@@StevesDIYs my throttle lever isn’t opening the butterfly valves immediately. There’s a bit of lift on the lever before the valves even move. Not sure where to adjust that?
@@justinlacy8428 , hey man ! That seems odd as the little lever attaches directly to the shaft of the butterfly on that side so when it is lifted, it should immediately move the butterfly. It could be that the lever or shaft us worn and it’s moving a bit, but if the nut that holds the lever onto the shaft is tight, it still shouldn’t move. Maybe try taking the lever off by removing the nut and spring to see if something is preventing the nut from tightening up on the lever all the way (maybe the spring is pinched or something).
Great video, I have watched it three times now just to see if I didn’t miss anything . I just bought my first bike 83 midnight-special ,the carbs off it . I took everything apart to clean it good .only thing I saw missing was a bowl drain screw ,and one intake manifold. Thanks you for your video 👌🏻
Emanuel Garza , thanks man 👍. That’s pretty good if everything but those easy to get parts were there and in good shape. Those are nice bikes to fix back up for sure 👍. All the best, Steve
Steve I have looked for the jet sizes for a 1995 750. The jet sizes are different on the 2 manuals iv'e found. What size jets did you go with and did you put a bigger jet in the rear cylinder? Thanks Steve.
Hey again, my 750’s are all 1st Gens so I’m not actually sure on the jet sizes for the 2nd Gen 750s…I would just have to look in the manuals as well. Sorry I couldn’t be of any help on the actual sizes, but I’ve not had a 2nd Gen 750 (yet lol !)
Hey Steve, I just recently got a 82 XV920 and has the same carbs. Do you know of any place to get those air filters on the carbs or any way to replace the internals? Mine are all deteriorated.
Hey man ! Yep, the foam had deteriorated and come out of all of mine as well. I’ve never looked for a replacement in-line filter for these…I just carefully cut the little plastic housing at the seam with a dremel, then cut a round piece of the K&N green foam filter sheet and put it between the screens and glue the housing back together. If you go this route, be careful not to make the foam circle too big as it will cause excess restriction and the slides won’t lift as fast as they did before. All the best ! Steve
Hey Steve! great video. I'm replacing the diaphragms on the same carbs and I'm looking for a good way to attach and seal the diaphragms to the barrel. The aftermarket diaphragms don't come with the plastic ring. Is there a gasket sealer that works?
Hey mate, thanks for all the knowledge! I wonder if you could direct me to find a picture of a assembled throttle cable linkage as I think mine is installed incorrectly by the previous owner of the bike I just bought. when I pull the cable it doesn't move if I try with my hands it's really hard to pull up the throttle but if I move the left linkage it moves freely, is there some installed incorrectly? would appreciate some input mate. Thanks in advance
Great Video, Pleaser I wanted to find out if the Virago 700 Carb is the same as the Virago 750 Carb. Reason i want to know is because i want to buy a Car repair kit and i mostly only see for just the 750. Kindly assist, thank you.
Thanks and glad the video was helpful 👍. There are some differences in the 1st Gen (‘81-‘83 xv750 ) and the ‘84-‘85 xv700, but it’s mainly with the jetting. I don’t think a 1st Gen 750’s rebuild kit would be an exact kit for the 700, but depending on what you need to replace it might cover it. A good reference I’ve found is the YamahaPartsHouse website as it gives the parts diagrams for the different years and models of the bikes so you can compare the different component parts to see if they are interchangeable. Here’s a link to their website: www.yamahapartshouse.com/oemparts/a/yam/5004276af8700209bc788980/carburetor . You can look up and ‘82 xv750 and compare the different gaskets and things to yours to see if the original part numbers are the same. Hope this helps and all the best ! Steve
Thanks man 👍. I actually haven’t made a video of removing the pump sprocket since I don’t normally take it off. It’s a press fit and would probably have to be replaced with a new one if removed. The right side motor case can be removed to replace the rod bearings (there’s a video series on the channel for a 1st Gen xv750 disassembly if interested) and since the mains are roller bearings they usually don’t go bad unless the motor was run with no oil in it or something so I’ve never had to change a set of them. I did get a few parts motors a bit ago and one of them is locked up so it might be a good one to show how to remove and replace it. As far as installing one, I’m not 100% sure, but I would imagine it has to be pressed back on to a certain distance. Since it is not timed to anything I wouldn’t imagine it has a specific orientation it needs to be other than not flipped front to back.
I’ve been struggling with getting the little ports clean on the actual bowls of the carbs I’ve tried wire, tiny drill bits carb cleaner and air, everything else on the carbs went good nothing was too dirty but I’m out of ideas on those bowls any input would be great!
Hey ! Yep, the hole is very very small that goes from the inside of the bowl to the chamber. It does take a lot of poking with a tiny piece of wire from both the bowl side and down in the chamber to get them unclogged sometimes. I use a single strand from the small safety cable that is on the garage door and since has a curl to it I can spin with my fingers to kind of drill the crud out. It’s basically small stranded cable that can be bought by the foot at the hardware stores if you are not familiar with it. Poke a little and then spray carb cleaner a little and eventually they will unclog 👍. Hope this helps and all the best !
Hey Steve! Working on a 1983 Virago 920. I am doing an overhaul on the carbs and a bit confused on the correct placement of the air jets in the top of the carbs under the choke tube. I noticed in your video the larger main air jet is on the engine side and the pilot on the airbox side. I saw another rebuild video and looking at a verison 1 hitachi hsc40 diagram it looks like the main air jet is on the airbox side and the pilot on the engine/butterlfy side. Can you provide any clarity? Your videos have helped me a ton so far!
Hey man ! Thanks and glad the videos help some 👍. For the air jets, the one to the motor side would be for the pilot circuit so it would be the larger one (around a #180 (1.8mm) or so based on the service manual. The main air jet would be the smaller one at about a #50 which is the center hole. If you follow the cross drillings that are down the side of the carb, the center one (the one to the air box side) should go to the main where the emulsion goes. That’s the way I’ve always done the jet orientation and seems to setup fine. I’ve never tried reversing them to see what it does though.
