now they've added some tunnels on Hwy. 160 near Wolf Creek Pass, so the road isn't as challenging as it used to be. About 20 years ago, we pulled our 5000# camper over it and it worked my truck very hard. We rode Hwy 160 east to Interstate 25===our friends headed for home, and we came south to our daughter's. It's been a great trip so far.....the bike has been running great. Our gas mileage has been from 5 to 10% better than the Wing. It was as low as 35 MPG into a strong headwind, and the last tank was 46.7 MPG. I'd originally planned on going to the "VLA" (very large array==a group of radio telescopes about 120 miles south of Albuquerque for their open house Saturday, but because of the federal budget issue that's closed. The hot air balloon festiva starts this weekend, so we'll probably go watch the launch one morning at daybreak. To the other radio amatuers here: This area has the most active VHF-UHF repeater usage I've seen lately. They have several nets everyday, a couple of breakfasts per week, and a linked repeater system that covers all of New Mexico and some of Western Texas. Lots of activity. At home, even the big Chicago repeaters (one on Sears Tower--I know, the name has changed to Willis Tower I think) is quiet even during rush hour. A welcome difference here.

I had a similiar problem, and I changed my fuel hose also. I thought it was fixed, but then started having problems again with the needle valves not sealing. BTW, I'd changed the needle valves last fall. This time, I decided the only thing left was the fuel filter. I shut off the tank petcock and pulled the fuel filter. I carefully ground the seam that held the filter together, and found that the filter element was only a fine mesh screen, and also that the screen wasn't retained correctly, so in effect the fuel filter was bypassing. The bad fuel filter was a NAPA type, and I think the number was someting like 3007. I went to AdvanceAuto, and the counter man came back with a fuel filter that was about the same size physically, but had a paper cartridge for filter media. The housing was also clear, so I could see that the element was retained well. I've got about 3,000 miles since I changed the filter and everything's been fine. The new filter was a little shorter than the original, so I used a couple of wire-ties to keep it in the bracket. I flushed the crud out of the needles and seats by unplugging the fuel pump (the connector is under the left side cover, underneath the very bottom section. It's a 2 conductor connector) and letting the bike idle until it stalls with dry carbs. Then plug the fuel pump back in and start the bike. When this happened on the way to the Rally in Ga., I flushed it twice to make sure I got it clean and it was OK for the rest of the trip.

Yes, it's only a friction fit for the dust seal.

You also need dust seals, shown as #8 on the parts fische. Your profile shows you have a 87 Venture, but then you talk about boots? 87 Ventures didn't have boots from the factory, however 90?-93's did. I just looked on the 92 parts fische, and they don't seem to use the dust seals. I guess they rely on the boots to keep things clean. Frank D.

When we were coming down to Blairsville, our 89 did the same thing. I put it on the center stand, and unplugged the fuel pump. The connector is under the left cover, kind of underneath of the black section on the bottom. I started the bike, and let it run to drain the carbs. Then I plugged the fuel pump back in, and restarted the bike. The idle speed was back up and no more fuel coming out of the overflow hose. I figured that the rush of fuel would wash the needle and seat off, and it did. I unplugged the pump again and did it a 2nd time. I put the cover back on, and everything was fine the rest of the way down, during the rally, and all the way home. Then it did it a 2nd time. I unplugged the pump again started it and let it run the carbs dry. Then I pulled the fuel filter and changed it. I opened up the old filter carefully, and hopefully I found my bike's problem. The filter element inside of the old filter was a real fine screen, but it was loose from the side of the housing, so it wasn't filtering. The one I replaced it with has a small paper type filter in it, and the shape of the housing prevents it from moving. It's been a couple of weeks now, and it's been fine. BTW, there was no rust in the bottom of the old filter.

There are a couple other important things to consider. With a passenger onboard and a 100 W. linear amplifier, your RF (radio frequency) field strength will probably be way above what is considered "safe". Basically the RF energy coming from your antenna heats things just as a microwave does, and the temperature of skin increases slightly. Radio Amateurs are supposed to do a study when they install antennas to make certain that nobody will be able to get close enough to an antenna to be harmed. Yes, I know that you're not an amateur, but consider the safety of your passenger and to a lesser degree, yourself. Also make sure you inform your passenger to NEVER reach out and touch the antenna near the tip. The tip is the high voltage point of an antenna and there is a pretty good chance that on a hot day (sweaty bodies) that you passenger would feel a pretty big shock, and with if they jerk violently away an accident could occur. Stay at 4 Watts. It's not the same as running a 100W amplifier in a car. Frank D. KA9J

Jeff is probably 100% correct, but there is one more thing. Take your voltmeter and measure the voltage on the regulator side of the brown wire. You should have battery voltage there. For this there is no reason to start the bike, just verify that your voltmeter reads battery voltage. The brown wire is the "sense" wire for the voltage regulator. That means that it is used to tell the voltage regulator what the battery voltage is so it can keep the voltage @ 14.5V, plus or minus .5 volt. If the brown wire going into the regulator has battery voltage on it, your regulator is trashed. BTW, if you look on EBAY for a replacement regulator, keep in mind that they also make Venture jet ski's and that they have different regulators. Look at yours and make sure that the one you are buying looks the same. You probably also need to eliminate the burnt connector. Disconnect the battery negative lead first!!! Then you can connect one of the red wires from the regulator to the bike's wiring. The 2 red wires are in parallel. Ditto for the 2 black wires. On my bike I used high quality ring terminals, crimped onto the wiring and them soldered. I used nuts and bolts to connect the reds together, and then the blacks together. You could leave the brown in the existing connector if it's not corroded. Tape up the connections with electrical tape. My stator leads (the white wires) are done the same way. If your white wire connector is burned up, do it the same way. Any white wire from the stator can go to any white wire of the regulator. I have seen some stators that have yellow wires, so don't get upset if yours aren't white. If your battery voltage is 16V, I wouldn't ride the bike until you get it fixed. You are flat out boiling your battery, and you should check the electrolyte level. Frank

John, Welcome to the site!!!! Electrically, the First and 2nd Gen. rectifier/voltage regulators work the same way, but physically they are different. On the First Gens (83-93), the rect./reg is on the left side, above the muffler, and it is a tight fit between the swing arm, frame, and muffler. The 2nd gen. rect./reg. is thicker, so it would be rough to install it there. If you want to use a 2nd gen unit, you will have to extend the wires and mount it in a different position. There are aftermarket units that are pretty small though. The charging system is rated @ 30 Amps, so any regulator with a rating above that would work. Before you change the regulator, make sure the plugs on the regulator are clean. Also make sure your battery cables, main ground leads, and main fuse retaining screws are clean and tight. You can buy used original type regulators on Ebay all the time, and they usually aren't very expensive. Gold & Venture is parting out a First Gen., and maybe he still has the regulator http://www.venturerider.org/classifieds/showproduct.php?product=4588&title=parting-out-wrecked-91-venture-royaleread-description&cat=6 Any year (83-93) will work. The original First Gen. regulators have been very reliable. BTW, how high does the voltage go on the dash gauge?

Today I took my first ride on the new Avon's. I pulled Avon Venoms off, the front had 22,000 miles and the rear had a bit over 19K, both were worn to where they were completely used up. I installed a Venom on the front and a Cobra on the rear. I would say that the Cobra rear feels different than the Venom did when it was new. It didn't feel as willing to lean as the Venom did. The sidewalls on the unmounted Cobra feel stiffer than the Venom's also. Barb and I have plans on taking a trip out to Albuquerque, so I'll let you know how it's doing after we come home.