Pasta Burner

Well it seems to be working well, best it’s ran since I got it. It was very noticeable when shifting that it wasn’t nose diving like it always had before, I just figured that was the nature of the beast, but am now thinking it was the brakes dragging and slowing her down. Also the pulsating is no longer evident at all. Maybe just giving everything a good scrubbing and some love is all she needed.

Thanks guys. I do have a professional pressure tester, as long as the rad cap isn’t some one off design it should work. Just pulled in from a 75 mile ride in 90* heat so I’ll have to wait, but I did not notice the gauge getting above 3/4 at any point and it was at half majority of the time I looked down. Fan wasn’t even running when I pulled her in the stable. I did fill the coolant tank before I left just to see what happens, forgot to check when I got home, but will do so when I refill my beer. There is an oil leak that I’m 99% sure is from a ****ty overused drain plug washer that I haven’t changed yet, but point is I haven’t noticed any I’ll effects in the oil that drips out.

No worries at all! All of what I’ve been doing with the bike has been a great learning experience and knowledge to reflect back on when I’ll need it most; in a pinch on the side of the road!

Thanx! As soon as I get hot enough to get outta the pool I’ll swap that washer right back to where it originally was, on the outside. Before I do that I’ll use the current setup to spin the wheels to see if there is any obvious warp. is there supposed to be anything special about the washer? Shape, thickness, etc...? When you get somebody else’s project, you never know what’s been messed with.

That makes sense to me but is in direct contrast to my previous thread about a pulsating pedal. https://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?145222-Pulsating-rear-87-VR

True that! I’ve only even heard of a Venture since April 😁 and have had a blast in my garage these past few months.

The recent post in the “working CLASS” thread reminded me to ask this. The coolant overflow tank is always dry...what’s the deal with that? I put distilled water in it a few times and it always seems to gradually disappear. But even if I don’t fill it the bike never indicates overheating. I didn’t come up with any solid answers when I searched this.

Pics

Trying to upload photos. I took the rear tire off, axel seemed to move smoothly but went ahead and loosened the rear drive and wiggled it around (don’t think it did much) and tightened it all back up. Bled the system again, put the tire and everything back together and my suspicion from before today is confirmed. Something is out of alignment. The inside pads with all the pistons retracted are dragging on the rotor. It’s like the caliper needs to move inboard 1/8 inch or so to be centered over the rotor. I thought maybe I needed to tighten the axel a little more but there is a clear “that’s tight enough” point using my calibrated elbow. The rotor has an offset in the favorable direction (outboard) but not enough. I thought maybe I had the caliper bracket on wrong but it only fits one way. I’m stumped. Maybe it’s not an original rotor or caliper? The only thing I can think to bandaid this is add a spacer on the caliper bolts between the caliper and bracket to center it.

Might be a silly question, but did you clean the connectors? Scrub out any corrosion and put a little dielectric grease on there. Do the grease after it starts working consistently, it’s cleaner that way.

did you flow all of the joints or just the ones you thought to be suspect? Also check to see if any joints are bridged. I don’t have an extra for you, but I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on some of these broken ones.

Well SF had the exit gates jacked up all week at my base causing at least an hour delay getting home, took my class yesterday on my other bike and still learned a lot and learned I have more to learn. Finally got a chance to look at the venture today and looks like the caliper and spacers and everything is aligned correctly. Took off the reservoir and cleaned it, not really dirty just a little dark brown skim of scum on the bottom. Happened to have recently changed a high E on one of the guitars and had a decent amount of leftover to cut off and stick in the master hole. Still nothing major came out, but I don’t think that’s the issue. Bled the system using the front right/rear/top method and that made more sense to me. Front caliper is letting go as it should so that makes me believe the master is doing what it should and the culprit is the rear caliper. I’ve read about swapping front calipers for R1 /R6 is there a rear full upgrade before I order new seals for stock one? Also I noticed only the outside pistons on the rear really seem to be moving they are at least three times more exposed than the inside pistons, and when I pushed on the pedal I could see them move out and back in when released.

Gonna hopefully get to this tonight. Great tip on the squirt bottle, gonna check wallyworld on the way home.

Thanks all, I will bleed again this time Front left, then center, then rear and see where that gets me. What’s the easiest way to remove the reservoir? Removing the seat?

Brakes are still linked.

Or maybe they are not linked anymore and that’s why the warning indicator came on. I’ll have to get it up on the jack and check because I also think I noticed the hand brake was spongy too, but I chalked that up to overthinking it and I had just got back from a ride on my Duc. Gotta unbox the new Jack, just had to exchange mine at HF a few hours ago due to a broken weld joint.

