SHE LIVES!!!! (Long)

[rabidmonk]

...well sort of...she's like those fat chicks with pretty faces...with a little work she'll be fun to ride ;D :P

A little background story...My cousin bought the bike in 83 (it?s an 82) rode it till 89 then garaged it till about 4 yrs ago, when he gave it to me. And it sat there till about 3 weeks ago.  

It's got 2048km on it, it?s in pretty good shape, except for the small dent in the tank and the broken front turn signal, from the time he dropped it riding on a wet streetcar track. Unfortunately it?s got a terminal case of the dreaded disease, rustitis. :'( But I already got her on heavy dosages of sandpaper, WD-40 and phosphoric acid.  And she appears to be making a slow recovery. Unfortunately, it appears the exhaust requires amputation, considering the right muffler resembles rotted Swiss cheese. Anyone know of a good replacement?  I called a couple of salvage yards and nobody has one.  The one place that did, wants $1200.  But I gotta take the bike that it?s attached to as well. :)

Anyways, armed with a new battery, my new Haynes manual, a jerry can of gas, new spark plugs, oil and filter, I walked into my garage thinking I can get this baby started in no time...How naive of me.. :(

I began by draining the 2 litres of orange juice coloured gasoline from the NOW rusted gas tank... I then proceeded to replace it with new gas...Ohhhh how cute; gas is coming outta the side of the tank, that can?t be good. No problem, nothing a little JB weld can?t fix...
Next day after that cures, and battery is charged, I put her back together, and try to start her up. GRRRRR GRRRR GRRRRR...she's cranking but she ain't starting...I think to myself, "that?s no problem; I?ll just have to dip the carbs, like that website said to. I can do it, how hard can it be?"...EIGHT stripped screws later  >:(, and I finally got them apart.  Dipped them overnight, put 'em all together, all is good, until it comes time to put the hoses back on..."UHHH were did this one go again?!?!Ahh screw it, I'll just go on eBay and look at the carb pictures...uhhhh why is there no electricity?!?"  2 days later when the power comes back on, I check the pictures that those VISION KILLERS put up on eBay, and figure out the hose situation...ALL IS GOOD again...

...'Till I put her back together...I go to hit the start button expecting the GRRRRR...GRRRRR...VRROOOMMMM....VROOMMM.
And all I get is a...click...click...click...pick up the Haynes...starter bad...AHHHHHH....so i grab the closest hammer, and naturally begin wacking at the starter (gimme a break, I'm italian, thats how we fix things)..Hit the start button....GRRR...GRRRRR...click...click.... Take starter off, begin dissembling...ohh look 2 more stripped screws...after lots of cursing, I get the thing apart, and proceed to give my legs a dirty oil bath...OHH OHH this cant be good...I give up...
So the starter sat in pieces for a week, while I took my stress leave from the bike...In that time I found myself here again, reading everything I could...learned that the problem was the seal...so I emailed canadianlouie, who lives in the same city as me, and asked if he knew where I can get the seal locally..He kindly gave me the contact info, for the place he gets it from. Call ?em up, they got one left and they'll put it aside for me...GREAT...something?s finally working out...Errr...not exactly...Hop in my cage, drive down...I'm all excited..finally gonna get the V running..."AHH sorry sir, but we can?t find that seal, we've looked everywhere" AHHHHHHHHHHHHH...not to go home empty handed...I proceed to rip out his sternum  ;D No actually, I bought a 20x35x7, hoping it fit...so i get home, and following Lucky's directions and another trip to the bearing house, for new bearings (i got into a little argument with the old ones) i finally got the thing back together...Put it back on the bike, go to hit the start button..click..click...OHHH look at the pretty smoke show the starter is giving me...that cant be good...3 days and another stress leave later, I finally pull the starter, open it up, and realize, the positive brush shouldn?t be shorted to ground, should it??  Probably not...

All of this brings me to yesterday...I got the starter fixed and back on the bike, oil in the engine, key on, finger on the start button..and I get a click...click...click...haha...no thats what i though i'd hear...but instead i get a GRRRR....GRRRR...VROOOM.....VROOOOMMMM...FINALLY SHE LIVES!!!!! HAHAH...as somebody here says.."It?s good to win" ;D 8) ;D
But the battle ain't over yet, I got allot of work left...

-she won't idle...I checked the YICS, and it?s got an internal and external leak I got fix...hopefully i didnt butcher it too much when i cut it open.
-I plugged the yic hoses, and she idled at about 4000rpm...so i gotta fix that too.
-gotta sync the carbs when I get her stable
-gotta fix gas tank (por-15 is in the mail)
-gotta find replacement exhaust system, I read Lucky's homemade replacement idea, but I don?t have access to a welder.  And if my soldering is any indication of how I?d weld, it won?t be pretty
-I already soldered the r/r connectors, now I gotta do the fault finding chart to see if everything?s good.

But most importantly I gotta thank all you fine folk out there in internet land...cause without all your great posts, i would've probably tooken a sledge to her by now  ;D :D ;D

Thanks for reading this long a$$ post...
Peace OUT

[Rick G]

Congradulations!! you have what it takes to be a Visionary!  Makes my heart glad to know someone is making use of all the drivel we post here, LOL.  lucky has a conplete stock exhaust system, hes been trying to stick, er, sell to some one  and I have a  muffler assembly  , that a guy on Ebay thinks I'm kidding  about, when I say I'll  post negative feed back !
 If you are interested in it,  email me at rgcdn@juno.com  and we will talk.

[Rick G]

By the way  on the subject of hammers, there's and old motorcycle  mechanics saying, "if at first you don't succeed , you ain't using a big enough hammer "!

[h2olawyer]

Welcome to the Vision ownership fraternity!  Once you get the known problems correctly dealt with, your Vision will reward you with many miles of dependable fun.  Perserverence, patience and the great advice in this forum are valuable assets for owners of these rare, fun machines.  Not to mention the excellent info in the Haynes manual.  I know it takes some time but I highly recommend reading through as much of the past postings as you can - there's all kinds of minor hints and tricks to keep your V running as good as or in my case, better than when it was new!

[rabidmonk]

Thanks everybody, for welcoming me into this part of internet land..cause, you know, sometimes you wanna go....where everybody knows your name...and...they're always glad you came...you want to be were you can see...our troubles are ALL the same (r/r, startor, starter, carbs, rust ect)...you wanna be where everybody knows your name... ;D ?:D ;D :P ::)

oh..my name is Nick, and I'm a V-Junky... ;D

btw, Rick, I got a 30lbs sledge hammer...there ain't nottin I can't fix...YA HEAR!!! ;D

[Canadian_Daniel]

hey nick, I live in Richmond Hill and if you ever want someone to help with their bike or just get together then feel free to email me. I am a newbie too and just bought mine off of Ebay for a measly 540. so I don't know how to do any of the repairs or anything, but misery lves company...