1981 GS 450-T Resurection!

[pepsidude]

I bought a 81 GS 450-T for almost nothing. It looked pretty decent but had been sitting 7-8 years. To my surprise the engine was not locked and it had good compresion and spark. So, what the heck I poured some fresh gas in and popped in a new battery. To my surprise it started right up. Not to my surprise, it will only run with the choke on! So, I took the carbs off and removed the float bowls. Everything looks really clean, jets don't
appear to be plugged. I tossed everything into the carb parts cleaner to sit over night and thoroughly clean in the morning. I am pretty sure there must be some crud somewhere blocking things. ( ?? )_I have restored many dirt bikes, but never a CV carb. Is theer anything I should know that is differnt? Also, what is the valve clearence supossed to be?

I have bought a gaggle of new parts, ( tires, brake parts, cables, chain & sprockets etc. etc. )that make my little 450 " not so cheap " anymore. I am into it now so price is not that big a deal That being said, besides the Mac pipe I see all over the place, is there anything better to be found? I put a Mac pipe on my Honda 450 NightHawk and it blows... to loud and the paint burned off.

Thanks!!!


Brian

[pete]

Hey Brian and welcome! Great to see another twin being resurrected

Couple of things... go chuck an intro thread into the GS Owners forum so BassCliff can find you and give you your mega welcome.

The reason for that is he will link you to his sight full of awesomeness which includes a carb rebuild guide for our 450's... very handy!

Next up, we need to see some pic's! We love our pic's here on the GSR...

Keep us up to date!

[tom203]

Best place to start is follow the link to Basscliff's site- he will overwhelm you with info relevant to all sizes of gs's of this era. The mikuni CV carbs have more tiny passages to clog than any of the dirt bike carbs that I've done- basically, EPA was getting real strict with bike engine pollution on street bikes. Follow the carb cleaning advice thoroughly - no shortcuts, unless you feel lucky! You will find lots of overdue maintenance needs, mostly due to neglect. Welcome

[pepsidude]

Oh yes now there's more!!

Well, since the carbs were off, and I figured it would be needed anyway I went about to remove the car to head intakes. One was a snap. The other one was a PITA !! the heads broke of of both screws on the right side. Now I will have to extract them. OH BOY what a treat. I am off to find an angle drill!!

[tkent02]

To my surprise it started right up. Not to my surprise, it will only run with the choke on!

The pilot jets or the associated passages in the carb bodies are plugged up.
It alway happens when they sit a while, unless the fuel was drained.

[Hornswaggle]

Welcome to the GSR! You'll definately get a lot of support around here and when these folks give advice they know what they are talking about. Sounds like an interesting project, post up some pictures when you get a chance.

[duaneage]

Most likely the intake boots are shot and./or the O rings in the boots are bad. that leans it out and requires the choke to be on to keep it running. If you have the carbs off replace the intake boots, that's a required maint item.