JoeKanuck

Whew...! I just got done servicing the rear end of my bike...what a joy. I put on a new E3 rear tire, cleaned, greased and installed zerks in the lower rear shock mount hardware, greases the drive shaft, (the top splines were dry but clean). I got a tube of heavy, hi temp moly grease, (less than 6 bucks at Canada's handyman wonderland, Princess Auto), and lubed the crap out of everything. I haven't had a chance to drive it yet since my mufflers are in for repair. When I took them off, they sounded like they were full of ball bearings. I sawed the back off and bashed, beat and pried until the loose bits came out. I will weld it up tomorrow, (minus the crappy guts), and then wrap it in heat tape. It should be purdy...

I posted this in a thread in the watering hole as well. I just did an hid mod on my 86. It was a bear of a job getting the cmu out. The 86 unit does look different than the one pictured but it still has 4 of the things which need shorting. Jumpered all 4 while I was in there. The RLU is slightly different as well. I jumpered the plug as pictured and everything worked except that the headlight lamp went on with the highbeam and not the highbeam indicator. It seems I don't have a blue/green wire...just green. No problem. I just swapped bulbs in the dash. It works great and nobody would ever guess. It is a job worth doing but it is not a straight swap. Maybe someone can work out a way to avoid the warnings without rewiring but for now it will take a bit of mechanicking. Totally worth it tho. The light is so bright that road signs are like car hi beams on brite.

The TCI does seem to be the most likely culprit. All of the other connections and such are part of the process of elimination. Basically it ran ok, then like crap...was repaired, ran ok for a while then like crap. I'd hook another TCI up and see how it runs. My gut feeling is that when the diodes crapped out, they took something out along with them, something in the advance section of the box. Regardless, the best way to check is plug in another box...if you can find a good working loaner.

I just did an hid mod on my 86. It was a bear of a job getting the cmu out. The 86 unit does look different than the one pictured but it still has 4 of the things which need shorting. Jumpered all 4 while I was in there. The rsu is slightly different as well. I jumpered the plug as pictured and everything worked except that the headlight lamp went on with the highbeam and not the highbeam indicator. It seems I don't have a blue/green wire...just green. No problem. I just swapped bulbs in the dash. It works great and nobody would ever guess. It is a job worth doing but it is not a straight swap. Maybe someone can work out a way to avoid the warnings without rewiring but for now it will take a bit of mechanicking. Totally worth it tho. The light is so bright that road signs are like car hi beams on brite.

I've been looking around and I think some of those light backpacks might do the trick for me. They're soft, come in a variety of sizes and are fairly weatherproof. I already have one I can use for the trunk...I'm keeping my eye open for saddlebag...er...bags.

Ok...I'll bite...save a brace for me.

What is the voltage regulator upgrade...?

I'm no expert but I suspect that the diode fix only makes sense if the box is still working up to spec. It's probably too late if there has been any damage already. From having a look around the board when it was open, I couldn't see any other obvious problems, and nothing looked or smelled burnt. Of course, that is no guarantee of anything. As shown by the diodes, old electronics can fail without burning out. In the long term, an alternative to the stock TCI is the way to go. The Ignitech box looks like a very promising alternative at a pretty reasonable price. I suspect the much more modern guts should prove to be more versatile and reliable and it has a reasonable price. Kudos to those in here getting the wrinkles ironed out. I know if my box does fail, I will be replacing it instead of attempting to repair it again. I already sealed up the box completely so there is not much more I can do to it other than run the crap out of it until it fails. My gut feeling is that the unit now has the potential to go on indefinitely. Regardless it is impossible to keep ahead of all the possible failure points in a 25 year old piece of hardware. I think the repair is worth doing if you have a perfectly running TCI and you have access to an electronics tech. Otherwise, go with the Ignitech unit. After seeing the degradation of my unit, really doubt there are any TCI's that's aren't on their way to failure at some point in the near future. Timgray; are you aware of any other likely failure points on the TCI other than the diodes?

Indeed...if I keep it up, I'll end up with a whole new TCI in the old box. I reckon I won't be opening the thing up again. I had a good look around and nothing else seems to be on the verge of failure...from what I could tell from my limited experience. If I was going to do anything else, it would be to take one of these units to China when I go over there and have some local folks do a direct copy of the stock TCI...probably won't though. The aftermarket TCI's from IgniTech most seem to me to be the best way to go if your unit fails altogether. In the meantime, I'm just going to ride my bike and not worry about it. I have other chores on the bike I have to take care of...like checking the rear suspension bearings...and the endless series of other things that seem to crop up on a 25 year old bike. It's more fun to ride than fix so I'll be doing that while it's still summer in the great white north.

