My 89 VMax. A Work In Progress

My 89 VMax. A Work In Progress or My Misadventures

I put this here rather than in 4 separate threads in specific areas..

I started out the day by pulling the packing out of the Kerker Can, 4-1. This was a matter of removing 3 screws, pulling the end cap and core. Removing the packing from around the core and putting it back together. The bike seem'd to be rich so maybe this and the A/F Screw adjustment I did will help. No more VW Sound, much better. CaptainKyle mentioned that Kerker has different size cores so I'll keep that in mind for later. Still doesn't compare to the Marks sound of my 94 but it's livable.

The 89 turns over so slow but starts right away. I charged the battery and cleaned the connections. I also filled it with distilled water. Was only down a little. It took and held a good charge.. Is this something to do with the older model starter or just a need to replace the battery with an Odyssey? The 94 sounds like a vacuum cleaner when the starter runs. It has the Odyssey Battery.


Next, I went after the lack of any stopping power with the rear brake. I bled the system over and over to get the old fluid out. I now have good rear brakes. Pads have a lot of wear left.


Finally I got to the non functional temperature gauge. I went after the connections at the sending unit and behind the gauge itself. I cleaned them and reinstalled. Now, the gauge moves about 1/64th of an inch when I turn the key on but never moves to measure the temperature. Do I condemn the gauge or are there more places to check? Possible a bad sending unit or further bad connections? Thoughts? Help?

Thanx...... More ??? tomorrow as I progress.....

Well, I'll answer myself.:rofl_200:This is the chronicle of my second day of really tearing into this 1989 Project Bike. Maybe I can use some of the info I compile here for "How To Guides" later.:biglaugh:

I talked with CaptainKyle this morning, he's still deciding whether he's going to part out or fix the 90 he just bought. He was stealing the Odyssey battery out of it for one of his other Max's. We both decided that my slow starter was because of the standard battery and it's low capacity. An Odyssey is the ultimate battery.

I went back after the non functional temperature gauge. First, I measured the sending unit and found that it was in spec. throughout the temperature range as the bike warmed with fans running on it. I cleaned the single pin connectors for the green/red and black wires near the coolant manifold. They must have had moisture in them and built up some minor corrosion because the gauge was functional after I finished...

I found that I developed an oil leak at the stator cover, something more to fix later.

I decided to go after the non functional VBoost Controller. I removed the unit from under the left scoop. It was obvious that somebody had F'd with it at some point during the bikes life. The cover fell off in my hands. I checked the circuit board all over looking for anything that may have fried. There were no signs of anything. I pulled the connectors apart, 1 round and 1 square. Generally one the first things I do is look for a bad connection with anything electronic. 90% of the time I have a fix with minimal effort. This was one of those times. After working the connectors together and apart a number of times, I tried turning the key on and heard the typical servo sounds. I used 2 zip ties to hold the controllers cover securely in place.

Next, I pulled the air box to have a look at the carbs with the engine running. I noticed that the left front carb wasn't responding as the other 3 were. I pulled the diaphragm cover and found 1/3 of the diaphragm not in the groove. I ran this bike hard in 2nd gear before I bought it and it seemed fine???? The diaphragm has been this way for quite some time because it's molded to the shape of a 3/4 Moon. It wasn't damaged as far as any holes luckily. I shot some lube on the diaphragm hoping to soften it slightly so I could make it go back into the groove with the cover installed. Usually something like this will kick my butt for days before I get it solved. To my amazement, it went back into place on my second try. I kinda used the cover to iron the diaphragm into the groove. The folded area was toward the bottom so I set the cover on and moved it a little high, then downward when it went against the diaphragm. As I moved it down slowly, it forced the diaphragm into the slot. I could tell it had worked by moving the slide of the carb to the open position. I could hear the hiss of escaping air telling me the diaphragm had properly seated.

I've been holding off syncing the carbs because my Manometer's at the end of it's life expectancy. I'm mulling over choices for a replacement. In this instance, I got one more carb sync out of it. Usually, I'm alright with ending up between 2 inHg with all the carbs. For this, because it was FU'd, I made the adjustments for all 4 carbs to within 1/2 inHg limit. Oh, BTW the final adjustments were done with the air box in place.

Now, with the air box off again. I traced the wires to the mystery box behind the air box and the display unit that's mounted at the bottom of my Speedometer. They are both components of a shift light made by "God Knows Who". I don't have any indication of them being functional. But with the way FM seems to be at work with a lot of things on this bike, I'm leaving this for last. May fix itself.

