This Venture was the second year of production, built January of 1984. My 1984 Venture was making a rumbling sound at idle, which went away if I pulled lightly on the clutch. I pulled the clutch cover off, and removed the clutch. It was apparent that the bearing behind this clutch was distressed.
Late fall is a relatively nice time in Ottawa, Canada.
I put the bike in the back of the garage, borrowed my brother's 1500-watt heater, and set to replacing this bearing. This is an excellent time of year to spend a bit of time in the garage with the Venture. First some tools. The Yamaha tool kit is useful, but not adequate for this job. Metric Allen key set 3.