uncledj

Been round and round with this exhaust problem. The good news is that now that I've had it apart 3 times, and have lubed the pipes and collector with a hi temp never seize, it all comes apart and goes together quickly. I pulled it all apart to get the closest inspection of the collector. I was sure there would be some visible signs of failure, but there's not. Externally it looks great. No cracks, all metal seems solid, but put it back together paying special attention to all gaskets and connections, and she still has "the sound" .....you know...the "hotrod" sound. I'm out of options. The baffles must be having an issue inside the collector. My question is: If I cut a square as big as possible out of the bottom of the collector, will I be able to gain enough access to weld the naughty baffle (s) back in place? I did a search and found only pics of the collector with baffles removed. I'd like to keep mine as quiet as possible, so would a competent welder such as myself have anything to work with once I open it up, or should I spend the big bucks and get a replacement...??? The ones I see on e-bay right now are going for $150 , which is OK, but the ones I'm seeing look to be in worse shape than the one I have. I'm planning on pulling it back apart tomorrow, but I don't know what to expect when I open it up. Anybody out there who's done this before? Thanks:confused24:

My Dad had a Rat Terrier / Pomeranian mix. She was given to us because at 3 months she didn't get along with her mother, so they needed her gone. That dog had a mind of her own, and she was smarter than most people, but she knew Dad was boss. I swear, when Dad would speak to her, she understood much more than simple commands. My entire family loves dogs, I have three, but in my 50 years I've never seen a smarter dog. She was definitely Dad's dog, but she was always happy to see me, and would always spend a little time whenever I'd stop by to say "hello". She died about 4 years ago, and it broke my Dad's heart. He still talks about her and grieves to this day. They were inseparable. Here's to you Little Dog....that's right,...that's what Dad called her.

If they're in decent shape they should bring $40 or $50 on e-bay or Craigslist. I personally have 5 or 6 sets and rarely use more than one at a time.....I keep 3 sets in the van. I'd keep 'em if I was you. Ya never know when you'll want a way to read pressure on just about anything, and they'll look impressive hanging on the wall in the garage. lol:cool10:

What a great site. So many top mechanics willing to offer any info to help another Venturerider. For what it's worth, I'm a pretty decent HVAC Tech, although I do commercial / industrial work, there's not much to the residential work, which is where I started. Since I can't profess enough knowledge about these bikes to help in that manner, if any of y'all need help with the home furnace or a/c, right down to a house call if you're within a reasonable distance, please let me know. I've never been shy about helping out when I can. I live in Central Ohio and would be only too happy to help a fellow Venturerider. PM me if you need help. I'll get it on my phone and I'll get back to ya shortly. Pay it forward. Thanks for being there. John:)

I found a picture that shows two mounting points at the front of the collector. Working outta town until Saturday evening, so Sunday I'll pull it apart and see if I can weld it up. Thanks. I love you guys......no, really. LOL.

Nice to see that they care enough to go through that effort for the rug rat. Many parents just buy them a x box or playstation and hope that keeps 'em quiet.

I posted a week or two ago that I was having muffler issues with my 87 standard. I was getting significant flow from the drain hole at the inlet of the muffler on the left side. I found a replacement muffler, put it on, and while the tone changed, it still has the "hot rod" sound. As cool as it sounds, it's not the sound I was looking for. This problem started after loading / unloading the bike on a trailer, after I noticed that the bike hit pretty hard on the trailer when the back tire dropped down onto the ramp. I'm now figuring that the topside of the collector has gotta be cracked. I can see no evidence on the underside of a crack, but it's gotta be there. (on the topside) When first looking into this problem, I pulled the mufflers, pulled the front two pipes into the collector, loosened the clamps on the back two pipes to the collector, and planned to remove it for inspection, but it wouldn't budge. After a few tries I looked it over again and thought "there's nothing wrong with the collector" and gave up on removing it. Well, now I know there IS something wrong with it, so it's gotta be removed. Which brings me to my question......What's the trick??? I'm sure it's gotta be bolted on, but with all the crud down there, I saw no bolt heads. If I can get this thing off, I can weld up whatever's broken, but I don't want to chance breaking anything worse than it is by pulling / prying too hard when it's still attached somehow. Any advise on how to remove this sucker will be much appreciated. Thanks.

