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83 GS550L stalls on idle AFTER running @ mid-range
Hi guys and gals, I hope you can help me with a strange issue. I did a search but couldn't find anything on this specific problem. It's a little complicated so I'll try to explain best I can.
Bike is 1983 GS550L, bought used (recently) with ~22k miles. I'm a motorcycle noob so maybe I bought a clunker without realizing it, but it was fairly inexpensive and performed well on the short low-speed test-ride I did.
Here is the deal:
1. The bike starts up reasonable fine, needs full choke to start cold and then will run without choke after a minute or two. Performs beautifully in low-speed town riding (max RPM 2-3k)
2. When I get out to the highway, I keep it at mid-range, around 4-5k RPM. It works great, no weird sounds or vibrations that I can hear/feel through the full-face helmet.
The problem:
After running at mid range RPM for a while (say 5-10 minutes), if I try to stop the engine will just die as soon as RPM start to drop. Then it behaves as though the engine is completely cold. It will not start without full choke and even a little bit of throttle. It takes about 30 seconds to get operational again at low RPMs, and even then it will sometimes stall at idle all the way home.
I am going to do a full carb rebuild soon (still need to order o rings and new gaskets just in case), but I'm wondering if anybody can tell me what is going on here. It almost seems to me like the carbs get stuck in "mid-range mode", maybe the slide can't come back down? I'm not very mechanically knowledgeable yet, so that's probably not correct.
I've tried riding with the petcock in "prime", but the problem will eventually rear its ugly head, although not until after 1-2 stops from mid-range. I've also liberally applied Seafoam into the gas tank in a desperate attemp to do a quick-fix, but it doesn't help.
Bike is 1983 GS550L, bought used (recently) with ~22k miles. I'm a motorcycle noob so maybe I bought a clunker without realizing it, but it was fairly inexpensive and performed well on the short low-speed test-ride I did.
Here is the deal:
1. The bike starts up reasonable fine, needs full choke to start cold and then will run without choke after a minute or two. Performs beautifully in low-speed town riding (max RPM 2-3k)
2. When I get out to the highway, I keep it at mid-range, around 4-5k RPM. It works great, no weird sounds or vibrations that I can hear/feel through the full-face helmet.
The problem:
After running at mid range RPM for a while (say 5-10 minutes), if I try to stop the engine will just die as soon as RPM start to drop. Then it behaves as though the engine is completely cold. It will not start without full choke and even a little bit of throttle. It takes about 30 seconds to get operational again at low RPMs, and even then it will sometimes stall at idle all the way home.
I am going to do a full carb rebuild soon (still need to order o rings and new gaskets just in case), but I'm wondering if anybody can tell me what is going on here. It almost seems to me like the carbs get stuck in "mid-range mode", maybe the slide can't come back down? I'm not very mechanically knowledgeable yet, so that's probably not correct.
I've tried riding with the petcock in "prime", but the problem will eventually rear its ugly head, although not until after 1-2 stops from mid-range. I've also liberally applied Seafoam into the gas tank in a desperate attemp to do a quick-fix, but it doesn't help.
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