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frankd

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Everything posted by frankd

  1. frankd
    I'll spend a few hours out with the club---the call we'll use is K9BAR. I'll be working Saturday, but I'll probably go out for a couple of hours that evening, and then return Sunday morning with a rig with a CW filter, a key and keyer and make some CW contacts. Last year I just brought the key and keyer and none of the rigs there had a CW filter, so that didn't work at all---to much QRM. Frank KA9J
  2. frankd
    Well, I don't have a shade tree method for setting the gear lash, but I do have one for replacing the seal. It's been quite a while so pardon me if I don't picture this job in my mind quite correctly. I had a middle gear seal leak that I was tired of, and I didn't want to have to reset the gear lash. I marked the nut and shaft (with punch marks or with a Dremmel tool) so that I could return to the same exact place. Then I carefully counted how many turns it took to get the nut off (I seem to remember 13 1/2 turns), replaced the seal, and then put it all back together and turned the nut 13 turns and then to the mark. It worked great. Frank D.
  3. frankd
    Herb, Thanks for your input, and I'll bet you're right. Earlier I was reading about the rider with the 2nd gear indication not working, and there was a picture of the switch next to the clutch slave. I was thinking....last fall when I had the left side all apart for the stator and starter drive, I saw that the screws for the gear selector switch were loose. I tightened them up. They probably came loose again. Then I got to your message and you suggest the same thing. I think I've got a new gasket for the middle gear cover, so when I get a chance I'll pull it off and take a look. Frank
  4. frankd
    BTW, I think it takes an 18mm socket. I like the 'official' Yamaha toolkit plug wrench, and that's what I use. Frank
  5. frankd
    Lee Ray, In order for the bike to return to a proper idle, you can't have any vaccum leaks, and the carbs have got to be synchronized (AKA 'synced'). Check the carb. boots and make sure that both sides of all 4 are tight, and not leaking. You can spray some WD-40 on the boots to check for leaks. If it's leaking, the idle will change when it draws in the WD-40. BTW, the idle on these bikes is supposed to be set @ 1000 RPM. Frank D.
  6. frankd
    Herb, After you get a module that will hold a vaccum, you can tell if it's working by---- With the vacuum line disconnect (plug the carb port), have somebody run the motor at 3,000 RPM. Use your vacuum pump and draw a vaccum on the sensor----if it works, the RPM will jump up. Now that mine's working (I had the original vacuum leak), my bike sounds way different running through the gears at light throttle and also cruising at a steady speed. My gas mileage hasn't jumped way up though. I think it had been running about 38MPG or so, and to Maintenance day and back I had a couple of tanks about 42MPG, one @38 (headwind) and one @ 40MPG. That's probably an increase of 2-3 MPG, but I haven't had a run that's been easy on the petrol though. On the way to MD and back home, most of the time we were hauling the freight. Frank D.
  7. frankd
    I also sealed my stator and ignition trigger coil leads carefully. I cleaned them well with brake clean and then some Naptha. Then I used a sealant that was suggested here---and then I used the same sealant to seal the grommet into the notch. When I look up from the bottom, the wires and the area around them look dry. I will run it on the center stand though. I'll clean the engine of oil first so I can detect any fresh oil. The oil on the bottom of the stator cover looks fresh---every where else it's dirty. Frank
  8. frankd
    I've got a small oil leak on the left side of the motor. Last year I had all of this apart to change the stator and the starter drive. The leak "appears" to be at the bottom of the left case (stator cover), not the middle gear cover. The oil looks fresh at the bottom of the stator cover, but I thought I cleaned engine and the cover carefully before I put it back together. I used no sealant on this gasket. When I look up at the stator/ignition sensor coil leads from the bottom, it looks dry. Wouldn't it be wet back there if it was leaking from the clutch slave cylinder and gear indicator switch? Any other ideas?? It's due for an oil change, so I'm planning on pulling it apart soon. Frank
  9. frankd
    Congrats on the Venture The carb is probably plugged but____ First make sure you have spark and a good plug in that cylinder before you pull the carbs.
