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2008 (May through . . . ) Friday, May 2 Dear VTwin Mama, However, one thing is making me nervous. Twice I have gone to start my bike and the starter just clicks, the lights shut off, and the battery doesn't respond. The first time this happened, I charged the battery with the appropriate sized trickle-charger for 12 hours and it never built a charge. So, I assumed I had left the bike in Park on an older battery and I replaced it. The new battery was working fine for a week, but then I went to start it after riding about 25 miles to a remote office and the battery was dead. Any thoughts on what I need to check? Thank you, – A New Rider For A New Life Dear A New Rider For A New Life, We'll start by assuming that you've checked the actual connectors to the terminals for corrosion. In addition, it can be useful to coat the terminals with a dielectric silicone grease to reduce further problems. Given the age of the bike, it's also possible that the wires themselves are no longer in great condition. Did you know that when the charging system is failing, a battery can keep the bike's ignition system running on that alone for about three or four hours? Therein may lie the clue. You were able to run with the new battery but it eventually lost its oomph! So, locate your alternator and check the connections as well as the wires for anything broken, frayed, or melted. Then locate the voltage regulator/rectifier (usually mounted at the front of the bike's frame). Check that. A lot of times, that unit will fail and cause the symptoms you're having now. It can be pulled and brought to the local dealership for testing (double check by making a call first). If those ideas don't solve it, the most likely cause is that you have a wire with an exposed area touching the frame and thus shorting to ground, which will take the battery out eventually. That's a tough one to track down and you may want to then ask the dealer's service department what systems they have available to track down a short. I'm still putting my money on a failing/failed regulator/rectifier or wiring problem to the alternator. – Mama Friday, May 2 Dear VTwin Mama, Dear Jim, Honestly, I think your quickest path to understanding how to successfully get this job done is to call your local dealer's service department (weekdays typically are better) and find out what they would do (i.e. remove the fender, etc.). I never hesitate to contact a service department for tips and tricks ... I find if you don't ramble on, but keep it straight to the point, a service person will give you a good clue. Readers with this make/model with experience, please chime in! – Mama Monday, May 5 More for Sherri who was working on adding wind deflectors for her VStar 1300: Any one looking for lowers (air deflectors) that fit the Yamaha VStar windshields should go to Buck's Lowers. These are a well made product. – Anonymous (note from Mama: thanks for sharing ... I see there are solutions for the Roadliner, Stratoliner, and Road Star as well.) Dear VTwin Mama, Also she wants the handle bars pulled back . If you could steer me in the right direction for a set of pull back risers I would greatly appreciate it. By the way, I have used your site for many ideas and information since I run with a short crowd. Thanks for the information. Its the best that I have found on the web. – WTD Dear WTD, You'll find a number of choices for pullback risers at ScootWorks and even a picture with one set installed on a VLX 600. A letter from November 2003 indicated that a short rider on the same model bike simply removed the side covers and rode. Upon buying another bike, the covers were once again removed, but they had crafted custom leather covers so that the "look" was maintained and components sheltered. That may be something to consider, as I do not know of lower profile (narrower) side covers available. – Mama Wednesday, May 7 Dear VTwin Mama, I took the bike to my local dealer and they stated that it's an air bubble in the oil line and that it shouldn't hurt the engine. They told me if it gets louder they would have to drain half the oil and replace it with automatic trans fluid. I don't know if I want to trust running the engine with an air bubble in the oil line, Is this something you run across before, could it be a faulty oil pump? Should I continue to run the bike or get a second opinion from another shop? – Ron Dear Ron, Here's the deal. As oil flows through a line it tends to carry everything it encounters, including air bubbles, with it. It is in other words a self-bleeding system. If it wasn't, every time the engine was stopped, the oil would drain into the sump, air would fill the lines and you'd run the risk of having the entrained air prevent the oil from flowing. There are several reasons why some fluid-carrying systems sometimes get "air-bound" but that normally involves a pocket of air that's trapped in a bend or pocket in the system and those systems typically have bleeding devices located at those points to remove the air. You might think of a radiator or old style mechanically pumped fuel injection system. The second issue would be filling the oil system with ATF. ATF acts as a solvent and is not suitable for use as