BlueSky

Did you replace the needles/seats while you had it out? Perhaps the guy who rebuilt them used some cheap parts that use the wrong rubber for sealing.

Wow! That was quite an accident! Glad you survived and hopefully will make a full recovery. Yes, we would really like to know the cause if it can be determined. It could save another member from a similar experience.

So, I'm assuming you made it home safely from Myrtle Beach?

Leaky clutch cylinder most likely. Just check it often and keep it full enough to work.

The float level check procedure is in the shop manual. I used the manual's instructions when I checked mine. You do have to make sure the carbs are level when doing this for an accurate reading.

No, not at all. I have been playing with this bike for a couple of months to see if the Gumout would do a complete job of cleaning the carbs. During that time I measured the exhaust temps dozens of times while the engine was warming up and after it was up to operating temperature and there usually were drastic differences in the temps measured about 6" from the head.

Yesterday I rode the ZN700 about 75 miles to a retiree luncheon and today I rode it about 130 miles to and from Skid's N. Myrtle Beach M&E. It was great to see Jeff and Joe by the way. The bike ran perfect getting 50 mpg. When I got back home I checked the exhaust temps with my infrared thermometer and all four were about 260 degrees measuring approximately 6" from the head. So, that would indicate all four cylinders are doing the same amount of work. I eyeballed the carb sync when the carbs were off and did not sync them with the engine running. With all four exhaust temps measuring the same, I'm assuming the carbs are properly synced.

It does have a rubber seal to keep water saturated air from coming in touch with the fluid. If overfilled and heat added expanding the fluid this rubber seal would be pushed up against the MC cover and then could keep pressure on the pads.

I finished reassembling and reinstalling the carbs on my Kawasaki ZN700 yesterday and took it for a short ride to check it out. Today I rode it about 90 miles to and from a retiree luncheon on Oak Island and it runs great. So, that is what I'll be riding tomorrow to Hamburger Joes in North Myrtle Beach. See you there Jeff and Joe!

I plan to meet you there at Hamburger Joes. You, Joe, and I will be the 3 Muttketeers!

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.