frankd

With only 31,000 KM (20,000 miles) on your 84, your rings aren't worn out. You probably have a stuck ring. Maybe you could free up the stuck ring by soaking it in Marvel Mystery Oil or something like it. Yamaha makes a treatment they call "Ring Free", but that might only free rings in a 2 stroke motor. ( I have used it to clean out my combustion chambers on my 1200) However, 1200 pistons and rings are no longer available from Yamaha. If you have your heart set on rebuilding your old motor, maybe you could go to a cooperative Yamaha dealer and on his computer he can look up if the rings and pistons are in stock in any Yamaha dealer (at least this works here) and then you could buy them. It's a slim chance though because they have been out of stock for a long time.

Gary, All of the pipes (including the mufflers) that connect to the collector have gaskets that I'd call donuts. They are between the pipes and the collector, and they are still available from Yammie. The front pipes have copper rings between the pipe and the head, and the rear pipes have copper rings that are in the clamps that hold the pipes to the heads. You can usually take the exhaust apart and then put it back together with the old gaskets and everything will seal up just fine. Just make sure you didn't break the collector gaskets when you took the pipes out. On the parts fische, the exhaust pipe to collector donuts are #27 and my dealer sells them for $16 ea. The muffler to collector gaskets are #41, and are $19.50 ea. As expensive as they are, I'm sure glad that I can usually re-use them. If you buy the bolt you broke from a Yammie dealer, it'll have a 12mm head. If you go somewhere else, it'll probably have a 13mm head, and you'll have to carry another wrench or socket in you tool kit. http://www.richsyamaha.com/pages/OemParts#/Yamaha/XVZ13T_-_1987/EXHAUST/XVZ13T_%281987_MOTORCYCLE%29/EXHAUST_%28XVZ13T_-_1987%29

Rick, I have checked and replaced 1 defective plug cap on the 89. You can verify the condition of the caps, and also if the coil wire connections are OK by measuring with an ohmeter from the plug end of the cap to ground. You will read the resistance of the cap and the coil. All 4 should measure almost identical, and if memory serves to total resistance you will measure us about 28 Kohms. Also, as I remember MK I and MK II bikes measure slightly different. The plug wires themselves will not add any measurable resistance to this test because they are solid core wire, not resistance wires. Of course this doesn't test the condition of the plug wire insulation. My bike has always run perfectly on all 4 cylinders, but was a little rich. Frank

I moved the needle IN so that I'd lean the mixture out. The MK I bikes have a clip on the needle that you can just raise or lower. The MK II's have a non-adjustable needle. I removed the spacer that raises (or moves out) the needle and measured it. It's a round nylon type spacer that has a locating pin and a nub on the end that rides on the bottom of the plunger. I measured the thickness of the shim (including the nub) and it was about .125" thick. I removed the spacer and replaced it with 3 brass washers I bought at Ace Hardware. I also found that the washers I bought weren't all the same thickness. Some were about .024" and some were as thick as .029. I picked a combination that measured about .080". That indicates that my needles are .045" further in. When I said that I'd moved the needles out some in one step, that was because I moved them too far in initially. Frank

Last fall, just before we went on our 4,500 mile trip out west, I changed my carb. diaphrams. The bike ran a lot smoother under load, but my gas mileage went from about 40-42 MPG overall, down to 35-38 MPG. When I was above 5000 feet, you could tell that it was rich. When I got home, I checked carb. fuel levels and all 4 were high, so I adjusted them. I had problems with the carb floats and finally changed the needles, float gaskets, and the O rings on the float bowl drain screws to cure fuel leaks that developed when they were disturbed. Now the bike ran fine, but the gas mileage didn't improve much. I still was getting just shy of 40 MPG. I decided that I wanted to adjust the slide needles to lean out the mid-throttle mixture, so I moved them into the jet by about .075". When I started it, it was too lean. Unless I opened the throttle very slow, it would die. I then moved the needles back out so that the change was .045" Now the bike ran OK in the garage so I took it for a short ride. It felt OK. Today my wife and I had a chance to take a longer ride. Before I changed the needle adjustment, you could start my bike cold without the choke unless the temperature was below 50 degrees. Today it was almost 80, and it would start without the choke, but then die. I used the choke to get moving, then I turned it off. It ran OK. On my side streets, I hardly used any throttle. When I pulled onto a 40 MPH road, I cracked the throttle in 1st, and it bogged slightly and then pulled good. After that, no problem with throttle response. The motor sounded a lot happier. I filled it with gas and drove 98.2 miles on state highways. I ran about 65 MPH, (GPS---68MPH indicated---my odometer is accurate) and I did pass some cars in 5th gear while running the speed up to 75-80 briefly. It took 2.22 gallons to fill it again, which figures out to 44.24 MPG.

