Oh No! After the extreme cold weather my V Star 650 is pretending to be a Harley Davidson again! (Its just a joke people jeez, bikers are so sensitive. I know HD’s quality is not anywhere near as bad as the AMF days anymore)
Sooner or later if you have a xsv650 variant you will get this annoying leak by the kickstand. Not to fear this is a very easy fix that even the most non-mechanically inclined can fix. For me this problem seems to happen most often in the cold of winter, I think it is due to the plastic switch being set into the aluminum engine and the different materials expanding at different rates, or it could just be the cold O ring not sealing as good. Who knows, but eventually all bikes seem to get this leak.
Pull the fake Transmission cover off. There are only 4 bolts holding it on, they will be the ones with the washer and rubber behind it. The other bolts on the Classic cover are fake and for show only, they don’t go to anything. Your guess is as good as mine why they put fake screws on there, maybe its supposed to make the cover look cool and less like a fake tranny or as we would say “lipstick on a pig.”
Remove the crescent moon shaped cover, just 2 bolts here.
Check your stator wires grommet for leaks. Another leak can happen from here that is much more difficult to fix. These look good and seem to be holding since the Stator Replacement.
As you can see my leak this time is from the plastic neutral switch. 9 times out of 10 this will be the source of your oil leak from the kickstand area.
Its that time of year again, I let the bike sit too long over winter without first putting Seafoam in the gas and now the pilot jets in my carbs are clogged up and the bike won’t run off choke. I thought about doing a post on how to clean out the carbs but since someone already went through the trouble of doing some fairly nice videos of the process I’ll just use those instead. Parts of these videos are wrong here and there and while the guy looks like he knows what he’s doing its apparent he hasn’t done much with this particular carb or bike before, but overall they are ok. Enjoy.
Most of the time you would not need to fully disassemble the carbs to clean them, however if you do so be sure to use Ziv’s stainless replacement screws as it makes future maintenance a breeze. If the bike has only been sitting a short while and will not start or will not idle off of choke then 90% of the time the pilot jets are clogged and just need to be cleaned not the entire carb. If you happen to have Ziv’s screws already on your carbs you can very easily clean out the pilot jets (or swap main jets) in about 5 to 15 minutes without taking the tank off. Maybe I’ll do a future post on that process.
This one is a good example of the differences between a California model V Star (in the video) vs a 49 state model (mine). Most likely you would not have to deal with the extra gas tank vent lines.
I also wouldn’t even bother with the fuel catch jar. What are you saving? 5 drops? Just hold a rag under the petcock when you pull off the fuel line and call it good as the numerous pics of me on this blog doing the same have shown:
We went for a nice ride today to get a picture for a scavenger hunt from the CC&D forum which ended up taking us into new territory that I didn’t know existed. The fall colors of all the cotton woods and aspens were spectacular, quite a surprise. The colors visible from Santa Fe up on the ski hill had already faded, they usually peak the week of Columbus day and we’d had an early snow which knocked all the leaves off.
We went from Glorieta to Pecos along the old Route 66 winding through the amazing colors and from there we came to a crossroads where I had no idea where we were or where any of the roads went. We decided to head north and see where the road took us where we found a cool monastery and down a dirt road a lake surrounded by orange and yellow.
One day the next week I went out to start it and crankcrankcrankcrankcrank. Oh great now what? It took a good 25 mins to get her started that morning on the way into work and nearly the same on the way home, the next morning she was totally dead and would not start at all. Following the diagnostics here: http://650ccnd.com/coil.htm I found my pickup coil was reading very high and was toast. I was planning on maybe cracking it open that weekend to fix the sticky clutch but now I had no choice but to break open both sides.
Pulling the stator cover.
Japanese engineering likes to use lots of bolts close together at lower torque than other manufacturers. Be sure to remember exactly which bolt went in what hole, as you can see below they are all different lengths.
Also remember how your shifter is set up. I took a picture so I could tell later where the dot on the shaft goes in relation to the bracket. In my case dead center in the gap.
