Got a new project bike

[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.