@@StevesDIYs Steve, thanks for the reply! I think I mixed up which was which. Makes sense that the pilot side would need the bigger air jet. Thanks! Its strange, I am working on an 83 XV920 and from my research this year 920 had a “version 2” hsc40 carb to meet emissions. I have confirmed though I have a version 1. But according to the Hanes manual it looks like my jetting specs are from an SV920J. (Not even sure what bike this is lol!?) I have a 195 pilot air jet, 126/128 main jets, and a y25/24 setup on the needles. Rather than an 180 pilot air jet, a 126/124 main and y22 needles which is the XV920 specs. Bike was sitting with an empty tank for 2 years. Having a bit of trouble getting it to run. So far I’ve confirmed engine timing, spark with an inline tester, compression is at 120 on both, new AGM battery, starter is turning over, carbs were not overly dirty. Rebuilt the bottom ends and cleaned with cleaner & compressed air. I’m seeing fuel on the plugs after cranking with choke. I failed to check float heights after the rebuild So I’m stripping the carbs back down and doing an ultrasonic cleaning, adjusting float heights, and going to pickup a timing light to confirm spark timing. I did have it running briefly only on cylinder 1 with full choke. But was unsuccessful on later attempts. Bike has factory air box and exhaust. I’m going to keep going through your videos until this thing is going!
@@brenbuchler94 👍. Sounds like you are getting really close 👍. Yep, does sound like maybe the carbs were swapped or you caught a mid year change or something. I’d say the main jets would be fine on the sizes, but with a 195 pilot air jet, you might have to go out 2.5 to 3 turns on the mix needle to get it going till it gets to running again. I’ve found that these bikes are very sensitive to too much fuel and once they foul a plug it’s really hard to get them to fire again. I usually keep a second set I can throw in just to see if it’s the plugs fouled till I can get an especially grumpy one running. A couple of things I’ve found that help on first getting one going are: Be sure there’s at least 10.5 volts on the battery when the starter is cranking (I hook up a multimeter and watch it). Below that and the spark is erratic and they won’t fire up. Also, they should fire up and idle with the rubber elbows removed that go to the frame (air box side) so I pull the elbows off and then if either cylinder will even try to hit, I cup my hand over the carb intake and control the air by cupping and then spreading my fingers…basically choking it like how an old school choke works on small engines. Since the choke lever is actually an enricher circuit, it’s just dumping a bunch of fuel into the cylinder and it will flood the cylinders really quick, but by cupping your hand and choking the air off, it will suck a gulp of fuel in, then giving it some air will lean it out to fire. If you can get it to keep running by hand choking the carbs, the mix needle can be adjusted little by little and most times it will steady out and stay running on just one cylinder so you can start dialing in the other carb on the mix. Let me know how it goes as you narrow things down and when you get it fired up 👍. They can for sure be grumpy until everything is dialed in, but once you get everything sorted out, they are great old bikes. All the best ! Steve
Great video Steve. Watched all your videos concerning carbs, tune ups etc. I have a '82 XV750 that I have had since '85. At time 18:48 on this video you mention make sure this port is open and you shot with carb cleaner. What does this port do. Both of mine were blocked. Carb cleaner worked a little but I boiled bowls in water which helped a lot to open up..
Thanks man...hope the videos help some 👍. The port that is down in the bowl is for fuel to get picked up by the thin tube that goes down into the hole. This tube provides a metered amount of fuel up to the choke circuit (it’s actually an enricher circuit) so when you move the lever to choke the bike, it can pull some fuel up. If it’s blocked off, it is basically not providing any extra fuel when the choke lever is moved and only provides even more air so choking (enriching) it just makes it worse as it’s just adding more air. Without the little bit of extra fuel, it’s not possible to choke it just a little to bring the rpms up until the motor warms up a bit which makes for cold day starts or tuning almost impossible with stock jets. Hope this helps some and if you have any questions just let me know 👍. All the best ! Steve
@@StevesDIYs I have a written Yamaha Motor Co shop manual printed July 1981 that I purchased from a dealer in 1985 and in the exploded view of the carburetor it shows the port only on the top of the bowl (does not ID it) and does not show the thin tube that goes into this port, and in the carburetor chapter there is no mention of this choke circuit.. Thanks again. Your TH-cam Channel has an excellent wealth of information on my '82 Virago and has helped me out greatly.
@@tomneubauer924 thanks man 👍. Yep, it’s hard to find detailed info on these carbs, even from the Yamaha info sometimes it seems. It’s almost like they didn’t want to tell all of the details so we would have had to take it back to the Yamaha shop for some repairs, lol.
How do you find screwdrivers that will properly fit in your jets? Having difficulty, especially for the jets hiding in the top of the carb. Thank you Steve!
Hey man ! I actually ground down a couple of screwdrivers so they were narrow and a little more blunt so they fit tightly into the jets, but one of those cheap kits that has the multiple sized tip inserts works pretty good too as they have different sizes of the flat head screwdriver tip. You do have to be pretty careful on the top ones that are under the choke crossover tube as they are painful to get out if they strip. I stripped one out once and made the mistake of trying to get it out by drilling a larger hole and then using an easy out. All the easy out did was expand the brass and wedge it in even tighter lol. I ended up getting it out by drilling a hole slightly smaller than a small hex wrench (Allen wrench) then tapping it into the hole so it made a hex inside and I could back it out.
@@StevesDIYs Sounds like quite the adventure lol. When I first rebuilt my carbs I didn't even know those jets existed. My bike was having some issues idling. Do you think that the jets being clogged under the crossover tube were the culprit or would that more so be the pilot adjustment?
@@williamhart2344 , they definitely need to be clean as they control the amount of air that enters the emulsion tube and idle circuit to pull fuel up. They may not have to be removed to be cleaned...just clean them out with thin wire and the spray carb cleaner into them and be sure it blows out in the passages on the other ends of the drillings 👍.