Dat's da one. Thanks a bunch.

Playin' catchup on my 87 Standard....it's been going on for a couple of weeks now, (not much free time to work on it) and I'm getting ready to sync the carbs, but was hoping for some info on the procedure. I figured there'd be an old post with instructions but can't seem to find it. If anyone has a link, or can give me the quick and dirty on it, lemme know. Thanks.

Wow, if that's what my '87 looks like with the fairings off, I'll leave them on. LOL ....and to be serious.......considering the cost....you just can't beat these first gen's for looks, reliability, power and overall utility. Go ahead and spend the big bucks to get yourself a hardley davidson, I'll keep my first gen.

Marengo is about 45 minutes North of Columbus, off of Interstate 71. Marengo is my mailing address, but I actually live just outside of Sparta, which is about 10 miles West of Mt. Vernon on Rt. 229. I live out in the "boonies" and that's how I like it. Thanks for the carb sync offer, but I've ordered a Carbtune of my own, which I'll need to learn to use. Skydoc had synced my carbs for me at the maintenence day in 2010, and it seemed pretty quick and easy for someone who knows the routine. Back in the day I've done it with an old mercury manometer, but don't know what happened to it, so with the carbtune, I'll be back in action. At this point I have 4 - 4 cylinder bikes, My Venture, a Honda Nighthawk CB700sc, an old Honda 900 custom that needs brought back, (low mileage, but sat for years) and an old Suzuki 600 Katana, same situation. I'd like to get the 900 custom going this Winter, don't care much about the Suzi, but it's doing no good sitting there so I should give it some attention as well. Point being, I'm sure I'll have other uses for the Carbtune in the future. At this point I've ordered a new clutch slave cylinder assembly, a left side muffler I found on e-bay for around $50 , and the Carbtune. Now I just have to wait for it all to arrive. I'll be working out of town this weekend anyway, so everything will be on hold until at least the middle of next week. I sure hope I have no further issues, since my two regular, running bikes are the Venture and the Nighthawk, and I've promised to lend the Nighthawk to a buddy to ride on the upcoming road trip. Thanks everyone for the sage advise,.....I'll keep ya'll updated as the situation progresses.

I went ahead and ordered the complete slave cylinder assembly, and have my eye on a set of mufflers on e-bay.. I need to compare the pics to what I have now before I go ahead with the order. I'll grease the rear spline and bearings as well. I'll see if I can find a moderately priced carb synchronizer and get that out of the way also. A project I'd like to do this Winter would be to change the valve cover gaskets as well. They leak a bit....not a problem, but should be done. It doesn't look like there's much clearance to lift the covers off; especially on the rear head. How tough a job is that?

