79 GS550E 16000 miles

[bklauer]

What a great site!!! Have had this bike for a year and enjoy it but want to improve it. I know my way around car engines pretty well but have no experience with bikes.

These are Symptoms.

cylinder 1 had a bad misfire. Discovered had wrong temp plugs. Changed them and runs much better. But cylinder 1 and 3 pipes were warm but not hot to the touch. Found vacum line from #3 carb was not connected to petcock. repaired and now #3 gets hot. #1 however still is only warm. When I pull the plug it has black carbon and is wet. others are clean and dry.

Does this sound like carb problem or firing problem? Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Flyboy]

Welcome to the nuthouse, Basscliff will be along shortly to give you your world famous, mega welcome, in there you will find everything you need to know to restore your GS back to purring like a kitten.
It sounds like it is time to pull the carbs and give them a good dip and cleaning, you will find the tutorial on Basscliff's site, and repalce all the O-Rings while you are in there, you can get them from here, don't bother with the over priced kits from the vendors, they are not required.
Also be sure to check your valve clearances, they do tighten up and lead to all kids of running issues, that seem related to something else.
While you have the carbs off, be sure to change the intake boot O-Rings, they get hard and brittle with time and cause induction leaks.

Oh yes, and we like pics, lots of them, so don't keep us in suspense.

[bklauer]

Thank You I thought that the carbs would need rebuilt. Fun.