Got a new project bike

[bagobones]

The sickness continues. Bought a 1981 Yamaha Virago 750 for $400. She runs, but needs carb work of course. This purchase makes me also the proud owner of what HAS to be the worlds UGLIEST motorcycle seat. UGH!!! I actually test rode this bike in a snow storm which makes it the first bike I have ever owned where I was actually able to ride it before I bought it. It was delivered to my house on a flatbed however, so THAT streak is still INTACT!!!!

Some Ebay activity has netted some good deals on missing bits and pieces and I already have a new seat. Mr. Bones sent me some groovy drag bars with risers. Carbs kits and a cheap ass set of turn signals or also on the way.

I am well aware of the starter issues with this series of Viragos. Does anybody have any other advice (other than "get your head examined" or experience with these bikes?

Also: I now have a beautiful King/Queen seat for an '81 Virago for sale. Actually, I'll give YOU money to take it off my hands!

[mrbones]

Hmmmmm.....you might want to keep that seat. It has some wicked sharp 70's lines to it. Keep seat, add 3 foot sissy bar to match = big smile on face while riding.

[mrbones]

Here's a bobbed '82. If those are stock wheels, you missed the good ones by one year.

[bagobones]

Those wheels start showing up in 1984 and later bikes. I don't know exactly when. Older bikes show up on the net with these wheels but they are retrofitted. They have dual discs which would be nice. That's a costly upgrade I would put way back on the back burner. For now, I'm going to use a GL1100 master cylinder with the single brake. That should be interesting.

[dt]

Oh yeah! Awesome find! 

That bobber is cool, but there are probably a lot of things you can do with that.

[bagobones]

Came up with a paint scheme. It's flat rustoleum colonial red over rustoleum bedliner. The other black parts will be flat black rustoleum texture paint. I hit the exhaust with rustoleum 2000 degree engine paint. That has to be the flattest black I have ever seen. I couldn't find colored bedliner, so i just used the same brand of paint and went right over the top while it was still drying.

I was inspired by the new Indian bikes I saw with flat paint jobs.

You can see the bike is in quite a state of disrepair at the moment. I hope i can remember how to put her back together!

[mrbones]

Looks good, but where's the C__H__R__O__M__E_?_!

[bagobones]

As a moderately wise man once said to me.... "FUCK YOU, CHROME!"

[mrbones]

If I didn't have small kids that would be written on my gas tank.

[dt]

                 

...like the red, too...

[mrbones]

Here's a few pics of Bags progress. He can fill us in on the details later.

[bagobones]

UPDATE:

The project gets moved out of the garage for a looksee. I can't believe how light this bike is. I had forgotten what a brute my GL1100 really is.

An Ebayer actually bought that original king/queen seat for over $100. One man's junk....

The goal now is to make it look a little ratty, but have it be as solid mechanically as possible. New wheel bearings, neck bearings, fork seals, carb rebuild, brake linings, master cylinder - that kind of thing.

Witness what may be the only NOS Yamaha custom accessory seat / sissy bar combo in the world. These two items were bought on Ebay and were listed by different sellers within hours of each other. I paid about $175 total including the sissy setup, the seat and matching backrest. This isn't cheap I guess, but man, the seat has ZERO miles on it. I may not use that backrest, since no passengers are allowed on this ride. It is awfully groovy though..

I had toyed with using some ammo cans as saddlebags, but don't like the look. Wrong for this bike. I DID find a guy who makes saddlebag supports for any bike, including this one. This may be the only place that sells those for this series of Virago. He also does powder coating . Check it out:
 
http://xvfinishes.com/parts/saddle_bag_saddlebag_guard_suppo2.htm

The handlebars are courtesy of Mr. Bones. Next up: carb rebuild. UGH!

[bagobones]

F U chrome. Meet Mr. 220 grit sandpaper.

[mrbones]

Aaahhhh....that's better. Those wheels are even starting to look cool.

[dt]

Pheeew. The seat looks a lot better.

Oh hey. The sissy bar has a medallion mount. Wonder what's going to wind up there? 

[Drod13]

Hey at least your seat don't look like this one....lol

[mrbones]

Ha HAAA!!

[dt]

Holy smokes! That backrest is awful. The screen isn’t much better. Looks like one of those Memphis handle mount deals that flaps in the wind.

[mrbones]

Check out the size of that rack.    Looks like a BBQ grille.

[bagobones]

AWWWWW   YYEEEEEAAAAHHHHH !!!!

I don't remember exactly when I started rebuilding the carbs on this bike. About two months ago I got pretty frustrated with them. I used up all the parts in the rebuild kit, and had spent hours meticulously cleaning everything out only to have them fail to run the bike. They aren't easy to wedge in between the heads either, making removal and installation slow and painful. Why they didn't make this bike with ONE carb and a dual-manifold that sits in the middle, I don't know.

Turns out I had the pilot needles screwed in way too far. There's a guy who posted XV750 carbs rebuild videos on youtube and I used his measurements to get them right. Here they are for anyone interested. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj8XfETYEu0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj8XfETYEu0</a>

Once I twisted the wires together for the no-longer-there kickstand safety switch , I hit the starter switch and SHAZAM! She started right up. The carbs were really mucked up when I test rode the bike back in the snow of Feb., and the previous owner had to crank up the idle screw just to keep her running because everything was plugged up. I had to turn down the idle a good four complete turns. Now she's purring like a kitten. Actually roaring like a pissed off lion, since the baffles are gone in the pipes. It sounds a bit like Mr. Bones old CX650-actually quiter at idle, but louder when I really gunned it.