87 VR. Brakes are still linked. I did the bleed from triple to front left to rear (as suggested in another thread) using a Mitivac. Used grease around the bleed screw threads to stop any localized air entering the system.

First off thanx to all the wonderful help on this site! I owe you all a burger and a beer if your ever in my neighborhood! So I’ve read a few different threads concerning this and rather than try to piggyback someone else’s experience I thought it would be cleaner to start a new thread. Had an issue with a pulsating pedal and when I recently swapped tires I put the washer between the wheel and caliper and solved that issue, no more pulse. I still am having the issue of a dragging rear caliper. I bleed the brakes and that didn’t help, I removed and took apart the caliper and cleaned it’s guts. I tried to get new seals from my local dealer but they didn’t have them in stock. I put it all back together and still the same issue. With the bike on a jack or center I can spin the wheel, but it’s very difficult. I then used Pucs roadside clean the vent hole method and that seemed to work a little (Although no spurt of fluid after sticking the wire in the hole, no fluid at all came out) and I could more easily spin the rear, but not like wheel of fortune or the price is right. Had too many drinks for a test ride so I called it a night. Before test ride today the brake warning indicator is now on, owners manual says this is for the front master, which I didn’t touch. Took it for a ride around the block and the pedal was spongy, but I somewhat expected that, I had already planned to bleed again after a test ride. And the rotor was insanely hot, probably less than a mile ride. a couple of questions as some other info in other threads is a little conflicting. 1. What are the piston seals supposed to do? Just hold the fluid back or aid in retracting the piston? 2. What do good seals look like? Mine are intact, but are in no way uniform around their circumference. 3. What tool do you recommend to remove the pistons? I used an old towel a vice and vice grips. Got them out without damage, but I wouldn’t want to do that again if I can prevent it. 4. How in the hell do you get the fluid cleanly into that hole?!? I ended up using a funnel for a flask, and she was smoking like a chimney this morning burning off all the spillage. 5. what should I do next? because big bikes are new to me I paid for an experienced rider course that’s coming up next weekend, aside from just riding the venture in general, I really want of take that course with it.

Having a similar issue. A little while back the rear was hanging up, I thought I had it fixed after adjusting the freeplay, then she sat for a month waiting on new tires and me getting time to put them on. Rode to work and home yesterday and the rear was dragging again, I could hear and feel it when trying to push the bike. First as mentioned in another thread I cracked the bleeder to relieve pressure, that did nothing. second I Took the caliper off last night and externally gave it a good cleaning with brake cleaner and a nylon brush. Two pistons were extended the other side retracted. Using a few clamps and whatnot I individually got all four moving smoothly pumping the pedal and pushing them back in. put it all back together and rode to work this morning...rotor was hot as hell when I got to work. 5miles. my plan for tonight is to bleed the system and see if that helps. Any other ideas? The front left seems fine.

Makes sense to me. Honestly the main reason I left them on was because of the safety advantage of more lighting. Also swapped out the halogen driving lights with some daylight colored LED’s from Home Depot, (you may recall I was having a charging issue in the bad stator? Post). Gotta get some miles on the new tires, I don’t know if I can feel the road better with them or if it’s something entirely different, the front end seems bouncy at the 20-30 mph range. Put more air in the shock, we’ll see what the ride home feels like.

the PO put led rope light around the outsides of the rotor covers. Close up it looks hokey, but from a distance and at night it looks nice.

Ahhhh I see!! Thanks! As mentioned one of the vids you posted I saw yesterday, but missed the concept of the gear and pins as a piece. Seeing it out in the other vid makes sense. I was thinking only the center gear came out and had fingers or something in the Center hub. The rear wheel is super easy to get off and on, the front proved to be a real bear for me. If I decided to not put back the chrome dust covers I’m sure it would be easy. But getting five separate parts aligned isn’t that simple. Unless there is a trick someone knows...

WTF!?! The vid links only showed up when I hit “reply with quote”. Well now I know how to find the missing link ! Puc I found your YouTube channel yesterday and watched the vid you had about the spline being wore out, but didn’t see any others. Excited to watch these!

Only went out for a handful of miles to scrub in the new tires and just finally get back on two. I wasn’t paying attention fully for a pulse as I was more concerned with if I balanced the new rubber sufficiently. But I’m pretty sure moving that washer to the inside did the trick. No noticeable pulse that I recall.

Thanks for the reply and notes to the manual. It’s gonna be a winter project now. Cleaned and greased what I could access.