Kawasaki VN750 Forum banner

Wanted: Seasoned VN 750 mechanic

4K views 29 replies 11 participants last post by  Vulcan2000 
#1 ·
I have a 05 VN 750 with which i would like to have several mods done to..It has the typical problems of hard to start, backfire, loss of power, POOG, etc..It has iridium plugs, AGM battery, relocated voltage rectifier..Had it to a Kawasaki shop and a BMW to have splines lubed , carbs cleaned and sinced but still have issues.. would like to find a reliable mechanic or shop that knows these bikes and willing to do the pick up coil mod, coasters & ear shave, and what ever it takes to make the bike right I'm located in southern Illinois and willing to travel to get it done .Thanks
 
#2 ·
You can't make it right by modifying it. Clean stock, then clean modded. That's the ticket. They don't do this from the factory, it's a maintenance issue. Mine is stock at 40,000 miles aside of the goat and it runs like a top. Modify things before you fix them, it'll be harder to find the issue.
 
  • Like
Reactions: OleDirtyDoc
#3 ·
You do realize that this bike probably ran great at one time before something or nothing happened to it. By that I mean either it was neglected and not maintained (nothing done to it) or someone tried to change it and messed things up (something done to it). When did the problems start and were there any changes just before that? You seem to be leaving out a load of information. Was the bike brand new when you got it or was it used with some problems. I can understand you taking it to a Kawasaki shop but why would you try a BMW shop unless you are trying to spend a lot of extra money for no reason. You stated that neither shop corrected the problem. What did they tell you if and when you told them there was still a problem? What did they tell you they did or attempted to do? I am not sure if a dealership would do any of the modifications you mention as it is not a normal recognized course of action for those facilities. There are a lot of questions here left unanswered so there are going to be a limited amount of answers coming your way in my opinion at this time. Good luck.
 
  • Like
Reactions: OleDirtyDoc
#4 ·
If he's taking it to the dealership for something as simple as greasing the splines, he obviously doesn't have any interest in doing the work himself. What he's asking for is reasonable. He just just wants someone that knows what they are doing to go through everything. If I lived closer I'd do it. Nothing wrong with making a little side cash.
 
#7 ·
I have ten thumbs. It's good for her that I'm too far away.

We all agree she's in a tight spot. How many members have said at one point or another, "I just want my baby back"? My guess is the bike hasn't ever been right while she's owned it. I wish her the best as I have no advice to help her on her way.
 
#8 ·
If you look at the history for Farmgurl you will see that all these problem go back to 2013 and Farmgurl has asked multiple questions about repairing things but never bothered to do an introduction. Not sure how much of a priority this bike is for the OP. Three years of problems and only fifteen postings? I doubt too many of us would tolerate three years of problems on anything.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mike DeAngelo
#9 ·
Yes, well put, which leads us to the reason why I'm single.
 
#11 ·
Thanks for your response. Here is some more information. The bike was purchased used with about 10000 miles. It did backfire upon starting, but rode it about 200 miles home..Read about dry spline issue, so first stop was a Kawasaki shop. They found the spline was lubed. I asked them to address the backfire and hard start. They cleaned the carbs..Did not solve problem..It would run and was able to ride but a pain in the rear to get started at times.The BMW shop said the carbs were out of sinc and adjusted them along with two new tires. It started, but 2 blocks from the shop it died. They had turned the petcock off. I turned in to on and cranked more than i wanted to,then realized the tank was low on fuel..I put it on res.and got it started. Filled tank and took off..It seemed to have no power in about 10 miles I slowed to turn and it died. would not start. Called shop. They said they would come and get it. I finally got it started and headed back to the shop..The bike ran great. Called shop and told them I was going to try to make it home..Rode 80 miles, made 2 stops and except for backfire upon start in had power like it should. The next day I was going to ride about 12 miles and again, no power and a strong smell of gas this time. Made it home. It sat in the garage for a couple of weeks. Yesterday I decided to try it. Started up fine, and ran great except for a slight popping when I let off the gas. Could it be a fuel supply issue with the petcock? Can I remove the gas from the tank and remove the petcock with out removing the tank? Is there a screen that will come out with the petcock? Thanks so much in advance.
 
