1981 GS850 Choke location.

[Guest]

I got the carbs assembled and the bike fired up last night, which is a major relief. I am hoping to sync tonight, but I ran into a problem: looking at a fische at partshark this afternoon, it looks like BOTH the throttle and the choke brackets both mount between #2 and #3, and I put the choke between 3 and 4, because the brackets both want to mount to the same place (the top of #2). The slack on the choke cable seems too loose, but the jacket seems stretched as far as it can go. Anyone familiar with an 81 GS850 that can recall, or willing to look at theirs to tell me how it is run?

I'd post a picture, but this is from my phone, so my abilities are limited. If it is necessary to see it, I can post it later tonight.

Thanks for any tips,
Chris

[chef1366]

[Gibbelstein]

Well, crap.
That I where my throttle cable is currently. In the fiche the throttle bracket is on the inside of #3, but mine is a mirror image of that, putting it on the inside of #2.

Now that I think of it, I don't know if the choke cable ever retracted back all the way down... maybe this was a problem I didn't know I had, since it always started fine. I'll have to see about leaving it, and taking up some of the choke cable slack.

Thanks for the pic!

[Nessism]

Carb rebuild tutorial linked in my signature. Lots of photos.

[Gibbelstein]

Great point. Now that I think of it, your write up is what I referenced when I was re-assembling the whole thing. Thanks, that makes me feel better to know that arrangement is on at least some setups. Perhaps it is just a matter of adjustment.

[BassCliff]

Hi,

You'll find more pictures in the Air Intake Repair guide too, like this one...




Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[Gibbelstein]

Gracias

Thanks for the help, guys.

Cliff, that carb arrangement looks somewhat familiar. My issue is that I seem to have the same choke bracket that in your pic, but my throttle cable bracket wants to be in the same spot. I wondered for a while if I were putting the bracket on incorrectly, but it is pretty straightforward. I even thought of flipping it over so that it would be attached on the other side of the "gap" between #2 and #3, but then it would be upside down. Maybe the PO replaced it with a throttle bracket from a different mode? Perhaps this will help:




I sync'd it tonight, and it seems to run just fine, but I'll have to wait for some chilly morning to see if the choke works at least as well as it did before (it's my first bike, so I have no other frame of reference). Maybe I just need a new cable as well. This one could be 30 years old.

[cowboyup3371]

Based on this parts fiche, it looks like you need to swap the brackets for the throttle and choke:

[Nessism]

That choke linkage looks wrong. It should be between 2-3 carbs, not 3-4.

[Gibbelstein]

No, I still think the trouble is the throttle bracket.

Originally I had the choke between 2-3 (mounted to #2). However, when I went to attach the throttle cable bracket it needed to go on #2, when everyone else's seems to go on #3. And because the throttle bracket HAS to go between 2-3 (That's where the connection is to the butterflies), and the choke bracket COULD physically go elsewhere (because it could mate to the choke shaft at any of the available spots), that is what I had to do. If I had a throttle cable bracket that attached to #3 like in all of the pics above, I could run both cables between 2-3.

I guess it looks like this out of necessity, if not correctness.

[cowboyup3371]

Looking at your picture, the tall bracket between 3 and 4 is your choke bracket. It must move to between 2 and 3 being attached to number 2. The throttle bracket must move over to #3 sitting so that the open end of the bracket allows the throttle cable to stretch down to the throttle between 2 and 3. The will sit next to each other (one on 2 and the other on 3). Turn the throttle bracket so it fits on the two front screws of number 3 not the side ones.

Just because the picture shows it going sideways doesn't mean it will fit that way. Mine had the same issue (fiche picture shows it sitting sideways on the carb while it can only fit on the front screws).

[Gibbelstein]

That must be it.

Ahhhhh! There it is. I had considered flipping the bracket, but rotating it hadn't even occurred to me. Now I just have to work on swapping the choke bracket without removing the carbs again now that they are running.

This concludes this weeks bike hardware puzzle. Thanks everyone for playing along at home.