twigg

I'm with Earl on this ... I was reading the thread thinking 30% ... he said 50% so a figure in there somewhere would be about right. The real problem is that doesn't always reflect what a bike is worth to YOU ... Length of ownership would be a factor. If you plan on keeping it until you, or it, drops you may pay a bit more, especially if the expensive parts are still in good condition .... But there is no shortage out there.

Pictures being worth a thousand words: First is the collector with the new stubs welded on, and the second shows that I did check the internal baffle. All was solid in there, so it's welded back up and left alone. http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/i418/twigg2324/1986%20Yamaha%20Venture%20Royale/IMG_0647.jpg http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/i418/twigg2324/1986%20Yamaha%20Venture%20Royale/IMG_0648.jpg Hopefully it's good for a few more years now.

"Cheap Bastards Motorcycle Mechanics Association" There is progress. I just decided to cut off both the inlets for the front downtubes, and a local engineering company made me new ones from pipe stock. They are sized to weld directly to the inlet holes of the collector, and receive the exhaust gaskets at the open end. Now they just need slotting and welding on. Bear with me there will be pictures. By the way, they guy made me three a=in case we messed one up, and charged me $5 for the lot.

That is a very smart, and CBMMA approved idea. Wind 12 Gauge copper around the pipe to the correct thickness .... Heat it to cherry red then quench to soften the copper. A bit of aluminum tape to hold it together for assembly and presto! See ... give me an idea and I have a "process". Thank you

Hi ... I have my collector box off. Contrary to popular wisdom, removing it was quite quick and easy, no doubt helped by one of the front header stubs being completely fractured. I thought the collector had the infamous rattle, but apparently not, when I shake it, it's silent. So ... I need to get the stub weded back on, and a couple of small cracks closed up, which will be easy enough. My question is about gaskets. There are six, and they are expensive. There are two part numbers 3JJ-14653 and 3JJ-14623. Boats.net lists them separately at $15.72 and $25.85 respectively. Cheapcycleparts.com also lists them, but has replaced the 14623 part number with 14653. This is a significant bonus, if their substitution works. Does anyone know, and can confirm, that these two part numbers can be substituted, or not? Thanks

Take a look here, then go Google "ABS MEK" http://www.popupexplorer.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=595db2805134abd1fcb2d1236dfb9da0&topic=73807.msg108317#msg108317

The fairing is made of ABS plastic. The solvent required to fix it id Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK). This is available from Home Depot for about $10 per quart. You can use any scrap ABS (kids toys, old bike parts) to supply the filler. Just grind it up and add it to the MEK to form a paste. There is a commercial prep available called Plastex .... It is the same as I described except it comes in tiny quantities and costs a fortune If you have a clean break just put some MEK in a dropper .... feed it into the crack and hold the pieces together for a few minutes. You will actually see it "welding" together and the joint will be as strong as the original. If you want to re-inforce areas, forget using glass fiber or epoxy, they don't hold properly. Simply cut the appropriate shape from ABS sheet and use the MEK to glue strengthening in any area you want it.

Nah Jeff ... I just looked. The Service Manual is $90, the Handbook $20. I was looking at the '86, maybe the others are different. By the way. Yamaha will also supply these for some bikes, also a print on demand for about $90.

This is a project I am currently working on. I decided against trying to source the bits needed to make the installed equipment work. Here is the current situation: Radio works, so does auto-volume Speakers are blown and need replacing. CB works Intercom likely works, not tested yet. I am missing the headsets and the rear controller. The cost of these items is high, very high and even if I get them, and even if they work, I am still limited trying to interface new equipment to 25 year old electronics. So I am replacing the heart of the system with an Autocom Intercom. This will let me add phone, music, satellite radio and GPS to the system, and retain the original radio. I should be able to also interface the CB with the Autocom, but that might be a bit more tricky. I can easily use our FRS radios though. The autocom will handle the auto volume and the whole installation will look authentic.

They do ... $20 "print on demand". If we have a pdf, we can print our own

What he said. It finds stuff under the old and new sites .... I was just looking at "shimming the needles" to improve gas mileage.

Dang! I was wondering where my GPS had gone! The real irony is that GPS units only do this when they are stationary

That is a very useful chart. Now ... to find those bulbs in single packs.