The pilot adjustment is critical as well for a good idle, but unless everything is clean, it’s difficult to ever get it sounding and idling just right from my experience.
Hey man ! Yes, I believe the 920’s and the 1st Gen 750’s had virtually the same carbs on them…just different jetting. These are Hitachi carbs and look different than the Mikunis that were on the later years so if yours look like these it should be about the same. An easy way to tell is that the air/fuel mix needle is on the bottom of the carb on these vs. being on top for the later 750’s and 1100’s. Hope this helps and all the best ! Steve
When you have fuel in your oil. Is that from a leaking seat? Or is it the needle on these carburetor's? Or am I just completely wrong? Any info is appreciated. Thanks.
wade mowers , hello, yep it could be one or both as both the seat and the float needle can be replaced on these. I’ve made the mistake of changing the float needle from the rubber tip type to the all metal type, but didn’t change the seat that came with the new needle and they would not block the fuel off. Now I only replace with the rubber tip type and also take out the seat and spin a wooden skewer that has the sharp tip in it to be sure it’s smooth in the seal surface. There is also a small mesh strainer that clips inside the seat so it’s important to take it out when refreshing these carbs I’ve found. For the ‘81 to ‘83’ 750’s, there are vacuum actuated petcocks on the tank that theoretically should prevent gas from continuously overflowing the bowl and going into the intake when the bike is not running even if the float needle doesn’t seal 100%, but these eventually fail and will leak fuel even when the bike is off. I added the inline see through fuel filters on both my bikes so if they have sat for a couple days and some of the fuel has evaporated out of the bowls, when I flip the petcock to prime I should see the fuel flow for just a second and refill the bowls. If the fuel doesn’t move when I flip them to prime, I know the petcocks aren’t shutting off the fuel and need rebuilding. If they don’t seal, and the float needle doesn’t seal...there’s gonna be a bunch of gas down in the oil for sure. Here’s a link to a picture of the inline clear filters I use...the 90 degree ones were easier to fit into the short rubber pipe between the petcock and the carb...but very short straight ones fit too. facebook.com/109400450606405/posts/164872875059162/ All the best 👍, Steve
Hello, I’ve not had to remove any or install new ones as I have several spare parts carbs I’ve been using parts from for years. Folks out on the “Virago Nation - All things Yamaha Virago” Facebook forum would probably know though if you use Facebook. Sorry I couldn’t help, Steve
Im doing mine right now could you tell me which emulsion tube went to which carb. mine has to different tubes. 1 has 4 and 2 holes and the other has 3 and 2 holes?
automech01 , I ran into that with one of my other xv750’s...seems there were slight variants in how Yamaha built these as the set I just rebuilt were both the same, but had different numbers on the jet needles. Since cylinder 1 (the rear cylinder) needs to run a bit cooler ‘cause there’s not as much air hitting it when moving, the one with the 4 holes goes on the back cylinder carb I suspect. This was the way my ‘81 was setup and had never been taken apart when I got it many years ago so I have always put the 4 hole one for the rear cyl like it was originally.
@@StevesDIYsI have come here years later to ask the same question about the emulsion tubes as I’m finally getting my bike out from storage I really appreciate this information and I can’t even express how grateful and thankful I am for this tidbit
Hello, for me, the shaft seals for any of the Virago models has been hard to find as I don’t know who is currently making replacements. I’ve been fortunate to have had old parts carbs that I have taken them off of to repair the carbs if one was cracked or missing. I would say, that even if they are loose and not sealing as good as new (normally that’s the case on mine), the carb can still be tuned and run fine since the idle air/fuel mix can be adjusted with slightly more fuel to compensate for the small amount of air that sneaks through at idle. At idle, you would get more air bypassing the shaft seals since the butterflies are closed. Once the butterflies are opened up when accelerating, the air comes through the carb throat easily so any bypass on the shaft seals is negligible in my opinion. If you wanted to tune it to factory specs (1.5 turns out on the air/fuel mix needle), the shaft seals would be more important, but by turning the mix needle out more, you should be able to compensate. I usually end up turning them out between 1.75 turns to 2.5 turns depending on how worn the carbs and motor is. Hope this helps and all the best ! Steve
Do you recommend using silicon or any lubricant on the small o-ring for the needle/idle jet or the o-rings in the manifold that connects the carb to the motor?
Hey man ! I do usually put a little Vaseline on them when I install them 👍. The ethanol free gas you mentioned before also helps with keeping the little air/fuel mix oring from swelling up and making it hard to adjust the mix later when tuning so that’s another good reason to run ethanol free fuel 👍.
@@StevesDIYs Just when I thought I was finally ready to throw everything back and the bike I found some small slits in the diaphragm of the rear cylinder. Do you have any suggestions of where to buy new ones?
Hey man. I actually haven’t had to buy any for my bikes...so far mine have still been good with no holes. I looked out on the web and I see some available, but don’t know anything about if they are good quality or not. I’ve seen folks have used rubber cement and dabbed a bit on the pin holes to seal them up, but not sure about a tear.
@@williamhart2344 , thanks man ! Yep let me know 👍. I may have to change mine out one day so it will be good to know where to get them and if they were any good 👍.
Hey man ! Most definitely 👍. Mine run (and start) so much better on ethanol free gas in my opinion. The carbs seem to stay cleaner as well. That’s all I put in mine now as I went years putting gas with ethanol in it in them and was always having to take the carbs off and clean them.
On the virago 750 the front manifold gasket has two ports one goes to the t vacuum line but where does the other go to? Or should I put a plug on it like the back one?
bad brad , yep, one goes to the petcock for the fuel so the vacuum will allow fuel to go to the bowls. The extra one on the front goes to some kind of anti-backfire emissions thing that sits under the side reflectors by the triple tree. I just capped it off and removed the emissions thing...didn’t make any difference on how it runs on any of my bikes.
Here’s a link to a pic of the service manual....I put it on my Steve’s DIY Facebook page since it will let me put photos there, but TH-cam won’t let me reply with a pic. Steve. facebook.com/109400450606405/posts/155473805999069/
Hey man ! I haven’t had to remove the rubber diaphragms from the slides over the years of rebuilds as I’ve had enough spares to swap out to. I recently picked up some parts bikes that I haven’t gotten to go through yet so I might be having to do one of these though. Probably won’t help much if you are currently working on yours, but when I get into them I’ll try to make a video of how to do them.
@@hmshr1 👍. Yep, always helps to have done spare parts for these indeed. I’ve had a couple with pin holes in the diaphragms so I put a tiny bit of two part flexible epoxy on the holes and they did fine. It’s the type that is used to fix forcible bumpers on a car that can be found at the auto parts stores.
Hello, unfortunately, I’ve never seen the upper main or pilot air jets available for sale on any websites…not even Jets R Us and they make many different ones for several carb models. I’ve had to make a few to resurrect some basket case carbs over the years though lol, but never made any to sell like I do with some other hard to find Virago parts. I looked in a couple of old carb bodies I had just to see if I had any…only have one pilot air jet, but no main air jets were in them.
Hello, I usually start at 1.5 to 2 turns out with the needles and then adjust from there to dial them in once the motor is running again. Once I have it fired back up, I turn the needle out till I hear that cylinder shut off (engine rpms drop), then turn it back in till it starts hitting again. Then I keep turning in till until I here the rpms drop again, then back the needle out 1/8 to 1/4 turn and it is usually really close. Do that for each cylinder back and forth a couple of times (lowering or raising the idle adjustment as needed after each adjustment). After that, I do the carb sync on the bike (there’s another video on the channel in how to do that) in order to set the stop position of the left side carb since it might have changed a bit from the idle needle adjustment. Probably more than you were asking, but thought I would provide a bit of detail as the final turns depends on the motor. All the best ! Steve
Hey man ! Is it that the hole in the jet is plugged with buildup? If it’s just plugged with hard buildup, I usually take one of the strands of a piece of left over garage door safety cable (the little stranded cable) and twist the jet on it after spraying with carb cleaner to clean it out. If that’s not readily available, something thin like a staple might do as well. I haven’t used a drill bit to clean one as I’m a bit worried that it might accidentally change the jet size.
@@StevesDIYs sorry, I meant the port that the jet screws into has a brass plug in it. My replacement comes with a plug too, but I think I’ll leave it off so i can adjust it in case 1.5 turns back from being seated needs to be adjusted
@@MakerDent ah...got ya 👍. I was thinking you were talking about the jet that is in the bowl being stopped up, lol. Yep, you are exactly right for the cover plug for the pilot needle that it has to have a little hole drilled through it to pop it off there. There is a gap between the inside surface of the plug and the top of the pilot needle so you should feel it when it breaks through the plug surface if drilling slowly and carefully 👍. I too don’t ever put the plug back on either so I can adjust the air/fuel mix anytime I want to...the oring in the needle does the sealing (the plug was an EPA thing so people couldn’t easily adjust the mix and run a bit richer I believe)
@@MakerDent , thanks 👍. Glad the videos help some 👍. There are a bunch of little pieces to these for sure. I still remember the first time I took a set apart and thinking I’m never gonna get these back together again, lol. It also took me like 4 tries at cleaning them the first time to finally get all of the little ports and holes cleaned out...each time I took them back off ‘cause it wouldn’t run right, I’d find another little hole under something I had missed.
Hello, no, I didn’t need to change to diaphragms as they did not have any tears or holes in them. If I do rebuild a set in the future that has bad diaphragms, I’ll be sure to make a video for how to change them.
Yep, I’ll easily admit that these 1st videos I did years ago weren’t as good as they could have been. I was using a much cheaper camera (and was just getting started on making and editing videos so my skills were lacking as well, lol !). Hopefully the newer videos are a bit better now. Maybe one day I’ll redo some of these older ones now that I have a better camera and a few more years of experience. Thanks for the feedback…someone else noted years ago that it would be nice if I added music to the videos that had long sections of high speed parts since there was no sound during those parts…without feedback I might not notice things that could be improved. All the best ! Steve
![[Ep 02] Yamaha Virago XV920 Cafe Racer Project - Engine Disassembly](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wTeKPZI5zo4/mqdefault.jpg)
I was able to easily rebuild my carbs with these instructions. I really appreciate your videos. Thank you!
Thanks man and glad the video was helpful 👍👍👍. All the best ! Steve
Really good video! Way more detailled than mine. Props! Happy to see some more Virago enthousiasts video's here on TH-cam! 👍
Chiefpep , thanks man !
@@StevesDIYs my throttle lever isn’t opening the butterfly valves immediately. There’s a bit of lift on the lever before the valves even move. Not sure where to adjust that?
@@justinlacy8428 , hey man ! That seems odd as the little lever attaches directly to the shaft of the butterfly on that side so when it is lifted, it should immediately move the butterfly. It could be that the lever or shaft us worn and it’s moving a bit, but if the nut that holds the lever onto the shaft is tight, it still shouldn’t move. Maybe try taking the lever off by removing the nut and spring to see if something is preventing the nut from tightening up on the lever all the way (maybe the spring is pinched or something).
Great video, I have watched it three times now just to see if I didn’t miss anything . I just bought my first bike 83 midnight-special ,the carbs off it . I took everything apart to clean it good .only thing I saw missing was a bowl drain screw ,and one intake manifold.
Thanks you for your video 👌🏻
Emanuel Garza , thanks man 👍. That’s pretty good if everything but those easy to get parts were there and in good shape. Those are nice bikes to fix back up for sure 👍. All the best, Steve
Super helpful, thanks. I am rebuilding the carbs on my '81 this weekend and this was great!
