A girl wants a ride this weekend

[don_gibb6512]

If you've got pods on there it isn't hard to pull the carbs. before throwing money at the ignition I would pull the carbs remove the bowls and see what size jets are in there. the size of the jets are stamped right on the bottom of each jet. It is possible that you are having ignition failure but I would lean towards the carbs especially since all 4 plugs look the same. It seems unlikely that your coils would be deteriorating at exactly the same rate and give you identical plugs across the board if ignition was the culprit.

Plus pulling the carbs is free, and jets are cheap. For the general public the best way to rejet is typically to get a Dynojet kit. They have done there homework and make things pretty close to plug and play.

It may seem unlikely but that's exactly the experience I had and before I figured it out, I bought the Dynojet kit and STILL had the same problem. Frustrated doesn't even begin to describe how I felt trying to track this down. The Dynojet kit is not a cure all. It's expensive and I'm not a proponent for drilling the slide lift holes. Factory Pro offers a kit that works well and you don't have to drill your slides. Jets are not really all that cheap when you need to buy 4 at a time for each size change. I know because I have a container full of them. I'm always envious of the guys that were able to buy the Dynojet kit, install it and BANG !! It worked like a charm without any further issues. I just don't have that kind of luck. The reason I didn't bother to look closer at my coils at that time was that they were practically new Accel Coils with very little miles on them. I replaced the OEM set that were breaking down in the secondary windings with the Accel set and then the Accel set broke down in both primary and secondary windings within two years. Unlikely yes, but it does happen.

Don

 

[don_gibb6512]

Tony, one more item to look at if you're going to dig in to your carbs. Check the tops of the emulsion tubes (needle jets) and check the orifice that the needle rides in. It should be round but does wear oval shaped over time on the old BS series Mikuni carbs. That oval shape allows just a bit of extra non-metered fuel past the needle which is especially sensitive during the pilot circuit or 0-1/4 throttle. If all else checks out normal, this might come in to play. Nessism is the carb expert and he's the guy to go to for that type of help.

Good luck.

 

[82Shafty]

Nice idea, but these bikes just will NOT run without some restriction on the intake. You have to have pods or a stock airbox on there, and it has to be jetted for that setup for the bike to run right.

.

Are you saying a stock air box and no air filter is ok as long as there is something in the way? For testing purposes only!

I pulled what looked to be a solid, clean K&N uni out of my box and my bike freaking screamed, I could have blew it up if I wanted to. Before that, with the K&N, it would cough and sputter all over itself over 6500 rpms and I could swear it was a coil issue (weak coil breaking down). It reminded me of spark blow out on some of the boosted apps I've played with, therefore leading me to believe it was a spark issue, not a stupid air filter that appeared to be normal.

I de-oiled the air filter and started fresh with a proper oiling. Now it runs great. When I got the bike from the PO, the air box needed to be resealed and the gasket on top of the uni filter was gone. So, the bike ran great before, but as soon as I sealed everything, it ran like poo when it had to actually pull through the over-oiled K&N. The float heights were set at 17.54 mm, I have since raised them to 21.5. I still may raise them up another mm.

 

[Zooks]

I say ride her. What does the motorcycle have to do with it?

My thoughts exactly. Forget the bike and just 'get a room'. \\/

 

[Tony]

Wish I could e-mail you all a beer. Don, you are probably deserving of the finest micro brew. Thanks again.

 

[Tony]

I say ride her. What does the motorcycle have to do with it?

Yeah, how old is the girl?

It's a shame about your bike, but mine runs just fine. Have her PM me with a phone number.

My thoughts exactly. Forget the bike and just 'get a room'. \\/

Sorry to drift from the technical nature of this forum but fortunately she decided she wanted to do something before she found out about me owning a bike. By the way robert, she's a one GS kinda gal.

