"Puddle Jumper" - 1996 Virago XV250 - Maintenance Log

[ctag]

Brought this bike back today, can't ride it until I've taken the motorcycle course and gotten the drivers license endorsement or whatever.

Wheeling it into the driveway.

Apparently there's fresh oil in there, needs a general tune-up and new tires.

 

[ctag]

The front brake was really weak, so yesterday my buddy and I flushed the line with fresh DOT-4. Works considerably better now.

The maintenance/parts list as it stands now:
- New front and rear tire (+ tube)
- Remove sticker from front fork
- Repair front fork? (leaking oil, because of sticker)
- New chain and sprocket
- Tighten chain
- Replace turn/brake bulbs (dim, not out)
- Change the oil
- Reupholster seats
- Highway bars
- New battery

 

[XpL0d3r]

Nice man, looks good! Be safe out there though. Definitely take the motorcycle course, it's worth it!

 

[ctag]

Nice man, looks good! Be safe out there though. Definitely take the motorcycle course, it's worth it!

Thanks man. It doesn't look like a MSF course is offered locally, but I'll hunt around, and I'm studying up for the motorcycle endorsement test.

I totally forgot to take pictures, but after work my buddy and I got things done on our bikes. My motorcycle had the rear seat reupholstered, the throttle handle regreased, the oil and oil filter changed (synthetic, 10W-40), and the air filter cleaned. His Goldwing started having the back end come off to access the rear brakes for flushing.

When I removed the air filter housing, oil literally poured from the bolt hole in the frame.. It looks like the previous oil level was too high, and some was forced back up into the air filter box. Anyway, something to keep a close eye on.

 

[XpL0d3r]

Thanks man. It doesn't look like a MSF course is offered locally, but I'll hunt around, and I'm studying up for the motorcycle endorsement test.

I totally forgot to take pictures, but after work my buddy and I got things done on our bikes. My motorcycle had the rear seat reupholstered, the throttle handle regreased, the oil and oil filter changed (synthetic, 10W-40), and the air filter cleaned. His Goldwing started having the back end come off to access the rear brakes for flushing.

When I removed the air filter housing, oil literally poured from the bolt hole in the frame.. It looks like the previous oil level was too high, and some was forced back up into the air filter box. Anyway, something to keep a close eye on.

Yeah, I had to drive an hour from Rochester to Buffalo to take the course. All the ones in the area here filled up fast.

It's pretty common to overfill. My buddy had a Buell Blast, and overfilled it.. Ended up blowing some oil seal and covering the road with smoke. I was behind him and literally had to pull to the side because I couldn't see..

In for pics with the upholstered seat!

 

[ctag]

Awesome, I found a Harley Davidson MSF course nearby, going to call them and see when I can get a class in.

I'll keep an eye on the oil, the sightglass hasn't been lining up with the oil line very well since I changed the oil out though.

Over the past few days we visited the motorcycle shops around town and priced things out.

I ended up getting a modular helmet, some winter gloves, a new 520 chain, a chain toolset, and had some new tires ordered. Going to have to go back in a week or so and have the tires installed once they arrive. I also got a leather jacket that's way too large for me on a craigslist post.

 

[ctag]

Just discovered that I can go about 120 miles on a tank

Getting about 50 mpg.

 

[ctag]

Reupholstered the main seat, looks OK so far. Also installed a battery maintainer since it kept going dead.

 

[ctag]

I was so close to starting the clutch replacement project with my Civic. But the Yamaha here doesn't want to start or run any more Now I have to troubleshoot and fix it to be reliable enough to use while the Civic is out of commission, which will probably waste all of the nice days left before it's 20 degrees until March.

We pulled the fuel pump off and had a look. The air bridge from the carburetor to the cylinders is cracked, so it needs to be replaced. It also looks like something else is keeping the bike from idling, maybe the carb needs to be pulled and cleaned

 

[ctag]

Pulled the carb and cleaned it out as best I could by hand. The plastic air intake should arrive Friday, so until then the bike is waiting in pieces.

Symptoms:
The bike will crank and start great when the engine is cold, but the weather isn't. Then it will idle fine until it's warmed up, and then it will bog down and ride like crap until it dies.
The exhaust smells really rich.
The engine oil level is higher than it was when we first changed the oil?!? It looks like gas is leaking into the crank case.. Uh oh.
Oil is getting pumped back up through that air intake chamber in the top of the frame and out through the air filter. Means that air filter is soaked with oil..
And the previously mentioned air intake tube is cracked.

