You learn something new everyday here...

[Guest]

My beloved red 1981 GS1000G had always run rich- it never needed to be choked, except in really (<30 degree) weather. I finally got around to pulling the carbs. I used the Harbor Freight $80 ultrasonic cleaner and a cleaner called LA's Awesome that was $1/quart at the Dollar Tree store. I mixed it at a 5:1 ratio.

I followed the online instructions as far as disassembly & cleaning and managed to lose only a couple of small parts. I have the last one on order, and hope to have them back together next week.

Here is what I learned:

If you are referring to the rubber pilot jet plugs then we are thinking the same thing. Without them the bike will run way too rich.

The pilot jet rubber plugs in my carbs were really decrepit, most just fell out when I pulled the bowls. I've added a new set of them, along with a set of the cycleoring.com o-rings, and new float bowl gaskets. Since I'm using a K&N air filter, I thought I'd try a Dynojet stage one kit. It changes the jets from a 115 to a 114, and uses different (and adjustable) needles. A PO had replaced the Phillips carb screws with black oxide Allen ones, so I went one better and replaced all of those (and the ones from the mounting brackets to the carbs) with stainless Allen bolts.

I didn't see much corrosion- the bike ran on 10% ethanol from November 2010 when I got it on the road until about 3 months ago when I started running pure gas in it. I think the constant use (I ride 12 months a year here) helped to avoid any problems. While I haven't checked exact MPG, I went from around 120 miles to reserve to around 135. Not bad for 9 cents a gallon more. Should be even better now with clean and happy carbs!

I took some before & after pics for the ultrasonic, but my camera's exposure went south- the outdoor ones were washed out.

I'll likely be doing this with the blue 1000G soon, so this was a good learning experience. I recently did the same thing on my V65 Sabre (used the dip method), and these are so much easier to work on, as is the bike in general. The V4 Sabre is like a Chinese puzzle when you try to put stuff back together.

Here are a couple of pics, the before one is bad due to exposure, and I couldn't clean it up in editing.
Before


After (one cover is off due to waiting on parts)

[azr]

Nothing better than rebuilding carbs to feel accomplished I always say, looking good. I'm curious about the stage one kit. Was it their recommendation for the 114 or was that you? I'm looking forward to hearing how she runs. My own 1000G will be stock for now but I just may put a K&N filter in someday. And I didn't realized the stock needles are not adjustable, like you said we learn something new everyday.

[GS1000G Shopper]

The 114 is what they say to use for Stage one with a stock exhaust. The kit I got was called a stage one + three kit. It also has a bunch of other jets in it: 118, 165, 170, and some small spacers they call correctors.

The instructions list a matrix of mods:
114: Stock exhaust
118: Aftermarket or high flow exhaust
165: Use w/ Dynojet main air jet correctors and stock exhaust
170: Same, with aftermarket or high flow exhaust