Semi new to Bikes, Very new to the "V"

[Night Vision]

I might be using the wrong term when I say "drive shaft"?  At the back of the swing arm where it meets the rear tire.  There is some oil that has dripped down onto the wheel. ???

you may just have to tighten the oil drain plug in the bottom of the drive shaft. or the grease inside the "pumpkin" where the splines on the wheel meet the final drive gear may have turned to soup...

Like H₂O said... it's mostly just good PM that needs to be done when changing fluids etc. that prolly hasn't been done in awhile....

[kallyjk]

I will know a lot more when I actually get it home.  Looks like it is going to maybe be after the 1st.  Darn unexpected bills.  One of the kids needs some dental work done.  :(

The bike has just under 11,000 miles on it.  I think it is 10,790ish or so.  Thought that was pretty good for a bike that old.

[h2olawyer]

There seem to be quite a few Visions with 7 - 15K miles on them.  The one I've had since new just turned over 12K & the one I bought this Spring says 7K.  Not positive that one is entirely accurate, but it is a strong runner!

H₂O

[Brian Moffet]

Seems to be about the norm. Mine seems to be in the high end, but not the highest at 40,000+

Brian

[kallyjk]

I am getting to excited over this thing!!!!  Was talking to my boss today and one fo the guys that came to look at it later said "He doesn't want that thing, its all corroded and all that stuff needs to be replace!"  He just doesn't understand.  He has a 2005 Victory Vegas and just buys everything.  I would rather build it.  Hopfully once I get it running and tuned I can keep up if not beat him with it.  So I can say, oh this little 550cc motor is as fast as your 17,000 dollar 1400cc motor.  He thinks bigger is always better....some people   ;D

[Night Vision]

I am getting to excited over this thing!!!!  ..... its all corroded and all that stuff needs to be replace!  He just doesn't understand.......  I would rather build it. 

EXACTLY!

if you have the skills, there is no better way to get into a vision than buy one on the cheap and "refresh" it... that way, you know what has been done to the bike, and it's done to your satisfaction. There's a big difference between re$toring and refreshing too...

don't be like a lot of "newbies" and expect your $200 treasure to be road ready in a couple of weeks.
There will be setbacks and frustration along the way, but in the end there will be many Holy Shiite grins when you reach Virnana   

[Tiger]

I am getting to excited over this thing!!!!......I would rather build it. 

8) That is the way, believe me/us... 8) It's what I mean when I tell people to "Get to know your Vision"...from the ground up...if you get what I mean ;) By doing it this way you will get to know AND understand what your "V" is about. It takes time, patience, elbow grease and not always a load of money... ;) First, get her up-'n-running, to some degree, then work on the rest... 8)

                                                  8).......TIGER....... 8)

[kallyjk]

I know this isn't going to be road worthy in a week.  At this point I am just hoping it turns over and if I am lucky I can get a little fire out of it. 

Plan as of now is to get it to turn/fire.  Remove tank, carb, and anything else that needs to be cleaned/polished/painted/sealed and get that taken care of to stop any rusting that is happening.  Carb will be done before anything to see if it will get running on its own two wheels so to speak before the cosmetics though.

[h2olawyer]

Safety & critical items first.  Brakes, smooth engine running, tires, fluids.  Then you can do a rolling refurbishment on the cosmetics.  Plus, after getting the safety stuff taken care of, you can ride it to get the carbs sorted out.  Sounds like you've got the priorities straight - cosmetics last.

H₂O

[kiawrench]

kallyjk-
  just ignore the guy with the victory bike, if he doesnt understand the real joy of owning and rebuilding a bike, then he doesnt deserve to own what he has.
A vision will beat a good many bikes if it is running and handling correctly, but it takes time to get to that point.
What you can do with the bike will depend on your skill as a rider, and your dedication to the rebuild. I have run against a lot of bikes, and beat a lot, but i do sort of stack the run in my favor.
i pick the right kind of road- mostly hard turns and fast direction changes
i pick the type of run- timed runs, no heads up drag races
and i always , always downplay the fact that these bikes can outstick all but ducati

we have a member that owns both a vision ,and a ducati, and he may agree with me on this, a vision can handle almost any cruiser ever built,just be sure to get a road with no long straigh truns on it .

[Lucky]

First, I have NEVER seen so many posts to a new owner here in one day, 2 pages already, wow!

ok, my lesson for the day:

A vehicle battery charger doesn't have near enough amps to start the bike.
jumping off a running car is a sure way to fry the R/R

welcome!!

--Lucky

[dj]

don't be like a lot of "newbies" and expect your $200 treasure to be road ready in a couple of weeks.

A couple of weeks!  I've been working on mine for about 9 months and mine was "running" (just barely) when I got her.

Kallyjk, take your time doing the work, making sure that you don't cut corners and when you start riding her you will have a smile on your face for days.  I've only had mine on the road 4 times and the last time was late summer last year and I still get a smile on my face when I remember how she handled.   ;D

[inanecathode]

I am getting to excited over this thing!!!!  ..... its all corroded and all that stuff needs to be replace!  He just doesn't understand.......  I would rather build it. 

EXACTLY!

if you have the skills, there is no better way to get into a vision than buy one on the cheap and "refresh" it... that way, you know what has been done to the bike, and it's done to your satisfaction. There's a big difference between re$toring and refreshing too...

don't be like a lot of "newbies" and expect your $200 treasure to be road ready in a couple of weeks.
There will be setbacks and frustration along the way, but in the end there will be many Holy Shiite grins when you reach Virnana   

Even if you DONT have the skills, wrenching on a V is a really good way to cut your teeth (and other body parts now that i think of it) on mechanical work. Sure the learning curve is steeper than, say, a minibike, but the V has nearly every system "problem" you might only get one or two of on another bike.

[Coil Coyle]

First, I have NEVER seen so many posts to a new owner here in one day, 2 pages already, wow!

OK, my lesson for the day:

A vehicle battery charger doesn't have near enough amps to start the bike.
jumping off a running car is a sure way to fry the R/R

welcome!!

--Lucky

C'mon, Lucky.  :'( Just to maintain my tenuous relationship with Reality  :P ::) :o :-\ I have to believe Ohms Law supercedes mythology on this one. 14.5+ volts at the Battery+ is just that, no matter the source.  :) I need to believe at least Ohm's Law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohm%27s_Law and Watts definition of Power http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watt%27s_law are real. :-* :o ::) :P ;D If these two ideas actually define Reality then:

1.  The starter motor does have a limit, it can only loose so much heat in a given time. The stock battery won't crank long enough to damage the starter but with a car battery or any grid powered source of 14.5 VDC you can crank the engine until you have overloaded the starter motors ability to loose heat, that will damage the starter motor, perhaps the starter relay contacts. It doesn't matter what you use to create the voltage but you must give the starter motor cool down periods between cranking of the motor.

2.  The R/R can't be damaged by 14.5 VDC+ at the positive battery post, no matter how many joules  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joules of energy might be stored or potentially created by the source of the voltage.
      Example, the nuclear power plant in Fort Smith, Arkansas, connected to a Million Kilo Watt transformer with an output voltage of 14.5 VDC, will not hurt your Regulator, side stand diode or left turn signal bulb. It would allow you to crank your starter until you melted either a motor winding, the relay contacts or burnt through the bad battery cable end you were going to fix later. ;D

Also, If you connect the negative cable to the battery or the frame first, and then bump the positive jumper cable against the gas tank on an 83 tank, you will toast the gas tank sending unit connector, on the ground side. Later when you find the connector toasted on the ground wire half of the plug you will be mystified as to what caused it.  ;D Thats Kirchoff's Law.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirchhoff%27s_circuit_laws ;D

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. Welcome to the ROV, Kallyjk

$0.02
;)
Coil

[Lucky]

In a perfect world.
this is a Vision reality.

a bike that is in 'sat for xx years' condition with an unknown stator, R/R, electrical system & less than stelar battery ain't gonna start on a battery charger, i'll bet you a buck.

go ahead & pump 60+ amps from your cars running charging system thru your R/R, see how long that puppy lasts.

[Brian Moffet]

C'mon, Lucky.  :'( Just to maintain my tenuous relationship with Reality  :P ::) :o :-\ I have to believe Ohms Law supercedes mythology on this one. 14.5+ volts at the Battery+ is just that, no matter the source.