As far as I was aware they were claiming 40% for the Ultra. I'll take another look because the Silverstars are available in single packs. Not selling them "Each" is just a marketing gimmick, and nothing to do with safety. If you change to them in a car, then "safety" actually dictates that you buy three!

That isn't what the packaging says. They claim more light output for the "Ultras", and there is a price hike to match. I too have searched in vain for a single bulb pack. Even Walmart wants about $47 for two.

The shop is responsible for any damage suffered to any property you leave with them, or is under their control. They owe you a helmet. Getting one out of them may not prove so easy, but if they value your goodwill they may help you buy another.

Okay ... I cracked. Having used a home made manometer for some time, generally with a decent amount os success, I cracked and bought a Motion Pro Sync Tool. It wasn't my first choice, but it was available and reasonably priced. I wanted a Morgans Carbtune, but I didn't want the wait. Set up of the tool was a breeze with clear instructions, and calibrating it was equally easy. I went to this trouble because I have had some difficulty getting the bike to idle correctly after a fast run. On the driveway it is fine, but when it's very hot the revs do not want to fall below 3000rpm, 2500 after I tweaked the Idle Mixture a little. There are no vacuum leaks and the carbs are clean. Even with my manometer I was suspicious that the carbs were out of sync. It only takes one of the four to cause a high idle. So ... Tool calibrated, engine hot and tubes fitted to inlet tracts ... Whoah! One carb had vacuum so high it was almost sucking the fluid out of the top of the clear tube. A quick adjusment brought that into line. The right bank only needed a slight tweak and the two banks together weren't too bad, but got the tweak they needed. After a final adjustment of the idle speed, all seemed much smoother. I will run it later and see if the problem has gone, or at least improved, but I have to say that the whole process took less than 10 minutes once the motor was warm, and I would happily recommend the Motion Pro tool. It does seem to work decently well.

Save time? Nope, that requires doing the job the correct way!

Everyone is throwing in their views, so why not? Any Heavy Duty Diesel Motor Oil of the grade you want. They all meet the spec. None of them has viscosity enhancers or friction modifiers, and they are all about half the price, or less, than synthetics. Synthetics won't do any harm, but they are a marketing gimmick for our relatively low compression, slow revving engines. As for the Shell Rotella version of this oil type .... A factory spokesman was overheard saying that the only reason it wasn't specc'd for motorcycles was because they hadn't had it certified. This was simply because they had a motorcycle oil, and they wanted to sell some You understand that I am not criticising their use ... each to their own. When I had a bike that revved to 15k, then I used synthetic oil ... the Ventures, any of them, not so much. The best favour you can do for ANY engine is halve the oil change interval. New filter every other change. New bike salesmen will hate you for it Others will go their own way on this .... It's a contentious subject.

It has come to my notice that some jobs on our much beloved (and very fast) classic Ventures, just are not hard enough already. You 2nd Generation folk may skip the rest of this thread. Your bikes take longer to complete their journeys, so y'all don't have time for the extra work we need to indulge in! So easy are they that folk are feeling the need to invent a few steps not envisioned when the Workshop Manual was written. So let's examine a few common problems: Removing the Spark Plugs .... Indeed it is fortunate that this operation rarely has to be performed because it is next to impossible without first removing the engine. Rarely has it been my misfortune to encounter spark plugs so difficult to remove, if you discount the one right around the back of the motor of my Ford Windstar. Whose idea was a V4 anyway? So .... engine beautifully balanced on that upturned bucket I found in my shop, and the plugs come out in a jiffy. Why didn't Yamaha think of that? Changing the oil .... This one is dumb. Surely you changed it when you had the engine out to remove the spark plugs! No? Well then you need a hoist. Having removed the idiotic piece of plastic hiding the oil filler from all but the most "investigative" of our membership, and having somehow found just the right sized wrench that will get off the filler cap, because it was too easy to put it somewhere ... you know ... reachable, then all you need do now is hoist the bike, spin it over and the oil will run right out. Or you could remove the drain plug. Nah! Too easy. Shimming the Valves .... This one is tricky. The Workshop Manual describes the process, because it's a Workshop Manual, and that is it's reason for being. It's a simple process although even I will admit that "shims and buckets" sounds more like a Harry Potter spell than a mechanical procedure. There is a fiddly, and very expensive tiny bit of metal that needs inserting where no metal should ever be inserted. For God's sake please don't forget to remove it when you are done! Getting hold of one is hard. It involves a PM to Skydoc_17, and a promise to return it. Thanks Earl Much easier to remove the cams, having carefully measured all the gaps. Oops! Where did that chain go? There are reasons to remove cams, but shimming the valves is not a good one unless, of course, there are other reasons why you may want to spend more time in the shop. Removing the rear wheel .... Here we have a situation where the very best in "Shade Tree Mechanics" do actually beat the pants off the manual. Start by removing the front wheel. Yes, you heard right, to remove the rear wheel one first removes the front. I know, it's crazy. Having removed the front wheel, and tied the center stand to prevent it flipping up, you can then lower the bike onto it's fork ends tipping the back end up so high it gets a permanent snow covering. Handy! Rear wheel is now a no brainer. There endeth the lesson. Meet here next week for "How to adjust the drive chain" ps ... Don't get upset, my tongue is firmly attached to the inside of my cheek!

