XV920 "Short Bus"

Rich Ard said:
No progress to speak of this weekend as I was out at my dad's helping him condense his belongings into a 24' truck (not successful, but it was a close thing).

I am ready to start tuning my big Edelbrock flatslide carb, though. I have been wanting a remote fuel tank for a while, though, so while I was out talking on the phone yesterday afternoon I discovered that a 16mm male petcock threads right in to a bottle of Marvel Mystery Oil.

D2A7SkBl.jpg


I put an o-ring on the petcock and threaded it in, cut the bottom off the bottle and put it back in upside down with a pull on it, and mounted it on a beam in the garage. Need to do valves and then we'll see if that carb does its job.

Braided brake line and clutch cable are on as well; somehow I've lost the clip that holds the speedometer cable into the gearing on the front wheel, if any of you XV guys has one sitting around.
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ill check tonight in my box of shit parts if I have that clip for you.
 
Thanks man. I have your shift lever here, showed up while I was away this weekend.
 
MJPriceisright said:
ill check tonight in my box of shit parts if I have that clip for you.
Click to expand...

Figured out last night that the speedo cable has it as an integrated part, so I'll get a new one when the cable gets here. I figured this out, of course, after I spent an hour going through boxes to figure out if the damned thing had fallen to the bottom somewhere.
 
Huge bummer tonight - the plan was to post the 'hey, it's running!' video after adjusting valves, checking timing marks (you never know, and it's expensive to find out when you turn it over for the first time) and bench-setting my fancy Edelbrock carb per the recommendations of the guys at the Virago Tech Forum. Turned the key, pushed the button, and the starter said 'rurr...rurr...rurr' like it needed some sleep.

Pulled the starter off and tested it on a vise again (had done this once when I took it out of the box - this was part of a dirt-cheap bulk purchase from a guy on the VTF forum) and it spins - but under load it doesn't do the job. Opened it up and it looks like it's pretty well on its way.

On the bright side, I called the fellow from whom I purchased it to confirm that the four-brush rebuild kit I was looking at would fit and he offered to put another one he *has* tested under load into a box Monday. So I'll probably stilli order the rebuild kit so that I can put together a good four-brush motor and then I'll have a backup if the next one starts to get hairy.

I have about four weeks to get this thing ready for Kentucky. It still needs:

- accessory wiring
- wiring cleanup
- taillight/plate mounts
- front brake install
- carb tune

...in order to be road-ready. If I get this thing ready for the Thaw then it's probably going to be waiting on a cover for the foam on the seat and running without a rear fender. Assuming the replacement starter does the job, though, I think that's still doable if I work on getting the wiring wrapped up over the next couple of evenings.
 
Worst starter out there...bar none. I've been looking at grafting a late model sportster starter motor to the Yamaha planetary section for more grunt. Also, I guess with some work and a slightly unhealthy amount of swearing the starter from a Vstar can be fitted.....dunno for certain on that though
 
Swagger said:
Worst starter out there...bar none. I've been looking at grafting a late model sportster starter motor to the Yamaha planetary section for more grunt. Also, I guess with some work and a slightly unhealthy amount of swearing the starter from a Vstar can be fitted.....dunno for certain on that though
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On the bright side they paired it with a similarly terrible starter clutch :)

My understanding is that putting a four-brush motor in makes a huge difference and lengthens the service life of the rest of the system a great deal. For the moment I just need the thing to turn over so I can make sure the Edelbrock doesn't pour fire outta the air intake, and I'll take the opportunity to clean the motor I rebuild up nice and pretty so it'll be 'finished' when it goes on or, if I sell this bike instead of hanging on to it, when it goes up in the for sale section :)
 
Swagger said:
Worst starter out there...bar none. I've been looking at grafting a late model sportster starter motor to the Yamaha planetary section for more grunt. Also, I guess with some work and a slightly unhealthy amount of swearing the starter from a Vstar can be fitted.....dunno for certain on that though
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Yep, first one we ever sold when they were launched we had in pieces then called Yamaha who told us it was normal for them to sound like they were falling apart (this was before the stronger drag spring)
 
Ha. Funny you should say that - I am going to miss having a kickstarter. If my CB doesn't start second kick, something's wrong; if this thing doesn't start right up, it means odds are pretty good I'm standing over the right bike.
 
Got rid of a couple of kids for the day, and my workshop helper was ready to put in some time, so we got down to business.

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I don't know what I'm doing either so we make a pretty good team.

Taillight mounting figured out, license plate as well (will need to put button lights in the corners):

qxrrAnhl.jpg


Though it doesn't look like it from that angle, it's actually well visible from behind, and set up such that if the fuzz disagrees with me I can adjust it quite a bit:

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Tonight I'm going to try to knock out the accessory wiring.
 
Not sure where the pipes came from, they were with the bike; not doing rearsets, my paddle seat is actually just about in the same position as the stock seat. I did chop the side mount on the RH side because I didn't need the back half (left the front so the motor mounts and such were all still there to tie in).
 
Wiring is done!

My favorite thing about having a computer that fits in my pocket is GPS mapping. A bit farther down the list is having a huge music library in my pocket. So - needed a waterproof 12V charger; this is just under the fuel tank on the LH side. I need to clean up the L-bracket I used to mount it up, but that can wait until teardown for paint:

PgVlmugl.jpg


Eventually I would like to play around with an RFID-activated switch. For now, the ignition key has been replaced with a toggle switch (let's be honest here, nobody's going to steal this stupid thing); the Virago needs all the juice it can get in order to beat up on the abysmal starter clutch, so there's a second switch for the lights:

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At the end of the evening, I have a very very messy garage, and a bike that - with the addition of a working starter motor - should be ready to take up and down the road.

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If you'll excuse me, I think my cat just killed one of the ducks that comes back to roost in our pool every spring and I need to go clean that up before the dog finds it in the morning. Awesome.
 
New rule: someone must complain about the front end once per page.

Thanks Lincoln. You may want to consult a doctor about your closed-head injury.
 
Rich Ard said:
New rule: someone must complain about the front end once per page.

Thanks Lincoln. You may want to consult a doctor about your closed-head injury.
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lets hurry up and get to the next page then... fuck.
 
I think that for someone who is going to push the bike around corners, the wheel swap isn't worth the time - but I'm not in a hurry to get no where and it might be worth the 'look' to sacrifice the skinny wheel.

For what it costs to do the conversion, though, I think I can find a front end if I'm patient...and I'm going to be riding a Virago, obviously I'm in no rush :)
 
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