Noob in Oakland California

[OliverOak]

Hey ya'll,
Been readin the forums while considering my purchase of a 1990 V-Max - then I took the plunge and bought it ! The look drew me to the bike, and then I went down the rabbit hole
She runs but needs work, so I'll probably be here a fair bit reading up and posting questions.

 

[Fire-medic]

Some 'helpers' for you:

http://vmoa.net/VMX12-Service-Manual01.pdf
https://www.vmaxforum.net/threads/new-vmax-owner-faqs-new-members-please-read.21240/

 

[Dkid]

Welcome to The Classroom. Glad to have Ya.

 

[Radioguylogs]

Welcome.

You won't regret the plunge.

 

[OliverOak]

Thanks Dkid and Radioguyvlogs, much appreciated ! And thank you Fire-medic ! The seller couldn't find the service manual so those links are really helpful (have the owner's guide though). I'm itchin' to take her out but she's running rough and loud so eager to start work asap and get her in good working order (likely needs tank and carb work from sitting, and maybe new baffle wrap).

 

[Fire-medic]

Any bike sitting w/ethanol gas for some sustained period of time, probably has issues with crud accumulating in the jet block brass. Splitting the carbs into two pairs and removing the float bowls gives you access to the jet block (remove each), and the brass jets. The pilot jet is very small, so it's easy to be clogged. I use a pin vise and a single SS wire to poke out any solids obstruction the jet orifice.

Pin vise not shown:
Pilot jet




K&L carburetor kit


Its contents and where they belong:



The enrichener system may have sticky/stuck pistons or mis-adjusted action.


Carburetor adjustments are required to be correct, float bowl/needle setting level to spec is one:


I prefer an ultrasonic cleaner for the carburetor cleaning.

Once the carburetors are cleaned and the float levels are correct, synchronizing the carburetors is necessary, along with proper throttle wire tensioning. Too-tight throttle wires, without adequate free-play, and your throttle will be sticky, it won't return to closed position. A sticky throttle on a VMax you don't want to experience!

 

[CaptainKyle]

Welcome

 

[OliverOak]

Thanks Captain Kyle.
Fire-Medic - Wow ! Thank you so much, that's an awesome resource ! I get a feeling of satisfaction cleaning mechanical stuff and dialing it in but I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and intimidated by reading. The visual learning aid is all the difference. Thanks!

 

[Fire-medic]

If you find that your enrichener piston(s) is/are stuck, you need to be very delicate in your efforts to loosen them. Soaking them in carburetor cleaner or the ultrasonic route should help. If you try heat, don't use much! The carburetor body can easily melt!

If you try the 'brute-force' method of trying to force-out the enrichment piston, you're gonna break it! Then you will need to buy one of these kits.




About the carburetor balance screws, do it somewhere that if the spring jumps-out of the brackets, that you have a chance to find it. FYI, one of the members recently posted about having a tough time getting the synchronization accomplished. He eventually discovered from his looking at pictures, that a prior owner had bent the bracket, so there was no possible way he could get them properly adjusted. He had to study how-much to bend it back, to allow the springs/screws to function properly. Also, if you get to a point where the spring is coil-bound, something's wrong, you need to find out why that's happening, and correct it. These bikes may have been wrenched-upon by a well-meaning but inept owner who messed things up. In the carbs alone, I've found jets just lying loose inside the jet block, main jets loose in the float bowl, emulsion tubes also just loose, torn CV diaphragms, cracked slides, broken air mix screws, various stripped threads, throttle cables tight like a violin's strings, and other problems.

Sometimes life gets in the way of bike repairs, and you have to do one thing one day, and resume another day. In the case of a carb soak, however you do it, be sure to use some type of water displacement spray in the enrichment system. Don't leave water or whatever you soaked it in, in the casting. It could cause oxidation/corrosion, to where the brass piston freezes in the bore. Ensure that all four enrichment pistons move freely when the thumb lever for the 'choke' is moved up/down. If you have 'em split into two pairs, and the shallow 'V' rod connecting one carb pair to the other carb pair, for the function of the enrichment lever is off, it's easier to work on the individual mechanisms for each enrichment piston. Another member found that the forked followers had been bent by a former owner, trying to fix the enrichment piston travel. A careful 'cold-set' of the forked followers was needed to have things operate in a coordinated fashion, it was just one carb as I recall. See pic #5 in my post #6, above. That was not the exact issue there, but the out-of-adjustment forked followers acting on the enrichment piston is the same concept.

 

[OliverOak]

Holy smokes Fire-medic this is an amazing write-up ! I assume you have a pinned thread somewhere with all this info because this is a gold-mine !/? Your wisdom makes me shift my perspective - I was going to try to go the easiest route possible first (Gum-out) and if that didn't work try cleaning the jets themselves, and if that wasn't enough rebuild the carbs. But from the wealth of information you have for you to say you recommend ultra-sonic, now I feel it would behoove me to at least try to find someone local who has a machine and would like to help me restore this beauty. I'm in the SF Bay Area with all of 7.7M people, so it's not a matter of IF there's someone cool with a machine in their garage, but HOW to find them.

 

[Fire-medic]

There are members here from the bay Area, try a call-out in a thread to see if you can find someone w/an ultrasonic machine. You might try some of the smaller shops by you to see if they will let you run the carbs disassembled through for a fee. The time duration is fairly brief to do it.

Member Damon on here used to sell cd's/DVD's probably by now, about disassembly and reassembly of an engine, and I'm not sure, but he may have had one for carbs also. That would help you in the process.

 

[Tbailey538]

Welcome! I just joined the Vmax fam a few weeks ago with a new to me 2000 out of Sacramento! Glad to see someone semi-local on here! Enjoy the bike

 

[OliverOak]

Oh wow cool, thanks again Fire-medic, that's great.
Thanks Tbailey538