How much of a difference will this make

[Guest]

While doing a complete carb teardown/rebuild, I noticed that the carb slides have been drilled out. meaning that the P.O has drilled a hole in the bottom of the slides, center,between the needle and the edge of the side...How much difference will this make in getting her running correctly? Should I consider new slides?

[Agemax]

would probably mean a dynojet kit has been fitted. check jet sizes and compare to stock. has it got a 4into1 or pod filters fitted?

[kdo58]

i believe they come with a hole, when i did a jet kit you get a drill bit to enlarge the hole. if it has a jet kit it would have adjustable needles

[chuck hahn]

Yes they do come with a hole for air exchange as they go up and down. Some feel that drilling the slides hole a tad bigger makes them react a fraction of a second quicker.

[Meriban]

I did have pod filters and a dyno jet kit installed...It ran like crap so, I put the airbox back on, and put all original jets back in the carb. It seems like the drilled holes won't be an issue. What about the needle adjustment...Should I just leave it where it is? or is there a setting where it should be to run properly? I just don't know what difference it is going to make.

[Steve]

Larger holes in the slide bottoms will not make them slide up or down any sooner, only quicker.

How much quicker? Mere mortals might not be able to tell.

If you have gone back to stock airbox and pipes, I am not sure that it is 'necessary' to go back to stock needles. The DJ needles will have more of a taper, giving you a richer mid-range mixture. That seems to be where a lot of bikes are lacking, but you will have to try it for yourself on your bike. My guess would be that the DJ needle clip whould need to be in the second or third groove (from the blunt end of the needle)

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[Meriban]

I did put it back to stock, at least from there, I can determine that it runs like it should...If it is running well then I can tweak it to get better performance...The P.O said that he wanted quicker throttle response and he changed the jetting 5 times, put pods on it, and still couldn't get it right...So, I decided that the bike was designed with it's stock configuration to operate very well. The more messing he did the worse it ran...I just want to have a well running machine... I am not out to race it or beat everyone off the line.

[Steve]

I don't have any numbers to back me up, but I think the 850 has the worst power-to-weight ratio of any four-cylinder GS.

In spite of that, it' still faster off the line than over 99% of the cars.

There is a remote chance that he might have gotten throttle response, but quickness of thorttle is not the same as horspower that comes after that response. The 850 simply does not have that 'oomph' that he was looking for.

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