My oil tank was leaking at the seams so I finally got around to replacing it today. I just finished with the bike, and then I realized there were (4) connections on the oil tank...and I only hooked up (3).


I got the Oil feed hose and the Oil drain hose on the right hand side of the bike. Lastly, I got the oil return hose on the left hand side of the bike.


Looking at the old tank...I see a piece of hose about 3" that looks like it broke apart. I found the other end of a small hose, and then realized the hose is Item #16 - Vent Tube. I honestly think the hose has been broken for a long time and appears to have broke at the expanding joint that connects to the tank. Here's the partsfische:


http://partsfinder.onlinemicrofiche....TANK-W/-FILTER


Anyways...I missed this when I put the bike all back together. I didn't connect anything to the bottom vent connection on the tank. So a couple questions: Is there going to be a problem with the tank vent connection and the other end of the vent line basically referencing atmosphere? I suspect the vent on the tank doesn't matter unless someone filled the tank up with too much oil...and then it's going to spit oil out of that connection? The broken vent line doesn't look to be in the way of anything, and I only suspect worst case that the vent hose would spit out oil if the motor or transmission sump gets too full or overpressured? Honestly, If the vent line being broken isn't going to hurt anything, I would rather just leave it as it is, but I wanted to check before I started the bike. Thanks for your comments ahead of time.

 

Just a follow-up:


I noticed that the vent hose isn't one continuous piece. The expanders are just pieces of hose over the smaller plastic hose with no coupling. I ended up going to the auto-parts store and just getting a small 6" piece of hose for the vent. I was even able to connect the vent without taking the fender back off.