Thanks man ! Glad it helped some 👍. All the best, Steve
Steve I have looked for the jet sizes for a 1995 750. The jet sizes are different on the 2 manuals iv'e found. What size jets did you go with and did you put a bigger jet in the rear cylinder? Thanks Steve.
Hey again, my 750’s are all 1st Gens so I’m not actually sure on the jet sizes for the 2nd Gen 750s…I would just have to look in the manuals as well. Sorry I couldn’t be of any help on the actual sizes, but I’ve not had a 2nd Gen 750 (yet lol !)
@@StevesDIYs ok just thought you would know. Thanks.
Good knowledge to rebuild the carbs. I'm about to do the same.
Thanks man 👍. Hopefully the video helps a bit on the rebuild. All the best ! Steve.
Hey Steve, I just recently got a 82 XV920 and has the same carbs. Do you know of any place to get those air filters on the carbs or any way to replace the internals? Mine are all deteriorated.
Hey man ! Yep, the foam had deteriorated and come out of all of mine as well. I’ve never looked for a replacement in-line filter for these…I just carefully cut the little plastic housing at the seam with a dremel, then cut a round piece of the K&N green foam filter sheet and put it between the screens and glue the housing back together. If you go this route, be careful not to make the foam circle too big as it will cause excess restriction and the slides won’t lift as fast as they did before. All the best ! Steve
@@StevesDIYs thank you! I might just do that. your videos have been a big help! Appreciate it!
You the man 🤘👍 Thank you!!!
Hey Steve! great video. I'm replacing the diaphragms on the same carbs and I'm looking for a good way to attach and seal the diaphragms to the barrel. The aftermarket diaphragms don't come with the plastic ring. Is there a gasket sealer that works?
Hey mate, thanks for all the knowledge! I wonder if you could direct me to find a picture of a assembled throttle cable linkage as I think mine is installed incorrectly by the previous owner of the bike I just bought. when I pull the cable it doesn't move if I try with my hands it's really hard to pull up the throttle but if I move the left linkage it moves freely, is there some installed incorrectly? would appreciate some input mate. Thanks in advance
Great Video, Pleaser I wanted to find out if the Virago 700 Carb is the same as the Virago 750 Carb. Reason i want to know is because i want to buy a Car repair kit and i mostly only see for just the 750. Kindly assist, thank you.
Thanks and glad the video was helpful 👍. There are some differences in the 1st Gen (‘81-‘83 xv750 ) and the ‘84-‘85 xv700, but it’s mainly with the jetting. I don’t think a 1st Gen 750’s rebuild kit would be an exact kit for the 700, but depending on what you need to replace it might cover it. A good reference I’ve found is the YamahaPartsHouse website as it gives the parts diagrams for the different years and models of the bikes so you can compare the different component parts to see if they are interchangeable. Here’s a link to their website: www.yamahapartshouse.com/oemparts/a/yam/5004276af8700209bc788980/carburetor . You can look up and ‘82 xv750 and compare the different gaskets and things to yours to see if the original part numbers are the same. Hope this helps and all the best ! Steve
@@StevesDIYs Awesome! thank you so much Steve, very much helpful!
Hi Steve ,. Have you got a video of the oil pump sprocket install on to the tapered shaft of a xv1000/750.
Great job your doing. Chris
Thanks man 👍. I actually haven’t made a video of removing the pump sprocket since I don’t normally take it off. It’s a press fit and would probably have to be replaced with a new one if removed. The right side motor case can be removed to replace the rod bearings (there’s a video series on the channel for a 1st Gen xv750 disassembly if interested) and since the mains are roller bearings they usually don’t go bad unless the motor was run with no oil in it or something so I’ve never had to change a set of them. I did get a few parts motors a bit ago and one of them is locked up so it might be a good one to show how to remove and replace it. As far as installing one, I’m not 100% sure, but I would imagine it has to be pressed back on to a certain distance. Since it is not timed to anything I wouldn’t imagine it has a specific orientation it needs to be other than not flipped front to back.
I’ve been struggling with getting the little ports clean on the actual bowls of the carbs I’ve tried wire, tiny drill bits carb cleaner and air, everything else on the carbs went good nothing was too dirty but I’m out of ideas on those bowls any input would be great!
Hey ! Yep, the hole is very very small that goes from the inside of the bowl to the chamber. It does take a lot of poking with a tiny piece of wire from both the bowl side and down in the chamber to get them unclogged sometimes. I use a single strand from the small safety cable that is on the garage door and since has a curl to it I can spin with my fingers to kind of drill the crud out. It’s basically small stranded cable that can be bought by the foot at the hardware stores if you are not familiar with it. Poke a little and then spray carb cleaner a little and eventually they will unclog 👍. Hope this helps and all the best !
@@StevesDIYs awesome thanks for the tip I’ll give that a try tonight! 👍
@@ridingthemidwest1222 no problem 👍. Let me know how it goes…I’m sure you’ll get it unclogged in no time.
Hey Steve! Working on a 1983 Virago 920. I am doing an overhaul on the carbs and a bit confused on the correct placement of the air jets in the top of the carbs under the choke tube. I noticed in your video the larger main air jet is on the engine side and the pilot on the airbox side. I saw another rebuild video and looking at a verison 1 hitachi hsc40 diagram it looks like the main air jet is on the airbox side and the pilot on the engine/butterlfy side. Can you provide any clarity? Your videos have helped me a ton so far!
Hey man ! Thanks and glad the videos help some 👍. For the air jets, the one to the motor side would be for the pilot circuit so it would be the larger one (around a #180 (1.8mm) or so based on the service manual. The main air jet would be the smaller one at about a #50 which is the center hole. If you follow the cross drillings that are down the side of the carb, the center one (the one to the air box side) should go to the main where the emulsion goes. That’s the way I’ve always done the jet orientation and seems to setup fine. I’ve never tried reversing them to see what it does though.