I've always considered myself a pretty good mechanic. I'm a commercial / industrial HVAC tech, and I'm one of the better one's you'll come across. This isn't just my ego talking, it's confirmed by the respect I get in the National company I work for, as well as my piers in my Union Hall, as well as those in my local area who know me. I think I can figure out anything, fabricate anything, and repair anything. Every once in a while I need to be put in my place. This old Venture is trying real hard to do just that. (87 Standard) I've been following this site for about 4 years now, and am doing many of the things that I've read that others do to their bikes, and am finding out just how difficult many of these repairs are. Kudos to all of you, and thanks for all the great advice / info I've gotten over the years, and you have my utmost respect for making them sound so easy. I don't get a chance to ride nearly as much as I'd like to, since with my trade, I'm usually working long hours / 6 days during much of the prime riding season, and this year has certainly been no exception. I'll be going on a road trip with friends at the end of August, typically putting 1,000 miles + over the 3 day trip. I know that doesn't sound like much to most of you, but for me it's a bit of an event. In any case, I'm having an issue that caused me to break the bike down somewhat and I figured it'd be a good time to play catch up on some of the things I should have done in the past. What I've done over the past two weeks, in the evenings after work, when I've been able to get home before 9:00, is to replace the carb diaphragms, all of which had small holes. That was the only easy task. I also replaced the spark plug wires, which wasn't too bad, but the right front one was a PITA. I also changed the final drive fluid, but didn't grease the ?spline?....how important is this? The issue that started all this was the exhaust issue where I was getting quite a bit of exhaust flow and noise, some backfiring out of the drain hole on the left side muffler. I thought I had a miss, but after changing the diaphragms and wires, I pulled the exhaust all apart and examined what I could see of the inside of the mufflers and the collector. I saw nothing out of the ordinary. I didn't actually pull the collector off, but pulled the front pipes off and the mufflers off and saw no cracks, nothing loose, no evidence of exterior leaks. I put the front pipes back on and started it with the mufflers off and it seemed to run well. No backfires from either side, and it ran relatively smoothly. Put the mufflers back on and the sound's still there. I'm convinced that the left side muffler has something blown out inside of it. I don't know how the inside of the muffler is configured, and don't understand how it could develop such a problem all of a sudden, but I can think of no other explanation. So that brings my first question.....are there aftermarket mufflers available that will fit this bike, or does anyone know where I can find a good used replacement. Second question is with the clutch slave cylinder. It's been leaking for a couple of years now, causing me to refill the reservoir once or twice a season. I want to rebuild it, but it seems to be tucked in behind the ? output ? casing, making access difficult. If I pull the two bolts that hold it, how difficult will it be to remove and rebuild? If I can get the muffler situation resolved, and the slave cylinder rebuilt, all I should have left to do is to change out the brake fluid (never been done and looks nasty in the window) ...and I'll feel comfortable that I've done my due diligence to keep this old beauty maintained. Any advice with these issues from those of you "in the know" will be much appreciated. I know this was long winded, thanks for staying with me to the end.

I'm going over my 87 Standard, trying to resolve this miss that the ol' gal acquired. While I'm at it, I'm changing the carb diaphragms, which has needed done for a while, small holes in the first two I changed out. (A much easier job than I thought it'd be) I got a set of replacement spark plug wires, and a set of used coils on the way just in case I need one. The coils don't seem easily accessible, and I'll need to get at them to replace the wires, and I'd like to check the coils themselves while I'm at it. Do I need to remove the entire fairing, or can I get at them by removing the battery or what? I'm sure if I do a search I'll find the checkout procedure for the coils, but if anyone knows the quick and dirty on that, please lemme know. I'll also take a look at the plug for the TCI that I've seen mentioned so much. Any info on not making more of a job of this than need be would be appreciated. Thanks.

I missed out on the last buy and kicked myself for it. When you do the next buy, I'm in. Thanks for setting this up.

Ok....still really busy for an air conditioning tech, but I was able to get home early enough to pull the mufflers off and compare. No visible difference between the two. I started her up with the mufflers off, and I must say, it put a smile on my face....she sounded good. Anyhoo, I tried comparing the two sides with mufflers off and what I decided is that it's not an exhaust problem at all. I have one cylinder with a miss. I noticed a more definite "pulse" from the right side, but from the problem side, the pulse isn't as well defined, and when I'd rev it a bit it'd give a little backfire here and there. I'm guessing it's gotta be ignition rather than carb because it's inconsistent. I changed the plugs when I first noticed the problem, so I doubt it's a plug. I'm thinking I may have a bad plug wire. Tomorrow I'll start it up again and check the two pipes on that side to see if one heats up quicker than the other. Any other suggestions appreciated. Thanks:detective:

Flyin' Fool Duh....yeah....that's what I meant. Raising the rear of the motorhome drops the back of the trailer to a point where it doesn't scrape at all. I saw no damage to anything on the underside of the bike, but the curious thing is that I do get a tiny bit of exhaust coming from the drain hole on the right side of the bike, but significantly more from the drainage hole on the left side. With the bike running, I could find no other sources of the noises I was hearing. I did the tubing thing to the ear to isolate where it was coming from and the left side drain hole was the source of all the unhappy sounds. The exhaust coming from the tailpipes seems to be about the same on both sides. I thought maybe something was clogged on the problem side, but everything seems normal except for the excessive leakage from the drain hole. ??? I'm an air conditioning tech, so it's hard to get free time right now, but I'm gonna try to tear the exhaust apart this weekend to look at it. If it's something I can see, I can weld it up, but I don't know how much I'll be able to tell from an external examination. I guess I'll find out.