After finding the problems I've found so far, I feel sorta stupid for buying into this bike. Even at the very fair price I bought it for. How it ran well enough to get me through a test ride is beyond me. Maybe It's possessed, but in a good way. It has stupid problems that could be taking me months to sort through. The damn thing seems to be talking to me, telling me how to skip all the steps of logic and handing me the answers to a fix...

I added some pictures of the stripped bike so you can feel my Pain....

I'm gonna try working on the bike again tomorrow, More misadventures to come.

Sounds like you are getting it fixed with nothing much more then simple time.

Keep up the smart troubleshooting and I'm sure more "luck" will slide your way!unk:

i believe another trick mark has mentioned is to let the diaphragm soak in gas to help it loosen up.

Today was pretty nice, I went after all the "Straggler Problems". Covered the brake and clutch cables, with black sheathing and zip ties. Made up new vent hoses for the carbs. replaced the gas line from the fuel pump to the carb block.

I did a little work on the Corbon Seat (To Stop Any More Rips). Actually with it being a slip fit and using no bolts, it's not so bad. It's actually pretty comfortable. Amazed the crap out of me, it's covered with leather.

I checked the Diff and found weird blue fluid in it..??????? It's gonna go.

I reassembled the bike and took it out tonight. It ran like **** at first. All the idling while I adjusted the carbs yesterday. I let it warm up and did a hard roll on in 2nd. It ran pretty good. Then I tried a 5th gear roll on from 50. It did a lot of sputtering, didn't like that much load at all... Even so, I had a blast riding it.

It appears that this has a Dyna Jet Kit in the carbs. I may eventually have to 86 that.

My next endeavor is to pull the exhaust and the pan to do the O-Ring. It's splashing the window the same as the 94 did.

Gotta do Honey Do's tomorrow, atleast I got away with 3 days to work on the bike. I'll be back on the bike, working on it as soon as I can. Guess I ought to do some shooting before I get replaced. Gotta do some real work....:biglaugh:

BTW, Some of my pictures turned out crappy in the dark.

PS: Thanx for the encouraging words Guys and I never thought about using gas on the Diafragm.... WD worked for me...

Added, After Thought: Even with all the packing out of the Kerker Can, It's not even in the same ball park with the sound quality of my Marks Exhaust...

Can you elaborate on whats splashing the window when you refer to the o-ring?

I'm guessing he means Texas gold, Earl or motor oil spashing his oil level sight glass. Grumpy, that is what your talking about ain't it? Don't over eat tomorrow Ya'll.

I sent an IM, actually 2 now to Saml01. Thought I could explain it better there. I don't know if that's working out or not....

Yes PATMAX, oil splashin on the sight glass from the popped delivery pipe O-Ring of this one too....

I did get to work on the bike a little tonight. Took the black paint off the chrome of the engine guards.:bang head: Previous, Previous Owner. I reinstalled them.


Plugs were running richer than crap with the stock core and no packing. :ummm: (1st picture..)
Made up the beginning of a 2" core to try in the muffler (2nd picture). Right now, it sounds like a drag pipe. I don't like that at all. I'll drill a bunch of holes when it's light out.

VBoost is intermittent again. I think I'll have to find a better way to get the connectors under the left scoop. I think they're stressed when I tighten the scoop down and breaking connection intermittently.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I'll be eating, not working tomorrow....:biglaugh:

Wow, have I been derelict at keeping this up. I put a lot of effort into last months Mod Monkey Contest, so it ate up the end on November. Just now getting back to doing this write up. Some of what's here, you may have seen in other threads. I still plan to use some of the info for individual "How Too's".. I'm compiling it here to have 1 reference point. The new notes covers a time frame from the last entry. About 2 weeks ago.


I installed a newer slide and Diaphragm in my left front carb. Had to drill the slide hole to match the others. I dropped the stage 1 needles all the way down. Someone told me this leaned things out enough to help the kit to work. I installed stock diaphragm springs. At this point the engine was still run-able. I hadn't torn into it yet. I didn't ride the bike but the carbs seemed to work better with these changes. I'll add more info about this later after I have gone for a ride. The bike is partially apart right now... Parts were purchased from CaptainKyle's 90 and Junk Box. Thanks Kyle. I did add allen head cap screws from Ace Hardware to the diaphragm covers.

My carb vent lines were run off the back of the engine. With parts from Kyle's 90. I moved them back to the air box sides. I replaced the gas hose from the Fuel Pump to the carb block using USCG Approved Fuel Line. I also made a key protector for my right scoop...