#18 ·
So how much of this took place back in 2013 when you first started to post about the problems? If I paid to have a bike fixed by a dealership and it wasn't fixed right I would be looking for my money back and I have had that happen once. I did get my money back and then some for the inconvience of having to go back for the second time and loosing the use of the bike for an additional two weeks. If the bike sat for three years without running there may be additional problems or the nonuse of the bike compounded the original problem(s). I am still not seeing the full story here but I am not a dentist so I won't try to pull teeth to get an answer. There were problems and at least two attempts were made to get professional help which failed and it seems like the bike sat till the other day. It will probably be sold as soon as it is running again. JMHO. Everyone has a right to do what ever they want with their own bike. Good luck no matter what.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mike DeAngelo
#13 ·
Try starting it without opening the throttle. Mine backfires every time if I open the throttle at all. You might need the choke if the bike has been sitting 10 minutes or so, they cool off quick.

Are you using an AGM type battery? Wet cells don't perform well on this machine and can cause poor starts.

Popping on decel is usually a lean condition. Air screw adjustment, sticking coast enricher diaphragms, vacuum leak, lean pilot jets, etc. Look up marbling or coasters also, the emissions system can cause popping.

The petcock has two screen tubes inside the tank. Long one, about 3", for the main fuel, short one about 2" for reserve. Need to look, but it may be possible to pull the petcock with tank in place.
 
#15 ·
Had a whole post with more info written and lost it....

We can show you how to marble/cap the reed ports, or do coasters. It's simple if you can use pliers or a 10mm wrench. There should already be a sticky post with pics too.

Try the throttle as I mentioned, see if startups are better, just use the choke when it's needed. If my bike is warmed up, then I park for 15 minutes, it starts better/quicker if I choke it. So it seems to cool off quick. Mine will absolutely backfire on startup if I open the throttle, and I don't think it's ever started with the throttle open.

I would probably do the Two Wire mod before the pickup coil mod.
 
#19 ·
This idea that mods are going to fix your problems is a little misguided. The bike ran fine from the factory and you need to get it running well in stock condition before attempting any mods. Hard start is either going to be the carbs or the battery. An agm battery is good (a wet cell would also work just fine) but you need a battery tender if your not riding it often. A fully charged battery will make a world of difference. Backfiring is going to be either the carbs or ignition timing. Its unlikely its ignition timing so we're back to carbs. Have you verified what jets are in there? Clean stock air filters? What do the spark plugs look like? If these are questions that you can't or don't want to find the answer to then you need to bring it to someone who does. At that point I would just sell the thing. The money your going to pay someone to fix this is going to make you have way too much into it. Buy a newer bike with fuel injection and you won't have these problems. Buy an older bike and you have to learn how to fix it yourself or else you'll be wasting a lot of money on paying labor.
 
#24 ·
I'm not saying mods are a bad thing its just a bad idea to try on a bike thats already misbehaving. You have to have a baseline. "Everything was fine until I did this" so you know what your changes affected. Say she did the coil relay mod. Definitely a good thing but if the problem was in the carbs, she will still have a problem.
x2. The bike has probably sat for the three years with the same fuel or possibly just some added for the short rides to the dealerships. I wonder why the new tires that the BMW shop sold the OP didn't clear up the motor porblems? lol
 
#20 ·
It's been 3 years you've had issues with this bike. May be time to cut your losses and research another ride. This bike has problems, and being unable to wrench it yourself will cost you. Add to that the fact it's no longer in production, and parts can be difficult to find. A newer one would actually cost less in the long run and give you enjoyment. Just a thought.
 