@@StevesDIYs Steve, thanks for the reply! I think I mixed up which was which. Makes sense that the pilot side would need the bigger air jet. Thanks!
Its strange, I am working on an 83 XV920 and from my research this year 920 had a “version 2” hsc40 carb to meet emissions. I have confirmed though I have a version 1. But according to the Hanes manual it looks like my jetting specs are from an SV920J. (Not even sure what bike this is lol!?) I have a 195 pilot air jet, 126/128 main jets, and a y25/24 setup on the needles. Rather than an 180 pilot air jet, a 126/124 main and y22 needles which is the XV920 specs.
Bike was sitting with an empty tank for 2 years. Having a bit of trouble getting it to run. So far I’ve confirmed engine timing, spark with an inline tester, compression is at 120 on both, new AGM battery, starter is turning over, carbs were not overly dirty. Rebuilt the bottom ends and cleaned with cleaner & compressed air. I’m seeing fuel on the plugs after cranking with choke. I failed to check float heights after the rebuild So I’m stripping the carbs back down and doing an ultrasonic cleaning, adjusting float heights, and going to pickup a timing light to confirm spark timing. I did have it running briefly only on cylinder 1 with full choke. But was unsuccessful on later attempts. Bike has factory air box and exhaust. I’m going to keep going through your videos until this thing is going!
@@brenbuchler94 👍. Sounds like you are getting really close 👍. Yep, does sound like maybe the carbs were swapped or you caught a mid year change or something. I’d say the main jets would be fine on the sizes, but with a 195 pilot air jet, you might have to go out 2.5 to 3 turns on the mix needle to get it going till it gets to running again.
I’ve found that these bikes are very sensitive to too much fuel and once they foul a plug it’s really hard to get them to fire again. I usually keep a second set I can throw in just to see if it’s the plugs fouled till I can get an especially grumpy one running. A couple of things I’ve found that help on first getting one going are: Be sure there’s at least 10.5 volts on the battery when the starter is cranking (I hook up a multimeter and watch it). Below that and the spark is erratic and they won’t fire up. Also, they should fire up and idle with the rubber elbows removed that go to the frame (air box side) so I pull the elbows off and then if either cylinder will even try to hit, I cup my hand over the carb intake and control the air by cupping and then spreading my fingers…basically choking it like how an old school choke works on small engines. Since the choke lever is actually an enricher circuit, it’s just dumping a bunch of fuel into the cylinder and it will flood the cylinders really quick, but by cupping your hand and choking the air off, it will suck a gulp of fuel in, then giving it some air will lean it out to fire. If you can get it to keep running by hand choking the carbs, the mix needle can be adjusted little by little and most times it will steady out and stay running on just one cylinder so you can start dialing in the other carb on the mix.
Let me know how it goes as you narrow things down and when you get it fired up 👍. They can for sure be grumpy until everything is dialed in, but once you get everything sorted out, they are great old bikes. All the best ! Steve
Great video Steve. Watched all your videos concerning carbs, tune ups etc. I have a '82 XV750 that I have had since '85. At time 18:48 on this video you mention make sure this port is open and you shot with carb cleaner. What does this port do. Both of mine were blocked. Carb cleaner worked a little but I boiled bowls in water which helped a lot to open up..
Thanks man...hope the videos help some 👍. The port that is down in the bowl is for fuel to get picked up by the thin tube that goes down into the hole. This tube provides a metered amount of fuel up to the choke circuit (it’s actually an enricher circuit) so when you move the lever to choke the bike, it can pull some fuel up. If it’s blocked off, it is basically not providing any extra fuel when the choke lever is moved and only provides even more air so choking (enriching) it just makes it worse as it’s just adding more air. Without the little bit of extra fuel, it’s not possible to choke it just a little to bring the rpms up until the motor warms up a bit which makes for cold day starts or tuning almost impossible with stock jets. Hope this helps some and if you have any questions just let me know 👍. All the best ! Steve
@@StevesDIYs Thanks Steve
@@StevesDIYs I have a written Yamaha Motor Co shop manual printed July 1981 that I purchased from a dealer in 1985 and in the exploded view of the carburetor it shows the port only on the top of the bowl (does not ID it) and does not show the thin tube that goes into this port, and in the carburetor chapter there is no mention of this choke circuit.. Thanks again. Your TH-cam Channel has an excellent wealth of information on my '82 Virago and has helped me out greatly.
@@tomneubauer924 thanks man 👍. Yep, it’s hard to find detailed info on these carbs, even from the Yamaha info sometimes it seems. It’s almost like they didn’t want to tell all of the details so we would have had to take it back to the Yamaha shop for some repairs, lol.
How do you find screwdrivers that will properly fit in your jets? Having difficulty, especially for the jets hiding in the top of the carb. Thank you Steve!
Hey man ! I actually ground down a couple of screwdrivers so they were narrow and a little more blunt so they fit tightly into the jets, but one of those cheap kits that has the multiple sized tip inserts works pretty good too as they have different sizes of the flat head screwdriver tip. You do have to be pretty careful on the top ones that are under the choke crossover tube as they are painful to get out if they strip. I stripped one out once and made the mistake of trying to get it out by drilling a larger hole and then using an easy out. All the easy out did was expand the brass and wedge it in even tighter lol. I ended up getting it out by drilling a hole slightly smaller than a small hex wrench (Allen wrench) then tapping it into the hole so it made a hex inside and I could back it out.
@@StevesDIYs Sounds like quite the adventure lol. When I first rebuilt my carbs I didn't even know those jets existed. My bike was having some issues idling. Do you think that the jets being clogged under the crossover tube were the culprit or would that more so be the pilot adjustment?
@@williamhart2344 , they definitely need to be clean as they control the amount of air that enters the emulsion tube and idle circuit to pull fuel up. They may not have to be removed to be cleaned...just clean them out with thin wire and the spray carb cleaner into them and be sure it blows out in the passages on the other ends of the drillings 👍.
