Another NOOB??

[twolfie85]

Hey everybody-

I've been stalking the site for awhile now, as I have had my vision now for almost 2 years.  I even actually did somewhat of an introductory post before, but I have had a lot going on and wasnt able to focus on the bike, but its a different story now! Anyways, I bought my 1982 Yamaha Vision as my first motorcycle after taking the PA drivers safety course at my local Harley Davidson dealership in PA, learning a lot and earning my license.  At the time of buying the Vision, I knew nothing about what a Vision was, or what a wonderful resource I would have available to me via ROV.  All that I knew was that I wanted a relatively older bike, because I figured the older, the easier it would be for me to learn about motorcycle maintenance and repairs. Growing up, I never had anyone to teach me these things, but I have always been interested, so at 22, it was time to get my hands on edjamucation!
What attracted me to the vision was that it only had about 4500 miles on it, and the PO had 2 of them, his own, and mine, hereinafter referred to as "Valerie". He had bought it as a project to give to his father, but due to personal reasons was selling it.  He had done some work, but I am not sure what all it was anymore.  But looking at the bike, he definitely did some work on the electrical, and moved or replaced the fuses, replaced all the gas lines/radiator hoses, and I am not sure what else.
Valerie ran when I got her in late fall/early winter 09, but she had a couple issues.  She was rough to start, and I was having problems with some significant gas coming out of the carb overflow. She had to be ran with the choke on max all of the time as well. I planned to work on her that winter, but that did not work out (no work area at all, no tools, 60 hr/wk job and a girlfriend).  And when spring came around, I wasn't going to tear apart my fun, still somehwat new motorbike to work on it as long as i rolled the throttle, she moved forward, and when i hit the brakes, she stopped (idiot). I changed the oil/filter and thats pretty much it. Well, needless to say the problems just got worse... more of a delay in acceleration, little rougher to start, etc., until one day near the end of the summer ol' Val finally had enough, and stood up to me. She wouldnt let me go for a ride, wouldnt turn over. I had been researching my issues, so I knew that it seemed to be a dirty carb problem. It wasnt until this past spring the carbs came off, and got disassembled, dipped, and sprayed out. They were sitting in my friends fathers shop disassembled this summer because roadtripping on 4 wheels all summer, and when I came home, I boxed up the pieces, packed Val in the back of the truck, and drove out to Minnesota where I am now, with plenty of shop to work in, and many tools available to me, wahoo! With the help of my Haynes manual, I then re-assembled my carbs, and put them back on. It took some playing but she started up. The feeling I got when she finally started was amazing.  It was the first I had ever taken a bike, or anything else that didnt run, put some work into and saw the fruits of my labors, and Im addicted. She sounded pretty good, and I decided to take her for a ride to see how she felt.  Well, I didnt get far until she died, and wouldnt start. She then sat for a couple weeks because I was super busy with other things, then when I decided to get back at it, I took a little engine start to the air intake and VROOOOM, she was running again, at first sounding pretty rough, but then it was almost like she had to work through something because it all of a sudden started to really smooth out. When I took her out, she ran better than she ever had since I have had her. I have a lot more work to do but I am pleased.
Some of the current issues that I have:
I still need the choke on all the way when she is warming up, but then after warmed up and I am idling with choke all the way the RPMs are way high, so i lower the choke gradually from full choke and my RPMs rise for the first 1/2 down turn of the choke, then fall again. But I cant let the choke all the way in or i will stall, probably about 1/3 from all the way in. The idle also sounds a bit rough at this stage, but the RPMs are about 1300ish.
My main jet plug, drain screw and pilot jet plug started to leak gas slightly, so last night it was off with the gas tank/airbox/carbs again to tighten all of them up some more, as that was the only way to get to the pilot jet plug. I did that and rode around a bit to get the gas back in the carbs, then this morning there was a drop of gas coming off the pilot jet plugs. The only thing I can think of is that what are labeled gaskets on my main/jet plugs in the haynes manual are made of metal(washers?), which doesnt make much sense to to me. The carbs were also messed with by a PO i know becuase there were tool marks that I noticed when I had them apart, and I am wondering if they were reassembled with them previously when they werent supposed to be, or if the gaskets are in fact metal.
Lastly, I know this is a total noob question, but for the life of me i can not figure out where the fuel/air mixture screw is on the carburetors. I am not sure if it has another name that i have not seen on the forums here or what, because i haven been raking over my carbs, and the exploded view picture of them in the haynes manual and can not find the mixture screws.

WELL!... I think that oughta do it for now.  I will get more in to what I plan do do with Valerie and other questions that I have in other posts, but this stuff is a good place for me to start... anything you guys want to add or ask feel free!
And thanks, the ROV community has already been a great help to me, and I am really excited to ahve the free time/available resources to really get started on the project i've had in the back of my mind for a long time!

T

[QBS]

Welcome aboard ROV.  Currently in the Tech area is a thread titled "carb pilot screws...".  It addresses some of your questions.  Check it out.  Also, in Tech is another thread titled "Can all carbs...".  It should be very helpful as well. Basically, read everything posted within the last two weeks and many questions will be answered, even those that you don't know enough ... at this time... to ask.  You're doing great!  Keep researching.  Cheers.