clutch mystery

I hope you solve your problem.You have a good parts bike to take from.It could be the ghost of Bongobobny wanting attention.Don't feel bad.I have to drop the rear end on my Suzuki.Good luck Ben.

This happened to me today. Just got a 83 venture 1200 . Tuesday 3/10/20. First time to ride it. Only problem was 2gear. y'all told me that's normal. Skip 2gear.. going to watch grandkids across town. Caught the light with a ahead of me. Pull the clutch. all good just slowly rolling. Then bike jumped.no clutch. Lucky to have a out. Missed the car& curb. Had to push it up a steep driveway. Been trying to follow since noon today.

Gotta agree with Carl.. Air in the lines and an SOB to get it outta there.... I had a big clutch FUBAR on my '83 when I bought it, and all Venture clutches are basically the same. Not knowing anything about the clutch I ended up rebuilding the entire system from A to Z, and thru trial and error I learned a lot. There's a reason why the owners manual tells you to bleed the clutch and brakes every two years. When I bought my '99RSV I popped the cover off the clutch reserve, and the stuff in there was of high grade ink quality. Probably never bled since it rolled off the showroom floor. Luckily it still functioned. And by now I knew how to get it out and clean things up by unconventional methods. Conventional doesn't work!! What worked for me and for many bleeds afterwards is to force DOT 3 into the clutch slave and up thru the lines, and into the reserve. Takes about 15 minutes with the proper set up, and then install speed bleeders. The best thing for a clutch..and brakes.. since sliced bread. I have a write up on the reverse bleed procedure. If you're interested drop me a PM...

You must also insure that all the copper washers are in place and not scared.

I just read this thread from start to finish, and one thing hasn’t been brought up...Saddlebum you say you’ve been a wrench for 40 some odd years so you probably already did this, but when you rebuild the master, there is a teeny tiny hole which is difficult to see and could be clogged....I don’t know if this could cause the problems you’ve described...but perhaps it’s worth a look. BTW, I use a single bristle from a nylon brush to clear that hole.

Hope this might help.

I just read this thread from start to finish, and one thing hasn’t been brought up...Saddlebum you say you’ve been a wrench for 40 some odd years so you probably already did this, but when you rebuild the master, there is a teeny tiny hole which is difficult to see and could be clogged....I don’t know if this could cause the problems you’ve described...but perhaps it’s worth a look. BTW, I use a single bristle from a nylon brush to clear that hole.

Hope this might help.

Are you thinking about the vent port under the reservoir cap?

That will give you an inactive squeeze.

I just read this thread from start to finish, and one thing hasn’t been brought up...Saddlebum you say you’ve been a wrench for 40 some odd years so you probably already did this, but when you rebuild the master, there is a teeny tiny hole which is difficult to see and could be clogged....I don’t know if this could cause the problems you’ve described...but perhaps it’s worth a look. BTW, I use a single bristle from a nylon brush to clear that hole.

Hope this might help.

If the expansion hole is plugged it causes the brakes to drag or lock up tighter than a frogs a__ .