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SuzukiSavage.com
/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl General Category >> The Cafe >> Another bike - Virago 535 /cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1468547036 Message started by Steve H on 07/14/16 at 18:43:56 |
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Title: Another bike - Virago 535 Post by Steve H on 07/14/16 at 18:43:56 I run across a great deal on a Yamaha Virago 535 the other day with only 6000 miles on it. So, I loaded it up in the minivan and brought it home for some TLC and then riding. Owner left it sitting over the winter completely full of gas. Tank looks great inside. The dead gas stinks. Carbs...not so good inside. What a pain to remove the carbs from this thing. They are between the cylinders and under the top frame rail, which is the airbox as well. They are downdraft carbs. Everything's built sideways in them. Bike purrs with starter fluid or a little gas poured in so I know it's gummed up carbs. Now that they're off, I'll be giving them a really good cleaning. Don't want to have to remove these ever again. Front tire is bald so it will get replace. Back is showing signs of cracking so it will get replace very soon too. A shame about the back, the tread is perfect. |
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Title: Re: Another bike Post by Struch on 07/14/16 at 18:54:27 Yes this is a nice bike I was looking on it wile deciding with wane to get and I ended up getting LS 650 Let us know how it is rides and the progress on it bringing back to life ) I'm interested |
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Title: Re: Another bike Post by MMRanch on 07/14/16 at 19:32:52 I believe OldFeller used to have a Yahama 535 ? Could be the same one ?? ;D |
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Title: Re: Another bike Post by Oldfeller on 07/15/16 at 01:08:53 Yep, it was. Steve, something to consider as you fight to get it to lite off for the first time. You will need a spray can of quick starting fluid and some patience. The bike has a sheet metal frame "plenum chamber" for those dual downdraft carbs. The carbs were intended for things like snowmobiles and outboard motors, not motorcycles and I learned that if you don't run the bike for a week or so, enough fuel evaps from the bowls to make it a stone biatch to get it to start. Getting to the carbs to even use a can of quick staring fluid is a pain in the ass, so a mod is in order. I went to the front of the plenum chamber where you can see what you are doing easily with everything assembled and in place and I drilled a small hole in the plenum wall that I mated with a cork plug I got from Lowes hardware section. The rubber plugs were too blunt and too big on the low end of their range, and I wanted the hole to be small. An unobtrusive cork plug was just that, nothing big to look at. Leave half the cork sitting proud as you want something to grip when you pull the plug out. Quick Start Fluid Starting drill was only needed after letting the bike sit too long, but it was ALWAYS needed to get that first start up after being left sit too long. Starting out with a fully charged battery ..... and known good gasoline Turn the bike on, let the stroker fuel pump stroke the bowls full of gasoline, make sure your electric petcock is pulling from a full under the seat tank (you might have two of them like I did) and that poorly marked handlebar switch was not left on the "Reserve" setting --- you do want to have your reserve preserved, and on this bike that is easy to foul up as the bike will start and run it all totally dry if that Reserve switch is in the wrong position. Spray a 4 second burst of starter fluid into the chamber and quickly replace the plug and hit the starter. NO CHOKE !!!! Never any choke, as when this thing gets flooded it is a sit all day affair to recover from it. When it fires up, use the throttle to keep it lit until the fuel begins metering and flowing well then hand hold a fast idle for a half minute to warm the engine up a tad. NO CHOKE !!!! Never any choke, as when this thing gets flooded it is a sit all day affair to recover from it. There is a Virago 535 forum on a Virago Tech forum (all Viragos) that likely has my tech posts on this still on it somewhere. Also please note that the electronics on these Viragos are all flaky bad from age and you will have to rig additional ground wires to various pieces of frame as well as cleaning the one to the engine mount. Spark is always weak, so Palladium thin electrode spark plugs are a good idea as they will fire at lower voltages. I always thought the flooding issue was really fuel on the plug electrodes combined with the weak spark issue to make up a stone no can start condition. There are a world of issues with these old bikes -- read up, read up, read up. Unless you love it, let it go as it will eat up your time like nothing I ever owned before. They do not handle as well as a Savage, but they actually have a bit more pep than a stock Savage has. However, they do not have more pep that a fully modded Savage has. |
