M61A1MECH

Now in production, 4" break out harness with 8" long tag wires for splicing into the ground, tail light, brake light, left turn signal and right turn signal. No more need to cut into the bike's harness or use those wretched "T"-taps. I can also use this to build up a trailer harness if you need one , or you can just tap in to add extra lights to the bike. Cost for the breakout as pictured is $17.00 delivered to the lower 48, add $15.00 for shipping if going to Canada. I can build custom harnesses or trailer harnesses from this base, just let me know what you need and I will quote accordingly. This fits the 1990 to 1993 Model Venture. To order send me a PM with: Name Street or PO box City , State or Province Country if outside the US Zip or Mail code Thanks Steve K

OK, Update, I have the connectors in hand, I have one breakout on the way to the first customer and a second harness made and ready to ship. I will post the offering in the Member Vendors section soon, but for now here are some photos. The price as pictured will be $15.00 delivered to the lower 48, add $8.00 if shipping to Canada.

Yes , sort of, the mechanical seal #8 is allowing oil into the coolant, so you should change both. The shaft on item 2 maybe damaged also it needs to be inspected. And replace the gasket #16 . You may find you cannot order the individual items and instead have to buy a kit that has items, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.

Head gasket issues normally show up in either a compression test or a leak down test, also any shop worth it's salt will have an exhaust gas analyzer, if there is blown head gasket I would expect oil or coolant to be getting in the combustion chamber and thus going out the exhaust, the analyzer will pick that up. I doubt very seriously if there is a bad head gasket, all most unheard of on these motors. When my 98 Royal Star first exhibited the issue, the service manager and talked it over and neither of us had any good ideas except to look for a blown head gasket, that proved to be fruitless. So we looked at the two systems oil and coolant for common areas and came up with the water pump driven shaft and seal and the heat exchanger. There was no hint of oil coming out of the drip tube in space between the water pump and oil pump, but we decided to check that and sure enough they found a bad seal. The service manager with 20 years working on Yamahas had never seen that issue before.

You may have two different issues here. First oil in the coolant overflow is bad, needs to be corrected as I noted above. Second, there are three drain hoses as I recall under the bike on the left side near the side stand, one of them is a drain hose from the air box, it is quite normal to get some oil fumes up into the air box, that is what the crankcase breather does, suck fumes off the crank case and takes them up to the air box so the fumes can go through the carbs and out the exhaust pipes. If you over fill the crank case or run at high revs for a prolonged period of time the oil can splash around and liquid oil will be sucked up through the crank case ventilation hose and be deposited in the air box. The drain hose for the air box is on the left side so it is naturally on the low side of the air box when the bike is parked on the side stand. If there is an excess of oil accumulated in the air box over time it will run down the drain hose and drip on the ground. Open the air box and clean out any liquid oil n there and dry the drain hose to remove any accumulated liquid, then monitor for further drips from that drain hose. Also make sure the oil is not above the line on the window when the bike is standing straight up.

Yes, see my post #19 , I speak from experience it happened to me on my 98 Royal Star Tour Classic. You should start with the oil pump / water pump assembly. The seals on the common shaft can and do fail allowing oil to get into the cooling system. It is a pain to get all of the oil out of the cooling system, some have flushed their cooling systems with a mixture of water and dawn dish soap followed by a couple of flushes of distilled water to remove the soap residue and minerals that the water may have left behind. The twinky is the long oval sapped part that sits between the cylinders has a few hoses on it, it is actually a heat exchanger. This issue has been reported by several here and also on the Delphi Royal Star forums. Good luck , report back how you make out.

If it just surface corrosion take some aluminum foil and wad it up in your hand, dip in water and rub it on the affected area, works pretty well, they follow with traditional metal polish or good wax. I just tried this on some Kuryakyn parts, it worked , but the Kuryakyn chrome is so pitiful it started to peel off in big flakes, the size of your thumb nail in some spots, so I am replacing the parts.

Well it is a sellers market in real estate, so not really surprised with the quick sale. Where about in Florida are you going to be for the winter? I am just about 25 miles south of Daytona Beach. Good luck on the next chapter of your journey.