Unfortunately the kickstand has to come off to remove the shifter. There is a nut on the back side of the frame you need to keep from turning, it would be better if you had a helper and another set of hands for this part. I was by myself and had to use another box-end wrench on the back of the frame and a breaker bar/ratchet with a cheater pipe on the front. Yamaha really doesn’t mess around with these bolts, they were a bear to get off. Once the wrench on the back turned enough to press up against the engine or my lift I was able to break the nut free.
With the kickstand out of the way the shifter will just slide off the shaft after you remove the bolt in the previous picture.
As you can see I also upgraded from my poor mans bike stand to one from Harbor Freight for this operation for a bit more stability and lift, I needed one for the BMW restoration anyway.
Follow the wiring back up the frame and cut the zip ties as you go and remove a few bolted on wire clamps. Its a bit of a struggle to get these connectors through the downtube, use one hand to press back the big main wiring harness and press these plastic connectors through one at a time. It takes a bit of patience but you can do it.
I’ve had a lot of trouble with the V Star following our epic month long ride across the western United States and back. It all started with a simple oil change. You see, when I bought the bike I also got a service plan that included unlimited oil changes and all maintenence for 3 years. I can work on my bike as you can see but I’d rather not have to on at least one of my vehicles and with as many miles as I’ve put on in the last three years this service plan ended up being a great money and time saving deal for me. For years one of two techs has always done my bike and always done a good job, even cleaning it way better than I do most times. Every time that is until the last time, when they were both off. A small voice in my head warned me that I shouldnt hand over the keys to some tech I didnt know but I didnt listen. He really torqued down the oil filter screws and stripped the center one as is an easy newbie mistake to make.
The bike leaked slowly for 8000 miles and by the end it looked something like this where its really perfected the old Harley patina with oil slung down the whole side of the engine, all down the pipes and swingarm and on the front of the saddlebag. As RTWDoug has proved, a bike can go around the world with a nasty oil leak or dozen as long as its topped off regularly.
Unfortunately the only requirement for the primo bike parking on the sidewalk next to the door at work, no leaks!
Since they were the ones to break it they agreed to fix it at no charge but with this being New Mexico and as Ulysses Everett McGill would put it “a geographical oddity, two weeks from everywhere” it took a month to get my bike back from them due to waiting on parts. They ended up tapping the stripped hole and putting in a timecert. After I got her back I noticed right away the clutch was very grabby and sticky, so much so that trying to start it while cold with the clutch pulled in the bike would take off with you or lurch 5 or 6 feet when first putting it in gear. WTF? I immediately changed the oil and cut open the filter and just as I feared, they had gotten slivers of metal down in the engine while tapping it. #$%^&@!!!!
We hiked back up to where our bike was parked and there was our helmets sitting on the sidewalk next to the bike, What the hell? Someone had been messing with the bike! We ran over and a guy sitting in the shade came up to us and told us what had happened, they had backed into the bike with their SUV and knocked it over @#$%
Both of our helmets were dinged from falling off the seat
My Yellowstone bottle had taken the brunt of the fall, I’m so glad none of the bike ended up like this.
Only body damage, a nicked fender. Damnit I just fixed that! I had another one in the exact same place untill our wreck when the insurance replaced the whole fender.
Great now Both turn signal lenses are broken, one from each SUV encounter.
Another day of mostly relaxing and helping out the family we were staying with.
I had just changed the oil in Montana but the bike was having all kinds of problems with the new oil so it was time to dump it and put in something better. I put in Shell Rotella T synthetic then.
At first it ran great, butter smooth shifting and ran much quieter etc. But over a few long hard days shifting had gotten rougher and rougher to where I was having to double clutch a lot of the time to get it into gear, and the oil level stayed fine. After prolonged high speeds the bike would develop this god awful whine, using a screwdriver to my ear I tracked it down to the cam chains. It was bad enough that on the highways I couldnt even hear the pipes over the screeching of the engine. It literally sounded like I was running a turbo in there somewhere, it was bad. But then after it cooled off overnight, everything would go back to normal and it’d be quiet and smooth as can be untill the bike warmed up several hours later.
