Riders Of Vision

General => Goin Ridin'... => Topic started by: munkyfistfight on December 03, 2013, 03:34:28 PM

Title: One last ride for 2013
Post by: munkyfistfight on December 03, 2013, 03:34:28 PM
2013 sucked.

There's no two ways around it. I had a crappy year. And to anyone that's been following me, my Vision crapped out back in June on a trip to Louisville, KY from Pittsburgh, PA. We spent the night in Columbus at a friends house, on the way to a car show in L'ville the next day. Earlier on in the season I had some great rides. We went to a couple of biker meetups and a car show. I was really looking forward to Louisville. 30 miles out of Louisville the Vision decided to have a mid-life crisis.

I couldn't figure it out. I took the carbs apart when we got there. It was stalling  around 50 mph and particularly up hills. I left it in Kentucky and came back the next week for the "walk of shame".

All summer long I couldn't get it running right. When I did think I got it running right, it did the same thing on the highway test.

On a whim I decided to take the fuel pump apart and discovered that one of the little valves inside the pump was broken; possibly clogging the flow of fuel. A year ago I replaced all of the components of the fuel pump so I neglected to check it when there was a problem. Luckily a Visioneer from Oregon that I had sold some parts to sent me a replacement fuel pump. I replaced the o-rings on the idle screws and cleaned the carbs like a pro. I also replaced the float needles and buckets. The originals were the wrong size and were showing signs of wear.
After plugging it back in it started right up. I got the sync set perfectly. But for all of my efforts I couldn't get the mixture screws set right. This is the worst part for me. I'm probably not alone, but these damn mixture screws get me every time. Luckily this time our shop has a big-ass fan so I could work on the bike without it overheating.
With the erratic idle and the stumble, I was about to give up, when I started backing the screws out equally and giving the bike 1/4 throttle until I noticed that the idle was getting better, the rev wouldn't stick open, and the idle was levelling out. I'm at about 5.5 turns out when I determine that it's perfect. If I go slightly out on the front carb it starts to bog out again.

Today was perfect for riding. The sun was out. There was no reason to not take the bike out. This Vision has never run so smoothly. It responded to every twist and turn, although I had to be careful because there's salt on the road now. It idles on it's own. The tach needle sits calmly at 1300 rpms. I put 100 miles on it today. I was so happy. The battery is showing 12.8 volts on a 5k mile stator/RR and fresh battery.

I went riding with a friend who has a Honda Shadow. I let her ride the V and she said she wants one now. If it's nice tomorrow, I'm going riding. I missed out on a whole summer because of that stupid fuel pump.
Title: Re: One last ride for 2013
Post by: Re-Vision on December 03, 2013, 09:30:39 PM
We've still got four weeks for 2013 to get worse.    BDC
Title: Re: One last ride for 2013
Post by: Rikugun on December 05, 2013, 07:24:12 PM
Happy to hear you got it figured out - that must be a relief.  :)

BTW, Is that 12.8 volts with the engine running?
Title: Re: One last ride for 2013
Post by: munkyfistfight on December 09, 2013, 12:12:24 AM
After I charged the battery with a trickle charger I hooked it up to the bike, ran the bike for about 150 miles, stopped the bike and checked the batter with the multimeter and it read 12.8. Is that bad? It's a new battery. It's been pretty consistent at 12.8 since I bought the battery over a year ago.
Title: Re: One last ride for 2013
Post by: fret not on December 09, 2013, 03:48:17 AM
12.8V is a good reading for a battery with the motor not running.  If the motor is running you should get a reading of 13.5V - 14.5V.  Any more  than that and you risk boiling your battery and any less your battery will struggle to keep up.  Either extreme is hard on your charging system.
Title: Re: One last ride for 2013
Post by: Rikugun on December 09, 2013, 07:09:42 PM
Well put fret  :)     

Munky - If you could post the idling battery voltage next you have it running that would be great.  ;) I for one am curious.  :D  :D  Oh, take note of the idle RPM's too, thanks!  :)
Title: Re: One last ride for 2013
Post by: munkyfistfight on December 09, 2013, 09:15:54 PM
Oh yeah, I didn't even think to check that. Thanks for the heads up. I have it idling at 1,200 rpms.
Title: Re: One last ride for 2013
Post by: munkyfistfight on December 23, 2013, 09:16:58 PM
Ok, so with the battery charged out of the bike it was showing 12.8. After a couple of weeks, at rest it's reading 12.7. Bike starts up fine. The multimeter is showing about 14.7 +/- 0.1. Is that really that bad? Stator? R/R?
Title: Re: One last ride for 2013
Post by: munkyfistfight on December 23, 2013, 09:18:19 PM
Idle RPM's are at 1,300 ish.
Title: Re: One last ride for 2013
Post by: fret not on December 24, 2013, 12:59:09 AM
Just keep an eye on your battery fluid level.  If your battery boils (bubbles excessively, not actually hot enough to boil)  it will quickly run out of water.  Keep it topped up.
Title: Re: One last ride for 2013
Post by: munkyfistfight on December 24, 2013, 09:27:47 AM
Great, thanks for the heads up! I'm about to shelve the bike for the Winter and I'll be taking the battery out. I'll keep an eye out from now on. The battery is very brand new.
Title: Re: One last ride for 2013
Post by: Rick G on January 02, 2014, 06:48:01 PM
I set low speed screws  , by starting them at 3 turns out. Then  I lower the Idle  until it almost stalls . next  open the screws in small increments  until the idle raises. At the point that  opening the idle screw  no longer  raises idle speed go back 1/16 to 1/18 of a turn  and call it good. Reset the idle speed to the correct rpm (1300 )DO NOT preset them and expect it to be spot on, you have to dial it in.
Title: Re: One last ride for 2013
Post by: munkyfistfight on January 06, 2014, 09:42:49 PM
It seems like everyone has their own subtle way of doing this. And I appreciate your input because I want to be able to master this. For as ever long as I've owned a Vision I've adhered to Lucky's method of setting the mixture screws. Essentially what happened this time was I started at 3 turns out and set the sync. The idle was very rough, and so I started backing out the screws until the idle was very high. On a whim I turned the idle screw back down to a manageable level and noticed that the idle was starting to even out. It was running super smooth. I'm at 5.5 turns out on both screws. It's still having a hard time running on idle on it's own, so I'll figure that out in the Spring.

I need to do the top-end on my motor soon. I'm weeping coolant out of the front cylinder and when I swapped the exhaust (stock to MAC) I had blue smoke coming out of the front cylinder. I'll have to start all over this year.