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Snaggletooth

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Everything posted by Snaggletooth

  1. Snaggletooth
    Yeppers. Ace is the place! I've replaced almost every bolt, screw and nut I've taken off the bike during repairs from the selection there. SS, chrome, or hardened in about any kind of head you would want. They have a huge metric selection at the store I go to.
  2. Snaggletooth
    My '84 had two different keys when I bought it. The original factory key opened everything except the helmet locks and the three locks to hold the tanks in place. The other key opened the helmet locks, the luggage latches and the ignition. I had a locksmith make me two new keys from the code on the master and both the new keys work in everything. Must have just been wear and tear on the keys.
  3. Snaggletooth
    Looks like a good start on a new 2 you bike. The color looks familiar somehow? Oh yeah! Same as mine. Looks to be an '86 so you are past the 2nd gear and frame problems. So you'll be enjoying it soon enough. Most the stuff you listed is easy to repair and the guys around here are always on top of questions asked. I put my '84 back into top condition from advice, info and parts from the club members. Now you want a list to things your are going to change, upgrade or add or do you want to figure that out for yourself? LOL! Don't worry there will be plenty of suggestion as you go along. And the location of the nearest DQ will be readily available at any time. But I'll say this......check out the tires for their age and get a feel for the front springs in the forks. The stock springs are junk and easy to change over to the Progressives. If the bike has been sitting around for a long time the tires maybe older than you want to trust. The Venoms X's are a popular tire on the 1st Gens. But enjoy and ride safe. Mike
  4. Snaggletooth
    Good to see you back. 680 gremlins?...........you need a couple of bells just to hang on your monitor.
  5. Snaggletooth
    Same thing happened to me last year. The bike decided it wasn't going to start that morning so I took the cage. On the way home that afternoon a semi in the lane to right blew a tire and the flying tread took out my windshield. All I could think of man.....if I'd been on the bike! But then again if I'd had the bike that day I probably would have been some where else not even near a semi. It was all in the timing that day. Bad timing for sure. Still glad the bike decided not to run though.
  6. Snaggletooth
    The heavier brace does help control the flex and keeps the forks working in unison which keeps the tire running on a truer track in the curves. When I went from all stock springs, brace and tires to the CondorBrace, Progessive springs along with a new set of Venom X tire the bike became a whole new animal. One I feel I have control of. At better than 850 lb and my 285 lb that's a lot of weight to be hanging onto when the front wheel gets goofy on ya. Best change I made on the bike for handling. Mike
  7. Snaggletooth
    You might want to add on to make sure to seal the wires themselves coming from the stator and the pick up coils going thought the rubber insets in the housing with an extra dose of high heat silicon inside and out. And thanks......I feel better now. I only had to take mine on an off four times when I did the Buckeye upgrade and the starter engage clutch. But it worked out well. No leaks and I got power now like never before. Yea! Mike
  8. Snaggletooth
    I've had both GL1100 and 1200 GW's in the past. Loved them both. Smooth, good for the long run and no problems that caused me any misery. When I found my '84 VR I was more comfortable on it as far as riding position. I'm 6'2" and 285 lbs. I find I'm able to ride the VR a little more to the limits as far as handling and feel in control more than I did on the wings. The weak spots on the '83 & '84 and the early '85's were the 2nd gear issue, and then the weaker stator and the the factory spings in the front forks in all other years. All of which can be fixed and get many years more of these old girls. The motors are almost bullet proof. They don't really come alive until about 4,500 rpm. Then you got your hands full. LOL! Sounds like you have been around the wings for a while and knowledge is a major factor when owning an older bike. That's why most of us are here. Knowing your bike when it's 25 years old is a plus. If you go for the VR you'll find a lot of helping hands here and never short of suggestions and advice. No matter what you ride you will always be welcome here. Mike
  9. Snaggletooth
    Congrats there Bob! Waiting to get a look at it. Glad you're keeping Goldie also. Mike
  10. Snaggletooth