Since I had to pull the exhaust to get the pan off, I planned to strip and repaint the Kerker System. Once I got into it, I settled myself to just repair, paint and save money for Mark's. Too much rust for a good fix. I took as much off as would come off with wire wheels. I used VHT Ceramic Coat. Hope it will hold up for a while... I used some 491 degree metal repair solder and a propane torch to fix the few holes prior to painting. I inspected the exhaust gaskets and will reuse the ones that are there when it goes back together. Today 12/7, I finished up painting the Kerker System... I'm letting it dry for a few day before reinstall.

After pulling my 94 down, I thought I had this whole Dreaded O-Ring Thing figured out. The 94 for the most part is very low mileage at 17,000 miles. The bike seems to have been very well maintained and cleaned prior to my buying it 4 years ago. The O-Ring in it was Popped Out so I figured that most of the older VMax's out there must be the same. I put the Kamikaze O-Ring in and all was well. I found no damage from the O-Ring being popped out.

My 89 looks like it's had the Dog **** run out of it, just by the fact that it was dirty and a lot of things were Mickey Moused on it. The bike has 34,000 miles on it. I pulled the Kerker 4-1 which I'm repairing and repainting and dropped the pan. The oil was fine, no metal flakes or any sign of excessive wear. Believe me, I even ran the magnet through the drained oil looking for something there.

The O-Ring was perfectly in place, It totally amazed me. I dropped the 3 bolts holding the O-Ring's plumbing and then dropped the oil pump about 1/8" by loosening the 3 screws holding it. Removed and replaced the O-Ring with the Kamikaze part and tightened everything up. The new O-Ring was very hard to seat, I had to carefully pry between the oil pump pipe and the pipe with the O-Ring once all the bolts were tightened again. then it finally seated all the way. It's in place forever...

Now I feel that I know nothing about the likelihood that this O-Ring will be popped out on other bikes. :confused2::ummm::bang head::rofl_200:

I really wonder now that the bike is back together, if someone didn't install the Yamaha updated parts at some point in the past. Duh on me, I didn't even think of checking that out prior to reassembly.

I didn't do the COO Fix on this one, at $40.00, I was deterred. I did use the Kawasaki O-Ring. The rubber bumper on the bottom of this ones pipe was slightly deformed by upward pressure against the pan. I used the rubber bumper off my 94 on this 89 because it looked like new and measurements proved it was exactly the same part but in original condition. I don't think the pipe will ever move and even if it does, it has the Kawi O-Ring installed. BTW, that Kawi Part was a tight fit to get it between the 2 ribs on the pipe. That's what makes me think it has had the updated plumbing installed by a PO.

Pictures, I did the bottom shot of the pipe because the first shot was at an angle and almost gives the impression that the O-Ring may be out of place. It was perfectly seated. The 6th shot shows the 2 pipes that I carefully pried against to get the new O-Ring seated. It was taken prior to any work beginning and is just for reference.

I was working at fixing a Stator Cover Leak on my 89. I had all the gasket removed and was using compressed air to blow the remnants out before installing a new gasket. This shiny stainless steel, piece of metal came flying out during the process of blowing the crap out of the cover. Anybody have a clue what it may be??? :ummm::ummm::ummm: The picture uses a Dreaded O-Ring for size reference. The O-Ring is about the size of a nickle. The stainless piece is about ??? 30-40 thousandths thick. Everyone agreed that this part isn't something that should have come with the VMax. Hope it's the only one of it's kind in there.:biglaugh:

I decided to swap out the drag bars for the stock set I got from CaptainKyle. I'm going to need to get the front brake lines from Kyle too. Some PO swapped the hoses to shorter versions and I need a few more inches to reach the stock bars. The hoses are like Bass Guitar Strings right now.

If I come up with any more thoughts of what I've done up until now, I'll edit this post to add it in. My next post will be from here on.

Various pictures associated with this post shown below, more for my reference later...

This covers from my last entry until now 12/13/2010

I got the stock bars and brake lines installed and the drag bars to Kyle. Much better riding position for my back. Really nice grips swapped over too.

I traced the shift light wiring but still haven't got it working.

My oil leak is gone with the new stator cover gasket. I turned the bolts another 1/16 of a turn to insure it stays that way.

I put a volt meter on the battery and checked the voltage while running. Pit Fall to look out for, a cheap meter on a low scale will make you think you've got an out of control charging system. On the 20 volt scale it appeared that I had 16 volts at an idle and 18 volts at 3,000 rpm. Impossible the battery would be totally cooked by now. Flipped the meter to the 200 volt scale and all is well, 12.65 at an idle and near 14 at 3,000 (actually just off idle, it moves up).

I had already installed stock diaphragm springs that I got from CaptainKyle and moved the needles down all the way to try and clear up the 4th and 5th gears breaking up at 4,000 RPM. I R&R'd the Air / Fuel Screws, cleaned, inspected and insured that all the parts were there and good. Set them at 3-1/4 turns. Re-sync'd the carbs. The bike ran like a RA in the first 3 gears, still breaking up some at 4,000 in 4th and 5th but better.

