It's baaaaaack!

[Aelwulf]

Got my Vision back today. :) It starts well (when I don't have the switch turned to the O-F-F position).  It certainly stays idling better than it used to, it used to die in a few seconds if you didn't nudge the throttle a bit.  It goes through the RPMs all the way up (mind you, in neutral in the back of my truck-can't take it off until I make sure everything will fit with it for the move :P ).  It has a little bit of a hiccup around 7k but seems to pick up and continue fine.

I only see two things at the moment that could be considered downsides.  Actually it's one thing, two different aspects.  The first is it seems to push a visible amount of exhaust/smoke out at higher RPMS (ie, 8+).  The second is once it warmed up it started smoking in the area where the exhaust connects to the engine.  I figure it's one of several things:

1) It hasn't really run in at least two years and will take a bit to clear its throat.  If you take out my inconsistent month after I bought it then it's closer to hasn't really run in seven years.

2) There is a bit of oil and gunk around that area I should clean off (the whole thing needs a cleaning) and it's just the oil residue 'burning' off.

3) The exhaust gaskets or something are bad on it.

Other'n those I dunno.  I still have to get the tanks done.  I picked up my original one today.  It's a good thing he didn't charge me.  There's a couple new scratches and I think a new dent on one side that I don't recall being there before.  The rust isn't even cleaned out of it, I don't know if he even touched it although he said he did.  So yeah, I'll have to do one then the other myself for certain.  But it ran fine before as is, and now it has both the petcock filter and the in-line filter to go through so not overly concerned.  I can see the fuel in the line leaving the petcock to the carbs and I don't see anything getting through even past the petcock.  No I'm not going to leave it as such, and I know I probably shouldn't push my luck but there's enough safety nets in it at the moment I'm not overly concerned.  (Sign of a true newb V owner? ;) )  I need to check my BTBs, they look ok from what I can see but I do have the replacements either way so...

Now I just need to get it retitled in Florida and registered, and get the endorsement bit resubmitted properly.  Well, all I need to do before the move anyway.

[h2olawyer]

My V smokes a bit when warming up if it hasn't run in a while.  Once it gets a little warm, all smoke disappears.  Since yours has been sitting, wait until you get a good chance to let it fully warm up & can ride it a short ways.  The smoking should stop.

The smoke off the exhaust could be from an oil leak.  I'd have to see it to make a better diagnosis, though.

Glad things are "moving" along!  (Are those things caissons?   :D  )

H₂O

[Aelwulf]

The smoke out the rear was from it running way too rich (thanks samsr :) ).  I thought it smelled odd but hadn't smelled one of these running rich so couldn't pinpoint it.  The diaphragm on my petcock was toast.  If I had half a brain (ie, done it myself) I'd have known that when I saw the spring pop out when Bill was checkin' it out.  He did say it might be bad but I was just thinking he meant the seal not the mechanism itself.  sam had a petcock sittin' around his parts bin so I swapped the diaphragm from that one in the back of my truck (gotta love cheapie toolkits) while waiting for my girlfriend to finish her run.  No more fuel spray as it did at sam's.  I haven't run it enough again to see how much the smoke has been reduced but since it's no longer dripping straight through and into the vacuum tube should be a noticeable improvement. ;) We're gonna see about getting the carbs dialed in right with a proper petcock setup then we'll see.  I'm pretty sure the smoking up front is just from the old oil layer on there.  I'll have to see about wiping it down some tomorrow and maybe getting some degreaser or such.  My original tank does have a very slight leak in that one corner I thought it might but it should hang in there long enough to see about getting the other tank done *knock on wood*.

