BlueSky

Well the final saga of this story is that the bike got to where it was running great at idle firing on all 4 cylinders but would bog when accelerating. It appeared to be slowly clearing up. Then, the idle jets clogged up on two cylinders? WTF? So, I finally knuckled under and removed the carbs, removed all of the jets, sprayed a little carb cleaner in the passages and reassembled it. I also used my weld tip cleaning kit to make sure the small passages were clear. You can buy the little weld tip cleaning kit for about $5 I think. It has a bunch of small wires in it. Now it runs super. It feels like all 74 hp are back! For a 525 lb curb weight bike that means it hauls butt!!! The reason I didn't pull the carbs much earlier was that I wanted to see if the Gumout would do the entire job. Not this time! There are plastic plugs that are used to plug the bottom holes for one of the jets that uses o-rings to hold them in. I bought new o-rings from ACE hardware but they were too fat and I couldn't push the plugs back in place. Sooooo, I ordered the proper o-rings from partzilla to the tune of $8.40 each! But, they worked. The plugs popped right back in. Like cake! Now, that Venture needs some work!

This is interesting if you've haven't heard about it already, a 97 Ford Van E250 with a 5.4L 2V engine that went 1,299,000 miles before the engine died with 10k or 20k oil changes. http://www.millionmilevan.com/

I bought a one year old 81 Ford Granada back when that had the 200 cu in 6 cylinder engine and the factory recommended oil change interval was 10,000 miles, the longest of any vehicle I've owned. I didn't run the oil that long.

When Mobil One first came out, it was a Group IV oil which is polyalphaolefin. Nowadays it's a Group III oil. It may be just as good or better but the switch was made because it was cheaper.

I would check to see if it had spark at the plugs first before I started throwing money at it.

The Ford Ecoboost with its direct injection and dual turbos tend to collect gasoline in the oil. Using the oil too many miles has been known to ignite the oil and blow the oil pan off the truck. I change my cages at 5,000 miles regardless of time and since I retired that may be almost two years on my Dodge Magnum Hemi and my 02 F150. I change my wife's car every 6 months to abide by the warranty requirements even though it usually has about 2500 miles on the oil. But, I suspect 10k miles is reasonable for cars. I just haven't been able to make myself go that long. Old habits are hard to break.

There is a new test available now "cologuard" where you send in a stool sample that my doctor chose when I refused the colonoscopy. If the results are "negative" then they highly recommend the colonoscopy. After reading the directions on how to prepare for the colonoscopy, I thought I might not survive the test preparation.

Yep, it looks badaxx but those rear tires without fenders would really wrap you up with water if it rained on you.

If you remove the air cleaner, you can look down the throats of the carbs while you blip the throttle. The diaphragms should react to the changing vacuum by pulling the metering rods out and springs pushing them back in the jets. If they are all reacting in unison, they should be okay.

Sounds great for me. Actually better than Tuesday. I will be able to attend a retiree luncheon on Tuesday.

Maybe check for corrosion at the spark plug cap/wire connection and the other end of the wire. It is a typical problem for the copper wire to corrode where it is screwed into the cap. some snip 3/4" of the wire off and screw it back in. New caps can be obtained from ngk.com for $2.60 plus shipping. Copper wire is available from some auto parts stores.

Load test the battery. Your local auto parts store should do it for free.

The Gen 1 Ventures 83 thru 90 have a weak 2 brush starter. Installing larger battery cables helps but the real fix is to install a 4 brush starter from a 91 or newer XVZ1300 engine. It could come from a Gen1 91 - 93 or the RSTD bikes or the Venture 99 and newer. Supposed to be a bolt in. You can find these starters on ebay from $50 and up.

Depends on whether you are using the stock springs or progressives. The progressives have more and larger coils so they displace more fluid raising the fluid level. I do not know what the correct level should be with progressives but it would be lower than with stock springs. Probably if you do a search you can find some suggestions from other Mk II owners who have made the switch to progressives. I bought some progressives but have not installed them at this time.

Sounds like you handled the situation appropriately. I'm glad you were able to get out of that situation safely. People on drugs get desperate and you don't know what they are capable of doing. When I was working in Homestead, FL on the night shift I stopped at the Walmart around 7:00 am. Not many people were there and I usually park way out away from everybody. There wasn't another vehicle within 15 spaces from me. When I came back to my truck, a guy driving an old car parked one spot away from me and rolled down the passenger window and looked me over. I kept an eye on the guy while I put my bags in the truck while trying to psych myself up for what I might have to do, which was to pull my Ruger .380 out of my pocket holster. But after looking me over for a while, he rolled up his window and went into Walmart. No way to know what he was thinking but I'm sure it wasn't legal. He might have been thinking about asking me I wanted a home theater system like what happened to my wife also while she was in Homestead. She had stopped at a strip mall and when she came out two Hispanics in a beat up old car asked her if she would like to buy a home theater system cheap. She ignored them and got into the truck and drove away. Burglary occurred so much there that all the decent homes or apartments were in a guarded fenced area. One of the plant workers was mowing his grass on Saturday and a car pulled up to the curb. A guy got out, pulled out a gun and demanded his wallet. He took the wallet and drove away.

I should be able to make it. I'm retired so it doesn't matter what day. Thanks

Fuel pump contacts seem to be a common issue.

My 89 manual says 409 cm3 which is the same as ml or 13.8 ounces with a level of 6.8". But, if you installed Progressive springs it should be less.

Just a wild thought. Could it be possible that the gas tank is not vented properly and when the bike sits while hot, the gas expands from the engine heat and forces gas into the carbs when you hit start that turns on the pump?????

Could you check the fuel level in the carb(s) when hot when you try to restart to see if it happens when the fuel pump turns on or are they flooded before the fuel pump starts running? Sounds reasonable to me that if the pump is causing too high fuel pressure it could cause the carbs to overflow. But, I'm not a Venture expert like some of the owners on this site.

I've been trying to rationalize the expenditure to buy an RT. There is a local 2010 BMWR1200RT with 25k miles for sale for $10,500. But, I just can't do it. Before Christmas, there was a 2007 very low mileage Honda ST1300 for sale for $6600. The owner kept dropping the price until just after Christmas when he dropped it to $4,000. I wanted to buy it but the wife said I had to sell a bike or two before buying that so I missed out on that deal. That was an incredible buy. So, if you are patient and watch craigslist you can stumble on a great deal sometimes.

Honda ST or CTX

I've read lots of horror stories about rear gear failures and servo assisted brake problems. For a few years in the early 2000's, they had servo assisted brakes. if they fail it could cost up to $4k to get it repaired. I think the part to fix it was about $2600. But, there are videos on youtube showing you how to rewire it to delete the servo assist and ABS. Prevention from what I read was brake fluid flush at least once a year. Do some research and decide for yourself. In the latest testing that I have read, the test riders preferred the RT to the K1600. I think the ride position is more upright on the RT than other Sport Tourers.

Yeah, it's probably a design improvement having the whole cap/wire/unit sealed. Because as most of the 1st gen owners know moisture gets into the cap/wire joint and corrodes the wire and eventually causes a problem. The good part is that caps are $2.60 ea at NGK.com and copper wire is cheap. I suppose we should be using a touch of dielectric grease on the joints.

The Venture carbs are so sensitive to changes in airfilter resistance, I wouldn't use a K&N filter. Additionally, I've read in many places that they don't filter as well as a paper filter. Just my