#22 ·
I'm not saying mods are a bad thing its just a bad idea to try on a bike thats already misbehaving. You have to have a baseline. "Everything was fine until I did this" so you know what your changes affected. Say she did the coil relay mod. Definitely a good thing but if the problem was in the carbs, she will still have a problem.
 
#23 ·
1. Read your plugs/do plug chop (Easy to do) 2. Make sure good agm battery as endlessly repeated. 3. Check or have someone assist with carb inspection (I am suspicious of the cleaning job and reassembly)

If these things aren't doable then avoiding older used bike is probably called for. Otherwise, Don't give up on the bike! it CAN be fixed! Another used bike could experience similar problems especially if sitting long periods.

I suspect this bike sat with old gas at some point. Have you inspected the inside of tank for rust, debris and staleness etc.,
 
#25 ·
farmgurl58,
Do you know exactly what the kawi dealer did to the carbs when they worked on them? Just cleaning them may not have been enough. They should have been stripped down and inspected, replacing all the worn out or clogged parts. I have a completely stock cycle with no mods and had issues with starting in the mild to colder temperatures and hot starts. I cleaned and rebuilt my carbs replacing the float needle/seats, pilot jets, and the external cut-out diaphragms along with with all the gaskets. My engine starts right up now and runs so much smoother. As for hot restarts, just crack the throttle slightly when cranking and it fires right up. I feel you should be able to get yours running in it's stock form and have good performance. As for the back-firing, if the external cut-out diaphragms have not been replaced, that is where I would start first. They play a part in preventing back-firing when decelerating.
 
#26 ·
Hello all, this is my 1st post here.

I'm from Brazil, and a lot of problems I'm seeing here we already got in our VNs in our country. If you guys think you have problems with you machines, trust us, we have more.

We don't have any support of Kawasaki in Brazil and our gas is 27% alcohol.

So, we do something that worked very well. We made a Whatsapp group and we build our own website (vulcan750riders. wordpress. com] unfortunately, in Portuguese). When we started our whatsapp group 2 years ago, we was 10 persons and just 3 VNs working. Now we are about 103 persons and 70% of our VNs are working.

Another thing we do was learn and we have our own mechanics. We have near to 7 garage-mechanics on group and 1 specialist (Mr. Wilker) in Vn750. I think he is one of the greatest specialist on the world in VN750. He resurrect a lot of Vns from us.

Now talking about farmgurl58, in Brazil, we usually sent the bikes to him, but I have no idea how to make he helps you (send him a week to USA, you came to Brazil, send me your questions and I translate to him, put you in our group and I translate the conversation, I accept any idea).

The problem is, he don't speak english.

If somebody have some idea how to make the contact for farmgurl and our specialist, I'm open to listen.
 
#27 ·
We have a little something here in the USA for VN 750's (and actually world wide). It's called VN750.com and it has 99.999% if not 100% of any information you might need to get one of these bikes going. We have data stored that you can print or we also have complete videos on how to proceed on certain repairs. These are all step by step instructions. Our membership is well into the thousands so I doubt that farmgurl would need to head to Brazil unless she wants to go as a tourist.
 
#29 ·
The bike has not sat idle for 3 years. I've ridden it several times( about 800 miles) and some of the time it ran fine. Its just the uncertain feeling of when its going to mess up. The tires were the original ones and were showing signs of dry cracking. I have found a mechanic that is familiar with these bikes who is willing to take it home with him and see what he can find. He and his dad have a good reputation and are fair. I'll keep everyone posted as to the progress..Thanks to all who have taken the time to respond.
 
#30 ·
You are certainly entitled to ride as often or as little as you wish. I am not commenting about that aspect. My comments were regarding that the bike was getting little or no use and therefore it was like starting up a bike for the first time after a long dry spell. 800 miles over three years averages out to about 265 miles per year which is not enough to keep things in good order. Everything dries out including the diaphrams, o rings, etc.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top