question on shimming the needle

[oldgsfan]

Craftsman needle nose pliers # 45664 work for me {black & gold}. I pull the needle down from the bottom against the little spring and grab it with vice grips then put the circlip in with the pliers which fit the holes perfect. I dont know about leaving the circlip out, youre on your own there

Sears didn't have those pliers in stock..so I filed down a pair of needle nose pliers I had until they fit into the circlip holes. Your vice grip tip was a big help. Don't know why I didn't think of that on my own, but it made installing the rest of the clips much easier.

The carbs are back together. I'll button up the bike tomorrow and see how it rides. Thanks for all the tips and advice.

[1980GS1000E]

@7981GS- Weight?!? No.
@AJ- The key is proper fitment. It doesn't bind, is free to rotate, just not go up and down, and when you consider the environment the needle is in with the intake air and engine vibration, that needle is shaking a bit.

[AJ]

@AJ- The key is proper fitment. It doesn't bind, is free to rotate, just not go up and down, and when you consider the environment the needle is in with the intake air and engine vibration, that needle is shaking a bit.

In mechanical design, it's very common to "float" a part when you have multiple alignments with some parts held rigidly. In this case, you have the main jet fixed and the slide moving in a precision bore. Floating the needle lets the needle self-align to the jet. Note that the needle itself only goes through a small hole in the slide and it's a loose fit, rather than trying to rigidly lock it to the slide.

That said, the main purpose for the spring is to set the height of the needle relative to some reference (the height of the retainer clip), but I wouldn't discount the self-aligning feature of the spring arrangement. I've seen jets worn oval by needles even with them spring loaded. YMMV.

[1980GS1000E]

I agree on the principle of floating the needle. The method I outline allows that. Even more so than having the small spring preloading it.