Thanks fellas. That's what I thought after I placed it behind the brake hose plate. It did look like the cable might be a bit to far out of place. I'll free it tomorrow. Frank

The only way to NOT have the oil leak out of the middle gear when you pull the cover is to have the bike leaning to the right. I've put a piece of wood underneath the left side of the center stand to get it to lean to the right. I'm thinking that I used a 3/4 or 1" piece, but you'll have to experiment with the size. Put the bike on the center stand/ rock it to the right and have a helper place the wood under the stand. You also can just pull the cover with the bike on the center stand--you will only loose a little engine oil and you can just top it up after you run the bike. BTW, this leaning the bike to the right isn't in the manual, but it's the kind of help that's available if you spend $12 and joint this great site!!! Frank D.

Jeff, When I first bought my 89, it would intermittently go dead at a stop and then restart. Then it'd go out, be dead for a couple of seconds and then start running again. Then I noticed that (like you did) that the cruise lights went out when it went dead and then came back on. You said that you didn't think that the kill switch didn't explain it starting after a rest...... There is quite a bit of current flowing through the kill switch contacts. If the contacts were dirty, the contact resistance would be higher. The current through this resistance could get the contacts HOT. This could cause them to move apart, creating an open circuit. Then because you would shut the key off, the current would quit flowing and the contacts could cool down and make again. I'm not saying that this is definitely what happened, but it IS a possibility. Your 60 mile rides will tell. BTW, after looking at the print and seeing that my problem was probably the kill switch, I exercised the switch and the problem went away. I regularly use my kill switch, so I've never had a problem since. I imagine that the PO's never used it much. Contact sets are usually designed so that they wipe each other as they close. That way surface oxidation is constantly cleaned away.

That's why I use my Simpson 260 for quite a bit of what I do. I've got several digitals also, and for a lot of things they are great, but for some things you just need a regular old VOM! Glad you found your problems. Frank

Yes it is what????

On my 89, the speedometer cable came un-screwed from the speedometer and ended up on the ground. I pulled the left fairing half and put it back on the speedometer, but I realized that I'm not 100% sure if I have it routed correctly. If you look below the headlight, you can see where the front brake hoses are clamped behind a plastic piece. Is the speedometer cable also held behind this piece or is it loose in front of it? Frank

If you pull the plug out that's below the water pump turn the thermostat bypass to the bypass position, and remove the radiator cap, the motor will be 95% drained. If you want to get the last little bit out, you can take the covers off of the sides of each cylinder (remove the phillips screw) and then pull out the rubber plugs. You can screw and old spark plug into the plugs to remove them. Each cylinder will have a tiny bit of water in the water jacket. Put the rubber plugs back into each cylinder, and replace the water pump plug. Then mix the coolant 50/50 before you put it in the bike. Fill up the radiator and with the thermostat bypass still in the bypass position, start the bike. Top up the radiator, and then put the radiator cap back on. Turn the thermostat bypass back to the normal position, and fill the coolant reservoir to about 1/2 full. Run the bike for a couple of days and then fill the reservoir to the full mark with a warm engine. BTW, have the bike on the center stand when you do all of this. Join this web site... it WILL be the best $12 you ever spent.

Seeing that it's not your driving lights, you could connect a headlight across the fuse (I lead to each side of the fuse terminals, and then if you used a different headlight for the fuse, disconnect your bike's headlight. Disconnect (or pull the fuse for them) the driiving lights. Then turn the key on and start moving things around. Without your headlight and driving lights drawing power, the headlight should not be very bright, unless the line is shorted somewhere. When you get to the location of the fault, the headlight will get bright when the fault is present, and when you move the wiring and temporarily cure the fault, the headlight will get dim again. If the headlight is dim, you should be able to see your tailights and parking lights glow.