Ok...I took the bike for a good ride today and everything seems perfectly fine. As far as I can tell, it runs just the same as before. I am pretty confident that whatever I did worked and at the very least didn't cause any harm. As you can see from the picture, I decided to put the TCI on top of the air cleaner box. It is a tight fit and I may carve down the air box lid a bit to allow for a non interference fit with the fake gas tank cover. I put some dense foam on the TIC to add a bit of cushioning. So total cost; About 6 bucks. Total time; about a day, (most of which was spent digging the TCI out of the bowels of the bike). This mod was absolutely worth doing. I thought that maybe the ticking time bomb that is the TCI was a bit of hysteria...until I had a good look at the board. There was nothing to indicate my bike or the TIC had experience any undue hardship...just normal wear and tear. The contacts on the plugs were showing quite a bit of evidence of corrosion so I cleaned them up a bit and stuffed them full of grease before I reconnected them. I can only conclude from my experience and the testimony of others that TCI meltdown in more a matter of WHEN, not IF. If you're happy with your stock bike and aren't looking for much more than you already have out of your ignition circuit AND, (this is an important bit), your stock TIC is still working up to spec, I can totally recommend this mod for some piece of mind. Any questions? Feel free to ask.

Good day. I've been getting more and more paranoid about my TCI lately. I didn't even know it could be a problem until I started reading threads about it. After studying these two threads; http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=40414 http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=43357 ...and getting some good advice, (Special thanks to Dingy and Timgray), I decided I should look inside the damned box to see what's what. Before getting into the job, I ran the bike and checked each exhaust pipe with a temperature probe to verify that all four cylinders were firing...and, good news, they were. To get the TCI apart, there are 4 phillips screws on the back cover, and 5 on the back of the board. Now here's the tricky part about getting the board out of the box; the proper way is to desolder the 14 wires from the board which lead to the connectors. I'm ok with a soldering iron but no wizard, and that board has been banged around for 25ish years and I don't know how much more abuse it could take. So I decided to try something different. I used a hacksaw and cut the box around the connectors. It was a pretty easy job and it was no problem cutting only the box and not damaging the board. That bit worked for me. If you choose to do any of this, by the way, you do so at your own risk. Anyway, the attached pics show what I found on the inside. At least 3 diodes, (the blue and tan bulbous units), were showing signs of serious disintegration. HOLY CRAPPOLA...! That sure gave me a bit of a fright. It made me thankful I tackled this bloody awful bit of mechanicking. I refused to pull the fairing off so I yanked the battery, battery box, air cleaner and air box. I also took off the lower right side fairing. This allowed me access to the TCI. I could reach the screws but they were bloody seized. Eventually, I got the left one out. The right one wouldn't budge so I just cut the tab off the box. I wasn't planning on putting the box back in its original spot so I didn't worry about it. Dingy suggested replacing the crap diodes with 1N4001 or higher diodes, so that was my quest for Sunday. The Source, by Circuit City, (formerly Radio Shack in Canada), had an assortment pack with about 20 diodes and as it turned out 10 of them happened to be of the 1N4001 variety. Less than 6 bucks later, I was off to tackle the bike. I won't go into what a frickin' pain it was to fart around inside that bike...I will just say that the cuss words are probably still echoing around that garage. Anyway, I took my time with the desoldering and soldering...(even though it may not look like it). After replacing all 8 diodes, I checked continuity with an ohm meter. One direction would show 600 ohms and the other would show nothing...perfect. I also checked continuity further down the board to make sure my soldering job actually fused to the traces. I had a couple of traces lift while soldering so that took some extra time to resolve. All of the testing seemed to indicate all was well so it was time to try it on the bike. After plugging the TCI and the rest of the bits back on the bike...SHOWTIME...! One stab of the starter and she lit right up. Fantastic. I let it run for a while and used a temp probe to verify that all cylinders were firing...which they were. I haven't taken it on the road yet...it's 4 am and I lost the will to reassemble the rest of the bike and tuck away the TCI. After much soul searching...the TCI will probably go back in its original spot...but held there with zip ties instead of those damed screws. I plan to silicone up the frankenstein-ish scar I hacked into the box, then, once I'm sure the thing is running right, seal the thing up in a bag with some desiccant. Anyway, so far, so good. I definitely feel relieved that I went through the effort. The paranoia was getting to me. Now, I feel confident that my potential TCI worries are probably in the past. One bit of extra advice; desoldering and soldering these bits can screw up your board. The diodes cost me less than 6 bucks. It would take a good electronics tech less than a half hour to do this job...an hour if he's drunk. If you aren't totally confident in your soldering abilities, take the job to a tech. It'll save you from screwing up an otherwise good TCI. Ok...it's 5am...I'll take the thing out on the road tomorrow, see how it runs and report back.