While I've never really investigated this, because to me it's just easier to jump off a non-running car (don't have to start the car, how cool is that!), there are some devices that are current sources, not voltage sources.  While I don't necessarily believe that the car is a true current source, always providing a constant current regardless of voltage, I suspect that it is at least partially.

A true voltage source would provide 14.5 volts (or 13) no matter what current demands are on it.  Some place between these two lies an auto and motorcycle electrical system.  If the charging system is more like a current source, voltages could spike once you connected the motorcycle charging system to the auto.  That would basically be because the resistance load you have just put in parallel to the auto resistance load is much smaller than the auto's.

Ohms law to the rescue  :D

Brian (and tomorrow we'll discuss why you accelerate more when you're almost out of gas!)

[Coil Coyle]

In a perfect world.
this is a Vision reality.

a bike that is in 'sat for xx years' condition with an unknown stator, R/R, electrical system & less than stelar battery ain't gonna start on a battery charger, i'll bet you a buck.

go ahead & pump 60+ amps from your cars running charging system thru your R/R, see how long that puppy lasts.

Lucky, If you connect the positive to the positive and the negative to the negative, the volts are there but he Amps will not go through the Regulator. Please forgive me but this is the only part of this thing we call reality that I kind of understand. The 60 Amps doesn't go through the regulator, the 14.5 Volts pushes against the regulator. That is what the Regulator is built to do.

A battery charger that has failed diodes and is producing an AC potential at the battery cables would toast a Regulator. :)

I got a buck says my battery charger, a 200 Amp NAPA cheapo, will. :o I could also fry my starter long before I overloaded the Battery Charger if no one warned me that the starter could melt.

:o
Coil

[supervision]

 Your starter motor is the happest on high voltage. Sending a little more than a standing 13v will help it turn faster, a running car gives higher voltage, witch is good.  The car system is going to sence the draw of the bike and the car battery is going to absorb the extra output, if the motorcycle see's more than 14.5v, the regulator will take care of it.   One thing, be carefull about sparks, as the gas from batteries  can make the battery explode.. I would hook straight to the pos. post of the starter, it takes the bike starter cables out of the picture and gives more current to the starter, MOST jumper cables are no better than junk to start with, a good trick is to notice which side of the spring clamp the wire is attached to , then arrange the cable so it makes best use of that piece.    In the old days when alot of old cars, tractors ect. were converting from 6V to 12V ,  the only part that didn't need changing was the starter, 6V starters love to run on 12V batteries.

[supervision]

  Have you ever seen a battery fail from going "open" ?, this is when one of the connections between the cells fails, they are fine one second, and the next there's nothing!  You can put a v meter on the battery and it may show some voltage but as soon as you do anything like turn on the  key it's gone.  This a common failure and somepeople might be tempted to try and jump start and ride, hoping to maybe cure something.  Don't do it, this can over heat the system.. it's the same as no battery at all and we all know that is bad.

[Coil Coyle]

  Have you ever seen a battery fail from going "open" ?, this is when one of the connections between the cells fails, they are fine one second, and the next there's nothing!  You can put a v meter on the battery and it may show some voltage but as soon as you do anything like turn on the  key it's gone.  This a common failure and somepeople might be tempted to try and jump start and ride, hoping to maybe cure something.  Don't do it, this can over heat the system.. it's the same as no battery at all and we all know that is bad.

SV, Thats a good point and it should be stickied to the top of TECK TALK too! If the regulator doesn't have somewhere to dump the Voltage that the stator is creating, The Battery, the stator coils voltage will go as high as it takes to short back to itself. That path can only be through the circuit of the Regulator.

The only Regulator I have toasted in about 50K of various Vision riding was done by cranking the motor with the plugs pulled and no Battery installed. I put it in gear, spun the wheel to work in the oil I put in the cylinders as I was taking it out of long term storage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_induction is what the stator Coils are creating the Emf, Voltage, from.

No Battery or an Open Battery will toast you R/R instantly if the stator is connected to the Regulator by the 3 white wires

And that leads me to realize that when the R/R is unplugged, there is no where for the current to flow. There is Emf being generated by the Magnetic Field collapsing past the stator windings. Does this Emf induce such high voltage that the wire insulation is breached?

???
Coil