At last year's international rally, I helped somebody with a 2nd gen with the same problem. I imagine you're referring to the fuse in the left side fuse box....We found that the entire lighting system is on this one fuse. That means that if the short is in the front of the bike you will also measure it on the lights in the rear. Also, the resistance of the cold (unlit) lamp filaments is very low, so if you're using an ohmeter, it will measure a very low resistance normally. If you do have some electrical knowledge, there are a couple of things you can do to find this quicker. First, I'd replace the fuse with a headlight. You could use the one from your bike, or one from a car...it doesn't matter. Connect one side of the headlight to the hot side of the fuse holder, and one side to the protected side. The headlight will limit the current available, and also give you an indication that current is flowing by lighting up. If you have access to a DC clamp on ammeter, you can just follow the current (3-4amps) to the short. If not, all is not lost. You can just start disconnecting lights until the headlight gets dimmer. This will be your short. On the bike I helped, the problem was the driving light wiring in the light itself. The hot wire going into the light itself was chaffed and intermittently shorting to ground. If nothing else, unplug (or shut off it there is a switch) your driving lights. I know that if I had a 2nd gen, I'd add a 2nd fuse just for the driving lights. I'd make it just barely big enough. I think that the driving lights use a 35 watt lamp. 35W + 35W=70W, 70W/13V=5.4A (Power=E x I or I=P/E). I'd use a 10A fuse maximum. If you can find something between 5 and 10 amps, I'd use that, but that may not be big enough and blow when the current rushes into the cold lamp filaments. That way, when the wiring in the driving lights grounds, you will only lose the driving lights, not the headlight and tail light. BTW, if the driving lights use 55W lamps, you can do the math for these.

It also sounds to me like you've just got air in your system. Remember that the left front disk is also linked with the rear brake, so if the line going to it has air as suggested by Van it will cause the brake pedal to be soft or missing. You also mentioned that you couldn't see the master cylinder draw any fluid out of the reservoir.....fluid only flows into the master cylinder when it's at the relaxed position, and then only when it needs some fluid. If none is lost, it doesn't draw any, it merely re-uses what it has. Next you do need to bleed the left front brake. The bleeder Van mentioned is in front of the tank cover (OK, actually the battery & air filter cover), just to the right of the center. Remove your tank cover and being careful not to spill brake fluid on anything, bleed it here. Then after you get all the air from it, check your left front calilper. Then check the rear brake caliper again. It's best to use a small, clear piece of tubing pushed over the end of the bleeder. A vacuum bleeder will help, but it's not necessary on a MK II. Getting somebody (wife, son, daughter, ....) to push the brake pedal for you is almost necessary though. Just have the helper push the pedal down and NOT release it when you say "DOWN". Have them pump the brake pedal 4-5 times real quick, and then hold it down. While they are holding it down, open the bleeder in front of the tank cover. Then close the bleeder, and tell them "UP" When you open the bleeder, you will probably see air come out. Repeat this process over until you see no more air. Once you have some brake pedal, you can quit pumping the brake and only have them push it down once and hold it. Also, make sure you don't run out of brake fluid in the reservoir. Sometimes air bubbles will cling to the lines and not rise to the top----not enough for you to have no pedal, but it may be a bit spongy. Sometimes you have to bleed brakes a 2nd time the next day.

How long was the bike sitting? How old is the gas in the tank? The only thing that would make the 2 left carbs dry would be stuck floats or needles. The only thing that would make them overflow is stuck floats or needles. Now you may try tapping the carbs to free them. Frank

On my MKII First Gen., I had what sounded like ignition noise, but then I noticed when I stepped on the brakes, or turned on my driving lights, it went away and only came back when I brought the revs. up a bit. Then I noticed that when I used the turn signal, it would be there when the lamps were off, but gone when the lamps were on. I found that it really wasn't ignition noise even though it sounded like it was, but noise from the voltage regulator. Our voltage regulators work by firing what is called a triac that is connected across the stator windings, shorting out the stator when the battery voltage is high enough. This was making the noise. Now I'm not saying that this is definitely the problem, but that it's a possibility. Also, if the noise is there when playing a CD, it probably isn't ignition noise. Usually FM radio isn't affected by ignition noise either. See if your noise is possibly coming from the regulator instead of the ignition.

