Poor Tune-up or Design?

[Guest]

I have a '83 GS550E and ever since I bought it 6 years ago I have needed to warm it up for as much as ten minutes (choke all the way on) prior to riding it. If it is real cold it would be impossible to start. If I don't warm it up it would die at every red light. After about 5 minutes of riding I could start to let off the choke and after 10 - 15 minutes of riding the bike starts to run perfect and the choke could be let off all the way. I took it in to have the carbs cleaned and tuned but when it came back it was exactly the same. Is this a issue with the tuning or do all these bikes need to be warmed up so much?

[tom203]

The "choke" is actually an enricher- a plunger and passage that is seperate from rest of the carb system. When activated, it supplies extra fuel into carb throats to aid cold starting and running till engine warms up. Sounds like your "choke" system is not clean , despite the recent cleaning. Not sure on your dual throat carbs., but on mine, there is a small feed hole in each fuel bowl that feeds fuel into a passage- these get gummed up easily and sometimes need poking and blowing out after a proper cleaning.

[barnbiketom]

These 80s bikes were very lean from the factory, and ANY dirt/plugged jets/carb issues etc will AMPLIFY the problem.
That said, I bet your carbs were not properly cleaned.......I have even gone so far as to replace one or two carb bodies that refused to "open up" in the idle circuits..

[cowboyup3371]

Make sure you also have adjusted the valves recently

[Andy]

Thanks for the advice!
I thought maybe my carbs did not get cleaned as well as they should have. The carbs need a good cleaning again anyway. I think I will try cleaning then myself this time. If it’s still the same after cleaning I will check the valves.

[cowboyup3371]

If the valves haven't been done by you at all then they need to be checked no matter what. Doing them while the carbs are off soaking is easiest since you'll need to buy the orings from Robert Barr (www.cycleorings.com), the carb dip from Walmart or OReillys, and new bowl gaskets (get the valve cover gasket at the same time) from www.PartsOutlaw.com. If you check the valves on the same day you put the first carb in the dip, you'll get those parts and any new shims you might need from the GS Shim Club about the same time. Button it all up together, do a carb sync, and you can go enjoy your ride not having to tear it all back down again.

[Steve]

All of the ideas expressed above, but some of the procedures are a bit off.

Yes, you need to clean the carbs, but you have the odball "siamesed" carbs that are a bit different. Not sure we have a tutorial written up, and check with Robert at cycleorings.com to see if he has an o-ring kit for them.

Yes, your valves need to be adjusted. Not "if the problem still exists", but NOW. They are supposed to be done every 3-4000 miles. Hard starting, especially when cold, is very typical of tight valves. Now, you don't need shims with your engine, your 16 valves are adjusted with screws and locknuts. The procedure is detailed on BassCliff's site.

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[Nessism]

If the bike behaves as it always has then it's unlikely the carbs are dirty per say. I'd open up the pilot screws 3/4 of a turn and see if that helps. Shimming the needles up will help too. The GS's were really lean from new and some tweaking is a worthwhile experiment.

[chuck hahn]

Where are then fuel screws on these siameese carbs..never played with one myself.

[megatwin]

On some of the real stubborn dirty carbs,after soaking them in chem-dip,I have actually mixed up some dish soap and water,and boiled them for a few minutes.
Seems to soften up any varnish that may have not been dissolved by the cleaner.

[SVSooke]

My 85 750EF doesn't even get to the end of the short driveway before I need to turn the "choke" down.That is at 3AM,when I leave work unless it's chilly the choke doesn't even need to be on.All stock except for 1 size up main jets (120 vs 117.5)to keep it happy with my Supertrapp 4>1.So yours defiantly need some work.I'd start with the valve adjust but most likely YOU need to do a good carb clean.IIRC Jeeprusty used a Barr http://cycleorings.com/ O ring kit on his 83 550.