Wife and I took the motorhome with my 87 on a trailer out to the East Coast for a bit of riding in the Ocean City area. When loading / unloading the ol' gal on the trailer, (the bike, not the wife), I noticed something on the underside of the bike nipped a weld at the back of the trailer. Apparantley there's a really close tolerance where the ramp ends and the trailer deck begins. I could see no damage on the bike,...nothing obvious broken or pulled apart, but I can see where the weld on the trailer was scraped. I learned that for easiest unloading I'll use the motorhome leveling jacks to lift the front of the motorhome, giving less of an angle on the loading ramp on the trailer. In any case, the bike seems to run ok, although the diaphrams need replaced (just ordered a new set) The thing is that she started making some sounds that I first thought were major problems, ....sounded like maybe a valve rapping, with an occasional backfire on low rpm / heavy throttle situations. Got the bike back to the motorhome, and let her cool down and gave her the once over, finding the source of all the noise was from the 1/4" hole in the bottom of the inlet of the left muffler. I kept riding, with the noise, and had no further problems, but am wondering what could be causing the increased exhaust flow through this hole. (compared to the other side) Right side barely has any exhaust leakage through it, and no noticeable noise......left side has noticeable exhaust flow and noise through this small hole. Any ideas what I should be looking for before I tear into it? Thanks y'all.

Went through the class to get certified for 410a about a year and a half ago. The thing that I found most troublesome was that that R410a is actually more harmful to the environment than the R22 that it's replacing. The justification is that since the new stuff is more efficient, there will be less CO2 produced by the powerplants because of the lower energy usage. The supposed benefit from lower CO2 outputs is supposed to outweigh the harm from leaked 410a. Seems like pretty fancy math to me. But what do I know....I just work on the stuff......There's gonna be a lot of r22 equipment out there for a long time to come. I got a few jugs in the shed I've had for quite a while that I think I'd best hang onto. When they started changing R12 systems to R134, you could retrofit an existing system with the new gas......that's not the case now, as they phase out the 22. The 410a runs at higher pressures than current systems components are rated for, so there's really no options except to replace the entire unit / system. It's all one big moneymaking game.

Twenty five smackers sent. Best wishes Dano. ....and this too will pass.....

Not very much. I drive a company van, and they don't have a problem if I make a stop for groceries when I need to. The wife has a company car, they pay the gas. We both fill up at a place where we get gas points, so I'm often stuck without enough gas cans to use it all up. I'm kind of up against it now, since the last time I got gas, the receipt says I've got $3.70 off a gallon (up to 30 gal) and that $1.70 of it will expire at the end of the month. I'm gonna have to start trying to use up some gas in one of my personal vehicles. Thank God for Seafoam. It works great as a stabilizer. Just braggin' here. lol:cool10: I'll take a bottleinfrontame over a frontallabotamie anyday.

Late 70s. Bought a 75 Honda XL350. Rode the heck out of it, in the dirt as much as the street. Then moved up to an XL500 which I rode mostly on the street, then a CB750 supersport for the street, and a Yammy TT500 for the dirt. The list goes on. Today 87 Venture standard 85 Nighthawk 700s 82 CB900 custom Non running 93 Katana 600 (just needs some tlc...and paint..)

I didn't think it was a difficult job. The only sticking point was the pyramid seals which were too tall. There should be plenty of posts about these seals. Make sure that the ones you get are OEM, or at least the same thickness. The Pyramid seals may be the only problem ones; I'm not too sure about that. The only other thing about the progressive spring / seal changeout that I remember being a PITA was figuring the length on the pvc spacer. The length given was too long, and it was through a bit of trial and error that I figured the length. I think it had to be a bit shorter than suggested. In any case, that was two years ago, and have had no problems since.

Had the same problem with mine. When placed side by side, the pyramid was about 1/16" taller, which was enough to make the difference. I fought with it for a couple of hours before I gave up and got oem seals, which gave me no such problem. I can't believe that they keep selling these seals that don't fit. Get the right ones and it'll go right together. Ya live and ya learn.

Mine is my little Teacup Pomeranian (ankle biter) with the firemans outfit my wife put on him for Halloween one year. It's a cute pic, and it's the first one I came across when I first set up my info.