I started painting a set of side covers, 2 tone. gray bottom and red top. That's still in the works. Painted the front fender to a somewhat match to the faus cover and rear fender. The bike's gonna be somewhat 2 tone as the existing faus cover and rear fender would be impossible to match. I believe it'll give the bike character. The front fender and top of the side covers are going to be the same red.

I put some chrome hardware on the seat so it'll look like it has bolts in it even though it can be slipped off.


Finished painting the Kerker Muffler with Ceramicoat. Kerker Badge is in Re-Ferb.:rofl_200::rofl_200::rofl_200:

I took a few pictures but couldn't get a good shot of the front fender with the lighting I have. It's iridescent red.

Looking good Dave ! I got the special paint ordered for Christines so hopefully soon hers will have the wild looking hipppie paint she wants.

Hey Kyle, I didn't know tie dyed came in a can! Sorry I missed the Dyno happenings.

PATMAX said:

Hey Kyle, I didn't know tie dyed came in a can! Sorry I missed the Dyno happenings.

Click to expand...

LOL ! This is gonna be one funky paint job a few diffrent colors done with Crystal effects. Its a shame I sold my Max so now I am doing one the way some one else wants it & its the beloved 85. Maybe you can make the next dyno or tech day. I am sure I will try & get the dyno out here again. I am trying to buy it but there still thinking on it.

Wow, what a great idea to get your own Dyno. I am sure Tim Nash finds his indispensable and now YOU would be getting the $50 bucks a person per open house. Combine that with some crack poppers and a cold adult beverage and you will have a line around the block! You know you gotta get pictures of Christine's bike when your done right! Later Brother, Patrick

Today didn't start out too well, Got my Mom to the Assisted Living Facility for a 3 day break. I got a late start. I was attempting to put the Kerker Badge back on the muffler when my phone rang. I suck at multi tasking. Talking computers and working on a Motorcycle don't mix. RTV and rivets in, F. It's upside down. Thought about leaving it that way. Drilled the rivets and pulled it off. No more of the right rivets. F again. after about an hour of back paddling it went on, right side up.... I've been watching some of the crap the guys on "Pickers" buy so I left the Kerker Badge refinished but looking like it'd seen battle. Changed the baffle out to my own 2" core. Tried to find some decorative bolts to hold the end cap..

After that fiasco I figured I better keep things simple. I'm in enough trouble working on the bike when Mary and I could be out doing something together. I turned her loose on the town to go shop or whatever she wanted. That bought me a little time.

I moved the speedo cable to the outside of the front brake line like it's supposed to be. Sure is helpful having a second bike for reference.:biglaugh:

I mounted the front fender on the brace and installed it on the bike. Hard to photograph with Iridescence and a flash.

Finished up the lower gray paint on the side covers. They're ready for prep and the red upper half soon as they've set to dry good.

I shoved some Ruby valve caps into the rubber at the top of the forks to keep water out. I'll eventually polish or powder coat the aluminum in this area.

Installed the chrome covers on the bolts of the handlebar clamp.
Not much real progress but atleast I didn't screw anything else up too bad....:biglaugh:

Added 12/15/2010: Started out at the Dr's Office today. He said I made a pretty good medic, fixing my busted up leg.
If he only knew I was working on a motorcycle, he'd ****. I seem to be pretty good at getting injured just working on the bikes. So far, lately, I haven't while riding.. As we all should know that's a matter of When...

Worked on the side covers, got prep and several coats of red laid. gonna sand and do some final coats next. Took a ride with the 2" baffle in, bike really runs like crap. I put the stock Kerker baffle in and runs better. So, I painted the end cap and installed Allen Head Screws. That's all I got done today...

I had a little "Piddle Time" so I ran the bike and resync'd the carbs. I'm running some cleaner through and in time it'll settle down so I can think about jets and needles. Then, I can get rid of the damn stage 1 stuff that's in there. I'll have to pick up some stock needles and possibly stock main jets. Depends on how far the PO got into things.

I have the paint work done on the side covers so I threw the one side of the bike together and moved it outside for pictures. I don't think the red difference is too noticeable unless you get right on top of the bike.

Just a few pictures to reassure myself there's light at the end of the tunnel.. And,, an idea for the side covers????

I think that side cover idea is GREAT !

Rick, Thanx for confirming the Flaming Skulls. I've bent them to fit the contour of the side covers too.... Just have to position and Stick them...:biglaugh:

She's lookin' great Dave!! :thumbs up: