365 Group (f)
These last few days have been great. The weather was almost perfect and I even got in some riding.
I have an old eccentric bike, A Virago 920, that I was told over the years was Yamaha's first attempt at Harley's Sportster design, that quit firing as I pulled into my drive about a year and a half ago. I really enjoyed this bike even though it has several quirks that most people find hard to live with. Notably the starter. It sounds at times like your dragging a chain through a box of tin cans. That is due to a poor design for the starter. I love it.
Anyway, I had checked and replaced everything electrical you could think of short of replacing the wiring harness. I was shopping around ebay for a new harness. Nothing that I did worked. No fire.
On Thursday afternoon I ran by the shop with a new gismo that I had borrowed off a friends bike to try as a just in case I missed something the first time around. Missed something is really putting it mildly. While I was hooking up this new CDI I dropped my glasses and when I bent down to pick them up, I saw it. A little square box under the head light. Two screws and that's it. Wondering, as I had never saw this before, got a screwin stick and popped out the screws and there it was! A fuse box. Not just any fuse box. No! This was a double secret, totally undercover, have to know the secret handshake-good old boy fuse box. It has to be as it wasn't shown in any of the manuals that I have for this bike. Later I called a friend at the Yamaha shop and had him look on the big computer manual and tell me where the fuse box was. He said the "fish" showed it to be under the seat. He didn't show an extra fuse box on his microfiche for the bike. I found that it had a 10 amp ignition fuse that had blown at about fifty three thousand miles. Still don't know what caused it to pop. I replaced the fuse and hey, we got fire.
To put it mildly, I was happy!!
Thinking back over the last year and a half at all I had put into trying to get back on the road. Pick up coils. New stators, tried three of them. All the friends that I had pestered. Yep! I be a happy camper.
Firing the old bike up and listening to the sound of that old offset Vtwin words cant describe how it made me feel. I seem to have a weird connection to the unusual, like this old bike.
There are still a few odds and ends to work out before it'll be ready for a shakedown ride. Got to flush the fuel system and clean out the carbs. New tires, check the brakes, Little things.
Now, I am curious. This fuse box. It is a factory job. It is well hidden. I'm wondering since it isn't shown on any of the service material, was this some Japaneses idea of a joke. Got to be something like that as this bike has two fuse boxes and two main ignition fuses. I can just see this guy or gal cracking up just thinking about someone, like me, pulling their hair out over this. This bike is a keeper. I cant say that strongly enough where the average person would understand. I mean, in any shape if I had to move it would go along like the fridge or TV. Now it's my turn to laugh. Now I'm a card caring member of the "good old boy" club. I'm now getting ready to go through the system again and see what other "good old boys" I can find. To this afore mentioned Japanese with the sense of humor. "I'm with ya bro". Cracks me up just thinking about the whole deal.
Now it's time to go polish my "decoder ring" and work on the little odds and ends.
They didn't make this model for very long. Too many little things people couldn't grasp. The starter and it's a shaft drive at a time when that was a new unheard of thing. Also it had a "backbone" frame like some of the old 60's model Honda 90's and it's plain ugly in some lights. In a way it's kind of a cult bike. People that have Acquired the taste for them have nothing but good things to say about them. I'm tickled as heck with this one. I've put fifty two thousand of the sixty one thousand miles it has on it. I literally have taken it everywhere in all kinds of weather.
These last few days have been great. The weather was almost perfect and I even got in some riding.
I have an old eccentric bike, A Virago 920, that I was told over the years was Yamaha's first attempt at Harley's Sportster design, that quit firing as I pulled into my drive about a year and a half ago. I really enjoyed this bike even though it has several quirks that most people find hard to live with. Notably the starter. It sounds at times like your dragging a chain through a box of tin cans. That is due to a poor design for the starter. I love it.
Anyway, I had checked and replaced everything electrical you could think of short of replacing the wiring harness. I was shopping around ebay for a new harness. Nothing that I did worked. No fire.
On Thursday afternoon I ran by the shop with a new gismo that I had borrowed off a friends bike to try as a just in case I missed something the first time around. Missed something is really putting it mildly. While I was hooking up this new CDI I dropped my glasses and when I bent down to pick them up, I saw it. A little square box under the head light. Two screws and that's it. Wondering, as I had never saw this before, got a screwin stick and popped out the screws and there it was! A fuse box. Not just any fuse box. No! This was a double secret, totally undercover, have to know the secret handshake-good old boy fuse box. It has to be as it wasn't shown in any of the manuals that I have for this bike. Later I called a friend at the Yamaha shop and had him look on the big computer manual and tell me where the fuse box was. He said the "fish" showed it to be under the seat. He didn't show an extra fuse box on his microfiche for the bike. I found that it had a 10 amp ignition fuse that had blown at about fifty three thousand miles. Still don't know what caused it to pop. I replaced the fuse and hey, we got fire.
To put it mildly, I was happy!!
Thinking back over the last year and a half at all I had put into trying to get back on the road. Pick up coils. New stators, tried three of them. All the friends that I had pestered. Yep! I be a happy camper.
Firing the old bike up and listening to the sound of that old offset Vtwin words cant describe how it made me feel. I seem to have a weird connection to the unusual, like this old bike.
There are still a few odds and ends to work out before it'll be ready for a shakedown ride. Got to flush the fuel system and clean out the carbs. New tires, check the brakes, Little things.
Now, I am curious. This fuse box. It is a factory job. It is well hidden. I'm wondering since it isn't shown on any of the service material, was this some Japaneses idea of a joke. Got to be something like that as this bike has two fuse boxes and two main ignition fuses. I can just see this guy or gal cracking up just thinking about someone, like me, pulling their hair out over this. This bike is a keeper. I cant say that strongly enough where the average person would understand. I mean, in any shape if I had to move it would go along like the fridge or TV. Now it's my turn to laugh. Now I'm a card caring member of the "good old boy" club. I'm now getting ready to go through the system again and see what other "good old boys" I can find. To this afore mentioned Japanese with the sense of humor. "I'm with ya bro". Cracks me up just thinking about the whole deal.
Now it's time to go polish my "decoder ring" and work on the little odds and ends.
They didn't make this model for very long. Too many little things people couldn't grasp. The starter and it's a shaft drive at a time when that was a new unheard of thing. Also it had a "backbone" frame like some of the old 60's model Honda 90's and it's plain ugly in some lights. In a way it's kind of a cult bike. People that have Acquired the taste for them have nothing but good things to say about them. I'm tickled as heck with this one. I've put fifty two thousand of the sixty one thousand miles it has on it. I literally have taken it everywhere in all kinds of weather.
catch ya on the road
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