I am supposed to leave for Pismo after work tomorrow, and my bike is serviced up and ready to go. I noticed this morning a little drip of oil under the bike, doh! I looked closer and it looks like the crankcase vent hose (the hose from the bottom right of the motor and the other end goes into one of the snorkel tubes) has a little tear in it at the first bend. I think that this is the source of my little oil leak. I called the dealer and it was impossible for me to explain to him what the hose was without showing it to him myself on the microfiche (not that they would have had it in stock anyway). The stock hose is pretty fancy looking. I went to Pep Boys, and all they had was what they were calling "bulk hose" (heater hose?). Would this work just as well to replace the stock vent hose? Does anyone recall what the inside diameter of the stock crankcase vent hose is? I'm hoping to get this fixed tonight. Thanks is advance for any help you might give me.

 

That sounds like a good solution. Mine just looks like regular hose you would get at a parts store. I don't know if heater hose is oil resistant. Oil eats some rubber. I would just pull your damaged one off and match the diameter and length at the local NAPA. If that is less than optimal, it will at least work for this trip and you can fix it when you get back.

I generally don't subscribe to hobcobbling fixes. This post was pushing the limit for me so I won't even dream of suggesting cleaning the damaged spot really well to the point that you could put a couple tight wraps of black electrical tape over the crack. It is not a high pressure line so it would probably hold for at least one trip, but again I didn't just suggest that.

The fact that a small amount of oil will be escaping wouldn't be much concern to me. I just wouldn't want any sand getting in there.


Good Luck!

 

I've been running that hose for years.

I connect the hose directly to the fitting on the magneto. . the stocker uses a grey bushing to connect to. I had an extra magneto cover so just took it down there to get the correct size.

I run mine up and over the radiator towards the front of the bike then down and along the frame. Have it open and zip-tied right about where the swing-arm bolt is.

 

One of the first things I did was rip those corrugated intake hoses off the air box. This forced me to find something creative to do with that crank case breather hose. Stock it is set up to send any oil that it bleeds right back into the intake to be run back through combustion. Most of my DS buddies were getting little K&N filters to attach to the breather tube end after they removed their intake hoses for the purpose of allowing the breather hose to still breathe yet the filter would stop anything from blowing or crawling into the hose.

Since I also installed a manual carb instead of a vacuum operated one, I discovered that the clear vacuum tube that runs from the side of the snorkle back by the air box all the way to the stock carb fit perfectly inside the end of the breather hose. Since I didn't need that vacuum hose and I needed to plug it off anyway to keep sand from entering the intake past the filter, I simply rammed that vacuum tube right in the breather hose until it was the proper length, installed a hose clamp and now my breather hose is again dumping what little it bleeds back into the intake like it did stock. Don't get me wrong, I don't care if it goes into the intake or not. I just like the idea of killing two birds with one stone, it looks like it was meant to be that way to 99% of the masses and I don't have any messy oil tube that secretes anywhere on the motor or frame like my buddie's breather hoses do.FWIW [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

My best suggestion is to cut the bad section out of the hose and take it to the NAPA store just north of clawsons on Blackstone and see if they have a plastic coupler to repair the hose. That and a couple zip-ties, used as hose clamps will easily get you through the weekend and then some.
If NAPA doesn't have the correct size coupler, ask for some oil hose (they call it Lock-On hose) to replace your hose with.
Heater and gas hose will get spongy and eventually tear when used with oil so its not recommended except as a last ditch effort to get through the weekend. So I guess thats option # 3

 

Mine is set up same as DS Nut, not had a problem.

Just FYI, I took the ends out of the corrugated tubes and slid a trailer hitch ball cover over each one to block off the holes in the airbox when washing my DS.......works great.
slip those two pieces in the holes where the snokel tubes went, slap the lid back on and she is water tight.

 

I think I was able to get this problem solved last night. I don't know how your guys' stock vent hose is set up, but mine had about three inches of one type of hose that connects to a nipple coming from the crankcase (with a barb) on one end, and the other end just gets crammed into a bigger softer hose that goes up by the headers, by the carb, and tucked under the gas tank (with a UNI breather on the end). I got a six inch piece of power steering hose from Napa and replaced the two inch section that had the little slit in it, causing my oil leak. Other than the little hose (now six inches instead of two) going farther into the bigger hose and fitting together tighter, everything is the same. I started the motor and felt how much airflow was coming out of the crankcase vent hose (I had never done this before). There seemed to be a small amount of air coming out, but not as much as I had expected from reading previous posts. I hope mine is normal.

Thanks everyone for your help/advice. I cannot tell you how awesome this site is, especially for someone like me with virtually no mechanical experience or ability (I am a C.P.A. by trade). Its kind of like having a genie in a bottle.

 

This is the best site by far, many good heads here willing to share their knowledge.
Your breather tube is not stock, not sure if you knew that or not. You must have your air box removed and a K&N filter attached to your carb?. This is usually why the breather gets stuffed under the tank with a filter on the end.

If not and the stock airbox is still in place, I suggest that you rerout the hose back to the original position in the side of the airbox. There is no performance advantage to routing it under the tank versus into the airbox and the disadvantage to your current arrangement is that eventually oil will come out of the breather and it will have to go somewhere. As long as you have an airbox, it will go in there. No muss-no fuss

 

Just a question on this. I have put PCV valve on the end of this engine breather. Only allows air to move out and not in (so no dirt get in either)

Is this a bad idea?

 

Well my suggestion is duct tape fixes everything lol if you can't get a new hose then just tape it or try putting something around it