Tune up

[D.T.]

My co-workers 850 (early 80's vintage) needs a bit of work and I'm looking for advice. We rebuilt the carbs a few years ago with kits but he said it has idling issues. We didn't check valve clearances and compression, so I'd like to know the specs for that if possible. Also we noticed it didn't run very well with the airbox removed. How well does this need to be sealed up? Near OEM quality? Does an new OEM air filter work best?

Thanks in advance,
Dave

[ryonker]

My co-workers 850 (early 80's vintage) needs a bit of work and I'm looking for advice. We rebuilt the carbs a few years ago with kits but he said it has idling issues. We didn't check valve clearances and compression, so I'd like to know the specs for that if possible. Also we noticed it didn't run very well with the airbox removed. How well does this need to be sealed up? Near OEM quality? Does an new OEM air filter work best?

Thanks in advance,
Dave

You are on the right track. First, I would get the carbs super clean by taking them apart and dipping them in carb cleaner over night. You will need to spray carb cleaner through all the passages and then blow out with air.

Basscliff will be along with your grand welcome.

In the meantime, go here, http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/

for lots of info on getting the bike road ready.

Good luck!

Rick

[mike_of_bbg]

It's not going to run well at all without the airbox. Yes, it needs to be sealed up pretty well - weatherstripping can do the job. The carb jets and needles are designed to run based on that restriction being present (helps provide vacuum to suck up that fuel). People who put pods on their GSes generally won't get them to run even close to right without Dynojet kits. New OEM air filter or just clean and re-oil the one that's there if it's not breaking apart.

Make sure all the boots on both sides of the carbs are in good order. New OEM are still available. Also, you probably need to replace the intake boot o-rings:

http://www.cycleorings.com/intake.html

BassCliff should be along pretty soon with your mega-welcome. Ryonker already provided the link to his site. Lots of great stuff in there. Assuming this is an 8V GS850, the valve spec is .03-.08mm, though you can run a bit slack (I've heard of people running .11mm without issue: new shims are available in .05mm increments which is the whole range, so lots of folks just replace with the next smaller size when they get close). The valves tend to wear tight, and the first symptom of tight valves is hard starting. Make sure if you replace any shims you get 29.5mm Suzuki shims, not the almost imperceptibly smaller 29.0mm Kawasaki shims. +1 to a thorough carb cleaning and 24 hours in dip - see the rebuild series on the site home page.

[Turtleface]

My co-workers 850 (early 80's vintage) needs a bit of work and I'm looking for advice. We rebuilt the carbs a few years ago with kits but he said it has idling issues. We didn't check valve clearances and compression, so I'd like to know the specs for that if possible. Also we noticed it didn't run very well with the airbox removed. How well does this need to be sealed up? Near OEM quality? Does an new OEM air filter work best?

Thanks in advance,
Dave

You're in the right place. Take a look at Basscliff's website, posted in the first response. It has links to service manuals, in a PDF format. Should have all your OEM specs in the appropriate link. +1 on cleaning the carbs with the 24 hour dip method. Little bit of downtime, probably one of the biggest drive-ability payoffs you can have. +1 on sealing the airbox completely, Home Depot or any other decently stocked hardware/home improvement store should have weatherstripping. OEM filter will be the perfect way to finish off the newly-sealed airbox. That should take care of idling issues, provided someone didn't much up the carbs previously. Even if that's the case, the GS Resources will have you sorted in short order. The amount of technical expertise hanging around here is nothing short of phenomenal.

[Turtleface]

It would be wise to spring for some new plugs after you do the carbs as well. The ones you have may fire just fine, but fresh plugs will make reading them much easier, and plug reading is a quick and easy method for checking fuel mixture, which should tell you if your carb cleanup did the trick or not.

[BassCliff]

Greetings and Salutations!!

Hi Mr. D.T.,

Yes, you'll find lots of GS850G lovin' on my website. The proper way to clean carbs, check valve clearances, repair charging systems, etc, are in the links below.

If there's anything you'd like to know about the Suzuki GS model bikes, and most others actually, you've come to the right place. There's a lot of knowledge and experience here in the community. Come on in and let me say "HOoooowwwDY!"....

Here is your very own magical, mystical, mythical, mind-expanding "mega-welcome". Please take notice of the "Top 10 Common Issues", the Carb Rebuild Series, and the Stator Papers. Now let me roll out the welcome mat for you...

Please click here for your mega-welcome, chock full of tips, suggestions, links to vendors, and other information. Then feel free to visit my little BikeCliff website where I've been collecting the wisdom of this generous community. Don't forget, we like pictures! Not you, your bike!

Thanks for joining us. Keep us informed.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[D.T.]

Now this was what I was looking for!

Thanks guys. I think I'm going to see the GS on Saturday. Hope we can get it running great!

Thanks!

[D.T.]

Update: Got to see the bike today. First of all, the battery was bad. Then we checked the airbox. The gasket on the top of the box to the air filter was missing, so we stuck some stick on gasket to the metal filter all the way around the top of the air filter cage.

Fired it up and it ran so-so. I took it out for a spin and it actually ran pretty good, got better as I went along. There was a lean spot around 2k rpm but it started to clear out. We shut the bike off and then tried again. Second time about an hour later, it started popping and then didn't want to run. I did a compression check on the right most cylinder and got 118 psi., which I though was pretty weak.

We went to get a new battery and sea foam. Battery was a Walmart special so we quit for today. Also we found the fuel sender was shorted to ground so it said the tank was full all the time. NEXT was oil leaking out of the tach cable. I pulled two spark plugs and they are white. Bad. Running very lean.

GAAA! Too many things to do. The owner doesn't want to really spend any money on it either.

Any suggestions?