The pilot adjustment is critical as well for a good idle, but unless everything is clean, it’s difficult to ever get it sounding and idling just right from my experience.
Could I apply this to rebuilding the xv920 carbs
Hey man ! Yes, I believe the 920’s and the 1st Gen 750’s had virtually the same carbs on them…just different jetting. These are Hitachi carbs and look different than the Mikunis that were on the later years so if yours look like these it should be about the same. An easy way to tell is that the air/fuel mix needle is on the bottom of the carb on these vs. being on top for the later 750’s and 1100’s. Hope this helps and all the best ! Steve
When you have fuel in your oil. Is that from a leaking seat? Or is it the needle on these carburetor's? Or am I just completely wrong? Any info is appreciated. Thanks.
wade mowers , hello, yep it could be one or both as both the seat and the float needle can be replaced on these. I’ve made the mistake of changing the float needle from the rubber tip type to the all metal type, but didn’t change the seat that came with the new needle and they would not block the fuel off. Now I only replace with the rubber tip type and also take out the seat and spin a wooden skewer that has the sharp tip in it to be sure it’s smooth in the seal surface. There is also a small mesh strainer that clips inside the seat so it’s important to take it out when refreshing these carbs I’ve found. For the ‘81 to ‘83’ 750’s, there are vacuum actuated petcocks on the tank that theoretically should prevent gas from continuously overflowing the bowl and going into the intake when the bike is not running even if the float needle doesn’t seal 100%, but these eventually fail and will leak fuel even when the bike is off. I added the inline see through fuel filters on both my bikes so if they have sat for a couple days and some of the fuel has evaporated out of the bowls, when I flip the petcock to prime I should see the fuel flow for just a second and refill the bowls. If the fuel doesn’t move when I flip them to prime, I know the petcocks aren’t shutting off the fuel and need rebuilding. If they don’t seal, and the float needle doesn’t seal...there’s gonna be a bunch of gas down in the oil for sure. Here’s a link to a picture of the inline clear filters I use...the 90 degree ones were easier to fit into the short rubber pipe between the petcock and the carb...but very short straight ones fit too. facebook.com/109400450606405/posts/164872875059162/ All the best 👍, Steve
@@StevesDIYs I see. Awesome thank you so much
How do you remove the rubber diaphragm from the slide? I’m trying to replace it with a new one
Hello, I’ve not had to remove any or install new ones as I have several spare parts carbs I’ve been using parts from for years. Folks out on the “Virago Nation - All things Yamaha Virago” Facebook forum would probably know though if you use Facebook. Sorry I couldn’t help, Steve
Im doing mine right now could you tell me which emulsion tube went to which carb. mine has to different tubes. 1 has 4 and 2 holes and the other has 3 and 2 holes?
automech01 , I ran into that with one of my other xv750’s...seems there were slight variants in how Yamaha built these as the set I just rebuilt were both the same, but had different numbers on the jet needles. Since cylinder 1 (the rear cylinder) needs to run a bit cooler ‘cause there’s not as much air hitting it when moving, the one with the 4 holes goes on the back cylinder carb I suspect. This was the way my ‘81 was setup and had never been taken apart when I got it many years ago so I have always put the 4 hole one for the rear cyl like it was originally.
@@StevesDIYsI have come here years later to ask the same question about the emulsion tubes as I’m finally getting my bike out from storage I really appreciate this information and I can’t even express how grateful and thankful I am for this tidbit
Do you know where to get throttle shaft seals for the BDS34 Yamaha Virago XV 535? Thanks 👍
Hello, for me, the shaft seals for any of the Virago models has been hard to find as I don’t know who is currently making replacements. I’ve been fortunate to have had old parts carbs that I have taken them off of to repair the carbs if one was cracked or missing.
I would say, that even if they are loose and not sealing as good as new (normally that’s the case on mine), the carb can still be tuned and run fine since the idle air/fuel mix can be adjusted with slightly more fuel to compensate for the small amount of air that sneaks through at idle. At idle, you would get more air bypassing the shaft seals since the butterflies are closed. Once the butterflies are opened up when accelerating, the air comes through the carb throat easily so any bypass on the shaft seals is negligible in my opinion.
If you wanted to tune it to factory specs (1.5 turns out on the air/fuel mix needle), the shaft seals would be more important, but by turning the mix needle out more, you should be able to compensate. I usually end up turning them out between 1.75 turns to 2.5 turns depending on how worn the carbs and motor is. Hope this helps and all the best ! Steve
@@StevesDIYs thanks so much for your information and expertise!!!!!
Do you recommend using silicon or any lubricant on the small o-ring for the needle/idle jet or the o-rings in the manifold that connects the carb to the motor?
Hey man ! I do usually put a little Vaseline on them when I install them 👍. The ethanol free gas you mentioned before also helps with keeping the little air/fuel mix oring from swelling up and making it hard to adjust the mix later when tuning so that’s another good reason to run ethanol free fuel 👍.
@@StevesDIYs Just when I thought I was finally ready to throw everything back and the bike I found some small slits in the diaphragm of the rear cylinder. Do you have any suggestions of where to buy new ones?
Hey man. I actually haven’t had to buy any for my bikes...so far mine have still been good with no holes. I looked out on the web and I see some available, but don’t know anything about if they are good quality or not. I’ve seen folks have used rubber cement and dabbed a bit on the pin holes to seal them up, but not sure about a tear.
@@StevesDIYs Gotcha, might try my luck on some ebay finds. I'll let you know if anything works!
@@williamhart2344 , thanks man ! Yep let me know 👍. I may have to change mine out one day so it will be good to know where to get them and if they were any good 👍.
Did you adjust the pilot screw later? I saw you screwed them all the way in during the video. Thanks for sharing.
Oh you backed it off 1.5 turns, nevermind.
@@jumar360 , hello...yep I usually start at about 1.5 turns out from a soft seat 👍. All the best ! Steve
Awesome! Thajks
Thanks man 👍. All the best ! Steve
Would you recommend running an 83 virago on ethanol free gas?
