82 Virago 750 help a buddy get back on the road winter project.

Wow been a bit. Been tinkering but today we got some real work done.

Went from this

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To this

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Noticed coils are missing as is footrest bracket on one side and various other nuts abd bolts. Need to hit ebay for whats left and then it will be a rider.
 
Indeed! First fire and run after inheriting a basket case is extremely rewarding.
It's a total frankenstein moment.
It Lives!
 
Ha yep, all I need now is 2 missing engine mount bolts and a clamp for the throttle cable and we can ride it down the road, I need to do the check all the nuts and bolts and air pressure too but so close to going from a pile of parts to a ridable bike, feels great.
 
Still have to test ride and check tuning etc. got the throttle clamp done last night and was able to rev the bike up and have it return to idle. seems to be nice and smooth reving so test ride will hopefully go well. And I have the colour scheme down on the GL and just need weather to cooperate, been humid or too cold last few days to paint outside, which I have to do with the 2K clear.
 
Well it's been more than 30 days and a lot of learning on my part but over the weekend I got this thing to finally run right and haul ass down the road. Just in time to put it away for the winter LOL. I ruined 2 cams before I figured out the issue. The rear head intake rocker was heat seizing. Cold engine it moved fine, fire the bike up and it ran great on 2 cylinders until I got about a mile down the road, then the rear dropped and it ran like shit. First time the cam had broke clean off at the end and it looked like it had been damaged before I installed it. So I ordered another cam, installed it, same shit but this time just the pin broke off the end and I pulled the cam out when the bike was still hot, found the seized rocker. Waited for it to cool and sure enough it freed up. So ordered a new head/cam assembly for the same price I paid for the cam alone and dropped the motor, swapped the heads, re-installed and now everything works as it should. I even feel I got the jetting correct as it runs really strong, smooth revs etc. Don't know how fast I am going though as the speedo isn't working but I'll sort that later.

Also, in the many starting sessions the solenoid shit the bed. I ordered one from Amazon and it failed the first start in the one position so the starter just kept turning over and over and over. Lesson, buy OEM on those, so that is on a USPS truck as we speak.

This was the aftermarket one, stay away from it.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0073UMBNO/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Finally feel good about the bike, was a bit worried I wouldn't be able to get it right there for a bit.
 
SOOOOO, the end of the sagga, I learned one thing. Virago's are a pile of shit LOL. After this post the rear cam seized again, for like the 3rd time, lots of oil in the head, timing was correct. all bolts torqued correctly. replaced it again, then when to fire it up to find the front head had 0 compression. pulled stuff and the front valves, which were in spec when I started working on this bike and I never touched, were super tight?? Head full of oil but after I got it pulled off the bike the cam had worn and rockers had worn so bad the valves couldn't close. So I have swapped a new head on the front, everything is set again to FSM specs. I fired it up, started right up and idled just fine. I shut it off and I am washing my hands of this bike. I will never work on a Virago again, It almost ruined me on working on bikes. I thought they were supposed to be pretty bullet proof bikes but if you google the problems you'll find out hundreds of these things just randomly fuck up like this. Cams seize, valves drop, oil just stops flowing to the heads with no apparent reason. I found all kinds of threads in forums I would not have found just bu searching the bike, only the good stuff comes up. Search a problem and holy crap there's a lot of broken Viragos out there, in the 750-1100 models.
 
This is what you get for neglecting the GL! Glad you can now walk away from the Virago. Or can you?
 
Oh I am, it's out of my life forever. I lost money on this as it was for a friend and I can't keep bleeding out time and money and I won't charge them anymore. They can decide what to do going forward but it is saleable "As is Where is" no test rides LOL.
 
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