What did you do to your vision today?

[The Prophet of Doom]

I bought  my vision a new jacket.  Iain delivered it by hand from the UK.

[iain]

Bloody HELL
Im away 5 minutes and i get back and hes now called Prophet of Doom. Is  that the same as CAT Stevens now being called Yusuf Islam.

Iain
NZ
:police:

[ceme24]

35 miles after the front cylinder valve job it started "missing" and then just dumping fuel out of a relief at the bottom of the bike.  One of the carbs is overflowing...or that's the way it appears...

Runs fine under heavy acceleration.  Missing at a constant speed.  Dumping fuel at idle.

Didn't make it home.  Too much fuel being lost and ended up not being able to get it moving from a stop.

Or maybe a vacuum leak...I limped it home after it cooled off.  It was still leaking badly and missing.  When I got it home the leak was worse.  It still leaked after shut off, but if I put the fuel switch to the reserve it would stop.  It kept leaking even with the fuel switch in off.  It only stopped when in reserve.

I will spend some time with it tomorrow

[jefferson]

Sounds to me like a stuck float.

[Rick G]

Jeff, I think your right!

[NITROPOLIS]

I'm tired of looking at the shark fairing and thinking I'm going to put that thing on my bike?
It just doesnt look right. So I hacked off the back flanks. now it looks like the lines flow better with the bike.
Some might think "Why did you cut up a shark fairing?" and I say, "why not."

[jefferson]

I kind of like it. It would be nice to see it on a bike, but the fairing just sitting there does look better.

Jeff

[pullshocks]

Last time I rode there was an awful screech from the speedometer.  Lubing the cable did not cure.  So today i pulled out the speed0. 
Pretty fascinating to see how it works.
The problem was not lack of lubrication.
The threaded piece that the cable screws into is press fitted into the frame of the speedometer.  This had worked loose, allowing the magnet ring to scrape against the driven ring. 

I cleaned things up as well as I could, and worked some epoxy into the joint.  Keeping my fingers crossed that this will hold for a while, but I think it is asking quite a bit of the adhesive.  I may supplement this with a fillet of JB Weld, though that will require enlarging the hole in the plastic case.

[Rikugun]

pullshocks, thanks for posting. Something else to keep in mind when addressing speedo noises.  ;)

NITROPOLIS, I'm with Jeff - looks good and I'm really curious to see it painted and installed. Please update when you do.  :D

[ghostrider]

Well I didn't do anything on the bike, but I did have it taken to the shop for carb work, inspection and a general tune up.  Looking forward to getting the shop's estimate and even more so, looking forward to cruising around soon!

[Fuzzlewump]

Got my top end gasket set in the mail, so today I pulled the engine out of the frame and set it aside to begin disassembly. I'm off work for about a week (woohoo!!) so there's plenty of time to go through everything cautiously and thoroughly.

I have a strong feeling this top-end cleanup is going to fix my carb tuning issues. At any rate it'll have to be at least another step closer to having a nice running V. I'm excited to see inside the heart of this bike!

[The Prophet of Doom]

Looking forward to getting the shop's estimate and even more so, looking forward to cruising around soon!

These two things don't necessarily go together

[pullshocks]

Painted my fork legs.  Went to reassemble, and found that Pyramid Parts had sold me the seal kit for a "94 Aprilia trials bike.  Frustrating, after waiting 2 weeks for the Pyramid kit to arrive.

Turns out the kit I needed was on the row below  in their listings, and the chat representative made a cut and paste error.   Maybe their error had to do with the earthquake that was going on there.

I hope it doesn't take 2 weeks for them to get the replacement kit here.

This is a good time to point out that the oil seal size is 35x48x8, not 35x45x8 as stated in some threads here on the forum.

[The Prophet of Doom]

Today I bought a XZ400 TCI box on auction for $1.50.

The seller was a bit miffed, he'd seen the $472 one on ebay and put it on $1 reserve to encourage bidding.

[fret not]

Wow, that's a zinger.  He should have set the opening price a bit higher if he  . . . . oh, never mind.

I'm pleased you got a good deal, assuming it's functional. ;)

[ghostrider]

On 9/14, I finally got my bike back from the shop.  Aside from the coolant leak, it is running in superb condition. 

I was able to ride about 80 miles on saturday.  Most of them were from the dealership to my place, then I tacked on another 30 or so just familiarizing myself with the back roads. 

Looking forward to the next ride.  Does anyone have any advice on why these bikes like to run hot?  At any stop light, I could watch the temperature gauge climb up to the H.  Never went in the red, but I was happy to get moving again to bring the temp down...

[Fuzzlewump]

  Does anyone have any advice on why these bikes like to run hot?  At any stop light, I could watch the temperature gauge climb up to the H.  Never went in the red, but I was happy to get moving again to bring the temp down...

If you look up some threads started by Sunburnedaz you will find a lot of discussion about the V running hot. He has done a great deal to get to the bottom of this one, check out his post "Cooling the desert V". Also, Lucky has modified his bike a bit to install an oil cooler. There are also some posts about that job and the results.

My Vision also runs very hot, but then again I am also located in the desert like Sunburned. It doesn't seem that everyone has this issue with their bike, though.

[QBS]

ghost, does your cooling fan ever come on?  If not, there is your problem.  If no, not  difficult to diagnose or repair.  A hot running V has an unusual problem.  My experience with the V cooling system has shown it to be extremely trouble free.  Except the one time that the inline fuse that services the fan failed.  That fuse is located in the headlight wiring rats nest.

[ghostrider]

@QBS - yes my fan turns on.  Knock on wood, the only thing I have experienced is increasing temperatures when I sit idle at intersections.  Once I am up and running again, the bike performs flawlessly. 

For any rider in the North East USA, how late into the year can you ride these bikes?  I wasn't a fan of the shield/plastic flaring from a style stand point but I admin I like not having wind hit me directly.

[Rikugun]

I struggled with high engine temps for a while. The coolant and radiator passages looked clean but I changed the coolant anyway which seemed to help a little. Systematically eliminating vacuum leaks (dry cracked intake manifolds, YICS, throttle shaft seals, etc.) helped a little too. The following season I decided to flush the entire system - engine and radiator. First I drained everything including removing the cylinder drains. Then I moved on to removing the thermostat. After fighting a stripped screw head on the thermostat housing cover it finally came of to reveal....no thermostat  :o. The PO had apparently eliminated the thermostat.  :o In hindsight I should have checked this sooner - oops.  :-[  :P Installing a thermostat made the biggest difference and it now runs much more consistent temps.

For any rider in the North East USA, how late into the year can you ride these bikes?  I wasn't a fan of the shield/plastic flaring from a style stand point but I admin I like not having wind hit me directly.

That's a good question but really depends on one's particular tolerance to cold and how much money one invests in gear - especially heated gear! Not much of a cold weather fan I can ride comfortably during the occasional nice days in early winter but am no hero. I think a fairing really helps BTW. I have the upper '83 fairing and it does a great job for the upper body. It did not come with the lowers so I made "wind deflectors" for seasonal use which help a lot for the legs.