GS1150 ES Makeover Project

[londonboards]

Nessism - One more thing.

My little plastic washer measures 0.096 inches or 2.45 mm.

If I was to shave off 0.06 inches I would only be left will a slither of a washer.

Or does that mean my washers have already been sanded down to a smaller size? Or would it be OK to sand them down to 1/3 rd of their existing size? I feel that would compromise their strength.

Greetings

 

[GSX1000E]

YOU are correct Richard. The plastic shims measure 2.45-2.48mm.
If you replace it with four 3mm flat washers (mic each one in sets for uniformity), it should get you to about 2.00mm and therefore raise the needle about .50mm roughly.

 

[londonboards]

GSX1000E - Thanks for that. The PO put 2 washer UNDER the circlip. I can't see the point of that. Washers on the top of the circlip - I can understand.

Greetings

 

[londonboards]

Carburettor and Airbox Instal

Carburettor and Airbox Instal

Finished the carb rebuild. Next job was to get them on the bike. This was more difficult than I realised, especially as I had bought the bike with no air box and I had no idea how they had come apart.

See My Suzuki GS1150ES Blog for lots of big pics (click to enlarge).

Got the engine boots on first:

Then slipped the carbs in and attached the cables:

Took off electric plates to help move things around:

Then lined them up for the final push:

 

[Gold01ca]

Again Sir, I must say, you take the BEST pics!

 

[Nessism]

Nessism - One more thing.

My little plastic washer measures 0.096 inches or 2.45 mm.

If I was to shave off 0.06 inches I would only be left will a slither of a washer.

Or does that mean my washers have already been sanded down to a smaller size? Or would it be OK to sand them down to 1/3 rd of their existing size? I feel that would compromise their strength.

Greetings

Sorry, I misspoke earlier. Yes, shave about 1/3 of the thickness. My .060" comment was not thought through. Good job of questioning me. Trust your own instincts and ask the question.

 

[londonboards]

The Final Push To Fit the Carburettors

The Final Push To Fit the Carburettors

The carbs were in place and the air box was ready. Now I just needed to push the carbs into the engine boots and get the air box boots on the carbs. Well the engine boots were pretty hard and the weather was cold. So even warming them up in the house had little effect. This was a tough job. Firstly I propped them up with some timber and strung them up with some cable ties. The idea being to align them to the engine boots so they could be pressed home.

Some of the boots turned whilst being pushed against so there were frequent re-alignments:

In order to get sufficient leverage, I resorted to my old trick of more timber.

This bike will fly:

Finally:

It will be a royal PIA if it needs re-jetting after all this.

Now does it fire up?

Greetings

 

[londonboards]

Video of First Start Attempt

Video of First Start Attempt

Video says it all:

What next?

My checking so far has revealed only one cylinder is firing on full choke. There is fuel in the other cylinders. One spark plug (used on the plug lead of the firing cylinder) produces no spark.

More work to do.

Is it possible to test a spark plug with a continuity tested/multimeter. On this duff sparkplug I get no continuity down it's central core. Is that possible?

Greetings

 

[Paul]

"It will be a royal PIA if it needs re-jetting after all this." .........but then at least you'll have heard the engine run and then invest in a set of new boots

 

[Charlie G]

Your so close. Coils, caps, wires and plugs?

 

[GateKeeper]

You should not need to give her throttle to start her up, choke should be enough to at least get her going...

did you take the plugs out, and clean them ? if not do that for all, and once you have them out check to see if each one sparks

.

 

[londonboards]

Yes you're right. No throttle required on a properly set up bike. This one has a really stiff throttle cable (going to be changed) and is only firing on 1 cylinder with 100% choke. I was thinking it might be flooded so trying to blow it out with some open throttle.

I've got a lot more work to do on this. Got 4 new plugs today as there was no continuity on one of them (don't even know how that is possible). Got to check leads and coils and whole wiring harness really. I hate electrics. Give me a spanner any day.

Greetings

 

[GateKeeper]

The new plugs should help, try it as is with the new plugs, maybe it's all it needed...you can snip each lead by a 1/4 inch and screw back into to each boot as well just in case there is corrosion there as well.

hope you find the solution....

.

 

[londonboards]

Starting with Carb Cleaner

Starting with Carb Cleaner

I tried all the electric test and could see no sparks at all. I brought the bike into the dark garage and I could just see that they were in fact all sparking.

So why would it only fire on one cylinder?

Let's try something that should help it along - carb cleaner. Not because the carbs are dirty. They are beautifully clean. But because carb cleaner is very combustible. Let's see what happens:

So it does work.

Maybe, just maybe, there is insufficient fuel getting through. I have checked that all the float bowls contain fuel and that the petcock is releasing juice in the prime position. But maybe, when the tank is on the bike there is just not enough fuel getting in.

I'm off the get some fuel.

Greetings

 

[londonboards]

Starts When It Has Fuel - What A Surprise

Starts When It Has Fuel - What A Surprise

Spent hours over this thing. Checking all the sparks and whatnot. Rookie mistake: not enough fuel in the tank. Despite the float bowls showing me they had fuel in them.

Went and got some more fuel and she runs:

Not running nicely. Like the other bike that I did; very lumpy (needs carb sync) but also would not rev above about 4 - 5K. Just dies when you get it up there. That would suggest main jets. Now I did take that extra washer out from the needle that was below the little circlip. Has that done something?

After setting the idle speed it would hold a steady idle without any choke but would still not rev freely.

Anyway, I am dead chuffed I have got it spinning. Sounds like there is some cam chain lash so I will adjust the manual tensioner at some point if someone tells me how to do that.

Greetings

 

[Nessism]

Video shows air filter sitting on top of the airbox, not inside. That could be part of the running problem...

 

[londonboards]

Motor Dies When Throttle Opened

Motor Dies When Throttle Opened

I posted this is the carb section:

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=220278

and I have since checked one of the fuel levels in the no. 1 float bowl by jamming a piece of plastic tubing up the drain plug. It seems that the fuel level is pretty near to the top of the bowl, so lack of fuel being able to get up the main jet can't be the reason it dies when the throttle is opened.

See it in action here:

Air box is sealed and throttle slides are working.

Help!!

 

[sparki]

quick question... the front seat you bought... are you planning on getting it recovered to match the rear? the reason i ask is that my front seat needs recovering too... foam is all good but the cover had split a little from use over the years (original blue seat as yours).... I want to keep mine the std blue as the rear is still in great condition. so i guess i'm asking... would you consider swapping seats with a few ?? your way (only if you're planning on a re-cover ).

bit cheeky but i'm struggling to find another std blue front seat to be honest. that one's cover looks good

cheers
steve

 

[londonboards]

sparki - hey we have a Londoner in our midst. Living in Canterbury they call me a DFL as I am Down From London. Not seen you before.

Not sure where you are getting the idea that I have a blue seat. Have a look at the photos in the blog for this bike (see below). The bike arrived with a modified black seat and I ended up buying 2 new black front seats for it. Plenty of these available on eBay.

Edit: just looked at my own blog!! Yes the new seat does look blue. Seems to me that is because of a problem with the camera. Let me look at it in daylight tomorrow.

Greetings

 

[sparki]

yeah... the pic under the airbox pic is def a blue seat m8