  10. frankd
    Sure would. The hotter cams would definitely Lower idle vaccum.
  11. frankd
    It looks to me like the vacuum guages are indicating about 9.5" of mercury and on the other video you're bike is idling @ 1000 rpm. I just synced the carbs on my 89, and at 1,000 RPM, mine had about 11.5" of mercury. Is your ignition timing set correctly? Maybe it's retarded a little?? Frank
  12. frankd
    I inspected the small (3"long) length of hose between the coupler and the carb. port and found that it had cracked. I replaced it and "poof" I can pump up the vacuum just fine now. Now when you run the motor at about 3Krpm and pump up the vacuum, the RPMs shoot way up. I'll bet this will make quite a bit of difference in my gas mileage (which wasn't too bad anyway). Thanks Gary for your input, but I was glad I didn't have to go to the sensor to cure the problem. Frank D.
  13. frankd
    I sync'd my carbs and just for grins before I put the pressure sensor line back on the left front cylinder, I grabbed my vaccum pump, connected it to the hose, and tried to pump a vaccum. I've got a leak in this line or the sensor itself. Does anybody know where the sensor is (89 Royale)? The logical place is next to the TCI unit, but that's just a guess and it'd be nice to know where it is before I start taking more apart. Frank D.
  14. frankd
    My wife Barb and I had our first date on my 305cc Yamaha in 1969. We've been married almost 41 years now. We've travelled all over the eastern 2/3 of this fine country and she's been a great travelling partner. She doesn't care how fast we accelerate, how fast we go, how fast we stop, or how far we lean. In fact, she only gets nervous when something drags in a coroner. When we rode our XS-750 (Yamaha triple) that used to happen quite a bit. When we bought the first Venture in 83, dragging parts pretty well went away because everything is tucked in so well on the First Gens. We're looking forward to me retiring the end of this year so we can have enough time to ride U.S. 66 out to California and then ride back on U.S. 30. Frank D.
  15. frankd
    What I do for most of my music is go to the library. Ours has a big selection of CDs, but if you want something special and it's not at our local library, you do a search to find if another library has it, and they'll ship it to your library. When you look through the selection available, you see a lot of albums that you really like, and I always leave with 4-5 CDs minimum. Frank
  16. frankd
    Shaun, How fast do you drive?? Are you sure you're 83 is running on all 4 cylinders? My 83 gives about 55 MPG @ 50MPH, about 42 MPG @ 70 MPH, and if I run a full tank at 85-90 MPH, it'll give me about 28-30 MPG. My 89 is about 1 MPG lower than the 83. Frank D.
  17. frankd
    And if you have brake fluid at the master cylinder rear banjo and none at the rear caliper, you have a collapsed rear brake hose. Frank D.
  18. frankd
    Tom, When it was time to get the seat done on my 83, I heard about a local guy that did motorcycle seat re-upholstery. When he re-did it, he found the padding was tired, so he added some new padding. I'm not short, so the added height was great. The best part was how the seat felt though. NOw that my shorter brother is riding the bike, he feels it's a little to high for him. When I bought the 89, I wasn't happy with the way the seat felt. I took it to him and because my 89 had a brown seat, (my 83 is black) he couldn't find the exact color. He suggested that I take his samples home and pick a color. I gave my wife the samples and she picked out a great color, however because it wasn't the same as the original, I had to take the pads off of the travel trunk to him also. I think he charged me $175-200 for everything, and when I put it all back on it looked fantastic. However, I wasn't happy with the seat at first. The added padding made both my wife an I slide forward. It did break in---after a couple of months it felt better for me but my wife still slid forward. She got the brilliant idea to sit on a piece of "shelve liner". By shelve liner I mean the stuff you put on shelves or on camper counters to keep things from sliding around. Now she stays put. If I have him do another bike, I'll make sure he changes the padding a little to stop the forward slidding. The guy lives in Joliet, IL, so that's a bit from MA, but he does great work. If you can't find somebody local and want the seat done, send me a message and I'll get the two of you together. Frank
  19. frankd
    I put the master cylinder back on the bike today, and when I put the electrical switch back together, the lever was pushed away from the stop by the switch spring. I compressed the spring a little to weaken it, and now it seems to work better (at least the starter control half of the switch---I've got the travel trunk loose so I can't ride it yet and check cruise operation). If the cruise still drops out, I will stretch the spring that goes on the pin that pushes the master cylinder plunger a little to force the clutch lever outward more.