 

[Tony]

THIS IS THE FOLLOW UP. I'm storing my bike at home while I'm at work. Pa was nice enough to check the coils and as many have thought they are okay - 4.2 ohms (primaries), 33k ohms cylinders 2 & 3, and 27 k ohms cylinders 1 & 4.

Well, now its on to the carbs (type: CV). I'm lucky enough that the post: "rich/lean carbs on off on off arrgghh" just popped up; got some great info from there. Called up Factory Pro about my problem and to see if they had a ready made jet kit. No jet kit but got some great advice in addition to their CV carb tuning website. Strongly suggest giving Factory Pro your business, the guy I talked to was extremely helpful.

With valves adjusted I will be starting with the an examination of the emulsion tubes and the presence of any additional shims under the needles. If tubes look good (not ovaled) and no shims are present I will be starting by dropping the main jet size about 10 sizes (about 2 sizes for fine tuning). From their I will just follow the rest of the steps laid out by our friends at Factory Pro on their CV website, working down the rpm ranges. I will also be giving them the jet sizes that I find work best so that they have a record for other 82' GS 1100 G owners.

 

[don_gibb6512]

Well, now its on to the carbs (type: CV).

Ugh. Well, glad it wasn't the coils but you may wish it would have been. Good luck sorting this out. Let us know how it goes.

Don

 

[Tony]

Found out the main jets were 170s! Yeah, that could be a problem. I started by dropping them to 155s because thats all the shop had. Though a little better, it still stumbled at about 4-5k rpm. I got some 140s to install this weekend. If they work its on with the plug chops to see what else it needs.

Sure wish I could find the jetting info from someone with the same setup for my bike; 1982 GS 1100G w/ pods & Vance Hines 4:1. I searched the pages a long time but could only come up with a GS1000 that was similar. Would the carbs on the 1000 be too different to use as a baseline?

 

[SqDancerLynn1]

Actually if it had 170's? Those were probably dynojet parts If you put 155 OEM jets it will still be rich

 

[vwdoctor3]

A girl wants a ride this weekend

I see you sparked alot of intrest with the title of your post. LOL.

 

[Guest]

Actually if it had 170's? Those were probably dynojet parts If you put 155 OEM jets it will still be rich

I agree.
Look at the throat of the carb filter side and see if there is a brass push in main air jet.

Talk to saltymonk he has the Dynojet kit installed on his bike with the same mods. Since it's been jetted already for the mods look elsewhere like the ignition or battery.

 

[Tony]

Actually if it had 170's? Those were probably dynojet parts If you put 155 OEM jets it will still be rich

I agree.
Look at the throat of the carb filter side and see if there is a brass push in main air jet.

Thanks a lot for the info SqDancerLynn and Chef. I went on the Dynojet web site to check out what other things I should look for if the kit dad been installed in my bike. I noticed that Dynojet shows that either the Stage 1 or Stage 3 could be installed in my bike. The only difference between the two is the main jet size.

Wellllllll, after dropping a 7/64 bit down that hole in the slide I thought I'd better get on this site and thank the both of you. I noticed the stage 1 kit has much smaller main jets but too small for my 82'. The 170s are definitely too big (I checked my battery and ignition). I put the 155's in and it was still too rich. I tried the 140's and they were way too lean. So now I'm going to try something like a 150 main jet. I could have this all wrong but so far the process of elimination seems to be working . . . slowly. I'm curious if the 170 mains of the stage 3 kit are for the 16 valved engines. Would this make any sense? My bike is an 8 valve.

Again, I really appreciate the help.

 

[Guest]

The sixteen valve actually has smaller jets.

 

[Tony]

It's breathing and burning like a monster! For some reason the 155s didn't run well the first time in but now they are working great, might have been older gas. The plugs are running a little rich but okay. It pulls like hell right on up to red line in every gear . . . Yeeeeeeee Haaaaaaaaaaaa. I still have a little fine tuning but it's pretty damn good.

Thanks a lot for the info on the dynojet kit, I never thought to check and would probably still be scratching my head. It sure didn't like those 170 mains though.