My valve covers were showing a lot of wear mostly from some wind wings that were installed by the previous owner, so I picked up some cheap knock off covers from Hong Kong and a spare set of logo covers from eBay, I like the results. I plan to take the OEM covers and have them powder coated in gloss black and I have improved the mounting clamps for the wind wings to keep them from touching the valve covers.

Check out these links to the tech section on this forum, should tell you what you need to go to fix the clicking noise. https://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?13263-Rear-Hub-Lubrication https://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?1705-Rear-End-Noise-Yamaha-TSB

That reminds me of some good advice I got from the Goldwing forum about taking switch clusters apart, try to fit a large clear zip-lock type bag over the switch and work inside the bag when taking them apart, if springs or parts go flying they will be contained in the bag and not shoot out all over the work area.

Your diagnosis seems to be right on, The red wire is the hot feed to the switch, fused at 15 amps. The green wire is the low beam feed wire from the switch. The Yellow wire is for the high beam and the high beam indicator. The black wire is the ground for the circuits. My Venture is long gone and I never had a reason to tear into the dimmer switch, so I do not have any advice on getting it apart or testing of that particular switch, but I have attached the switch testing instruction page from the repair manual, maybe that will help a bit as well as the lighting system troubleshooting guide from the repair manual. Hope this helps a bit, but it does sound like your switch is bad, could be just dirty or corroded, maybe some good contact cleaner sprayed into the connector will help along with multiple actuations of the switch while the contact cleaner is still wet indise the switch will help clean the contacts. LIGHTING SYSTEM TROUBLESHOOTING.pdfTESTING SWITCHES.pdf

The original Royal Stars do not ha e linked brakes. They suffer from the same to much power to rear brakes that the Venture does. You do not have to bleed the brakes when changing pads, just make sure there is enough room in the master cylinder to take the fluid that will be displaced when you push the pistons back to allow the new pads to fit in.

Well I have my retirement and personal investments with Edward Jones, the mutual funds are a mix of stocks and bonds with a very conservative mix that is heavy on bonds, so far this year with all of the ups and downs on the market I have netted about 6.5%, I also have a lump that I keep in a short term CD fund that matures every 3 months, each time it matures my broker looks for the best 3 month rate, I had a 2.2% rate last quarter, this quarter it is 1.9%, The mutual funds are not insured, so as the market fluctuates so do the values of my funds, higher returns come with higher risk of loss, the CDs are locked in for the 3 month period and are insured by the FDIC. I think in this market getting a safe steady 5% return is probably not doable, but with some amount of risk you can do it. I just talked with my broker yesterday he advised me as he always does to stay the course and look at the long term not short term market swings, but if it all goes to crap in a basket, I can sell the stocks and bonds in the IRAs and buy CDs to protect what I have left while keeping it inside an IRA an avoiding paying federal taxes on a big lump all at once. It is bound to be a wild ride in the next several months as the trade issues heat up and England exits the EU.

A few weeks ago I posted a help request for a customer dealing with some trailer problems, he is still struggling and I wondered if there would be anyone in the Minneapolis area that could volunteer some time to try and help him out, if you can, PM me and I will get you set up with contact info and maybe you could arrange to meet with him and help out a bit. I know I am asking a lot, but it would mean a lot to a brother biker. Thanks Steve K

What Freebird said. 1999 to 2013 Venture motor or 2005 to 2010 Tour Deluxe will bolt right in.

I should have been a bit more clear in my original post, the basis for the trailer harness is a break out harness with 5 leads ( ground, brake, left turn, right turn and tail lights) those leads can be spliced to the trailer converter/ Isolator or used to add additional lighting. My plan as with my 2nd Gen parts is to offer the break out harness as a separate item for those who want to do just what you described in adding more lights to the rear of the bike. Also when I make the trailer harness I always include an extra set of tag wires spliced in for those who want to do both, add a trailer set up and add more lighting.

