just got a 1985 GS550E (-ES?) and idle issue

[Dybz]

started ripping carbs apart today. looks like they haven't been clean in a while. fuel bowl gaskets are totally shot, plenty of gunk on parts, all the jets are jammed. letting it soak in carb cleaner right now in hopes of loosening parts up.

[Dybz]

well the jets and idle mixture screw still seem stuck... i'll let them soak overnight, but this isn't looking good. any suggestions if the carb cleaner doesn't work?

[Dybz]

well i was a busy bee this morning:

changed brake fluid (no longer apple-sauce consistency)
checked valve clearances (surprisingly, all good)
changed valve cover gasket since it was off anyway (that was annoying getting it lined up right)
new intake boot o-rings installed/intake boots back on bike (previous ones each came out in 50 pieces)
checked spark plugs (all good)
recovered one of the head oil line washers from top of valve after it fell in the intake port during oil line install
installed new head oil lines
currently letting oil drain

thursday/friday i took carbs apart, eventually got the jets out. going to give them a good scrubbing before i leave for colorado this wednesday and hopefully all the parts i need to put it all back together will be here by the time i get back from CO next monday.

still need:
rebuild/sync/tune carbs
put in new oil/filter
lube up chain
new air filter

[Dybz]

alrighty folks, back for some help. i've gone through the carbs/boots/valves/oil/brakes and got everything cleaned up and ready. got the carbs back on the bike, but i'm not sure if i've seated the intake->carb boots properly. they don't seem to want to go on any further, but still seem to be unevenly seated on the carb.

other than that i got the bike cranking last night, and barely got it fired up after a bit of fiddling. it ran rather... strangely... lots of smoke, so i shut it off right away. does this mean it's running rich at idle? it seemed to rev fine, but sitting under 2k rpm it was definitely not happy. i currently have the idle mixture screws set 2 turns out, should i go further as a starting point?

also, i have a small gas tank leak that i attempted to fix with some "gas tank sealer" epoxy stuff. doesn't work for $h!7. the gas soaks right through it. any suggestions on how to approach this? or is it just easier to get another gas tank?

[skreemer]

check your PMs and give the guy in deerfield a call.

[Dybz]

thanks, replied.

[Dybz]

quick question about pilot/main jets and all that:

when you install the various jets, you just screw them in all the way, right? you can't adjust them, or can you?

[Dybz]

so i'll admit it when i have a brain fart as i did with the carbs. i spoke with skreemer on the phone, and although his suggestions weren't the actual problem, he did turn me down the right path. it seemed like the bike was getting too much air, when in fact it was getting too much fuel... kind of weird seeing as it sputtered a bit with the choke fully on and did nothing with the choke full off. turned out that i had forgotten to put in one of the little fuel needles in my haste to get the carbs back to running order. i got a bit confused also since i was messing with two seperate sets of carbs combining them to get one properly working set so i had 4 of the fuel needles, and realized that 3 were still sitting in my parts box lol. so the bike fires up now, although definitely needs a proper tuning.

[skreemer]

yes you just seat the jets. There should be no adjusting them. Though with that said they are "soft" metal. If you dig into them with something like a steel pick to clean them you could enlarge the hole or damage the surface and cause the spray they produce to be malformed.

holy smokes... yeah that would do it. Have you gotten it fired up? How's it running now?

[MelodicMetalGod]

so i'll admit it when i have a brain fart as i did with the carbs. i spoke with skreemer on the phone, and although his suggestions weren't the actual problem, he did turn me down the right path. it seemed like the bike was getting too much air, when in fact it was getting too much fuel... kind of weird seeing as it sputtered a bit with the choke fully on and did nothing with the choke full off. turned out that i had forgotten to put in one of the little fuel needles in my haste to get the carbs back to running order. i got a bit confused also since i was messing with two seperate sets of carbs combining them to get one properly working set so i had 4 of the fuel needles, and realized that 3 were still sitting in my parts box lol. so the bike fires up now, although definitely needs a proper tuning.

Congrats on the start up!

Skreemer and folks like him make TheGSR a great place.

Gotta love the carbs and makin' one outta two. Had to do the same thing. Enjoy the tuning process!

[Dybz]

fires up immediately, much better than before the carb cleaning/reworking. the idle is still off and seems to die very easily when i turn the choke off, but hopefully that will be fixed once i tune/sync the carbs. when i give it some throttle it revs like crazy though, so at least it seems like the jets/everything else are working properly. i hope to get it tuned this weekend, then just need to wait for a new gas tank to get here from natan and i'll be set to ride!

[skreemer]

there's a knob between the carbs (closer to the 1/2 carb IIRC) that's the idle adjust.

make small adjustments, then rev it to 3k for a second or two and let it idle. If it's where you want it or it idles evenly let it go or re-adjust as necessary. (you have to read the manual to figure out what direction you need to turn the knob but IIRC clockwise ups the idle and counter-clockwise lowers the idle)

[Dybz]

there's a knob between the carbs (closer to the 1/2 carb IIRC) that's the idle adjust.

make small adjustments, then rev it to 3k for a second or two and let it idle. If it's where you want it or it idles evenly let it go or re-adjust as necessary. (you have to read the manual to figure out what direction you need to turn the knob but IIRC clockwise ups the idle and counter-clockwise lowers the idle)

yup, i'm going to follow the highest idle method for mixture screws and bikecliff's DIY for syncing.

[Dybz]

what kind of vacuum should be expected on the gs550e? i'm not really able to get much higher than 17-18 or so.

edit:
did some more fine tuning this morning. rpms are rock steady at about 1250 during idle. after reving the bike does not hesitate or anything, but return directly back to the 1250 idle. on the morgan carb tune though, idle vacuum wobbles between 17-18 with drops down to 16 here and there. both vacuum ports are basically identicle so they are well synced. does this sound ok?

edit of edit:
nvm about the vacuum level. didn't notice that bikecliff's DIY on syncing was done at 2000 rpm, i was doing it at by 1250 base idle.

[skreemer]

1250 idle is a touch high but I wouldn't worry about it too much... (may effect your gas mileage a hair). Perfect idle is somewhere near 1100 to 1150... As long as the transitions from pilots to needle to mains while under way is smooth I'd call it a success.

these bike are really cold blooded too, mine liked to be on full or half choke for a good 5 - 10 minutes before she'd settle in.