    The company I work for just hired a new local driver. I nailed him for a rider the second I saw him. Vest, boots, chain drive billfold. He's an older fella, a few years on me anyway and he saw me getting ready to take off on my VR. He came over and chatted for a couple of minutes and he whips out a handful of photos of his bike. He has an older and excellent looking fatboy. Every pic had the bike with his golden retreiver laying in front of it. I looked at all the pics and handed them back and said "That's a beautiful dog! What kind of bike is that?" The look on his face was priceless. He was almost stammering. He finally got it when he realized I was having trouble keeping a straight face. Looks like we might be riding together pretty soon. He's a rider. Not a brand clone and even better, he actually knew what my bike was.
  11. Snaggletooth
    Now that is WAY better than a webcam! I feel like Big Brother.
  12. Snaggletooth
    I was headed home from work this morning and I went past the Victory dealer. There was a sign up that said they now offering a "5 year warrenty". Ok, it was 3am so I circled back and read the sign again. Yep. That's what it said. Anybody hear anything on this or are they just pushing some outside party "extended" warrenty BS to make some sales?
  13. Snaggletooth
    Looks great! Very nice job.
  14. Snaggletooth
    Wally World here in the midwest jumped up from $5.97 a can to $8 and change in the last couple of weeks to. Glad I stocked up on afew extra cans a while back.
  15. Snaggletooth
    That does sound a bit like the TCI is sucking in a little moisture, as in condensation inside the case. A lot of guys pull them, open them up and do run in the oven at about 110 degrees for a hour to really dry them out. Then a thin layer of sealant when replacing the cover to help. The TCI is in a bad place to start with as it does get exposed to the elements. Some rework the harness and move it to the top of the air box. Of there is moisture in there it WILL do damage eventully. Just my thought.
  16. Snaggletooth
    I bought a set of the Freeway Blasters last year. High and low. I hooked them up to the stock wires and was disappointed that they didn't seem much louder than the stock horns so I put them aside for later. I read the posts on the wiring of the aftermarket horns and with a little help from Bongobobny got the relay installed right. I had Squidleys driving light brackets on the bike so they mounted there. I found that if you rotate the horns to point toward the radiator side panels they resonate nicely off of that. If you can call these horns nice. heh heh heh! So last week they got put to the test. Twice! In one day. I was riding west on a four lane city street at about 35 mph in heavy traffic. I was in the inside lane coming up on an SUV on the right. As I was passing, and I was shoulder to shoulder with the driver, a blue hair wannabe, she drifted into my lane about half way before I could hit the button. Apparently the horns work as she swung back to the right so far she jumped the curb. I thought that was a bit dramatic but that was nothing to what happend next. I stopped at a light a few blocks later and she pulled up next to me and rolled her window down and proceeded to rip me a new one. She was yelling that I scared her to death. She just kept going on about how "I" could have killed "her". All I could do was grin at her. Well, I gave her another touch to the horn button to go with my smile. The window rolled back up pretty fast but her mouth was still running behind the glass. Couldn't hear the rest of her ranting though. Oh well. So all I can say is they work as advertised. The fella that was directly behind me in a cage that I may have been sitting on his hood if I'd hit my brakes hard pulled up to me at another light and gave me the . He said that was the best thing he's seen in weeks and loved my horns. At least some people get it. But for the money......inexpensive.....less that $35.00 for both and a relay it was well spent. I'm still here. That's all that matters to me. Mike
  17. Snaggletooth
    Never work on American teens! You would to have to hook up the current directly and it would take more than 12 volts to get them to jump. LOL! Voice of experience.
  18. Snaggletooth