The tool works just fine if you are patient, and line it up correctly. This is an easy job which can be made as complicated as you want it to be. Removing the cams is one of those complications. You do not need to remove the cams, and I can't, for the life of me, think of a single good reason to add this step or three. If you have another reason to remove the cams, then by all means kill two birds with one stone ... otherwise ...

That's pretty much my approach too. With a few tests, the gauge is accurate and an MSR 20oz bottle of gas in the back,or two, offers peace of mind.

What might be possible, and less of the kind of undertaking you rightly shy away from, is just a better organised and more logical "Tech Section". Most of the info is here, just not always obvious. The Watering Hole does tend to be over-used, while the Tech Sections could benefit from more info ... imho For example ... This is a post newcomers are always directed to in another Forum. It applies to the older bikes all of the time, but there is good info for new owners of newer bikes too: It is called "So you just acquired an old Triple" .. and what a deal.. it's in pretty good shape, has less than 15,000 miles, been sitting in the back of the guy's barn or garage for some unknown long time. Yep, she needs some cosmetic work, the seat might need recovering, but she starts (with a jump) and runs, so $100 to get it out of his way is SWEET. Or.. maybe the PO (Previous Owner) did fire it up/ride it occasionally. Or rode it a lot. Anyway, you now have a new bike, and you want to get her cleaned up and go ride. Hold your horses. AS SOON AS YOU GET HER HOME (trailered preferrably), PARK IT! On a clean concrete pad (or just a sheet of ply wood if you don't have a garage floor or solid level driveway). You have lots to do first if you want that bike to work fine and last a long time. First, forget everything the PO told you about how well it was maintained. You will "baseline" your bike. That means you WILL change the spark plugs and all the lubricants and filters RIGHT NOW. Engine oil and filter, middle and final gear oil, fork oil. You will check (preferrably replace) front and rear brake fluid. You WILL get a manual (you can download one from this site - if not exactly for your particular model and year it will be close enough for servicing yours.) You will cast an evil eye on everything that drains out of your new "vintage" bike (is there gas in the engine oil? Oh oh.. darn glad you trailered it home rather than rode it, aren't you?). You WILL remove the tank and set it on a trash-can and see if, over an hour or two, gas leaks out on the ground through the petcocks set to any position other than PRI(me). If so, you will fix that first (lots of tips on this site). Good or bad pet cocks, you WILL then dump that gas out. You WILL see if ANYTHING comes out with the gas, besides gas (rust flakes, insect hulls, bird feathers, rat bones...). If feeling diligent, you'll remove the pet cocks and inspect the screens inside the tank for rust flakes, insect hulls, bird feathers, rat bones... With the tank off you WILL blow out the crud in the wells around your spark plugs so nothing can fall into the cylinders, and then cast an evil eye on the old plugs as you remove them, as well as the caps and plug wires. You'll remove the little screw inside the cap and inspect the little resistor that falls out once you find it, if this is your first plug cap you're checking (aren't you glad you're on ply wood instead of grass now?). If it's intact and clean, reinstall it and the screw and tighten it snug. If the caps and wires are good (no cracks, caps are tight on the wires, wires tight in the coils), gap your new plugs, install them first starting them using your fingers on the socket extension for a few turns before slapping the wrench on and cranking them in. Cross-threaded heads suck (literally, and blow) and are very difficult and iffy to fix and expensive to replace. You will NOT use a crescent wrench, ever, on your vintage motorcycle. You wll not use standard allen or box wrenches on your metric cap and hex screws. You will not use standard screwdrivers on philips or allen screws. You will get the RIGHT tool of the right size for removing and reinstalling anything. The time and money you save shortcutting proper tools will be lost many times over removing and replacing stuff you buggered up. With the tank and seat off you WILL inspect (and probably replace) the fuse holders - at the very least remove the fuses and clean the contacts. While cleaning, one of the contacts will probably snap off. Better now than 20 (or 200 or 2000) miles from home. Four-fuse holders are about 5 bucks at the auto-parts store. You will spend some quality time looking for and removing any corrosion around electrical connections to various modules and switches as you visually walk the wire loom toward the front and rear of the bike. You will inpect the vacuum hoses (and center cylinder vacuum plug) for cracks, tears or degradation. Ditto the fuel lines, and the rubber boots from the carbs to the intakes. While you're at it, grab some feeler gauges and an allen wrench, and pull the valve cover and the left side cover, and check the valve clearances. (If you don't know why you need to pull the side cover, once again I'll state, download a manual!). As Clint can attest, it's nice knowing about the stuck or tight valve now instead of after you fire it up and hear the valve head break off and rattle around inside the cylinder. You'll probably need to head down to the dealer for some replacement valve shims and a replacement tool also, while you're getting a new valve cover gasket. You WILL go on-line ( I recommend http://www.batterystuff.com ) and order a new sealed battery to replace the stock electrolite battery (you thusly will have no idea what all the starting/idling/electrical problems people talk about on this list is all about). You WILL inspect the tires and check tire pressure. If the bike has been sitting for years, you will check tire pressure after you replace the tires, which you WILL do before you ride it again, never mind how good you think they look. You will reinstall the tank, fill it with gas, set the pet-cocks to PRI(me), and with the bike on the side stand, let it sit for a few hours to see if there are any leaks out of the carbs or the air cleaner. If so, you will order a carb rebuild kit from Steve Lloyd ( Benelli6@aol.com) and get a bunch of carb-cleaner spray cans and plan on tearing the carbs apart, at least to spray clean everything liberally (excessively) and replace the float seals and float bowl gaskets. Or you can take it to the Yamaha shop and have them do it, which will probably cost you as much if not more than you paid for the motorcycle - not CBMMA but you may not be ready for that sort of work. Maybe someone on this board or on the discussion list lives near you and can help you out. Beer is the standard labor exchange rate). You'll lube the speedo and tach cables and lube and adjust the clutch cable and clutch per the manual you downloaded. You'll check the shifter and rear brake levers, and the kick start (if you have one) to see the nuts are tight. Now that you're on a roll, you might check all the cap screws and other nuts you can find to verify they aren't loose either. Notice I haven't said anything about chrome polishing yet. Now's the time - go ahead and clean up everything. Four reasons for that: One - good looking well cared-for bikes show pride of ownership, and you should now have a bike that you can be proud to own. Two - clean bikes run better (No bovine excrement! They do..) Three - clean and polish is when you will find the cracked and rusted stuff you will need to fix or replace. Four - when stuff on the inside leaks to the outside you can spot it easier before it becomes a major problem. Once all that I've talked about above has been done, NOW you are ready to insert and turn the ignition key for the first time. If everyone were to do this, we'd have a lot less traffic on this site and the discussion list, and we'd be mostly talking about beer and rides upcoming and past. One more thing - to get the most out of your triple ownership pleasure and experience, check out the discussion list too. And last, memorize my Biker's Prayer, and repeat it everytime you punch the starter or kick her over. Ride safe..

The one with the best reviews I have been able to find is the Sena SMH10. Try searching ADVRider.com and you will see a very long thread discussing them. Register there and take advantage of the "Group Buy", which is a substantial discount. I am about to put my own money where my mouth is.

One of mine came out using the "Get a well fitting screwdriver, apply some torque and tap the end with a hammer method", the other had a damaged head and came out in seconds with a screw extractor.