.01 amp is nothing to worry about. The reason it comes and goes is that it's really less then .01 amp, and the meter is averaging the reading. Don't worry about this. Leave the meter leads connected and reading the draw and start plugging everything back in. Hopefully something will make it indicate more. If it's intermittent then we'll have to get serious. Let me know what it reads with everything connected. Open and close your travel trunk and make sure the light goes out every time. You will see a higher drain when it's on. I'll take a look at the print for other possibilities.

In my previous messages I told you that the stator should NOT be grounded.....2 days ago. The magnet will pull the stator into it if you get a little to the side. Pull the cover all the way off and start again. Make sure your locating pins are installed. Don't force it, it will go on just fine. Frank

Baron, What I'd do would be to disconnect the negative battery lead. Then I'd take my digital meter and move the leads to the 10A. position. Then turn the selector switch to the 10A position also. Connect one test lead to the NEGATIVE terminal of the battery and the other to the NEGATIVE battery cable. This way, your meter will indicate the actual discharge current. A couple of cautions here......Make sure you connect the meter exactly as I have written, and when you are finished with this test, make sure you move the meter leads back to their normal position. The meter is usually protected with a fuse, but..... Also do NOT turn the key on. The draw with the key on will be way over 10A. If it's draining the battery to 12.4 overnight, you'll probably see .5A or so drain. Normal battery drain for the clock, radio and CB memories would be so small that you probably wouldn't be able to measure them on the 10A range. They draw so little they would read almost zero on the 10A range. Check and make sure the light in the travel trunk is switching off. Have you added anything to your bike (lights or a lighter)? Start disconnect things one at a time and remember any added fuses and the aux. fuse box in front and to the left of the normal fusebox. Your voltage regulator is another possibility. If it's the original type, unplug the connector that has the red and black wires in it. If it's not, you will have to disconnect the red wire to make sure that it's not your culprit. If you are drawing .5A or so, you may be able to feel the regulator getting warm while the bike hasn't been started for a while if it's the cause of your drain. Let me know what you find, and we can go from here..... Peder......the power that the clock and radio memories use is miniscule. With a good battery, a First Gen. can sit unused for a long time and still have plenty of battery to start. Now that doesn't mean that you should let your battery sit for months without being charged, but I'm just saying that the clock and radio memories will not discharge your battery unless something is defective. Frank D.

I also seem to remember that (at least on 83's) that the standard Ventures had a spring on the rear shock, in addition to the air bladder. I think the Royale's only had air. I don't remember what I went through to remove the rear shock when I changed my 83's frame. I'm sure I did it after I took a lot of other stuff off so it was no problem. However, I did change the rear shock on my 89. Now I can't promise that Mk I and Mk II's are done the same, because the rear suspension is slightly different but..... Remove the seat and disconnect the air line on the right side about where passenger would sit. Then use electrical tape to attach a rope to the hose going forward. When you pull the rear shock out, the rope will pull in, and then when you re-install the shock you can pull the rope and the air line will follow the same route that it originally was. Unbolt the suspension linkage on the bottom of the shock. Remove the 2 phillips screws that hold the damping adjustment knob in place. I had my son's help when I pulled the top bolt. Mine had the bolt head on the left side, and the nut on the right. I think that both the bolt head and nut require a 17MM socket. I used a long extension with a shallow socket on the left side to hold the bolt stationary. Then my son used another long extension with another socket (I think he also used a universal joint) to remove the nut. Remove the socket from the bolt and then push the bolt out. The shock will come out the bottom, and as I said earlier, the rope attached to the air line will follow the hose. Disconnect the rope, and attach it to the rope.

