Vision wont start

[Waapman]

My vision has been sitting for around a year.  Of course my battery was dead; so I used jumper cables and jumped it off my car,  the starter would run, but the engine woudnt crank. Took the fuel line off the petcock and no fuel was comming out.  I turned that little switch on the side of the petcock to no avail.  I then poured some gas on top of the carbs, it still woudnt crank.  The starter just kept winding.  Any ideas.??

[Lucky]

Easy fix. Some of the oil has becomed gummed/varnished in the crankcase & starter clutch.  Drain the oil, CHANGE THE FILTER (it's probably gummed up too) fill with a good detergent oil & bump start the bike in second gear.  listen closely to be sure the engine isn't turning the starter. if it sounds ok, take the bike around the block, stay close to home, but get the engine up to operating temp.

After that drain the oil & use motorcycle oil.  probably a good idea to change the oil again in a few hundred miles.

Bump starting the bike and getting it warmed up should be enough to get the clutch rollers unstuck.

When I bought my bike it had been sitting outside, unprotected fo 9 years.  The clutch pack (not the starter ones) were frozen up, I couldn't shift the bike at all, I had to start it on the center stand...  I did the above routine, and my clutch has been fine ever since, never been touched.

--Lucky

[Waapman]

 How do I bump start it??   Like my status says NEWBIE!

[VK]

Bump start: get the bike rolling (down a hill or push the bike as fast as you can and jump on), put the bike in third gear, and let the clutch out.  Engine should (hopefully) start right up.

VK

[Rick G]

Sounds to me, lthat the  tank is empty . There are three positions on the petcock . Straight down is  "on"  straight up is "reserve "  back to the rear of the bike  is "prime "  If the bike is out of gas turn the petcock to prime  as reserve wont help, untill the bike is running . As soon as it starts turn it to On or Reserve.
The next question is , where did the gas go ? Most likley into the crank case , follow lucky's instructions . But use a large pan  if it has several gallons of gas in the bottom end, in addition to the oil , you will need  a large pan. Most likley you will need to have the carbs dipped. You will know  when you get it started.

[Lucky]

By the way, when you bump start it, don't forget to have the key in the 'run' position. :)

[rick_nowak]

this last note, the btw would not come from personal experience, would it?
i have never been successful in bump-starting my vision.  just got tired.  maybe the voltage was to low to fire the plugs properly.  i'm so old that i like kick starters.  also they are lighter if they are the only starting device fitted

[Lucky]

I knew SOMEONE was going to ask me that...  no, but sometimes when your concentrating on a problem the obvious might get overlooked.

[QBS]

By "wouldnt crank" do you mean that the starter motor is rotating the crank shaft, but the engine is failing to begin to run?

[Waapman]

yeah; the starter does its thing but the engine doesnt fire up.  Makes sense that its gummed up because my clutch also wont work, sometimes it will go into a gear and sometimes it wont.... it wont even go into neutral. I drained the oil , and tried bump starting it (with fresh oil in!) but it was hard to tell what gear I was in because it stays in one gear... it wont even go into neutral.

[kiawrench]

ok,, sounds like you have done the easy stuff, either find vision rider nearby ,or take to (god forbid) the dealer, time for a good wrench job. my spare was like that , was sitting in salvage yard, 8 or 9 years, i took it all apart, put it all back clean and sealed tight, runs good as can be ,,, now if wasnt too lazy-- could go get some rims and tires,maybe the front brakes, maybe even a set of forks and some lights,,, lol,,
anyway , it is just the spare, first one still getting me to and from everywhere > lot of thanks to lucky and Ron

[QBS]

How do you roll the bike around if "my clutch also wont work" and "it wont even go into neutral" ? Those two conditions indicate that the rear wheel is locked up.  If you were able to attempt jump starting then you must have had access to neutral.  It sounds like your clutch plates are stuck together. It the bike is in gear with stuck clutch plates it is very easy to go from gear to the next by rocking the bike back and forth while GENTLEY working the gear shift lever up or down.  DON'T EVER GET BRUTAL WITH YOUR GEAR SHIFT LEVER. Start with going down until the lever offers about 1" of smooth travel resistance followed by a hard stop.  That should be first gear.  Neutral is about half an inch back up from there.  Find neutral and start your engine run diagnosis work from there.   To address the clutch problem, put the bike in first gear, pull in the clutch lever and agressively rock the bike back and forth against its' drive line slop.  Hopefully, this will break the clutch loose.  If it doesn't, there is another technique to try that requires a running engine.  If need be, I'll walk you through that one after you get the bike running.

