Drain? Breather?...

Hi all,

Can someone please tell me from which component/system is this breather/drain comming from?
I'm just trying to avoid start taking pcs apart to find out where is this is connected...
Many thanks.
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Could be the fuel tank breather or the drain from the fuel tank gutter (under the filler).
They both drop down at the back of the tank and are about that long.

Sorry, I started writing this thinking you meant the hoses being held in the gloved hand.

It's one of the two drains from the airbox. There are two. One is underneath at just about the lowest part of the box, the other comes off the left hand rear of the box looping out and forward around the front of the shock. Both are retained by a wire loop affixed to the frame behind the side plate board of the gearbox output shaft. Both of these breathers should be plugged.

The BLACK hoses are not airbox drains. One of them is the battery tray drain and connects to the spigot on the tray with a small brass fitting visible when the tray is lifted out when the two rear tank mounts are removed. The second one is the drain for the two spigots on, (On the 1100 the bottom of the tank adjacent to the fuel pump and on the 1200 at the back of the tank.) the fuel tank one of which is the drain from around the fuel filler neck and the other one is the tank vent hose. On European/Australasian models this vents to atmosphere and on US models goes to the charcoal canister.

Thanks

Ah yes i did not look at Matias' avatar - an 1100!
Pete is right (as usual) your tank gutter-drain and breather tubes join together to show as only one of those pipes[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Thanks Jon,

I will have to check that....Suddenly it seems the rubber hose got bigger under the bike...
Maybe when I pulled the tank up and backwards to change the inner spark plugs I pulled the hose out of its normal routing....or disconnected it...

The important ones are the two *clear* drain hoses from the airbox. These have to be firmly attached and capped at the bottom. The tubing they are made from is horrible! It yellows and hardens and then fractures, usually out of sight. When this happens dirty air can get into the airbox and befoul the throttlebodies and stepper motor leading to all sorts of expensive problems so make sure they are good.

Most CARC bikes by now have very shabby or missing/broken hoses. It's a good idea to replace them regularly. We use clear 'Food Grade' polythene hose with an ID of 6mm. Strangely it's made in the Vatican which is a bit odd as I didn't think they made stuff there but the label clearly says it's made by the Pope.....

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Those won't fail because they are blessed

Hi,

I took a peep under the tank, pulled slightly the drain rubber hose, and found out I pulled the drain out while raising the tank to access the inner plugs and didn't noticed ....hope I can stick them back in without having to remove everything again....

While I was there I checked the other hoses and......Pete scored again!!!
The 2 cristal hoses from the airbox are dry, hard and broken....

So, here come the questions: is it possible to attach new hoses to the airbox skweezing your hands between all the steel and plastic or is it necessary to remove that airbox to do it?

depends how big your hands are!!
I worked on mine about a year ago. I made sure to install pinch/squeeze style hose clamps and wound up using extra extra long needle nose pliers to get the bottom/front hose one. The back /side hose is manageable without too many contortions

edit - did this with the airbox in place

Chris,
You want to ride to Savannah and do mine? So of course I had to check my front one cause I did the back one when it broke off months ago. So it fell apart in multiple place as soon as I touched it. Now I’m trying to figure out how to get to it to get the new hose on it with a clamp. How long were those needle nose pliers? If that doesn’t work, what is plan B?
Thanks,
John

John,
I road to Beaufort once. took me about 6+hrs - that was a long ride! I suppose Savannah would add at least another hour

the hose job wasn't the easiest process, but you can get to the hose connection by going behind the throttle bodies with these. you can probably get these at harbor freight ( found mine in the middle of the road!)
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tried to take a shot of the connection but the focus on my phone didn't like what I was telling it to do, so not the clearest shot

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Thanks Chris! I ordered a set of 11” needle nose pliers on Amazon. I guess the question I have is: what is the purpose of having two drain hoses on an air box? For when you overfill your bike with oil? I’ve never done that and those clear hoses have been empty for the 8.5 years I’ve owned my bike. So if that’s the purpose, I’m inclined to just cap that little spigot….
And, yes Beaufort is about an hour away.

Chris, that spigot couldn't be in a worse position....
You were able to reach it from the left or right side?
I saw some silicone tubes 5 mm ID x 10 mm OD in the internet, which supposedly can resits to temperature. I think I will give them a try. This is something you don't wanna do every now and then...