an engine lubricant. Using it in the crankcase could do some serious damage to the engine. If the information received is coming through an authorized dealer and it's supported by Suzuki, I'd really want to see the documentation. Update: ATF is highly detergent and is sometimes used to help flush out older car engines, especially when gunk and sludge have made the lifters sticky and that's probably why it was suggested to him as a possible cure. However I doubt very much that it'd solve his problem, and he could do some serious damage to his engine by running it with the sump half full of what is essentially a 5-weight solvent. I'd strongly recommend first changing the oil and filter, using the factory specified oil and an OEM filter. If the noise doesn't go away, take it to a another dealer and get their opinion. – Mark Monday, May 12 Dear VTwin Mama, Dear Kelsey, Typically one would undo the locknut at the top by the clutch cable and back out the cable at that end until you could remove it from it's pathway in the clutch lever. It's really important to memorize the exact pathway and how it goes together. Then you would follow the cable to the other end and undo it there. That's the easy part. In putting the new one in, you can get the top end threaded in, get the bottom attached, and start taking up the slack at the bottom. The "fine tune" adjustment is at the top then, where you want to leave about 1/8" freeplay ... that's the amount the lever will move before any real pressure is put on the clutch lever. That's done because as the bike warms up, system components expand and you need that freeplay to account for all of that. Then your final tuning is to check that when you have the bike running, that the bike isn't trying to creep forward even with the clutch lever pulled all the way in. You also don't want any dangling of the cable at the top end. Without the service manual, I can't really direct you any more. We'll see if we get any more specific input from a reader of this site; otherwise, you might do better to get on a message board specific to your year/make/model bike and ask the question there. I typed in "Honda Shadow 500 discussion forum" and got a number of hits from Google. – Mama Monday, May 12 Dear VTwin Mama, Dear Lil, I would pose the interchangeable question to your local dealer's parts department. They have powerful computers that can look up all sorts of aftermarket items that would fit the bill. – Mama Thursday, June 5 Dear VTwin Mama, I'm a beginning rider, and just bought a used 2004 Honda Rebel. My friend rode it for me to check it out, and it worked fine. I rode it for a couple of weeks and it worked fine. But, I had it in the garage for two weeks until I could get some time to practice riding it and it stalled out once or twice in the very beginning. I revved it up a bit and then it ran pretty stable. THEN, I got it to the corner, and it stalled out and wouldn't start again. : ( I checked to make sure I remembered to turn the fuel on, checked to make sure the kill switch wasn't on, I had gas in the tank, the bike was in neutral, kickstand up, it made a noise when I pushed the ignition button, lights came on...but just would NOT start. I don't have any mechanical experience at all [Daddy wouldn't let girls help with mechanical things...oh boy], so I don't know where to start. Can you give me any suggestions? I'm so sad : ( Thanks so much, – Edie Dear Edie, I'm pretty sure the reason it wouldn't start again at the corner was that it was flooded. That means that gas was accumulating and the spark plugs couldn't ignite the mix correctly any more. So, the spark plugs got overly wet with gas. You would have noticed a pronounced smell of gas (most likely). Why did this happen now?! Well, not so much because it sat, but because it was started, then stalled, then restarted several times and stuff happens! I would do three things: Of course you could elect to bring the motorcycle to the local dealer and have them do this routine maintenance, which would include checking the carb settings for correct idle. But I've give it a go myself ... useful stuff to learn and you don't have to be a mechanical genius to acquire the knowledge! – Mama Dear VTwin Mama, My question is, my mechanic said since my bike is fuel injected that he won't have to do any carb work. I called Vance and Hines and also J&P Cycle directly to see if my mechanic was correct. They both said he is wrong and that I would need to install a Power Commander / Fuel Pack otherwise if this additional item is not installed it will burn up the pistons and it causes back pressure. This would be an additional $300. They also said most mechanics don't know this. My bike might run fine for a couple of years, but without the power commander it would make my engine wear out faster. My question here is do I need the additional Power Commander / Fuel Pack when putting on the new Vance and Hines pipes? Also, my mechanic said that by putting on these new Vance and Hines straight shots (pipes) it should increase my power by about 7%. Is this correct? One last item, my mechanic is also installing a new air filter, a K&E - he said that will give me even more power. Is this correct? Since I am a woman, new rider, and I don't have a clue