frankd

The fuel pump on Ventures is a demand pump. If the carbs are full and the needles are shutting off the fuel flow to the carbs, the fuel pump will do nothing. When you hear it clicking, it's moving fuel----it's probably just fine because 1st Gen bikes seldom have fuel pump problems. When you are checking the fuel level in the float bowls, do you have the bike level? I measured my bike's level by using a short level on a front and back carb with the air filter removed. Did you re-adjust your idle mixture screws after raising your fuel level? If not, peak up the idle speed by adjusting each mixture screw. They should need to be screwed in some now. Frank d.

Congratulations on your barn find and getting it running so sweet!! Originally these bikes came with regular green anti-freeze, and you changed it every 2-3 years. That's what I've always used in my 83 (bought new) and now my 89. This year when I changed the coolant, I used the 5 year Prestone anti freeze. It is a silicate formula which is needed for aluminum engines and radiators. Now, all of my experience is on Gen1 (1983-1993) bikes, but Yamaha didn't really change much on the engines when they came out with the 2nd Gen bikes. Make sure you use good water when you change the coolant. I always used drinking water instead of distilled water because some think that distilled water could cause corrosion, but I'm not certain that it does. This year I used water from my reverse-osmosis water filter. Avoid water with a lot of calcium and iron in it. If you decide to join this fine web site--(it is the best Venture site because it's both a technical site and a social site) you will have access to the Maintenance manuals listed here and it only costs $12/year. Frank D.

Do you have good spark to the rear cylinders?

I use a blind bearing puller from Harbor Freight. http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?q=blind+bearing

I've never had any luck tightening up Yamaha covers to cure a leak. What I have discovered though is that over-tightening strips out threads and breaks tabs. I also believe that it distorts the cover making leaks worse. I've actually started using a torque wrench to install cover bolts, and then checking the torque again the next day to compensate for gasket compression. If your clutch (or any other) cover is leaking, replace the gasket, and make sure the case and cover surfaces are perfectly clean. Also make sure that your leak isn't coming from the water pump seal vent. THis is the hole that is on the back of the water pump case. Or did you find the leak is the oil pan?

You did say that the front of your air box was completely cut away, and that sounds like your problem. Like FlyinFool said, they are very sensitive to modifications in the airbox. I hope that somebody did NOT rejet the bike to compensate for the air box mods. I think you need a new, unmolested air box, but maybe you could temporarily replace the missing portion(s) with duct-tape and see how it runs. The battery & airbox cover should make no difference in the way the bike runs, unless with the airbox mods. it just changed the path of the incoming air????? Try and get the airbox so that it isn't opened up and see how it runs.

Ken, Thanks for this site....there is a lot of good info there. Frank D.

By "top cover" do mean the top of the air box OR the tank cover (actually it covers the battery and air filter box) If the front has been cut out of your air box, that will make it run much leaner (more air in the mixture) than when it left the factory. A normal 1st Gen. will run very lean with a modified air box, and with to air box top off, will be hard to get it to rev. up. Some riders used to drill a couple of 1/2" holes in the air box to improve gas mileage. When you say it doesn't run good, is it lean or rich? If it's lean it'll bog and back fire. If it's rich you may see black smoke out of the exhaust and the spark plug electrodes will be dark. To help, I need to know if it's rich or lean. Frank D.

Barb and I live just west of Joliet, and if anybody wants to meet for dinner Saturday, we'll be there also. In fact, if you want me to suggest or even pick a place to meet, I'd be happy to. I'd just need to know about how many people, and what kind of place you want. We have 2 bedrooms what would be available. We won't be able to leave for Galena until after noon Sunday though. Our church has something planned for the 28th. BongoBobny......If you want to avoid Chicago traffic, you may want to change your route. I'd stay on I-80 until Joliet (Larkin Ave) and then go north about 1/2 mile and pick up Rte. 52 west. Look at a map and from Joliet there are a lot of good state highways that'll take you on a much more relaxing route to Galena. Of course if you are going to Rockford first, your route is probably the best. Frank

I'd pull the spark plugs and put some Marvel Mystery Oil in all 4 cylinders and let it soak for a couple of days. A couple of times a day, I'd probably rock the motor crank back and forth because that would distribute the oil and also let you know if progress is being made. If you get it to turn over, then you can take a turkey baster and suck the excess Mystery oil out before you put the plugs back in. If it doesn't get any better, you may have a bent connecting rod or a dropped valve. To disassemble the motor, you have to pull it and then pull the bottom part the crankshaft. This will let you see what's wrong, but to fix anything, you'd have to disconnect the cam chains and pull the heads. The only OEM part that isn't available from Yammie is the piston itself. You may want to consider just replacing the engine. Complete engines are available from Bike Junk yards and also Ebay.

To a Mk II it can be done, but I'm not sure about a Mk I. However, First Gens are geared more aggressively than 2nd Gens. and 5th gear is not as much of an overdrive. If you're wondering about how much this would help your bike, run a tank on the highway in 4th gear and see what you get. Changing the gearing also would make the bike take off from a stop easier and feel pepy as you shift through the gears. That's why this is so popular with those that pull a trailer. I don't want to open a can of worms about gearing the 2nd gens lower, but I think this really indicates carburetors that are too rich in the mid range. Engine friction goes up with the square of RPM change. That means that if you go down a gear and spin any engine 20% faster, your engine friction goes up 44% (it's still small though). Also the engine will produce a a higher vacuum (at the same bike speed), so that means that the pistons will have to work harder to draw the mixture in, also increasing the loss. Increased engine friction and piston load reduce gas mileage. Then why does the mileage go up? With the lower gear, you will cruise at a lower throttle opening than the stock setup. At light throttle opening the idle circuit has quite a bit of effect. At higher throttle opening, the slides move more, and pull the needles out more, partially opening the main jet and increasing the fuel flow. There have been articles here talking about the fuel level in the 2nd gen carbs all being set too high at the factory, and adjusting them to the right level helped the gas mileage a lot. You can check your fuel levels easily, and if you have a 2nd gen with poor gas mileage, this is probably the first thing to check or fix. I know that nobody wants to work on carbs, and that includes me. However, although I've never pulled a set of 2nd gen carbs. I get the impression that they come out a lot easier than 1st gen bikes. But then the V-max rear gear makes the bike feel so much stronger.....

5.4 ohms across the solenoid coil is probably OK. If you have 10-12 volts across the coil when you push the start button, and the solenoid still doesn't energize the starter, you have a bad solenoid.

Yes, either your solenoid is bad, OR you have a loose connection at one of the larger solenoid terminals. You should be able to touch the solenoid and feel it pick up (or close if you'd rather) when you push the start button. If you don't feel it click when you push the starter button, you could disconnect the 2 small wires and measure the solenoid coil resistance. Put your meter on OHMS and measure the solenoid end of the 2 small wires...I'd suspect you'd get about 1 or 2 ohms, maybe as much as 4 ohms. Also make sure the nuts that connect the 2 big leads are tight, but disconnect your batteries negative lead before you tighten them. Frank

OK, measure the voltage on the R/W (red with white stripe) small wire on the solenoid. With key ON and bike in neutral, you should read 12V. Then push START button and voltage should stay @ 12V. If so, measure voltage on the L/W (Blue with white stripe)---should also measure 12V, and then push START button. Voltage on L/W should go to zero. Let me know what you find and we can go from here. Frank

Jimmy, With a mirror, you can look up under the middle gear cover and maybe get some idea of what's leaking. You can also take the rubber cover off the clutch bleeder and look down it. I had a leak on my 83 that I couldn't figure out, so seeing that I had a replacement middle gear cover that was in worse shape than my original, I took it and cut off the forward portion that covers the stator leads and will allow you to see exactly where the oil is leaking. On my 89, after I changed the stator and starter drive, I had a tiny leak on the stator cover. I replaced the gasket after I thought I had everything scraped. Wrong...it still leaked. The next time I went to replace the stator cover gasket, I found a tiny piece of the old gasket stuck to the engine side. I also used a torque wrench on the bolts so that I didn't over tighten the bolts and distort the cover. If the oil seems to be coming from the back of the middle gear cover, make sure the seal on the output shaft isn't leaking. You can pull the driveshaft boot and look forward of the U-joint. Frank D.

Put the black meter lead on the battery negative terminal and the red lead on the battery positive terminal. Turn the key on, and try to start it. When you push the start button, read the battery voltage----it should be above 10 volts, but without the starter engaging it really should be above 11 V. If it goes below 10 V., your battery is bad (assuming that it's fully charged). Your charging voltage isn't quite right either. 13.7 volts at 1000 RPM says your charging system is probably OK, but if it goes down to 13.4 @ 3000 RPM, something is wrong, and it's probably your rectifier/regulator.....unless you meant to say 14.3 volts????? However, this isn't your starting problem.

Unless you've owned the bike since it's been new, there is always the possibility that one of the previous owners changed the TCI to a 41R and re-piped the vacuum advance.

I agree with the HotROd article, but want to suggest another way to get the battery to accept the charge. I would take an old type battery charger---the type that have just a transformer, rectifiers, and maybe a meter and connect it to the battery. This type charger will charge whenever it's plugged in and connected. I've got a small 2 amp. version of this that I've used for many years, and another heavier (10 & 50 amp ranges) charger. Either would be fine, but I'd probably use the 2 amp. Charge the battery like this for a couple of hours, and then switch to the new fancy charger with all the protection. As the article mentioned, the AGM batteries are really just a fancy lead-acid battery and still work almost the same way. Frank

The trunk bracket on my 89 also needed to be welded. I'd pulled the trunk off for some other reason, and then I noticed the bracket was cracked. A friend of mine TIG welded it. Yes, binding steering bearings would make it steer badly, but now that you have the CLASS working, take it for another ride. Set the front to about 14#, and the rear to about 55# for starters. Depending on what brand tires you have on it your normal tire pressure will vary. I use Avons on mine, and I run about 46# rear and 42# front. Dunlops are usually good for 40# maximum, so run them @ 38 rear and 33-35 front. If you have a different brand on it, read the tag on the tire for maximum rated pressure and then run the rear near the max. and the front about 5# less than max. Also the brand of tires on the bike affects how willingly it turns. Most of us feel that the Avons turn the best, but a lot of us use the Dunlop Elite 3's. This bike may have Elite 2's on it, which were good tires, but on them you have to convince the bike to turn more than the Avons. If it still handles poorly, check the steering head bearings, and the swing arm bearings for proper adjustment. While these bikes don't handle like a Hyabusa, when everything is working properly, they do handle pretty good.

It probably is too late, but I think that I'd have brought the battery home and charged it all night. Then tomorrow you can just install it and ride back home and fix it.

How much air are you running in the front forks? Turn the key to the ACC position, wait until the air pressure panel initializes (2-3 seconds) and then push the "FRONT" pushbutton. The screen will tell you how much air pressure in the front forks. Push the medium button, and you will probably hear the compressor run (BTW, you should have the bike on the center stand). If this isn't enough air pressure, you can put more in by either switching to MANUAL and then pushing the HIGH button briefly and watch the numbers go up, or just leave it in AUTO and push the HIGH button. On my 89, I usually run about 15#, but MK I (83-85) and MK II (86-93) have slightly different forks and springs. Progressive makes fork springs for these bikes that you can run with zero air pressure if you're not happy with the air pressure at maximum. Frank D.

It sounds like you have a weak charging system. Get a jump to get it running, and maybe even leave the cables on for a bit to give your battery a little charge ( I know that some are going to say that you can burn your regulator up if you leave the car running, but that isn't true. The regulator DOES control the voltage by shunting the excess energy, but it doesn't shunt the battery leads. It shunts the stator leads, and that will not destroy the regulator. I tested a regulator on my bench by inputting voltage across the battery leads and even with the voltage @ 18V, I still had no current flowing into the regulator. However, I could measure a triac conducting across the stator leads.) Then after you get it running ride it home, but keep the RPMs up (above 3000 RPM), and turn everything you don't absolutely need off (cruise, radio, intercom) and be careful not to leave the brake lights on when you're stopped. The first gen charging system problems that I've seen have all made enough power to just barely run the bike. I've come home twice with a bad stator. I was just careful not to use any unneeded power and both times I rode over 600 miles with a weak charging sytem (both times the stator was grounded). If you think you can get away with it, you could also pull your headlight fuse for the ride home......most cops would be understanding. Another trick I've used is while you are riding, hold the clutch lever all the way OUT so that the starter interlock will NOT allow the starter to run, and then push the start button in. What this does is to shut the headlight off, and reduce the load on the charging system. Then what little power that is still coming from the charging system will mostly go to charging the battery. Frank D.

It's just the nylon spacer. The washer goes underneath the spring. If your spacers are about 1.49mm thick (.059") your needles are in about .020" (.5mm) more than mine. When I had mine about the same as yours, my bike ran real lean. I never rode it like this, because I could tell in the garage. As I said above, I'm using brass washers for a spacer, but mine measure about .080" (2mm). Did you check the fuel level in your carbs? Frank

Alex, What prompted you to take a compression test in the first place? Frank

On my 83, one day I rode into work, and when I got off my bike, the travel trunk was missing. I'm standing there looking with a blank look on my face, because I'd just ridden 20 miles on I-55, just SW of Chicago, a really busy road. Somebody walked up to me and said that my trunk was close by the railroad tracks. I rode back to get it (or at least to see how bad it was trashed), and I couldn't believe my eyes.....it had landed on the bottom and all the sides and top were undamaged. I could see where the lock mechanism mounting nuts had loosened and unscrewed, allowing the trunk to fall off. I put it back on the bracket and rode 1 handed back to the parking lot. The nuts were inside the trunk, so I just took the trunk into the shop with me and Loc-Tited the nuts back on. This can only happen to a Mk I, but you Mk I owners may want to make sure your's are tight, or even pull them off and Loc-tite them for piece of mind. Frank