1986 Voyager XII - It RUNS, It's FAST and it's DONE! Video #3 (final) 

Hey mate! Love your videos. Couple tips on those damned brakes, I just resorted a 99 Concours C10, clamp the the lever back, leave it overnight, next day…keep it clamped, setup a MityVac on SUCK and with a couple pounds of vacuum, get your hand on lever, crack bleeder and let the lever snap forward…then immediately snap her right to the grip and hold it there, bleed her then close bleed. Pump pump pump vigorously, hold tight to grip and crack bleed, even though youre pulling fluid into the mityvac, I actually had good progress on my Connie doing this. It gave me about 50% improvement and will be doing it again soon and get the lever a little harder (that’s what she said). I know all about head bearings on my Connie too, it seems a very fine line between no clunk over sharp bumps AND having the bike weave a bit at slow speeds. I put new All Balls in her two years ago when I rebuilt her…but I am not so sure I should trust All Balls or whether I should put Kawasakis in it. Cheers.

Nice video, I'm sure the customer is happy to get the old girl running again.

I would’ve probably kept my bike had I seen this channel sooner! Great work! Subbed!

Love the videos, it is always educational and entertaining Tom

Nice job!!! I worked on the 6cyl version of thise once upon a time and it also has spongy brakes. It uses the same brakes as the stripped down (lighter) 1000cc bikes by the looks of it and has much longer rubber hoses. The solution was braided lines. The lever instantly got hard 😮, er, firm. Once again, very nice job!

Great stuff, love that you take safety seriously. Too many guys "send it" and wind up giving a major problem to the next guy. I'm going to look at an 88 tomorrow, hopefully I come home with a new bike tomorrow

Muy buen video, congratulaciones!. Recientemente he realizado la limpieza de los carburadores pero sin tocar la regulación de mezcla porque no tengo vacuómetro. Fue todo un sufrimiento poder retirar los carburadores y volverlos a colocar en su lugar! Con un par de centímetros más del lado del cuadro de la moto todo hubiese sido más fácil. Finalmente colocqué e instalé todo y la moto quedó fantástica.

I'll second tying the brake lever tight against the grip overnight. same with the rear brake pedal. Works wonders. Only explanation I've heard is it causes micro bubbles to join together then they float up and bleed out at the MC.

Brilliant videos Bob, I watch out for your vids every Sunday morning with my McDonald's breakfast. I reckon you have got to be in the very top drawer of entertaining and educational motorcycle channels on line. God bless you Sir. GOD BLESS THE USA! 🇺🇲🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿👍🍺

Sounds good, as far as the brakes are concerned have you tried the old trick of tying the brake lever back to the handlebars and leaving it overnight or for a day or two ,this has worked for me on a couple of old bikes ,

Some of the stuff you work on looks in awesome condition, on camera at least. I recently bought a Hurricane 1000f, first iteration, and you can tell she's getting on a bit. Mind you, the bike wasn't expensive and runs pretty nice, so there's that. 😊

I love these I have never had one, but maybe this summer is the year or maybe a Goldwing we'll see

The weak battery may be caused by the radio, specifically the clock in the radio and the settings memory. They draw enough to drain the battery down in just a couple days. I always have mine on a battery tender. I've pulled the fuse on mine , I use a satellite radio. Great video by the way, I'll be watching.

Jeez, talk about over engineered machines, I am Japanese all the way, but I would run away from a touring bike like this, for me the old carb Concours would do it for me. Oh, side bar, I went to the Dania antique motorcycle show and was talking to someone about shower pans and floors etc, someone listening to the conversation said, "we are at a motorcycle show, can we talk about motorcycles?" Great videos, if you ever get to South FL Hollywood area, DM me or something, Peace.

I’m an expert brake bleeder but I had a heck of a bad time with a Triumph I worked on. Couldn’t get a firm lever. It turned out to be the pads. Though they had plenty of meat on them they weren’t worn perfectly so they would basically rock when pressed. I finally bought new pads and voila.. perfect brakes.

My son had a Kawasaki motorcycle when he replaced brake pads he had the same problem with brakes feeling spongey he finally fixed it by bleeding the brakes backwards using a big syringe pushing fluid from the bleeder back to the master cylinder it worked

The Japanese were masters of packing parts on the bike tightly. Which is both commendable condemnable !!

Amen to the engineering nightmare. Bikes should not be built like a round of Tetris. About the brakes, supposedly theres a spot inside the caliper where an air bubble can hide. Try fully depressing the piston back into the caliper and bleeding any air again. My handle would touch the grip like yours until I did this. Thanks for the info on the carb sync, I really need to do that.

I'd suggest there is air present, but it won't bleed out. But 50 to 100 miles..... the air will either dissolve in the fluid or burp out. No bike seems to bleed easily. Every car I've had was easy to bleed perfectly. An experience I'm still pondering.

Hi, i had this same brake problem on my GPZ 750 ... the problem was found on one caliperbraket. It was not straight and not rectangular to the caliper holes. After rebindung it to the correct position the brakes work just like new ! Greetings from Gerrmay

Hello there was wondering if you have quality carb rebuild kits for an 86goldwing 1200

Have you tired Wintergreen treatment on the intake rubbers? It seems to work OK if there is no alternative and the wintergreen is available at Tractor Supply

Just a thought but have you checked the brake disc thickness? Maybe they are past the service life and with the used pads it's having the piston come out too far on the caliper causing the spongy feeling at the lever.

Great video as always Bob, 👍. Regarding the brake issue, I know you said that you have tried all methods for bleeding but did you try reverse bleeding the system? Also have you tried tying the front brake lever to the bars and leaving overnight with the reservoir cap off? I have an '89 GPZ900R and the front brakes were a right pain in the butt to bleed up, in the end I had to replace the the whole system before I managed to get a decent lever. Anyway, good to see the bike up and running sweet, looking forward to the next patient on the bench, 😎.

Brakecrafter reverse bleeder?

The dog ate the rubber cap ??

Nice work Tom. It is a really nice bike. But have you ever worked on a Suzuki Calvacade? It has a V4 with hydraulic valves. That has to be nice. Enjoyed the video and RIDE SAFE OUT THERE!

The brakes on these are just like that I think mine is the same way don't like it think I might put high pressure Master cylinders from brembo