  20. frankd
    The anti-freeze drain plug is on the right side (when your on the bike). Between the front exhaust pipes is the thermostat bypass valve and some of us have had leaks there. Take it apart (pull the screw out of the side and be careful that you don't loose the ball and spring) and replace the O rings. The thermostat housing also causes problems, but that's behind the right front exhaust pipe. Take a flashlight and get down and determine what's really leaking.
  21. frankd
    Most backfires that I've had to deal with are caused by an exhaust leak---Oxygen can enter the exhaust when the throttle is closed and then kaboom... As for your fork seals leaking. Do you mean both sides?? When you take the forks apart again, check the fork tubes for nicks. Some use a section of ladies nylons and drag them around the tubes and see if they snag anywhere. Smooth the nicked area with 400 grit emory paper.
  22. frankd
    I finally had a little time to start on the clutch lever problem. I tried using my vaccuum bleeder to suck the brake fluid out of the system, but I couldn't empty any of the fluid out of the reservoir. I removed the fluid cover, but still couldn't pull the fluid through the system. I emptied the reservoir with a turkey baster and removed the master cylinder. I found that the rubber boot had fallen apart. I pulled the boot pieces out and pushed the master cylinder plunger in and when I released it, it "thumped" against the C clip. I tried it several times, and every time it returned to the C clip properly. I re-installed the lever, and now it was against the switch stop properly. I suspect that there was a piece of the rubber boot jamming the plunger and preventing it from moving to the release position fully. The only way a replacement boot is available is with a rebuild kit, so now that's on order. Frank
  23. frankd
    I've been using Avons for over 10 years myself, and the worst thing I can say about them is that the rear seems to attract nails. I've had 4 of them that I had to retire early because of this. Other than that they handle great, are quiet, grip good in the rain, and the ones I had that avoided the nails lasted about 24,000 miles. I've never had any cracking, and some of the Avons were on there 4-5 years. The last one I had on my 89 sucked a tiny nail within it's first 1000 miles. I put Ride-On in it and used it for another year, but I let it sit a month and it started leaking again. I was going on another trip and decided to change it the day before we left. All I could find was a Dunlop 591. I've got about 5K on it, and I don't think it's going to last more than 12,000 miles (just a guess). It makes a little noise, but not too bad, and feels good. My 89 had a Dunlop 404 on it when I bought it and it only lasted 8000 miles. However, it had a Bridgestone on the front. The PO had put about 7500 on it, and I've put another 14,000 and I'll probably change it sometime this summer. It feels good and is lasting just fine. Why is everybody so hard on "Brickstones"?
  24. frankd
    It feels the same after sitting. I also intend on changing the clutch fluid so I'll check that when I do. Frank
  25. frankd
    On my 89 with 45,000 miles on it, the cruise control works great.....if I hold the clutch lever all the way out with my hand. When I bought the bike 2 years ago, I relplaced the bushing, but that didn't help much. There is quite a bit of play between where the clutch cylinder quits pushing the lever outward and the end of travel where the cruise control senses that the clutch is released. It seems to me that maybe I want to replace or stretch the spring that is between the clutch cylinder and the lever bushing?? Anybody have any experience with this problem?? Frank D.
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