The right side is the only way I can see. Of course the spigot is right above the switch that shows when you are in neutral so be careful there. Those connectors are dodgy too.

Taking the tank off is not hard, just be careful with the fuel connector not to snap the plastic L shaped valve on the bottom of the tank.  Having the tank off enables better access to the airbox and corresponding tubes a lot easier.   It helps to put a little clips on all of these tubes on the nipple, will prevent it from coming off accidentally.

Hi,

I did try to remove the tank John...It's the second time I try to open that "quick" release connector, bu it just won't go...It's a fact I didn't de-pressurized the circuit, like someone mentioned on the forum...I din't planned to remove the tank in the beginning, and when I decided to go that way the battery was off already...

But, even though I didn't remove the airbox completely, I was able to raise it from the back, which gives access to the spigot (white arrow in one of the photos). It was really not that complicated to lift the airbox....Let's see how it will go to put it back in place...Theres a lot of cables, hoses, connectors, that must remain in the right place....

The yellow stain on the frame (white arrow on the photo) results from a missing drain from the battery tray. Either Mario forgot to assemble it or it desintegrated with time...It's worth checking if it is there...it made a pretty mess in the frame.

The small drain rubber hoses that connect to the back of the tank are considerably hardened too, and jump out of the spigots easily...I have a piece of similar size vinyl tube in the garage and I am tempted to replace them...Just don't know if they get along well with gasoline and heat from the engine...Some insight from the experts is very welcome.

Bottom line: I just had the bike put together after my intervention last week, and now is everything apart again....I need more riding and less garage
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I don’t see how removing the tank helps to get the bottom side of the air box. I’d still like to know why we even need a drain from the air box too.

I was trying to take the box out to give it a good clean, because in fact its a bit oily. And I don't overfill too....

Still about the airbox disassembly...
The instructions from the Manual are a bit confusing to me...
What do they mean with "disconnect the vacuum tube"? Is there a vacuum tube? Where? What we see him grabbing on the photo is the blow-by breather hose...
The "water breather hose" is the rear transparent hose and the "blow-bly drain hose" is the front transparent one, causing all this fuss, right?
Thanks guys
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Matias wrote:

Hi,

I did try to remove the tank John...It's the second time I try to open that "quick" release connector, bu it just won't go...It's a fact I didn't de-pressurized the circuit, like someone mentioned on the forum...I din't planned to remove the tank in the beginning, and when I decided to go that way the battery was off already...

A tool such as this makes easy work of the fuel line disconnect...you can find something like this locally, or on line:

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Once you have the tank off, you can see and access better where the top tubes come into the top right and top left of the airbox...agreed that taking the tank off doesn't help solve the access to the cruddy yellow tubes below the airbox.

whats the purpose of the clear tubes from the airbox?

I'm having trouble understanding the concept of drain tubes that are plugged at the bottom....???

If they weren't plugged, unfiltered air would get sucked in. That's bad.

Exactly. And NOTHING will kill your throttlebodies as quickly as dirty air, especially the 50mm ones on the 8V.

While they are drain tubes they might equally be described as 'Reservoirs' as oil from the airbox can simply settle in them to be drained out periodically.

Now several things will govern how much, if any, oil will end up in the airbox. Over filling the sump, more time spent at higher RPM and at larger throttle openings, how the engine was run in, how worn it is? All of these things can affect how much oil can end up in the airbox.

The rear hose off the back left of the airbox is, in my opinion, pretty superfluous as if there is enough oil expulsion for it to start collecting in that part of the box you're going to have some pretty serious engine problems! The one underneath is far more likely to end up with some expelled condensate in it and if missing will also cause an oily mess on top of the gearbox as well as allowing the ingress of dirt.

The best way to minimise oil in the airbox though is simply to let the engine find its own level as far as where the oil sits on the dipstick and not keep 'Topping it up' to the full mark when it is checked. On most engines ridden in an *average* manner this level will be somewhere around the half way mark between the 'Add' and 'Full' marks on the dipstick but in many cases it is lower and I really don't encourage anyone to add oil unless it drops off the stick entirely!

For the jobs it has to do, (Cleaning, cooling and lubrication.) there is an abundance of oil! Even when it is at the bottom of the stick!