84 GS550E hesitation

[Guest]

Hi all new around here. Picked up a 84 GS550E last fall. Spent the winter getting ready for spring. as it had sat for a long time I changed all fluids and rebuilt the calipers. I stripped the carbs and cleaned them, all looked good. To day I got it out for it's first ride (what a nice bike). And I have an hesitation about half throttle, Otherwisw runs and idles well. If I pull on the choke say 1/2 it runs ok. Carb to airbox boots, both look good, no cracks. All hoses on air box and filter seems to seal. Any thoughts would help. Thanks Tony B in Canada.

[jbthomp]

You have an air leak somewhere. Mine was doing that and it turned out to be air box seals leaking and intake boots leaking at the engine. You have to remove the intake boots to properly check the o rings and the overall condition of the boots. If the boots have never been off you need to pull them off and reseal them at the least. More than likely you will need to replace them. Bust out some carb cleaner and make sure you don't have any vacuum leaks. Are you running stock intake and exhaust? New seal on air filter? Stock air box with stock lid properly sealed. The fact that it runs better on choke means it is too lean. Did you ungang the carburetors, fully strip and dip them? If not you need to. You don't have to remove the throttle shafts but you do need to pull out ALL the jets, floats, vacuum diaphragms and whatnot. After they are stripped they need to be dipped in carb cleaner for 24 hours. Pull them out and give them a good rinse with carb cleaner in the can and make sure they are immaculately clean. Then put back together with all new orings. Just spraying carb cleaner and blowing the passages basically does nothing without fully soaking them. You also need to check and/or adjust the valves. The valves tend to get tighter as they age and tight valves will cause performance issues as well. There is a lot of information on this forum and everyone is more than happy to help you out. But you need to make sure everything with the intake and carbs is absolutely correct before you try to diagnose a performance issue otherwise you will be chasing your tail for quite some time to come.

[Tony B]

You have an air leak somewhere. Mine was doing that and it turned out to be air box seals leaking and intake boots leaking at the engine. You have to remove the intake boots to properly check the o rings and the overall condition of the boots. If the boots have never been off you need to pull them off and reseal them at the least. More than likely you will need to replace them. Bust out some carb cleaner and make sure you don't have any vacuum leaks. Are you running stock intake and exhaust? New seal on air filter? Stock air box with stock lid properly sealed. The fact that it runs better on choke means it is too lean. Did you ungang the carburetors, fully strip and dip them? If not you need to. You don't have to remove the throttle shafts but you do need to pull out ALL the jets, floats, vacuum diaphragms and whatnot. After they are stripped they need to be dipped in carb cleaner for 24 hours. Pull them out and give them a good rinse with carb cleaner in the can and make sure they are immaculately clean. Then put back together with all new orings. Just spraying carb cleaner and blowing the passages basically does nothing without fully soaking them. You also need to check and/or adjust the valves. The valves tend to get tighter as they age and tight valves will cause performance issues as well. There is a lot of information on this forum and everyone is more than happy to help you out. But you need to make sure everything with the intake and carbs is absolutely correct before you try to diagnose a performance issue otherwise you will be chasing your tail for quite some time to come.

Thanks for thee response will take another look.. Thanks again.