'83 GS450L - Sputter\muddy\nearly die during idle

[incarceration]

Haha nice. I found that happening to me too sometimes, but I think it was because the idle screw needed adjusting more than anything

[pete]

Yeah I'm down to fine tuning now, so just fiddling with the mixture screws really, haven't had to touch the idle for a while but may have to do that yet.

[incarceration]

Dammit. I'm back again lol

I went and was going for a real test ride after swapping the pilot jets back and then also did a plug chop along the way.

The bike is running worse than before now. It doesn't even let me really get into 2nd gear before it sounds sick.

I took out the 2 plugs to see if they were running rich like before and they're not, now that I changed the pilot jet and redid the pilot screw (going all the way in then 1.5 turns back out on each.) But now the thing doesn't even idle right without nearly dying completely, and forget riding it sputters and jerks now.

Yet 40min ago, I was able to fly up and down the road at like 60MPH, I turned around, got up real fast again, then cut the engine when holding the clutch (doing a plug chop to check for running rich or lean) and I pulled over, checked the plugs, they both looked fine, put them back in, started her back up and now it's running like total crap.

What on earth is going on now?
I've uploaded a video to YouTube for reference to hopefully help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O6E27Dwi8Y

EDIT: I do remember now, I dropped one of the spark plugs on the ground while doing the plug chop on the side of the road, could this be the problem?

EDIT 2: I don't get it. I just swapped out the plugs for what appeared to be new ones, and the bike doesn't even start now (on both the new ones and the ones I had in that were just acting weird in the video.)

[pete]

Hmmm perhaps you're hitting a different issue now? Ignition perhaps?

A while back the right module of my original Dynatek carked it, but it started off intermittently. It actually seemed like hesitation to start with (ie too lean) but then after a while it started running on 1 cylinder, but until that time I swore I had a fueling issue...

[incarceration]

Everything is running great! I did some compression tests and played with the pilot screws then started playing with the spark plugs and noticed that they were bent so I tried the plugs o had in it earlier and it fired right up. I rode it around town and it seemed to be running great, no poor using or acting funny anymore

I don't know what was going on or what I did but I just did everything I was doing earlier all over and it worked then.

It's possessed I tell you.

[pete]

Hahaha glad she's running again! Many years ago I spent almost an hour trying to get mine to start... wore the battery down and was trying to push start as well.

After abandoning the attempts and coming back later I found the spark plug gaps were huge! It'd been running fine earlier that day...

[incarceration]

I guess I spoke too soon.
I was riding home today and about 15min into the ride home, I was sitting at a light, it's the SAME light it always has happened at\started at before. It slowly started to sound like it was dying, started smelling gas, and when rolling back on the throttle it would have slow response time and sound like it was struggling to rev up.

What does this sound like it is and why is it running GREAT yesterday, after riding it all around town in the evening when it's cool out and then today, on the way home, when sitting at a longgg light (i had to sit at it waiting for cars to go through then sit through another cycle again because it's a very short light and i was near the back) it starts to do this again and persist at every light on the way home?

I changed the pilot jet like suggested but it didn't seem to fix the issue. What else could it be?

[Sci85]

Sounds like heat is a component of the issue. Intermittent problems like this are really tough to figure out. Sometimes you just gotta ride it till it completel fails to,figure it out.

I wonder if you cold be suffering from vapor lock? Doesn't usually happen unless it's really hot but it kinda sounds like those symptoms.

Have you tested the electrics like coils, stator, igniter, r/r, plug wires and ignition pickup?

[incarceration]

brand new stator,r/r, replaced left coil and coil wire, about a month ago

[tom203]

" was riding home today and about 15min into the ride home, I was sitting at a light, it's the SAME light it always has happened at\started at before. It slowly started to sound like it was dying, started smelling gas, and when rolling back on the throttle it would have slow response time and sound like it was struggling to rev up"

Try this;find some place safe to duplicate sitting at long light stuff (mall parking lot, school lot,etc) let it idle, and when it behaves oddly, shut it off immediately and pull and inspect spark plugs (have gloves handy!). See if one plug appears fouled.

[incarceration]

ok will do! thanks

[pete]

Good tips, and the other is if it's vapour lock (as Sci said) by a blocked fuel tank vent, try popping the fuel cap off and see if that solves it.

[incarceration]

it did it again this morning on the way to work, so when I got to work I checked it out and the left side was running totally rich - it was charred all over. the right side looked like it may have been running lean cause I didn't even see chalky marks or anything. is this indication of carbs way out of sync?

the strange thing is, it doesn't always do this, I can ride around for an hour and have no problems. other times it'll do it after twenty minutes of riding and start doing it when sitting at a light

if it is, how can I solve it? I don't have a carb sync tool

[tom203]

I'd guess your left side float needle seat (or its o-ring) is worn out; who knows why it does this randomly.Could also be a non floating float, so be sure to check it. Yeah, it's carb removal time again.

[incarceration]

I remember checking that when I had them apart the last several times. the floats float freely from what I could tell when I had it apart as well.

also, if the float needle seat needed replacing, that wouldn't affect the right one that was liking too lean would it?