    Ok, here is one I'm good at. Done it so many times I have it down to a science. Make sure the rear master is full. The 1st place to bleed is the fitting called the metering valve behind the neck of the steering. The tech article calls it a proportioning valve but it's not. That is on the master cylinder itself. There is a union (bango) bolt on the rear of the metering valve that faces to the rear of the bike for the front left caliper line. On the right side of that valve is a steel line that comes from the rear master. That is the easy one to get to. Rap a rag around it as much as you can to catch the brake fliud coming out and pump up the brakes. Crack the steel line fitting and tighten again as the pedal drops. Repeat as needed until it stops spitting. Check the rear master and refill. Then go to the left front caliper and repeat the bleed process again as needed. Check master. Then move to the left front anti dive and repeat the process again. Check the master again. Now move to the rear brake. Pump the pedal and repeat the bleed process again. When you have finished all four points in this order the feel of the pedal should be firm. Now.....check that master one more time and then bleed the rear again to remove some fluid from the system. You want the master filled, but not full. It the master is topped off completely you might have problems with the rear brake dragging if the fluid heats up and expands. You need to leave a little room in there for that. The reason for this patten is the air in the lines moves to the highest point in the system, the metering valve. If you don't get the air out of the high point you will never get the brakes firm. Some guys that have problems bleeding let the bike sit over night and let the air bubbles rise. Then bleed in the morning with no problems. Don't forget to check the freeplay in the brake pedal when you are done. You want a lttle slack on that so the plunger in the master cylinder is not compressed until the pedal is press a bit. The stainless steel lines from Rick at Buckeye have a bleeder line made into them at the metering valve connection. Nice feature. Good luck
  19. Snaggletooth
    See that developing around here to. At first I just thought that some of them had cut their wind screens down as their nose looked kind of high but turned out it was the same height as the BMW riders. Hardley a wave from any of them.
  20. Snaggletooth
    Thanks for the feedback guys. I really didn't know what to expect with the new stator. My old one just wasn't keeping up and on the best day it would hardly keep the battery charged. I'd always read that the stock stator should charge at 14.5 volts over 2,000 rpm. psssst! Never even got close to that. Well there was that one time when it ran up to about 17 and that was when I replaced the reg/rec. No brainer on that one. All three wires off the old stator showed equal readings, if not low when I tested it so I kept putting off replacing it. Just thought I wasn't doing the test right. I sent my volt readings to RickH yesterday with along with my thanks for providing the stator. He replied that the readings looked to be in line with his expectations so I'm comfortable that I got things going in the right direction now. Nice to know I can start the bike every time now. Mike
  21. Snaggletooth
    Hey Mike The lowest reading I got was 12.8 at an idle with all the lights on, the high beam on and the brake lit up. Not going to be a doing that a lot anyway but wanted to see what the bottom end was going to be. Without the high beam and brake on it was pretty much 13.2 at idle. Running down the road 13.7 is the lowest loaded up with all the lights.
  22. Snaggletooth
    Yep it is a digital voltmeter. My insurance plan. I like knowing where I am on the charging sytem after all the problems I had before. Found it at: http://www.digitalmeter.com/cgi-bin/webshop.cgi?config=configspc.txt I have hooked directly to the side termianls in the Deka ETX18L battery for a direct feed. I use a toggle switch right above in to kick it on. Nothing makes me feel better than seeing 12.8 when I hit the switch before starting up. The Buckeye upgrade stator is doing great. I found the top windings to be a bit singed on the old one. All three wires were showing the same readings but not enough. The Buckeye is running up to about 14.7 running down the road. When I run the high beam, the 55 watt driving lights and the marker lights on the bumper and front fender at the came time it will pull down to 13.8 volts. As I don't usually run them all that the same time it stay pretty close to 14.3 most the time at night. With the Deka AGM, the Buckeye stator and the new reg/rec I put in last year I'm happy as I can be with the charging sytem. I barely got 13.5 out of the old stuff with nothing but the head light on. Yikes! Now if I wanted to go one better on the meter....there is the Kisan Charge Guard. Nice stuff. Costs a bit more than what I paid but it gives you voltage, amps available and draw plus air temp and an ice warning. Maybe some day.
  23. Snaggletooth
    And there ya have it!
  24. Snaggletooth
    May '09. Added rear lightbar and new Mac exhaust. Coverted reflectors to LED lights.

    From the album: '84 Venture Royale

  25. Snaggletooth
    April '07. After 9 years of storage, 3 months of cleaning and rebuilds, and some help from the club

    From the album: '84 Venture Royale

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