1982 GS550L lean

[mizz0313]

Will do! Again, thanks so much for all your help. I will pull it out when i get home, capping off vacuum nipple and test riding. After getting the exhaust headers on 1/4 flush with head.

 

[mizz0313]

went for a test ride last night and also this morning. When starting off with a cold engine i got nothing but high rpms and no power, after about 5 minutes of running the bike finally gets enough power and pulls amazing. Some breaking up in the higher rpms but pulling fast and blowing my hat off. after about 10 minutes of running the rpms wants to sit a little higher and i do not have enough travel on the idle knob to get it down to where it needs to be. Got it home after testing this morning and couldn't get it to start again, my thoughts are the throttle plates are just not where they should be because it doesn't even start with choke and idle screw backed all the way out (once hot). Would that be a clear sign that the plates are not closed enough? Looking at the throttle plate adjustment screws they look to be screwed in a good bit which would have them open causing more air? I think i need to be bringing them closed and going from there which would be why i cant get it settled down to 1100 once hot, idle screw stops touching plate and idle stays at 2000. Last time i bench synced them i had also did a vacuum sync after but that was also with bad intake boots that i know were sucking or loosing vacuum, didnt bother bench syncing again because i thought i had them where it needed to be. My understanding of the vacuum sync has been confusing, i now think im getting the understanding of it using the gauges. I believe i was opening plates allowing no vacuum instead of the actual building of vacuum in each cylinder. Which i think would be why i cant get it to idle, plates wont close far enough. Also these test were done while running in prime it did ride alot better in prime and doesn't seem to be having that fuel starvation like the previous test rides.

 

[tom203]

"....my thoughts are the throttle plates are just not where they should be because it doesn't even start with choke and idle screw backed all the way out (once hot). Would that be a clear sign that the plates are not closed enough?"

yes.. your bench sync probably erred - one or more throttle plates preventing the others from closing off enough (and causing idle stop screw to have no job). You probably saw this explanation

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/images/carb_sync_notes.html#A01

note that #3 carb needs to be set first- othes get sync to it. When done, you should have #3's tab resting on idle stop screw with ability to close plates even more if needed.

edit. Try this link

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/images/carb_sync_notes.html

 

[mizz0313]

Yes that is my issue. As soon as I started reading that link i instantly remembered that I did not follow that procedure. Will pull them off tonight and get it back together to test again. With a lot of thought and mind picking I narrowed it down to this, which also makes sense as to why fuel delivery isn't operating correctly since there is not enough vacuum being applied.

 

[mizz0313]

Did the bench sync over and also got vacuum gauges hooked up and they seemed to be very close had to adjust 4 a little. Bike idled good around 1000 but once it started getting a little hotter it shut off and wouldn't restart. So I decided to check for spark being these are the stock coils (I have checked these before and they tested good also has relay mod). Got no spark on 1/4 and spark on 2/3 nice blue spark. Obviously working when cold I think that's also a issue of it not wanting to stay running.

 

[tom203]

You likely have the stock ignitor setup,right? If so, the 550's seem to have the problem unit. Working ok cold, but losing spark when warm, seems to point to an ignitor issue. But check the connections from signal coils up to ignitor,then on to ignition coils, cuz you might have a bad connection.

if this scenario repeats after next cold start and ride, get suspicious.

 

[mizz0313]

I actually had the ignitor box replaced with dyna after experiencing this previously. That's why my thoughts now point to coil.

 

[tom203]

Try swapping the ignition coils and see if you now lose spark on 2 and 3 (instead of 1 and 4) when bike warms up. Did you remove spark plug caps and cut back plug wires? Get new plug caps?

 

[mizz0313]

Did not get new caps but will look into them. I did cut back the wires around the time I was diagnosing the ignitior and having similar issues. I can try swapping out coil I did put spark plug from cylinder one into number two and test for spark and it was there nice and blue right after it not wanting to restart and also hot. My thoughts are a lot of my issues were associated with this coil, posted a photo of plugs previously in this thread and 1/4 looked wet like it had stopped firing which now makes sense. There is a local cycle shop that has one they are willing to sell me for about 30 bucks, I wouldn't be able to get one elsewhere for days and I'm hoping to take advantage of the nice weather here for the next week. Would I be silly to purchase that or does it sound like I'm on the right track with this one being bad?

 

[mizz0313]

Well I bought another coil and Im not fully sure that was my issue. I do know Old one stopped sparking once hot and this one does still spark once hot but still having a hard time keeping bike at idle. Had it running for about a half hour but it shut off about 4 times during that time while trying to adjust mixture screws at idle. During that span the bike revved and hanged and also a few times idle raced really high, every time getting the idle knob down to 1000rpm it just didn't seem smooth and would want to die. Got it to a point that it revved good came back down nice but still wouldn't hold a idle. Each time shutting off I checked for spark and at the beginning exhaust pipe on one was very cool but after starting again it did start rising in temperature. Had gauges hooked up during this time and all cylinders are very close with one another. am I really just dealing with mixture screws not being set correctly? Had them about 3 turns out and went down as far as one turn but it seemed to hang set there. At this point I'm not sure if this is a mixture issue or ignition/wiring. Only thing I have not done with the bike is replace regulator/rectifier because my charging system test checked out fine. But could the stock rectifier cause my weird ignition issues?