about what they are talking about, can you help me on the three questions I stated above. I really appreciate your help. – Sheila K. Dear Sheila, So, while I knew that a fuel injected bike could adjust for variations in altitude (less air the higher you go), I did not realize that the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) is not infinitely self-adjusting. It turns out these units look at lots of variables but if the amount of gas and air are changed (i.e. in this case you altered the exhaust parameters) to levels beyond what the ECU computer is looking for, it can't make the right call. So, try it without. If you start getting pinging when you first hit the throttle or a gas smell, the ECU isn't handling things well ... you'll probably also see a color change at the exhaust pipe (yellow or blue). Yes, you'll see some increase in horsepower and torque but it's so dependent on how finely tuned the system is ... fine tuning is accomplished with a dyno tester, which most dealers offer ... they run the bike on a machine that measures everything and provides feedback on performance so that tweaks can be made. About $100 or so. A new air filter, typically called a big air kit or hypercharger, brings more air into the system, which then requires more gas to mix with it to keep the right proportions. Where you'll notice more power is at the higher speeds. Instead of feeling like you're wound out at top speeds, you'll have more oomph available. Again, only a dyno test and fine tuning will bring out the very best in all of this (i.e. even more $$). – Mama Monday, June 16 For Sheila who is changing to V&H pipes and wondering if mods need to be done at the same time: I also have the C50C, only the 2006 model. From all I have read on the subject, on VolusiaRiders.com, the consensus is that when just adding new aftermarket pipes, you don't need a fuel processor. But when you changer your air intake, like by adding the K&N filter, Hypercharger or Thunder Air Kit, you will need one. This is because of what you said, Petra. More air requires more fuel. I didn't want to go the route of a $300 Power Commander, partly because I didn't want to mess with the maps needed to program it. I bought a Cobra FI2000R, which is about $160 if you look around on line. I did have the dealer install it, though someone with mechanical skills could probably do it themselves. Pretty much what you said, but just confirming what other C50 riders have stated. – MalteseYo (note from Mama: thanks for sharing what the Volusia board members are noting and what you chose!) Wednesday, June 18 Dear VTwin Mama, Dear MLattimore, Backfiring occurs when the gas/air mix is not fully ignited ... the remains are exhausted, but any unburnt gas hits the hot exhaust pipes where it is then ignited and creates the backfire noise. Knocking is generally associated with the camshaft, which operates the opening and closing of the intake and exhaust valves. So, if we introduce foreign material into the system, we could be clogging the carb and hampering the right mix of air/fuel. Or, there could be interference with the precise opening and closing of the valves, or at the very worst, a piece can grind it's way into bearings or even between the piston and the cylinder sleeve. This is where long term damage happens. My first suggestion is to make sure that you've taken care of the internal tank flaking, otherwise you'll just keep adding to the problem. Next, turn the gas petcock to Off and locate the carb float bowl drains ... this is a bolt at the very bottom most part of the carb. You'll want to have a container you can drain the carbs into and it will be very evident if you've got crap in the system. If the problem persists, you may need to pull the carbs and have them inspected and cleaned internally and even rebuilt (new seals and such). At the same time you might want to inspect the gas filter at the petcock or double check if this bike has another inline filter. If small pieces got trapped in the filters, you're not delivering fuel to the carb correctly. It's also possible that something very minute got past the filter and into the fuel line, but I'm hoping it didn't get stuck and made it's way and collected in the carb. If the problem continues, then I'd be talking to a mechanic about pulling the cylinder heads where the cams and valves are. If a piece of tank got into this area it can eventually cause major damage if not corrected. Please do not ignore the noises ... they are telling you that the bike needs help. Start with the basics you can do your self and see if that takes care of it. Otherwise get professional work done before you lose the whole engine. – Mama Thursday, June 19 Dear VTwin Mama, Dear Ken, Wednesday, July 2 Dear VTwin Mama, Dear Paul, Highway pegs suggest to me that you've got an engine guard/highway bar on that Yami. My idea ... cut out some sturdy cardboard and tape it into position like these Desert Dawgs are shown. The testimonials indicate there is wind relief as well as a reduction in wet leg when it's raining with the installation of a product like this. I bet if you duct taped an old towel (another idea) on one side, you would quickly get your answer! – Mama
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