It is lovely to see an original, well conserved Virago. Most of them got butchered. Correct, push-pull cable came in with the Mikunis, 86-on the engine covers were domed and the cylinder fins were also slightly more rounded. Sub fuel tank is only present on 1000 and 1100 models, 700/750s had a plastic tool box instead.
Hi David! Subscribed to your channel. Thanks for kind words and clarification. I'm doing it all from memory so far so I have to dig deeper sometimes to dust off the details. I'm just picking away at my '84 to get it cleaned up and more presentable. I was pretty lucky to find this one in the condition in which it was - exactly what I was looking for. Although I'm a firm believer of "to each his own" I also believe that these are getting harder to find and it's become more of a concern to me that mine is preserved.
Thanks John! The chrome on the engine side covers is starting to flake pretty bad but everything else has stood up pretty well. I spent a lot of time cleaning it when I got it home and the plan is to eventually restore it. Just having too much fun driving it to commit to a tear down now.
Thank You for making your informative and very detailed videos! I watched all of them from start to end and I learned a lot (order of main jet and needle jet cylinder positions). I have an 86 XV1100 and have cleaned the carbs and both tanks. I was hoping you would separate the carbs (I did), just to show the best way to put them back together. The valve clearance video is very clear and I will do this while the carbs are off. Please make more videos on the Virago motorcycles (Compression test, tune-up, troubleshooting, maintenance, etc).
I'll do that John. I planned on doing the carb sync and compression test soon. I was also just finishing up the pilot mixture settings at my altitude - it's really had an effect on the bike. Thanks for the kind words - I plan on doing a full frame-up restoration shortly so I'm glad you're following along!
I had a limited edition 1986 700 it had the same Yamaha logo on the tank and same battery covers but the covers had pin stripes as well. I miss it my father stole it and destroyed it lost the covers wrecked it a couple of times I bought it with 1,500 miles
this is a resto? my dad this exact same thing (wich i still have but has seen custom work) but the yamaha moulding on the tank sit lower as my memory recall
Have a look at the finished bike - the fuel tank emblems were reinstalled in the proper location as were the side panels. This video was taken before the restoration. I noticed that several variations of where that fuel tank logo sat but if you look on Yamaha's website, the factory prototypes are smack dab in the centre, like you mentioned. When I reinstalled mine, I went by the factory photos.
Hello ! I bought a Yamaha virago xv1000 1984 like yours but it seems that the motor is running on only one cylinder and I was wonderging if you would have the solution.
Hi Dom. Must feel pretty good owning the coolest motorcycle in history. Whenever I see something like that, I always go back to basics - check the compression and make sure that’s within spec and there’s no weird noises coming from the engine. After that, go after fuel and ignition problems. With an older bike, ignition wires (rubber insulators) and caps tend to wear down. The original caps had resistors (5K) and those take a beating trying to dissipate high voltage. Check for good spark (see and hear), check that the ignition wires aren’t shorting out to the frame or engine (especially the rear cylinder) and make sure the caps are in good condition. Check for the proper type of spark plug. If that looks good, then go after clogged carbs - it’s hard to find fuel these days that doesn’t have some amount of ethanol in it - that will cause any fuel sitting for more than a month to absorb water and cause corrosion inside the smallest orifices (primarily your jets) in the carb. Ultrasonic cleaning is usually needed to sort that out properly but if gummy gas isn’t too bad, then a good cleaning with carb cleaner should do the trick.
Your choke lever looks wrong. My stock 84 choke lever is around the handlebars between the grip and controls not underneath the horn. Other than that, it's a nice looking bike and is in much better shape than mine.
Choke lever is original...just like my old one I had back in 1984 when it was new. There were some variations depending on what country the bike was exported to. Like in the UK, there is an additional high-beam passing switch on the left side control that isn't found on north American markets.
