GS1000GX float issue??

[ajayfaerabay]

Hi,

Has anyone come across this - when I have my GS1000GX carbs upside down, and remove the float bowls, the floats all "bounce" gently on the needle valves, except for No. 1 - it's just flat against the valve and doesn't bounce at all. It's as if there's no spring in the needle valve seat.

I took the valve seat out to examine it, and I can't see anything there resembling a spring, or anything to give the float a little bounce.

I'm experiencing very rough low revs running and misfires after 8 years lay up - could the float needle valve/ seat be the issue here? All the jets look good and I've cleaned them all with carb cleaner anyway.

Any help or thoughts appreciated.

Ajay.

[bwringer]

I've run into this myself, with low-rent parts from the shamefully shoddy K&L rebuild kits. You can also see this when OEM float needles have a bit of hardened gunk inside.

The springs in the needles should fully support the floats without compressing the springs at all when the carbs upside-down. (This is not true on some other bikes -- on these, the springs are weaker by design and you hold the carbs at an angle to set float level.)

Since you have one cylinder with who knows what float level, it can cause problems. Although your particular problems may also be caused by many other types of clogs.

Squirting carb cleaner is not a substitute for a proper disassembly, dip, cleaning, and reassembly with new o-rings -- there are a zillion little passages in the carbs that like to clog up, especially the tiny passages in the float bowls, for example.

If you were having a problem with that particular cylinder running too rich, the crappy float needle could be the explanation. If the problem is more general, a full, proper carb cleaning is in order.