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Title: Re: Another bike - Virago 535 Post by Steve H on 07/16/16 at 21:52:59 The carbs were filthy inside everywhere that there is normally fuel. The needle jet needles were gunked up pretty badly at the bottom ends. Both pilot jets were clogged. One of the slides had separated from the diaphram. On this carb, the diaphram and slide are separate parts that are press fitted together. All I had to do was put the pieces back together. Both diaphrams good. Had to clean the slides and the slide bores in the the bodies. One was very sticky and didn't want to move well. Now they both move like they should. Bowls are cleared of all gunk. Jets are clear. All passages above the fuel line were fine. There were all hit with carb cleaner and air blown through them to make sure they worked like they should. It stormed here most of the afternoon so I didn't do anything with the bike. It's outside and covered. That's the only place I have to work on it. No garage or carport to put it in. I'll try tomorrow to reinstall the carbs. It's not supposed to be as rainy. I'm hoping for a good, easy startup once I pump out all the bad gas and get some good gas in there. The bad stuff is a dark yellow/orange color and stinks big time. OF: Thanks for the tips on getting it started. I've got the starting fluid and will be prepared to use it if needed. NO CHOKE. I can't tell on the switch which way is reserve. All the writing is gone. The solenoid is working though. I discovered when taking it apart that it has a Corbin seat on it. Hope that will make longer rides a little less irritating to the tail bones. |
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Title: Re: Another bike - Virago 535 Post by Oldfeller on 07/17/16 at 06:38:13 Only way to figure out the unmarked reserve is to either consult the appropriate forum or put just a little gas into the tank and see which setting gives some flow to the gas pump. Or, you can guess -- just be prepared to be wrong about that guess. I was wrong ...... :P Remember to label that switch once you got it identified Pretty soon you will begin to realize why I say the Virago 535 is the biggest time eater of a bike I ever ever had ..... it always had something flaky about it that required a mod fix from the Virago forums. All parts needed had to be located used, as Yamaha stopped stocking all parts like 20 years ago, thereabouts. |
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Title: Re: Another bike - Virago 535 Post by Steve H on 07/17/16 at 14:08:56 Yeah, I've always heard that's a sore spot with Yamaha. When they quit making the bike, the parts start drying up immediately. They tell all their dealers not to touch anything over 10 years old. They will sell you the parts if they are still available, though. |
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Title: Re: Another bike - Virago 535 Post by mpescatori on 07/18/16 at 00:58:31 Would a 2-1 carb mod be doable ? I mean, if HDs run on a single carb, why shouldn't a itsy bitsy 535 ? |
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Title: Re: Another bike - Virago 535 Post by MMRanch on 07/18/16 at 21:00:48 I believe all those 4 cylinder bikes could get by with one carb. just fine and be a lot more user friendly in the process. ;) heck ! I might even buy one for myself if they were only one carb. ! |
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Title: Re: Another bike - Virago 535 Post by justin_o_guy2 on 07/18/16 at 21:50:58 The Iron Duke ran fine on one carb. |
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Title: Re: Another bike - Virago 535 Post by WD on 07/18/16 at 23:39:50 6D7065736361746F7269000 wrote:
No. Without the designing and machining of new cylinders heads and a custom intake manifold. And neutered cam profiles. Think Suzuki 700-1400 Intruders. The factory finally killed them off. The 1000% more mechanic friendly single carb/throttle body rendered them obsolete. Completely different cylinders, heads, cams, pipes, chassis. Think V-star versus Virago. Zero interchange of engine parts. They look almost identical, but... Redesigned cylinders, heads, intake. Viragos were horrid bikes. Intruders were horrid bikes. Vulcan 700/750 were horrid bikes. First generation Shadows, the bikes that spawned the whole cartoon caricature genre of early metric v twins, while ergonomically horrid were mechanically sound (at least compared to their clones). None of them are worth fixing. |
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Title: Re: Another bike - Virago 535 Post by Steve H on 07/20/16 at 04:55:36 There was a guy on one of the Virago forums who had a manifold made and went to one carb. When he got finished with the rejetting and got it dialed in to work well he said he had about 90% of the performance with the dual setup. He said low end was fine, maybe a little better. Very high end was slightly less power available than before. |
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Title: Re: Another bike - Virago 535 Post by Dave on 07/20/16 at 06:57:09 My neighbor has converted his early Gold Wing to have a single VW beetle carb. It runs just fine....he is into touring and reliability and could care less about acceleration or max HP. However.....it is most likely easier to get the stock carbs to run properly than it is to alter the carbs and intake system on the Virago, and the end result will be easier to sell when the time comes. |
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Title: Re: Another bike - Virago 535 Post by KennyG on 07/20/16 at 20:17:10 FWIW As far back as 1956 I knew Amal Carburetors were junk and along with Lucas Electrics certainly helped lead to the demise of British Motorcycles. My brother who worked for Aliis Chalmers Valve Division designed a manifold for my 1973 Norton and had a company in Allentown, PA cast it from the same stainless steel that is used on nuclear submarine valves. We bolted a big Mikuni to the Norton, changed the jets a couple of times, and rode the thing for 30 years. It had a slide and a manual choke and worked like a charm. Kenny G |
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