For many years I have had requests from GEN I riders to make trailer harnesses and break out harnesses like I do for the GEN II Royal Star bikes. I finally found a source for the 13 pin connectors used on the GEN I MKII 1990 to 1993 bikes, I do not have them yet, the supplier has to special order them and is negotiating price and delivery, they expect to have them available to me within 3 to 6 weeks. I have put 4 sets on advance order with them on the speculation there will be a renewed interest in my products. If you are interested please reply to this thread or PM me so I can gauge interest and plan accordingly. Thanks M61A1MECH

So back to your condition, an engineer where I worked a few years back suddenly started having dizzy spells and vertigo, turns out he had an issue with crystals in his inner ear coming dislodged and migrating to places they were not supposed be, doctors put him on meds and her was OK after a bit. Here something I found on Google. I am certainly no doctor, but maybe something to discuss with yours if the subject has not already been brought up. 'BPPV is a mechanical problem in the inner ear. It occurs when some of the calcium carbonate crystals (otoconia) that are normally embedded in gel in the utricle become dislodged and migrate into one or more of the 3 fluid-filled semicircular canals, where they are not supposed to be." https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjB5rCMq4fkAhVmT98KHYCWB8cQFjAEegQIDBAN&url=https%3A%2F%2Fvestibular.org%2Funderstanding-vestibular-disorders%2Ftypes-vestibular-disorders%2Fbenign-paroxysmal-positional-vertigo&usg=AOvVaw3EPNnAk25YlITRlxw8Wp5M

I had to walk away, just not clean enough, all the aluminum was oxidized from being in the Florida humidity, no maintenance records, so no telling when any fluids were changed or how regular, this owner has only had it since February. The tires had plenty of tread but , based on the low mileage and it being 23 years old I am sure the are old and need to be changed. The seat has black tape covering the front seam. All in all just pointed to not being taken care of the way I expected (hoped). He said he did not want to go very far below $2000.00. It ran good and sounded good, but I did not like the way it handled, maybe I am just spoiled by my Goldwing, any way, I knew there would be some things that needed attention, but unless I could get it for $800.00 to $1000.00 it is just not worth sinking several hundred dollars in a bike I do not need and really do not have space for. I could make it fit in the garage, but it would difficult, so decided to walk away. I probably should just stop looking at them all together and be happy riding what I have. Thanks to all that responded.

Rest In Peace in the Lord my friend, you will be greatly missed by all who had the pleasure and honor to know you.

Yes I am aware of the performance of the bike, I owned a 98 Tour Classic for 9 years prior to getting my Venture, I am more concerned about adjusting back to that style after having my Goldwing for a number of years. i am planning on keeping the Goldwing just not sure how much I will enjoy this bike if I get it. I hope a lot, because I really enjoyed my 98.

I found a 1996 Royal Star for sale on Craig's list, it is about 1.5 hours due west of me, going to take a look at it tomorrow after work. It has been on CL for 6 or 8 weeks and the price has been declining, today he posted "Make an Offer", he told me has $2000.00 in it and would like to that bake out of it. He recently purchased it from a friend's wife, she only put 31,000 miles on it, so I am hoping it really looks as good in person as it does in the photos. I am thinking of offering him $1500.00 to start with. What do you guys think?

You did not mention how many miles on the bike, for what it is worth, the clutches on my 98 Tour Classic and my 2007 Venture both started slipping around 40,000 miles, on the 98 for lack of any other good advice I put in all new friction plates and a new OEM spring, clutch was fine after that for 56,000 more miles when I sold it, on the 07 I just upgraded the spring with one of SkyDoc's heavier springs, it was fine for the next 30,000 miles when I sold it. I will also say stay away from Yamaha lube oils, I am convinced that using it was what caused my 98 to start slipping, once I changed it back to Honda GN4, it got better but still had some slippage, unit the clutch plates and spring were changed.

Generally I would say yes those are fairly common issues. First question is do you have the key code that came with the original keys? That is a small tag with 4 or 5 numbers stamped on it, with those numbers a locksmith can punch a new key that will be as good as the one from the factory. If all you have is a worn key and get it copied all you have is a copy of a worn key. It may be better than the original worn key but not much and not for long. Generally it is never a good idea to put liquid lubes in a key hole, they attract dirt and collect particles of metal as the key and tumblers wear. I would recommend cleaning the key slot with some good plastic safe contact or brake cleaner to drive out the oil and dry out the inside, then use a dry lube specifically designed for locks, I use graphite. The electrical switch on the Ventures and many other Royal Stars are weak and minimally robust enough for the current that Yamaha puts through them, they are known to fail, just in the manner you are describing. There is a fellow here on the site , Dion, djh3 that makes a bypass electrical jumper that removes most of the load from the ignition switch, you may want to look into one of those.