Pmelah, If I was in your shoes, I think I'd borrow a car or a ride and go for that interview first and fix the bike afterwards. The job may not wait if you ignore it!!! Unplug the pick up coils and measure on the side of the plug that leads down to the engine. Put one of the ohmeter leads on the black wire, and then measure to the other 4 leads. You should measure about 110 ohm on all 4. It seems a bit odd that you are measuring all 4 pick up coils as open. That would indicate that the black lead itself has come loose. Try measuring between any 2 of the other 4 wires. You should measure about 220 ohm. You can test the pick up coils from the 5 lead plug on the TCI or at the plug on the left side of the bike, just above where the stator leads connect to the regulator plug (or at the top of the left frame tube behind the motor). Unplug the connecter here and measure the set of wires that goes DOWNWARD. Good Luck on the JOB Frank

The three white stator leads should read identically to each other. The spec. is .42 ohm @ 68 degrees, plus or minus 15%. Are you using a digital meter? If so, you need to compensate for the meter lead resistance. Put you meter on the lowest range (200 ohm?) and touch the meter leads together and read the meter. You will probably read .1-.2 ohm. If your stator windings are reading perfectly correct, you will read .42 ohm plus .1 ohm (meter lead resistance) which equals .52 ohm. All three phases of yours read lower, indicating that you have a shorted stator. Also, you should read infinity to ground from the white wires. If I understood your readings correctly, your stator is bad. Frank

The readings given in the manual were with the genuine Yamaha electrical tester, which was an analog (actual physical meter to read results). Most analog meters have full battery voltage (1.5 volt DC, on Rx1) across the leads when ohmeter is selected. Most diodes have about a .6 volt drop across them when they are conducting, so if you connect the leads from an analog meter across a diode in the forward direction, the meter will read approximately 2/3 scale. In the reverse direction, it shouldn't move. With a digital meter, as Micarl mentioned, the ohmeter leads only have a very slight voltage across them, and it is way too small to allow the diode to conduct. However, in the special range marked with a diode symbol, the leads do have enough voltage to test a diode. When the diode conducts, the meter will usually indicate .6-.75, and in the reverse direction, it will usually indicate over range ( or 1.----) on a good diode. I gather you are working on a charging problem on your 89. Regulator/rectifiers don't go bad very often. I did have one on my 83 that had 1 diode go bad. The other 5 were still fine. When you tested your stator, did you test the white leads to ground? When you check from any of the white stator leads to ground you should read infinity (open circuit). If your stator is NOT grounded and passes all the other tests in the manual AND all 6 diodes in your regulator test good (BTW, MiCarl was also correct when he said that all 6 diodes likely weren't bad), there is another stator test you can do. Connect a 75W incandescent lamp across each pair of white wires (3 lamps). Then start the bike and bring it up and watch the lights---all 3 should be equally bright. At idle they will merely glow, but at 3K RPM they get pretty bright. The last stator I had to change had an intermittent shorted coil. It read open to ground, and when you first started the bike, all 3 were equally bright. But after about a minute, one went very dim, and another went slightly dimmer. The attached picture shows how bright a good stator will light a lamp. I only used 1 lamp to do the test, but it'd be easier for you to use 3 lamps. Do this test with the stator unplugged from the regulator.

Yesterday when I called my local Yamaha dealer, I was told that the only items that haven't come in were the swing arm bearings. Mine aren't that bad, so I thought I'd just clean up and repack the old bearings and put it back together. That was until I got there and and when I opened the universal joint and rear yoke box I found that the other 2 bearing caps weren't included and had to be ordered separately. The good news is that they are in stock in Wisconsin, and will be at my dealer's Monday afternoon. Grumble, Grumble. It's my fault, I ordered the parts online to pickup at my dealer and it does show different part numbers for the 2 caps and clips. It's hard to understand why they are separate---who would re-use their old caps OR replace just the caps??? The front yoke had to come from Japan! I've attached a picture to show what happened to my u-joint. I don't remember any other discussion about universal joint failures---anybody have one completely bad like mine? BTW, we cut the top part off so we could get it apart easier, but it was also almost as bad as the bottom. I also see that the V-Max and the 2nd Gen. Ventures use the same part. That would indicate that there hasn't been much trouble with it. Another thought--when I backed off the throttle at 75MPH, I felt a vibration. I immediately rolled the throttle back on and brought it down slow so the driveshaft wouldn't be unloaded. I sure hope I'm not in store for a middle gear failure soon.