Hey man ! Most definitely 👍. Mine run (and start) so much better on ethanol free gas in my opinion. The carbs seem to stay cleaner as well. That’s all I put in mine now as I went years putting gas with ethanol in it in them and was always having to take the carbs off and clean them.
@@StevesDIYs Thank you Steve!
On the virago 750 the front manifold gasket has two ports one goes to the t vacuum line but where does the other go to? Or should I put a plug on it like the back one?
bad brad , yep, one goes to the petcock for the fuel so the vacuum will allow fuel to go to the bowls. The extra one on the front goes to some kind of anti-backfire emissions thing that sits under the side reflectors by the triple tree. I just capped it off and removed the emissions thing...didn’t make any difference on how it runs on any of my bikes.
Awesome thank you so much I've been stumped on this for a couple days now trying to put it all back together Thanks
Where you find the Manuel's I tried to find torque settings for the carburetor in my 82' Virago
Here’s a link to a pic of the service manual....I put it on my Steve’s DIY Facebook page since it will let me put photos there, but TH-cam won’t let me reply with a pic. Steve. facebook.com/109400450606405/posts/155473805999069/
Steve have you ever changed out the diaphragm on the carbs?
Hey man ! I haven’t had to remove the rubber diaphragms from the slides over the years of rebuilds as I’ve had enough spares to swap out to. I recently picked up some parts bikes that I haven’t gotten to go through yet so I might be having to do one of these though. Probably won’t help much if you are currently working on yours, but when I get into them I’ll try to make a video of how to do them.
Thanks for the response. I have an 1981 I bought new. Hopefully I can get up and going this spring. I have 4 sets of carbs to work with.
@@hmshr1 👍. Yep, always helps to have done spare parts for these indeed. I’ve had a couple with pin holes in the diaphragms so I put a tiny bit of two part flexible epoxy on the holes and they did fine. It’s the type that is used to fix forcible bumpers on a car that can be found at the auto parts stores.
23:39 any place I can buy replacement main air jet and pilot air jet?
Hello, unfortunately, I’ve never seen the upper main or pilot air jets available for sale on any websites…not even Jets R Us and they make many different ones for several carb models. I’ve had to make a few to resurrect some basket case carbs over the years though lol, but never made any to sell like I do with some other hard to find Virago parts. I looked in a couple of old carb bodies I had just to see if I had any…only have one pilot air jet, but no main air jets were in them.
No worries I appreciate the feedback.
How many turn in air mixture did you do?
Hello, I usually start at 1.5 to 2 turns out with the needles and then adjust from there to dial them in once the motor is running again. Once I have it fired back up, I turn the needle out till I hear that cylinder shut off (engine rpms drop), then turn it back in till it starts hitting again. Then I keep turning in till until I here the rpms drop again, then back the needle out 1/8 to 1/4 turn and it is usually really close. Do that for each cylinder back and forth a couple of times (lowering or raising the idle adjustment as needed after each adjustment). After that, I do the carb sync on the bike (there’s another video on the channel in how to do that) in order to set the stop position of the left side carb since it might have changed a bit from the idle needle adjustment. Probably more than you were asking, but thought I would provide a bit of detail as the final turns depends on the motor. All the best ! Steve
@@StevesDIYs Many thanks steve for sharing your knowledge to us very informative tutorial video know i can fix my carb on my own thank you 😊
Looks like my pilot jet is plugged, I have replacement Jets, should I just drill it out?
Hey man ! Is it that the hole in the jet is plugged with buildup? If it’s just plugged with hard buildup, I usually take one of the strands of a piece of left over garage door safety cable (the little stranded cable) and twist the jet on it after spraying with carb cleaner to clean it out. If that’s not readily available, something thin like a staple might do as well. I haven’t used a drill bit to clean one as I’m a bit worried that it might accidentally change the jet size.
@@StevesDIYs sorry, I meant the port that the jet screws into has a brass plug in it. My replacement comes with a plug too, but I think I’ll leave it off so i can adjust it in case 1.5 turns back from being seated needs to be adjusted
@@StevesDIYs also, thanks for the videos! They have been super helpful
@@MakerDent ah...got ya 👍. I was thinking you were talking about the jet that is in the bowl being stopped up, lol. Yep, you are exactly right for the cover plug for the pilot needle that it has to have a little hole drilled through it to pop it off there. There is a gap between the inside surface of the plug and the top of the pilot needle so you should feel it when it breaks through the plug surface if drilling slowly and carefully 👍. I too don’t ever put the plug back on either so I can adjust the air/fuel mix anytime I want to...the oring in the needle does the sealing (the plug was an EPA thing so people couldn’t easily adjust the mix and run a bit richer I believe)
@@MakerDent , thanks 👍. Glad the videos help some 👍. There are a bunch of little pieces to these for sure. I still remember the first time I took a set apart and thinking I’m never gonna get these back together again, lol. It also took me like 4 tries at cleaning them the first time to finally get all of the little ports and holes cleaned out...each time I took them back off ‘cause it wouldn’t run right, I’d find another little hole under something I had missed.
You did not show how to change the diaphragm
Hello, no, I didn’t need to change to diaphragms as they did not have any tears or holes in them. If I do rebuild a set in the future that has bad diaphragms, I’ll be sure to make a video for how to change them.
really terrible camera angles,can only see half of what youre doing
Yep, I’ll easily admit that these 1st videos I did years ago weren’t as good as they could have been. I was using a much cheaper camera (and was just getting started on making and editing videos so my skills were lacking as well, lol !). Hopefully the newer videos are a bit better now. Maybe one day I’ll redo some of these older ones now that I have a better camera and a few more years of experience. Thanks for the feedback…someone else noted years ago that it would be nice if I added music to the videos that had long sections of high speed parts since there was no sound during those parts…without feedback I might not notice things that could be improved. All the best ! Steve