 It sounds like your starter and battery are in good enough shape to at least rotate the crankshaft but either your  ignition and/or fuel system isn't cooperating.  It could be a combination of gummed up carbs and weak battery.  Vs' will crank slowly and not start even with a perfect fuel systems because of low voltage to the TCI box.  Fix: a fully charged battery.  Vs' will crank strong with a fully charged battery but not start due to gummed up carbs and floats stuck in the closed postion.  Fix: clean the carbs.  Also, a strong cranking V with gummed carbs or an empty gas, but with gas poured down the carb throats, will fire and run for a moment and then die.  Thus indicating a good ignition system and dirty carbs.  Since we don't know how strong your bike is cranking it's hard to say where to go from here.  However, based on what you have reported, I'd say you have a week battery and gummed carbs.

[Waapman]

Carbs are pretty clean, Im leaning towards an electric issue, yesterday I was getting power with the jumper cables hooked up, I could hit the start button to try to crank it.  Now Im getting no power with jumper cables or battery.  I have to "hotwire" the bike to run the starter.  So its something between the battery and the starter!  Is there a fuse I might have blown?  
 By my clutch not working I mean it sometimes will go into a gear and sometimes it will just lightly click, I rocked the bike and then it would work for a minute, but with only 3 gears.  And about the gas issue, my tank is not even on the bike, my attempts to start it with it on failed; so I took it off to pour gas directly into the carbs...
 __Thanks for all the help__

[Bruce]

I had this electric problem once as well. There is a starter solenoid right next to the battery. You probably have a loose or dirty connection there.

Bruce.

[Waapman]

Where is it in relation to the battery?  Is it the tube like thing the battery is wired to??  Also where is the ignition fuse?

[Rick G]

The Vision  has 4 fuses in a small square plastic box onder the seat, there is one more (for the cooling fan) in side the head light.
All old Yamahas suffer from failure of the  clips that hold the fuses in place , the cure is to replace  the whole fuse box  with one from the auto parts store , made by Buss, its under 5.00 dollars. The fuses make intermitttant  contact and /or the clips break off .
you need to get the tank working properly and  get it on the bike .
if you want  to discuss diagnosis of  Vision problems , I'm on Yahoo, rgcdn1 , let me know what your Id is and I'll look for you.

[Waapman]

thanks, my ID is ajsanzone.  My gas tank should finish drying today.... so many leaks!  and then i'll put it back on the bike and have another go at this tommorow.

[Waapman]

Just noticed the wire thats attached to my clutch lever is snapped, not the clutch line itself.  Would that have anything to do with my problems?????

[Rick G]

Thats part of the "saftey circuit"  along with the side stand switch .
as a temporary measure you can just connect the two wires togeather.  . The saftey circuit is our governments way of protecting us from oursleves . I'm an old timer and when I started riding  there was none of this crap. If you disconnect or cut the black and white wire that goes in to the TCI box , it defeats this circuit . Just remember it WILL start in gear AND you can ride away with the center stand down. This happens to me  nearly every  ride at least once, but since the stand  is short all that happens is it knocks it up out of the way. ( there are bike that i would not care to try this on!!)

[Waapman]

ok here we go again,  This time its with Vision #2.  Bought Weekend Warriors Vision yesterday.   Ran fine when I picked it up, brought it home unloaded it, got my jacket and my helmet and cranked it up.... ran great.  Ran inside to grab a drink (water of course) and heard it shut off outside.  Went back outside and it had cut off.  Tried to crank it and it wouldnt start?  Got good gas, carbs are decent, and battery is good?  Now what,?  spark plugs are also new...