20 Most Recent 1998 kawasaki VN 1500 Vulcan Classic Tourer Questions & Answers

Check the bulbs, they may be bad, check the voltage to the bulbs when the ignition is turned on. it's pretty simple, they're either getting juice or they're not, if not juice in wires, trace back to find where it's lost at, if you have juice to bulbs, then it one of the two, either the bulbs are bad or you have a bad ground for the bulbs.

check the wiring to the brake light, it has been know for then to chaff on the metal work and wear through causing intermittant shorting, also remove the light lens and check for moisture and or corrosion inside.

check oil leval should solve it

Check the tappets in the carter and the rockers in the head.

Im not 100% sure on this but i seen somewhere that the transmission and engine were intergrated on the 1500 so the oil works both thats all i could find out

The same way you check the motor oil.

My vulcan 1500 has one bolt that holds it on the fender. Nut will be on inside of rear fender.

Not every year but I would do it about every 15,000 miles.

Yes but you will have to remove it and have exhaust re-routing pipes made up. Have seen it done but it is all by hand... Vance and Hines makes a realy nice set of pipes for this....

Sounds like it might be running too lean. The hotter outside temperature it gets the more rich the motor runs. You need to resolve this because you could be harming your motor.

under the seat.

generally the engine/trans takes either 15w/40 or 10w/50,but would pay to check with suzuki agent as the big v-twins may require a different grade.hope this helps

There are two timing marks on the crank. One is for the front cyclinder and the other is for the rear. When you line the front cylinder mark, the front cam has two horizontal lines that line up across the top of the head. Look at the cam lobes and make sure the exhaust lobes will be the next valves to open. Turn the crank and do the same for the rear cylinder. Make sur you remove the cam chain tensioners first and leave any slack in the chain on the tensioner side when installing them around the cams.

to my knowledge there are no grease points on any shaft drive bike,all the universal joints are sealed and should oulast the bike,the only grease i ever put into a final drive assemly is the drive hub which you only do when the rear wheel comes out to replace a tyre,just note..make sure it gets done because if the drive hub wears due to lack of grease in most cases you will have to replace the whole drive assembly because the drive hub is part of the final drive and they are VERY EXPENSIVE..hope this helps

transfer ports could be pluged or ilde jet could use adjustment

Hi
Try getting the carbs balanced

Good Luck & Ride Safe

Bike-Doc UK

Most forks take Automatic Transmission oil ("ATF").
Most new motorcycles don't have drain holes for it is almost impossible to remove all of the oil through such an opening.
If the forks aren't leaking and are working, don't disturb them. If they are leaking you will need to remove and service them. This should be only done by a shop or someone who knows how.

The stock plug was an NGK-DPR6EA9. However, some bikes had NGK-DPR5EA9 as stock. I would start with the ...6EA9 and then go to the ...5EA9 if a hotter plug is needed.

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should be around .30-.35". You most likely have a dirty carb issue which will cause the bike to run poorly at lower RPMs as this is on a different fuel circuit in the carbs, know as the pilot jet. You may be able to run some carb cleaner through them. I recommend seafoam, or chevron techron. Mix according to the instructions on the bottle.

Get and aftermarket exhaust system for it, and follow the instructions.