Took the gas tank, air filter, seat, and carburetor off.

Gas pump.

Carb.

I spilled some gas

Carburetor was actually pretty clean already...

Had to replace some bolts that someone before me rounded out and left.

Into the parts cleaner!

Drying the parts out and reassembly.

Next up I'm going to toss it back on the bike with the new air intake. I'm pretty sure this is going to turn into a more intense overhaul at some point though

 

[ctag]

In one of the pictures from the previous post, the gas tank is lying upside down... Well I did that so it wouldn't leak gas everywhere. Guess what? Not only did it leak, but it then sat in a puddle of gas for a day.. so the paint is coming off I guess now I can look around for some cool powder coat for it...

Still waiting on the air intake tube to arrive.

During the past day I've been doing a lot of thinking about what's wrong, and I'm pretty sure now that I'm on to something. The previous owner showed me an aftermarket kill-switch spliced into the gas line from the tank's gas-petcock to the gas pump... He said that without it gas would leak into the carb and make the bike hard to start if it sat for too long. I haven't been really using it (cutting off the gas there when I park the bike) because I didn't see a problem. Well, if that petcock does leak, then it's been leaking gas into the carb, and then down into the cylinders, and then down into the engine oil while the bike sits. That would explain why the oil level is so high/diluted. I really hope that's the case, because otherwise it's being caused by blowby, and I'm not sure I'm up for a full engine tear down on this bike.

Just in case, we went ahead and ran a compression check on both cylinders today:
front: 60psi
back: 70psi

Compression should be a nominal 156psi according to the manual... But my test today was on a cold engine... I guess we'll wait and see.

 

[ctag]

Intake tube arrived, and the carb is reinstalled. I crossthreaded one of the bolts to the engine though

Pulled and gapped the spark plugs, they were both just a tad out of spec.

Engine still doesn't want to run well, but it will at least idle and overall acts a little better.

 

[ctag]

Ok, some more progress.

Specs from the manual:
- total oil amount (dry engine): 1.9qt
- oil amount with filter replacement: 1.7qt
- oil amount without filter change: 1.5qt

Amount of oil that was just drained: 2.4qt, and it was filthy, and it smelled like raw gasoline...

Filled with ~1.3qt of regular Walmart brand SAE 10w-30 engine oil. The bike will run and idle more normally now, and it doesn't seem to bog as much down after warming up. There's still a lot of white smoke coming out of the exhaust though, so all is not resolved.

 

[ctag]

Got the bike running and went for a ride this morning.

It's running well now The oil finished burning through, and the exhaust cleared out. Either much less or no oil/gas was coughed back up to the air filter as well. The engine is a lot quieter, less screechy. It had some trouble coming out of stops a few times, but that was early on, and it stopped happening after a few minutes of riding around.

The clutch worked well given that it's just generic automotive oil, it still didn't feel like it was quite disengaging when I switch gears though; I'll have to look into that some more.

I'm going to carefully manage the fuel cutoff valve for a few weeks, and check to see if the oil becomes diluted again.

A good start to 2017

 

[ctag]

This bike's carburetor has an idle air/gas mixture adjustment screw that's capped off from the factory, and there are warnings all over the manual to not change it. Well, mine's been tampered with, so I reset it to a generally-recommended 2.5 turns out from closed and now I need to figure out how to go about tuning it.

Bike is still running OK, the clutch slips a little more than I'd like, but that's just what I get for using regular oil.

Did another compression test this afternoon with the engine warmed up. Got almost the exact same values: 60psi for the front, 70psi for the back, and both of them took two or so strokes to reach maximum compression.

 

[ctag]

Scrubbed everything down and changed the oil about a week ago. Used authentic motorcycle oil this time, and now the clutch doesn't slip much. The front brakes are still really soft (especially compared with the green bike below) and I just noticed that it looks like fork oil is leaking onto the rotor...

Got some time in riding too, cold weather makes everything so much more difficult!

Found out a friend also recently got a bike Huzzah!

We went for a ride with each other's bike, since both of us are looking forward to getting something different and want to find out what we like. I did wind up dropping his bike during a stop though whoops.

 

[ctag]

Rebuilt the front forks last night. And I'm installing a new air filter sponge right now.

 

[ctag]

Oh, yeah.. Forgot to say that I traded the Virago for "Kurisutin 2" the white Del Sol linked in my signature about a year ago haha.

/thread