Re-Breather question

Ive been reading about the re-breather mod for a few days now trying to wrap my head around it, and im still pretty confused. Anyone care to explain or link me to a thread that will? Thank you very much

luuke: it's pretty simple. on top of each cylinders' rocker box top cover is a one-way breather valve with a 90 degree fitting as part of it. a 3/th inch ID rubber hose goes from each valve into the right side of the stock airbox base. an engine needs to breathe internally as these large V-twins move alot of atmospheric pressure around as the rods, crank, pin and pistons move up and down in the cylinders, etc. the idea is for excessive pressure to be bled off into the air intake tract instead of to atmosphere as was the case in the pre-smog control days. some XB owners have reported that as their engines wear and lose a portion of their internal sealing capacity, these vent tubes start to saturate the stock air filter with oil and goop. other XB folks will tell you that the bikes perform better and "carburate" more cleanly at lower speeds without these vents feeding the stock airbox. i have owned 4 XB's to date and have done the re-route mod to all but have never noticed any improvement with any of them from this mod but think it is worth it just to have the engine ingest pure air thru the filter vs. a mixture of pure air and crankcase breath, if you will. truth be told if you are running the stock breather system and have alot of sludge, goop and crap being pumped up into the airbox assembly, you have an engine sealing problem usually indicative of worn rings and/or piston skirts. having said all that, since the breather valves perched atop each rocker lid have their own internal one-way valve, an item such as a Hayden crankcase breather is reduntant and unnecessary. simply purchase several feet of 3/8th ID rubber oil plumbing hose, a matching sized triple-T and plumb away. i terminate mine down by the lower right footpeg area with no "catch-can" of any type. hope that helps.

Well said! I did the same. T'd the hoses together then ran them to behind the passenger foot peg and "vent to atmosphere".

you're a saint. Thank you gents

If you get stuck, then just PM or reply. It's a pretty simple task. It's very clear once you get everything apart.

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Mister lunatics words are wise......... Ill just add that in my experience on many different bikes that they do tend to puke out a bit of water and oil,, not much if your engine is in good shape, but they ALL do to some degree.
So its a personal choice to just vent to atmosphere OR use a filter OR vent to catch can and filter. On my old hot rods, the cool thing was to have large K&N filters off the tops of your valve covers on a V8, looks cool, but i got tired of cleaning the oil mist that went everywhere in the engine compartment, I had mine all dressed up with shiny paint, chrome, anodized alloys and stainless braided hoses, lot of work to keep it clean, So in some cases i vented them back into the intake or air cleaners with a PCV valve and on some used a catch can. I know this sounds redundant, but on a VB chevy you didnt notice the difference, On some of my old Triumphs I vent to the end of the rear fender (factory stock from 1969 to 1983) or in some cases to a fitting over the chain guard,,(helped lube the chain a bit). I saw a post here or on another forum where a member had used a modified NOS energy drink can as a catch can with a filter coming off it. Squids and others thought he was running Nitrous Oxide, which is amusing to me, some people believe all that shit on those "fast and furious" movies

"DUDE!!! He's running NOZ!"

I suppose you could run a pink Pepto bismo bottle? Or,,for the older members on here a Metamucil bottle to remind people to "keep it regular".

let your imagination run wild.

heh,,, I got distracted, I digress. What I meant to also say,,,,,,, Where i work its mostly over educated tree hugging hippie types. The bicycle culture is huge here, So those damn hippies can ride their bikes in everyday, get a nice indoor parking spot and dont have to pay a dime, all in the name of saving the planet,.

(Earth first! We will Log the other planets later!)

So i ride pretty much every day but oh my god, a filthy nasty motorcycle!!! and my old sportster DOES mark its territory every day with oil, So i keep a piece of cardboard handy to put under the bike,. even then, i get complaints. So keep in mind, an open breather will puke out oil and greasy moisture when sitting after a hard ride.
I dont need any more grief hence i use a catch can.

your results may vary (YRMV)

damn, where do live?? :"Liberals" wont even make eye contact with me much less say anything about my bike.. they KNOW they cant "reason" with me.. Im not a man of "reason"... they don't even try.

I live near Portland Oregon, Thankfully outside of it, but close to it. also known as

"The Peoples Republic of Multnomah County" TV shows Leverage was filmed here, the TV show "Grimm" and for
reference,,, even the Portland Hipsters make fun of themselves,, look up the TV show "portlandia" one episode had bicycle valets at restaurants, they make fun of all the goofiness. Seattle and the California Bay area can be weird too... but Portland has its own spin.

They told me i cant park my Sporty in the bike parking area anymore and have to pay the indoor parking fee..

I told them what if i mounted pedals on it? Many of them are perpetually offended in overly PC fashion, perhaps one of the stickers pissed them off? I have "Loud Wives Lose Lives" on the battery cover. I tell people it used to be my wifes bike, so that confuses them, She also had "Fuckin' ray of Sunshine arent I??" on there and i took it off but she also had "I have the pussy, I make the rules" as well.

I dont have it on any of my bikes as i dont want to get clotheslined by some militant feminists... but i do have one that says.............

"3 million battered Women in the US?? And I've been eating mine plain all this time!"

I also picked up another that i havent put on anything yet,,,

"Im not fucking stupid, but I used too"

Just tell em youre not scared to go back to prison... all you have to do knock one of them out and do your time... when you get back out of Central Lock-up, they wont even look at you anymore.. go to the Darkside, young Skywalker... go to the Darkside.

Why are every one of your posts a book that could be summed up in a couple sentences not a few paragraphs...

maybe hes an Internet annoyance?

I've also been considering this mod and found the following thread on another forum:

Click Here

It's a little different from the norm of atmosphere venting or catch cans. Any thoughts on this approach?

Why are every one of your posts a book that could be summed up in a couple sentences not a few paragraphs...

Click to expand...

Jesse: for the life of me i couldn't shorten up the response as the original question posed wanted answers to what is a re-route, why, what does it do, how is it done. my apologies if i got wordy with answer.

Lol not you John, Internet Annoyance. I guess he is a "Internet Annoyance"

Lol not you John,

Click to expand...

oh! LOL dear Lord. then never mind. hey Jess.....thanks again for the reflectors and hope all is going well down there. you're a good man, son.

[up] No prob!

Umm, because im an Annoyance? Skip my posts then, I admit i was a bit more wordy today than usual, I got hurt in minor bike incident last night mixing railroad/trolley tracks and very wet streets. In a lot of pain, and mixed with coffee and muscle relaxers. Stayed home from work and off my leg.[mad]

I try to scroll over your posts but it takes 2 or more swipes while using my phone. I dont think I have seen a post of yours that wasnt wordy that could have got the point across in a sentence or two.