[Aelwulf]

Well, went out the next morning  to do the minor rear brake pedal adjustment and *PING!*  Dammit...  Open that up, find the spring came off when I slid off the pedal, no biggie.  Got that back on, notice the switch for the brakelight is now clicking when I press it.  Pull the cover again and notices the wire connecting it only has a 90 degree hook instead of the likely needed 180 degree hook.  It looks like someone bent it out to make it easier to put on.  So I bend it back, hook it up, shiny.  Go to start it, something clicks back by the battery.  I stop that right away, car experience alone I know better then to push that.  Wonder if the battery's lost its charge (had a lot of starts the past day or two with little actual running/charging time).  Look over and there's gas leaking on the battery.  Ends up the leak under the original tank is goin'.  Swear a l'il, get the other tank from the truck, swap gas from one ot the other and put the original aside to be the first sealing experiment soon as I'm able.  Put the other tank on, no more leaks.  But me being the Einstein we all know ourselves to be (especially as newbs) I accidentally left the ignition switch on.  Now the battery isn't just low, it's dead.  Hook it up to the charger, charges up fine but takes the rest of the night.

Part 2: Come out this afternoon, battery's fine.  However after replaced the diaphragm on the petcock I still have a high idle problem.  so after unnecessarily taking off the air box (first time doing that though, learned a couple minor things) I get my Haynes and adjust the idle bar.  got it from around 4k RPM at zero choke to about 1,500 RPM at about 1/3-1/2 choke.  That works for now, the carbs likely need to be re-synced as samsr has offered to help with but at least now it should be rideable.  Plus it was idling long enough during that so I could ensure the fan does kick on.  Either the fan kicks on really well/early on thei one though or my temp gauge isn't working too well.  Fan ran strong, although buzzed very slightly.  I figure ok, everything's together, she's idling well, throttle rolled all the way to 9k RPM or so pretty strong, let's give 'er a test ride.  I roll down off the driveway with gravity sine a couple kids were riding electric carts in front of it and cruise around the corner (after accidentally putting it in neutral).  Shifts went well, and picked up well down the back stretch.  Thankfully 1) there were some kids I had to watch for and 2) I started prepping for the corner curve early because I went to stop and hey, no brakes.  Well, extremely little.  The back weren't reacting at all.  Those are new pads and all so should've been fine.  The front brake I knew was spongy but it's overly so.  So I used what front I could muster and down-shifted to let the engine help and just did a slow cruise in low second around the rest of the block.

I pulled the side panel off (yeah while hot, have a couple of those annoying quasi-burns to show for it) because I could see that brake light bar hanging free.  It came off the switch end, whoever did the front hook did the back too and it popped off.  I couldn't see the hook to put it back on after bending it back so have to wait for it to cool off again now.  I've half a hunch it might not even be the proper wire for it, I'll have to see.  As for why the brakes themselves didn't work I don't know, the indicator on the wheel hub is fine and the brake pedal is aligned right so all in all should've worked very well being new shoes.  They worked after I put 'em on, I know that.

So if I can get the rear brake problem done, the Galfer line I have put on the front brakes and the carbs re-synced she might be running reliably (knock on wood) if she doesn't overheat.  We'll have to wait and see on that point.

[QBS]

A long time ago I replaced my OEM rear brake shoes.  Don't remember the source, pretty sure it wasn't Yamaha(maybe JC Whitney).  Never the less, the arc of the brake drum didn't match the arc of the new brake shoes.  Rear brake power was very weak.  Didn't get too concerned about it as I very rarely use the rear brake accept at very slow speeds.  The plan was (and is) that with my normal usage, the brake lining material will eventually wear down match the arc of the drum and the braking power will slowly increase over time.  In fact, this is what is happening. 

In cars with drum brakes, there is a machine that follows the arc of the drum and grinds away excess brake lining material from the shoes so that the arcs from the two componets are the same.  The chances of finding such a service available from a bike shop are probably very low.  Cheers. 

[Lucky]

In cars with drum brakes, there is a machine that follows the arc of the drum and grinds away excess brake lining material from the shoes so that the arcs from the two componets are the same.  The chances of finding such a service available from a bike shop are probably very low.  Cheers. 

