Over the last few days I have been putting the V-Star back together. This has come about as it has been sitting idle for a few months whilst I replaced the CDI unit (also named by Yamaha as the "Ignitor Unit") and the pick-up coil. The stock parts from Yamaha are very expensive at $1,000.00 for the CDI unit and $275.00 for the pick-up coil. So a search for aftermarket replacements found the Dyna3000 unit from Dynatek available from Northstar Yamaha for less than $400.00. A few searches and emails found an aftermarket pickup coil from Rick's Motorsport Electrics available from 2 Wheel Wholesale in New Zealand for around $100.00 Australian Dollars.
By the way, if anyone out there is looking to do the same for a V-Star 650, I can confirm that the blue wire with a yellow chaser strip on the pickup coil connects to the standard black wire. The green wire on the pickup coil goes to the standard grey wire.
By the way, if anyone out there is looking to do the same for a V-Star 650, I can confirm that the blue wire with a yellow chaser strip on the pickup coil connects to the standard black wire. The green wire on the pickup coil goes to the standard grey wire.
By Friday afternoon the bike was back together electrically and mechanically and ran well. Saturday night was spent putting the tank and seat on and Sunday was a test ride. All was good, with a few adjustments to the gear lever height/angle and the clutch.
During this process the left hand crankcase gasket was replaced. This is great as after 15 years it was leaking just a little bit. I tried the method of using a proper gasket silicon between the gasket and crankcase cover and letting that set for a few hours and then rubbing grease all over the face of the gasket that matches to crankcase. In theory, this makes a great seal and the two parts come apart without too much bother. I have done this on the Suzuki as well and in practice it has worked well both time. This would not be acceptable to a proper workshop as it blows out the time to get the bike out of the door by days but for the home mechanic with time available it is really worthwhile.
So ... success. I will give the bike a bit of a clean and take the opportunity to check nuts and bolts and then, well ride it. Once fully satisfied I will swap bikes and put the Suzuki on the stand to make up some racks for soft panniers/saddlebags.