As many of you know my bike’s probably had the most leaks of anyone here due to my stupidity er.. stubbornness to ride when its below 0. I’ve had leaks from all of the common areas in addition to the bottoms of both jugs, the stator grommets, both sides of the crankcase and more I should probably just change my nickname from lynx to leaks heh. Well afer much work (years) I was able to fix all my leaks and with no riding in cold temps this winter they have stayed fixed, that was until I ran that damn Shell Rotella T 5w-40 synthetic. I started getting seeps from everywhere all over again. I felt bad for leaving lots of oil drips all over the nice concrete driveway I was parking in, even when it was leaking before it never left quarter to silver dollar sized spots. All my leaks came back with a vengeance all at once. @#$%!!
Time to get rid of that shit. How to change the oil on the road: Lasanga pan and a big flat rock from the neighbors yard.
With the bike a little more level you can put the 17mm wrench on a few inches above the ground and it will hang there.
Then just step down on the wrench to loosen it and do the rest by hand. Piece of cake, no lift needed.
By the time we got to Spokane the bike was running more and more like crap the further down we went. It kept hickupping and backfiring through the carbs at idle once and while and now it was starting to do that while at speed on the highway causing a big jerk when it did and also starting to run a bit warm on my gauge again.
Next morning at the motel with the engine cold, time to rejet! Threw in jets 2 sizes larger and good as new, lots more power too.
About an hr later though… Went to pass an RV on the highway and suddenly the bike bogged down and one cyl cut out.. &@#% ! When I found a place to get off the road it idled fine but give it gas and it turned into a thumper. That should have been a clue, but I thought it had to be the fuel filter or something as I had just filled up 10 miles down the road. Tore the whole thing down trying to figure this out, eliminating one thing after another till finally it had to be in the carbs…
Oil Change the next morning before leaving Kalispell… You’d think this would be easy but we went through 3 parts stores looking for oil to use and there was very little selection in any of them, the ones that did have something usable only had 1 or 2 quarts of it. So I ended up having to take notes of what was in which store and combine them all to figure out what to get. None of them had any of my preferred oil brands so I ended up going with plain Shell Rotella T synthetic, 2 quarts from one place 1 from another (more on this later).
Went to a Valvoline Express Care carwash/oil change place and asked if they would take my oil, one of the attendants said yes but we dont do motorcycles. I told him I’d do it myself in the parkinglot and hand them the oil afterwards. I was getting ready to start and the manager comes over and tells me to leave the premises. WTF? He says we do not allow any motorcycles at all on the lot, you need to go. We’ll take the oil but you cant park here. What an ass. I motioned to the Kawi parked in the shade on the side of the building and he gets defensive, thats an employees bike we dont allow the public to park motorcycles on the premises and storms off. Jeez! I can tell you one thing, if we had any Valvoline places in NM I sure as hell wouldnt go to one after being treated that way.
Rode around the block and parked at Taco Bell next door and just did the oil change there, walked my lasagna pan of oil across the parkinglot and handed it to someone and left. The first guy tried to apologize.
What a rough way to start the morning! Dead bike, drenched with cold freezing rain, and exhausted from pushing the bike up and down hills.
Only dedicated motorcycle parking in one of the countries biggest National Parks
So far on our trip we have used our Coleman single burner lantern and our little Coleman stove almost daily, usually several times a day at morning and at night for cooking and to keep warm. We had taken a small spare can of Coleman fuel for them and with all of the heavy usage we’d already burned through it so last night I unhooked the gas line from the bike and refilled everything. I can already hear the bikers in the audience snickering at what happened next who’ve all experienced it themselves. I FORGOT TO HOOK UP THE GAS!
I love these old metrics a trio was riding cross country, both guys were bike mechanics.
Arg! so embarrassing! Sure I’ve left the gas off before and when the bike sputtered and died a few mins later after starting it up I always realized it right away. What made it so bad this time was how hard it was raining, and how miserable we were back at camp, we wanted to get out of there right away and the bike would not fire up. What the heck? Full choke, nothing. The bike would just crank and crank. I thought it had to do with being parked in a rain forest for hours of steady drizzle all night just above freezing and kept trying to start it and fussing with the choke.