 

[tom203]

"But could the stock rectifier cause my weird ignition issues?"

doubtful, when you checked your charging system, was it between 13.5 and 14.5 volts or so?
Disconnect vacuum sync device and just put/leave it mixture screws out 3 turns, would it idle ok? Or does it still go erratic?

 

[mizz0313]

That's exactly where the voltage reading were. I will disconnect the gauges set the screws to 3 and give it a go. I started at 3 turns out the first start and the response wasn't the greatest, but thoughts did come up afterwards that's the vacuum sync attachments may no be sealed 100 percent. I guess best thing to try from here would be setting at 3 turns test ride and keep adjusting each in small increments each test ride?

 

[tom203]

Have some water on standby to throw on exhaust headers so you know they are all hot.

 

[mizz0313]

Removed vacuum sync and got bike going 3 turns out using choke to warm it up. Got to a point where I adjusted idle knob to get it down to 1000 rpm and it shut off. Exhaust headers temps where roughly (1)-70deg, (2)-100deg, (3)-100deg (4)-70deg, this was using thermo gun and about 15-20 minutes idle. Just to do it I checked for spark and it was still there. I turned in a half turn on mixture screws and started bike and got it to idle decent right around 1100 or so. The response from throttle was okay I just blipped it a few times and it came back down okay ( I do have this on video). As I was putting tank in place I got a backfire out the exhaust so I shut it off, checked plugs just to do it and 1/4 had some fuel sitting on the tips and exhaust was still about to same temps. Waited about 10 minutes before starting again and when I started it rpms sky rocketed. Didn't try to start it again but will tomorrow. wanted to know should I leave the throttle plates where they are after seeing rpms jump so high or should I let it run and see if it comes down considering how decent it ran at idle 2.5 turns out? Decent for maybe 1 minute so it would be hard to say but it didn't shut off on its own. The video shows it idle at 1500 I rev it and it hangs at 2000 and that's when I turn it down to 1000. (Video sound does get lower in the video so have your speaker up)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMLLsqUpGTc

 

[tom203]

"As I was putting tank in place I got a backfire out the exhaust so I shut it off, checked plugs just to do it and 1/4 had some fuel sitting on the tips and exhaust was still about to same temps. Waited about 10 minutes before starting again and when I started it rpms sky rocketed"

After some coffee, this sounds like ignition issue on 1 and 4... runs a bit, then cuts on for some reason messing up your idle stop setting.The backfire is likely raw fuel because 1 and 4 misfired.
sitting in driveway I would think all exhaust header temps would be real close after 20 minutes of idle.

 

[mizz0313]

My thoughts also that the backfire was from the raw fuel. Ignition coil wasn't the problem spark plugs were replaced but may need replaced again but idk if plugs would cause this. Should I be looking into the dyna and checking my timing?

 

[tom203]

The newish dyna shouldn't be an issue...timing starts off good,so that should be ok. This replacement ignition coil on 1 and 4... did it come with its own plug caps or did you reuse your old ones? The resistors in these things can corrode and not let the spark leap the two plug gaps that it has to.

 

[mizz0313]

It did have new caps but I put my old ones on. After bike shut off first time I checked for spark it was very faint so I put cap that came with it onto cylinder 1 leaving my old one on 4. I did check dyna trying to check my timing and my test light is staying lit at all times so I started checking voltage and wasn't getting a reading on dyna power wire. When I first looked over bike I tested wires at coil connectors and also dyna power and got about 11volts. But when I hooked test light up to dyna it stayed illuminated and when I would get light to go out and fully advance rotor and rotate plate light would come on and stay on and only go off with advance of rotor. When I first installed and directions say light should come on with full rotation of rotor not stay on and go off with full rotation. Once battery got low i stopped getting voltage at dyna and coils all together. Got a voltage reading at my coil mod but not at coils or dyna which is all wired together so I put battery on charge and once full I will load it up and check wires again and dig down to my solders if need be. I may reset dyna completely once I wrap my head around the install again, it's been a few months since I did it so I have to get my process correct again.

 

[mizz0313]

Battery has fresh charge and I could not get dyna install corrected. For some reason my test light is staying on when it shouldn't compared to first time I installed this it went smoothly. Dyna instructions says if light stays on there's a problem with wiring, im getting 12 volts to all wiring. Weird thing is that after putting battery in and having ignition on to install dyna again I noticed my battery getting low again. I did turn bike on and off a few times during the process but volts got as low 7 volts after reading 12.9 full charge and also completely losing power to ignition system. Battery read 7 volts all ignition wiring read 0 volts, not sure why this is all happening when bike was doing fine no charging issues and no ignition issues. Will go over my wiring again but not sure why ignition completely loses voltage

 

[tom203]

Maybe there's problem with the coil relay mod, so power is getting to dyna modules/ignition coils with ignition off - draining battery. This would give likely you test light issues too.

I assume you saw this Basscliff link....

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/cbsaunders/gs/upgrade_to_electronic_ignition.pdf