Clutch reservoir

[SpencerPJ]

Hi all. Newbie here, bought an 83 Venture, first bike in over 20 years. Nice old bike, 22k miles. My question, and I've read much on this, but I'm not the sharpest bike mechanic. Anyways, my reservoir is leaking right where the plunger goes into the reservoir up by the hand lever. I found the rebuild kits, but how hard is it. It looks like I need some snap ring pliers. I'm a handyman for house repairs so fairly handy, just have a lot to learn about bikes. Can anyone point me to a write up on how to do this start to finish? Is there any reason I'd be better off finding a local mechanic? Will I have to bleed the system, or just refill reservoir? I'm very nervous about this.... Thanks

[rbig1]

I rebuilt mine had to borrow plyers from local shop. Used them right there to remove it. Then finished it at home. Lots of debree inside. If i was doining it would rebuild clutch slave also. Its all in the tec section and some of the members have it documented well. I bled mine with a hand held vac pump. Mity vac brand. While at it you may want to bleed the brakes also. Dont over fill with fluid as heat builds up and applys brakes goood

[SpencerPJ]

I can't find anywhere in the tech forum with this detailed, I've looked for hours before my first post. I find some comments here and there. It doesn't sound too bad, and I've even heard that if you are careful and leave reservoir lid off, squeeze clutch slowly a couple times, it will burp air out. Any other feedback would be appreciated as well, Thanks

[mbrood]

You want to lay down some plastic and absorbant material under the master to protect ANYTHING beneath or nearby. Take the reservoir cover off and syphon out the fluid you can, then wipe her down inside. Remove the nut and bolt holding the lever. This will come out and you want to pull the short pushrod followed by the rubber dust protector and the pushrod spring. Clean inside the hollow so you can clearly see and get at the circlip locked in the inside of the piston cylinder. Now you need straight, narrow, circlip pliers to pull the circlip. As you pull the piston you might get a bit more fluid so be prepared. Once it's out you want to pull out the piston return spring and then shine a light in the end you pulled the piston and look in the reservoir and insure that the main (fill) hole and the tiny (relief) hole in the bottom of the reservoir are clear. The repair kit contains the two rubbers for the piston, a new pushrod, spring and dust seal rubber. Assemble in reverse.

 

Once the circlip and lever are reassembled, fill the reservoir halfway and start pumping the lever the get the piston area full. If you don't get any pressure, you probably have an air bubble at the banjo bolt, break it SLIGHTLY and use the "bleeding" technique to get the air out of the banjo area, tighten it up and you should be good... if it's still spongy, go down to the slave's bleed and do a typical clutch bleed.

[SpencerPJ]

I think I can do it... I'll order the parts, get some fine circle clip pliers and giver it a whirl, and let you know how it goes. Thanks for the write up.

[dacheedah]

remove old , clean it up and replace with rebuild kit. Easy and strait forward. Do a good check of hoses to make sure they are in good order also ( not cracking )

[Yamamike]

Hey Spencer...just in case you're not aware, the reason you need to capture the fluid is that it eats paint and plastic. Be careful of any fluid dripping from the reservoir and bleeder screws.

When I restored my 83 last year, I changed the fluid to DOT 5 which is silicon based and does not affect paint or plastic. I did not want my new paint ruined by dripping/spilling brake fluid.

The down side is that the DOT 5 is not compatible with other fluids and the old stuff MUST be completely and thoroughly flushed out. I had my calipers off and disassembled to check and clean all the seals so I was certain of no residual fluid. The DOT 5 fluid should also be replaced (flushed) every couple seasons as well but in my opinion well worth knowing my paint won't accidentally get ruined.

Good luck!

[SpencerPJ]

ya, I get that brake fluid is bad stuff, done a little work on older cars. I doubt if I change out to Dot 5. I really need to order a shop manual as well, so I understand the workings...

[KIC]

There is a shop manual in the tech section. And when searching this site, use the search drop down and click down on the very bottom under Google search, click on the one like below:

www.venturerider.org

That way you only get the posts and threads here.

 

You can also bleed your clutch down below at the slave cylinder if you have trouble. Just be careful... by pumping the lever, both of mine can burp that fluid out of the reservoir.

So cover and protect man...cover and protect !

[van avery]

Try this link for the manual.

http://labs.trunkful.com/vrmanuals/index.cfm