34L Tenere newbie questions

[maverick]

Hi techies!

Recently bought a Xt600 or as I have just learned trolling through a couple threads a 1983 34L Yamaha Tenere.

It seems to be a Italian import with 42000 km's on the clock. I have just refurbished the front suspension with new oil and seals and fitted a new battery.

The bike was standing for a couple of months and found that it runs a bit hesitant on higher constant revs.

Any tips on what I should be checking and servicing before taking this baby on the open road?
Obvious things for me is
Oil, filters, plug and cleaning out the carburettor.

Now I do not have a manual for this bike and need to know how to check and adjust the timing chain, it does not rattle or sound to bad but again I am not familiar of how these motors should sound when they purr happy along.

How easy is it to set the carburettor?

It is kick start only and at this point if you touch the fuel throttle before you start it you can make yourself a cuppa of tea as it is nto going anywhere?? Why do they tend to start so hard.

I have found quitly aproaching the bike, slowly moving the choke lever 1/2 way out and then gently kick starting it by the 2nd time it goes. However I have no idea what it's going to do once it is run hot and sweaty.

Apologies for all these questions and will search for more answers on the forum but would like to sort the basics out first.

Many thanks
Dirk

[dougM]

Use to have an 34L
was a bucket of sh*t
too many things can (& will) go wrong
like oil pump - gutless
5th gear - timebomb
suspension - pogo stick - need to swap for ohlins or WP
have fun extracting whatever you drop down the cam chain tunnel when doing top end work.
Rim's crack
carby is way complex- works well but consists of over 70 parts - don't even bother dismantling that one without a manual

Other than the above a solid bike
goes like stink and should be trashed mercilessly

[Mark]

Hi Maveric.

The cam chain tensioner is fully automatic and should not require attention unless the cam chain is noisy.

With regards servicing, I suspect that the only English language workshop manual will be the Clymer manual for the early XT's,A lot of the engine stuff is relevent, but doesn't cover electric start and a lot of other parts won't be the same either.


I would check the valve clearences, which is a bit ackward - angled feeler gauges like 'Motio pro's' are a real help.

Other things worth checking include the inlet stub (between carbs & head), they are made of a metal part and a rubber part, these seperate over time and cause air leaks, could possibly be the cause of your 'hesitation'.

Also checkany other rubber hoses, plugs in the air box etc, they can all go hard and stop sealing.Also the CV carbs rubber diaphram.

If you do clean the carb's, just make a note of where the various screws were set and put them bach to those settings again. Mixture screw is normally set by screwing allthe way in until it lightly seats, counting how m,any quarter turns in it took, then take out, clean etc, ccrew allthe way in, lightly, and back out the amount you noted originally.

As for starting, just don't touch the throttle with choke on. You will learn how much throttle is needed for a hot engine.
A platenium tipped plug may help.

If you suspect that you have flooded it, turn off the fuel, hold the throttle wide open and kick it over 5 or 6 times. This should clear it without having to remove the spark plug.Then turn on fuel and try again.

Starting second kick from cold sounds as good as you can hope for to me, possibly first kick puts fuel mixture into compustion chamber, second on fires it

Mark

[maverick]

Hey guys many thanks for the replies.

I managed to get her through MOT/Roadworthy test this morning.

I resorted to opening the airbox and spray a fair amount of carburettor cleaner while the bike was running. Also replaced the spark plug but a bit confused as some recommend the standard plug and other's the platinum jobbies.
Will try the platinum plug next time around.

The bike is fitted with a foam airfilter, is this the standard way they came out and can you just wash the filter and put it back. Not sure if it needs a slight oil film coating before replacing it?

I will be doing a oil change this week as my oil filters and oil has arrived. I found a detailed article that Klauss wrote some time ago of the steps.

My starting procedure is 1/2 choke no throttle and by the 2nd/3rd kick it fires up. The ride to the MOT tester I use was about 26 miles 3/4 of that motorway riding and after a half hour waiting for the tester it took a fair few kicks to fire it up.

Mark according to your expierence once hot it might need a small amount of throttle to start easier then? Will give this a go as every bike has it's own little knacks.

Enjoying the bike very much even though no electric start new frontier for myself. It does give me more smiles per mile than my Africa Twin which says alot. The motor "sounds" fine and found a small oil leak on the right hand side cover so reckon with 43000 km's it should still be ok for another few thousands untill I need to worry about the things that can go seriously wrong.

Cheers

[aukeboss]

Easy starting the 34L / 55W:

Grip throttle in closed position and with the same hand grip front brake. NO, repeat NO throttle. Push in kickstarter till you feel resistance. Do NOT repeat NOT lift foot then but firmly push down on the kickstarter.

Carb adjusment for easy starting: the mixture screw that is in front of float bowl needs to be adjusted correctly. Heat up engine, adjust till highest rpm is obtained, reset idle speed to desired value.

Auke

[maverick]

Right fella's I am back. Been riding the L34 into work for the last week now and as with any "new" bike a few questions.

Firstly any good mod to actually have front brakes? It is fitted with steel braided hose and the pads is still in limit but timing and speed is essential when you want to stop somewhere.

Now that it has done a few hundred km's it certainly runs smoother and everthing feels nice and lose like a run in engine should. However the bike now does not start on the 3rd or 4th kick anymore, it's more like 5 minutes worth of kicking and following the rules as pointed out above which worked fine in the start.

Once it starts with the choke 1/2 way out if I pull the choke out completely it actually wants to either die so to much fuel? At no point when I play around with the choke when the engine is started from cold does the revs actually go up or down? Now I read a few posts regarding the L34 carburettor and pretty intimidated by the fact that most people recommend not to strip and fiddle with it while it works.

Is it relatively easy to check and set the choke so it works properly? What I do not want is standing midst winter with a bike that won't start after kicking it for 30 minutes because the choke is actually not working.

Many thanks for the replies and info again!

[winmac]

The only check for the choke is to look at the plunger on the side of the carb while you work the lever the plunger should come out and return when released.
If still feel that the choke is not working it is likley a pluged passageway in the bowl of the carb, common problem with bikes that have sat for awhile with gas left in the carbs.

winston

[simmo]

OK this might be right up the wrong tree..but as Ewan "no F@#$ing choke and not F@#$ing Macgregor" found out, the choke lever seems to work in reverse to how you expect it to look, to rephrase, that is when the choke is on it looks like it is off and vice versa. This saw our adventurous rider kicking like a furious ferret until it started, then being impossible to start when warm. Quite a significant effort went into finding the root cause of this serious malady and a great deal of ribbing afterwards. This was a 84 XT600 so its probably similar to yours.

If this is the problem dont tell anyone or you will get yourself a new nickname.

[maverick]

I will bite the bullet so to speak and strip and clean the area where the choke cable and plunger goes in.

Simmo, I know exactly what you talking about and untill now did not actually occur to me that someone could interpret it wrongly.

To explain, normally you "pull" the choke lever out so that it is "ON". On the tenere you actually push it in to activate it, now the reason this was obvious to me is I could immediatly feel the resistance as you do with choke cables when you activate it so no new nicknames for me then.

This morning I came to a new conclusion and that is you don't have to kick with every ounce of energy to get the bike started. It seems like a gently couple of kicks get it running but yeah getting to know this bikes little quirks is interesting to say the least.

Thanks for the replies and will comment if I get a better or any solution.

[This message has been edited by maverick (edited 13 October 2005).]