adjusting fuel-air mix on 550L?

[JDA]

My 1980 GS550L seems to run very lean - choke must be on all the time to keep engine running. If I adjust idle speed to compensate then the engine idles at 2000 rpm. I've run tons of Sea Foam and Gumout through the engine and replaced the fuel petcock. Looking at my Clymer service manual (BS32SS carbs), I don't see a way to adjust the fuel-air mix easily. I don't have the mechanical ability or desire to do a carb rebuild. Suggestions?

[cowboyup3371]

Seafoam and Gumout won't clean your carbs and not doing them properly means you ought to just sell the bike now before you kill it. Please take the time and do the job the right way the first time. A carb rebuild is not hard nor is it expensive if you get the orings from www.cycleorings.com and berryman's cleaner from Walmart or Autozone. Trust me, Nessism wrote a fantastic and easy to follow tutorial so please go read and follow it.

Once all that is done, adjusting the mixture means turning the idle mixture screws the appropriate number of turns following the highest idle method as listed on Basscliff's site - http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff

Please, do it right and you'll love that bike for a long time. My 81 gets up and scoots right along very nicely.

[tom203]

My 1980 GS550L ... I don't see a way to adjust the fuel-air mix easily. I don't have the mechanical ability or desire to do a carb rebuild. Suggestions?

As cowboy said, it probably won't run right till you get the desire/ability. The idle fuel/air mixture was preset at factory and capped to prevent tampering. Unfortunately, the tiny orifices in carbs get gummed up easily- beyond the "reach" of gumout and seafoam. It's 32 years old-how much of its maintenance history do you know?