I found the tc i under the battery box. Is it possible to remove without taking off the fairings?

Those are odd looking diodes...at least to me. Just to be clear, I take it the arrow is pointing to the oddly bulbous green/tan thing. EDIT...Thanks Dingy for steering me to that other thread. Those picks are just what I was looking for. The next step is to look at my TCI and compare. Another edit...the cannister idea is a good one. On a car, the intake manifold acts like a vacuum plenum for all of the cylinders. Just a single intake runner on the Venture doesn't have enough volume and will produce a very erratic vacuum curve. The cannister, (plenum), should smooth out the pulses very well, I reckon...especially with all 4 cylinders tied to it.

Interesting...I have an electronics tech I can count on for soldering and I'm not too shabby at it myself. Do you have a diagram of which diodes are the issue? By the way, what years of VR's TCI's will fit on what? I have an '86...what replacement TCI's can I use? thanks

So what are the problems which plague the OEM TCI? What goes wrong with them and is it possible to prevent it? Or repair it?

There it is...I've been looking for this post. I cobbled up a synch tool using this one as a benchmark. It worked fabulously. I plan on making a couple of modifications but otherwise, my first synch attempt went perfectly. I've attached a couple of shots of my unit. I merely kinked the hoses to restrict the airflow and stop the bead from taking off too far. The vinyl hose was a bit big for the carb port so I added a bit of smaller rubber hose to the ends.

I stole the idea but I can't remember where. I searched for the images but no luck. I'll try to upload pics of mine and try to explain them. The first shows the whole unit in all its glory. There are two bits of hose; a complete circle in the middle with a bead in it and a long piece the goes to two carbs. At the bottom of both loops are plastic beads. The closed loop inner bead is the 'zero' point for the guage. It will find the bottom of the loop which will indicate the balance point of the carbs. I used a bit of rubber hose on the ends to seal properly to the carbs. So it goes like this; Black rubber -> plastic tubing -> kink in tubing, (this serves both as vacuum restriction and prevents the bead from going too far) -> half a loop containing silver bead Hopefully this makes sense. This is merely the X-1 version I assembled for about 5 bucks and 10 minutes. On the X-2 model, ideally I would have harder clear plastic tubing for the bottom of both circles so there will be less friction on the bead. That might add a couple of bucks to the device but sacrifices must sometimes be made for the greater good. I'll be glad to answer any questions...or accept any answers.

I was going to do the needle shim mod but I discovered I have the adjustable needles. It was already set to its leanest notch, so I left it alone. I've only run a couple of tanks through it so far...and not even a full one with all 4 carbs working right. The exhaust is a bit sooty but it's not blowing black so I'll probably leave it since it's running great.

I've had the 86VR for a few weeks and after some tinkering, I got it running pretty good...some popping at idle but that's about it. I decided to check the back right diaphragm, just to see its condition. As it turns out, it was in pretty good shape...a couple of pinholes but that's it. I reinstalled and decided to see how the slides work looking down the air filter hole. To my surprise, three were pulsing freely but #3 was not moving at all. I took the diaphragm out and it came out in sections. The metal piece which holds the diaphragm and plastic washers together had separated from the sleeve. I reassembled the unit at what a difference. All of a sudden, I had a 4 banger. I saw a cheapo carb sync tool somewhere consisting of clear fuel line in two loops and ball bearings. I made one of these and after a 5 minute carb synch, (#3 was way out), it goes like a scalded cat.

It's a good looking tire. I ordered it in advance...I still have more miles than I originally thought on the E2 currently mounted.

I live in Northern Alberta so finding tires, (and other parts), at a reasonable price is a chore. I did plenty of looking for a new rear tire, (140/90-16 or MU90B-16). I hit every shop in town but I found the best deal, by about 30 bucks at http://www.canadasmotorcycle.ca/dunlop- ... -tire.html. With taxes and free delivery it cost me a total of 160CAD, delivered to my door. Delivery took less than 2 weeks. I payed with Paypal. That may sound a lot for a tire but it was the cheapest I could find for this tire. I am pleased with my purchase there and thought I'd pass this info along.

Dang...I just wrote them and they're out again for another 3-4 weeks. I checked a carb last night and there are holes in the diaphragm. I may try an adhesive of some sort as a repair.

My Dunlop E2 is pretty much worn, and after much searching, I finally decided to buy a new back tire online. I just got the bike so I have no idea how many miles the current tire has on it. I ended up paying 160 Canadian bucks for a MU90b-16, Dunlop E3, from http://www.canadasmotorcycle.ca. That was over 30 bucks cheaper than I could get in town. I plan on putting a couple of ounces of Dyna beads in it for balancing. ps...the alpha system for motorcycle tires is inane and idiotic. What was wrong with simple metric...?