In all my years of working in dealerships, i've never even heard of that piece of equipment.  are you sure it wasn't something else? a brake lathe perhaps? (cuts drums/disks, not linings)

the way drum brakes work, the linings rotate on a common axis, and the ends of the linings basicly jam into the drum surface (although it doesn't feel that way)  in an ideal world the shoes would wear evenly, most times they wear from the ends.

:end drum brake trivia:

[Tiger]

So if I can get the rear brake problem done, the Galfer line I have put on the front brakes and the carbs re-synced she might be running reliably (knock on wood) if she doesn't overheat.  We'll have to wait and see on that point.

:) RE: the rear brake...Go to the back wheel, push the chrome brake arm forward with your thumb, with the other hand tighten the adjuster nut up until the brake shoes JUST touch the drum...you will feel/hear it...and then back off the adjuster nut a 1/4(ish) turn...now give it a try 8)

RE: The front brake...I have put Galfer S.S. braided line's on both my '82 (last year), & '83 (last night)...and had no problems...They have to be bled off and completely free of air...which I'm sure your aware ;) They will then stop you, literally, on a dime... ;)

RE: The carb's...totally cleaned and sync'd...they work really well on the Vision... 8)

RE: The cooling fan...most "V"s run to the hot side...and as long as the fan comes in BEFORE the guage goes into the red area, she will be O.K.

:)...Just my 2 cent's worth... ;)

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

[Aelwulf]

So if I can get the rear brake problem done, the Galfer line I have put on the front brakes and the carbs re-synced she might be running reliably (knock on wood) if she doesn't overheat.  We'll have to wait and see on that point.

:) RE: the rear brake...Go to the back wheel, push the chrome brake arm forward with your thumb, with the other hand tighten the adjuster nut up until the brake shoes JUST touch the drum...you will feel/hear it...and then back off the adjuster nut a 1/4(ish) turn...now give it a try 8)

RE: The front brake...I have put Galfer S.S. braided line's on both my '82 (last year), & '83 (last night)...and had no problems...They have to be bled off and completely free of air...which I'm sure your aware ;) They will then stop you, literally, on a dime... ;)

RE: The carb's...totally cleaned and sync'd...they work really well on the Vision... 8)

RE: The cooling fan...most "V"s run to the hot side...and as long as the fan comes in BEFORE the guage goes into the red area, she will be O.K.

:)...Just my 2 cent's worth... ;)

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

I'll try the adjustment on the rear.  I know after I put 'em on about two years ago they worked pretty well but it has been sitting and torn down a fair bit since then. :P

Yep, looking forward to the Galfers. :) Should be a relatively quick/easy fix on that one (I hope).

The carbs were dipped and all that, just need to be resynced after putting on the tank/petcock and adjusting the idle, fix the richness, etc.  Bill seems to have done a good job on 'em from what I can tell.  I haven't seen/heard a 'perfectly' running Vision but this one seems to be doing pretty well for now. *hangs Gremlin-B-Gone from the handlebars*

Making the possibly large assumption that my temp gauge is showing correctly (I know it did pretty well when I first got it) the fan is kicking on at roughly 1/4 into the range, if that.  I know they historically have problems in a lot of traffic and such because the fans would kick on too late but if it's displaying accurate in theory I shouldn't have to worry about it *much*.

[Aelwulf]

Gah!  Ok, RPM thing not completely fixed.  I started it last night in the garage and the RPMs shot up to atleast 8-9k immediately.  It was doing it the other day and I'd have to hit the kill switch to keep it from going too high every time.  I think it might have something to do with the throttle cable.  I'm thinking I'll have to take it off and re-route it so it has a little more slack as it seems when I turn the handlebars to the left the RPM shoots up, sometimes a little to the right as well but not as bad.  If that's not throttle cable related it's one weird gremlin.

[louthepou]

A few years ago, I changed my carbs; and then the accelerator pump's tiny rod was not adjusted properly. It would start fine, but once on the road, if I got the RPM high enough, it woudl then decide to stay there (made it kind of hard to stop). So I adjusted the accel. pump rod (screw in one direction, made it worse, went the other direction, fine tuned it). Something to consider, maybe.

Lou