I have some electrical work to do and bleeding of the front brakes and she will be ready for her first real ride. Maybe Sunday?

[mrbones]

It LIVES! Kick ass. Take some video of the thing running. Lets hear it!!

[dt]

Take some video of the thing running. Lets hear it!!

Photos too...

[Drod13]

Any progress on this one?

[bagobones]

Damn thing needs a battery and its a strange size. It runs well when I get her fired up. Brakes need bleeding in the front. I'll post a pic or two soon and maybe a vid of it running.....

[dt]

BatteryMart and BatteryStuff usually have cheap, but good, batteries. ($44 and $58 range). Bikebandit and Dennis Kirk have one for it, but egad on those prices.

Did you know that Yamaha lists the 81 Virago 750 as one of its “Epic” models on its website? It was the first Yamaha with a V-Twin. Here's the Full Listing of Epic Yamaha Models for all to peruse. I found this list a long time ago when I was restoring my 72DT2MX.

[bagobones]

Here a walk-around of the bike just after I got back from the first trip where I actually went someplace, turned it off, went into a store, got it started again, AND made it home. I guess it's officially on the road now.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECnKRp-cPzc" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECnKRp-cPzc</a>

Here is a video of it running. This was done on my Samsung android phone so the sound is not great. It sound much angrier in person. The starting system sounds goofy, but apparently this bike sounds better than most - and it actually starts every time. I'll be working on that over the winter I think.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyjROPequmA" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyjROPequmA</a>

[dt]

Looks good, sounds good. Great job! 

Oh hey. The sissy bar has a medallion mount. Wonder what's going to wind up there?

Good choice! 

[mrbones]

I believe that is "V" for Virago!

[bagobones]

The old motor went bad. No power, something clanking in there. Not good. Had a low mileage 920 motor shipped to me complete with carbs. The carbs are different and a few covers must be swapped from the 750 engine over to the 920, but other than that, it's pretty much a straight bolt-in in upgrade. Something like 9 more HP and another 15 ft./lbs. of torque.


The old motor was removed in about 90 minutes by myself, working leisurely. I'll take this opportunity to clean things up a bit-paint the motor mounts, the visible parts of the frame, maybe hit the swingarm too. I'll repaint the entire exhaust while it's off the bike too.

The two motors don't look much different from the outside. The new one is a lot cleaner. It has no rusty bolts at all. I think the old one sat outside a lot, judging by the amount of rusty bolts and weathered clear coat on the aluminum. You think I would have known better than to buy it like that considering what Mr. Bones and I have been through with his Honda CX650. Sometimes bikes should just be allowed to die peacefully.

Now the money pit has sucked me in - but I shall be victorious.

[dt]

Ah. That's what was in the big box. 

[bagobones]

Here's how you install a Virago engine in a garage by yourself. I can't believe this worked!

[bagobones]

The exhaust looks hilarious with a fresh coat of grill paint. It looks like something that fell off of an Army tank. Thats got to be the flattest paint I have ever seen.

[dt]

I've used that grill stuff. They even sell it at Autozone now. Bet it'll look fine when it gets back on...

[bagobones]

I got the engine running today. It seems to run just fine. However the starting gears are in bad shape. I likely will have to swap over some of the parts from the other engine. These virago engines have the worst  starter system ever. At least the starter gears on the other engine are in good shape so its not totally frustrating.

[mrbones]

Progress looks good. Good thing they are interchangable!

[bagobones]

Taking the left side cover off of both engines revealed some interesting things. I now know why the 750 started so well, and why the 920 started so horribly. Remember that the two started clutch assemblies are identical between the two engines so (ahem) the two bikes *should* have all of the same parts.

The starter clutch system flings an idler gear into the back of the engine's flywheel. The Yamaha engineers knew that this would totally munch this gear, so they made the idler gear out of a much weaker metal than the flywheel so that that gear would wear out instead of the flywheel. In fact, right below the contact point there is a magnet to catch all of the metal fragments from this slowly ground-off gear. This magnet was MISSING on the 750 engine. That's a lot of metal fragments floating around in the oil.

[bagobones]

When I took out the starter motor from the 920 engine, it did not have the clip installed around the gear. These clips are vital to maintaining tension in the system and the starter clutch gears have NO HOPE of working without them.

The 750's nearly brand new starter will get the clip installed and then join the 920 motor.

[bagobones]

Here are the two idler gears. On the left is the 750's gear. Notice the extra clip in the middle of the spring. This is a common aftermarket fix for the poor engagement syndrome found in these early Viragos. It's easy to see how much more pressure would be applied by that spring with this clip installed. The 920 gear did not have this added clip, and the starter system barely worked at all.

Notice also the wear on the teeth of these two gears. Being smashed into the back of the flywheel takes it's toll. The gear on the left is from the 750 which had 10K more miles on it. That gear looks far worse than the 920 gear with much less wear, yet the bike still started right up every time with no slipping at all because of the added clip on that tension spring. That little clip was a darn good idea! A guy sells them on Ebay. I'll bet he has sold many hundreds of them.  

In fact, the old 750 gear had been reversed in the system so BOTH sides have been ground down. Not so with the 920 gear. I think it has a lot of life left in it, but I may still buy a new one before Yamaha decides to stop manufacturing this gear forever.

[bagobones]

 

[bagobones]

The composite of all of the best parts seems to be pretty solid, and includes a new starter motor. The 750 motor started right up every time and never slipped, so with a couple of the 920 parts thrown in that seemed in a little better shape this bike should be good for a lot of miles.