1983 550L has white smoke from one tailpipe only after it warms up.

[Guest]

I was wondering if anyone has had a similar experience or knows how to fix this problem. I've been reading older posts and I do not believe it is a faulty valve stem seal because it never smokes after it starts. The smoke smells strongly of gas and I've tried adjusting the carb floats in case it was just running really rich but it didn't help. Any ideas?

[JTGS850GL]

Check your plugs and see if they're black on the smoking side. Check to see if it wet or dry carbon black. Is it the left or right exhaust? Left exhaust could be cylinder 2 and be from a faulty petcock. Could also be a sticking float.

[gustovh]

More info please, what have you done to the bike, how long have you owned it and all the usual questions when not much info is given. Your title says that it smokes only after warm up and then you state in the discussion that it never smokes after it starts, which is it, it makes a difference.

White smoke on start up is really not smoke but condensation in the exhaust turned to steam and goes away when all the moisture is gone. Gas smoke tends to run to the black side and oil to the blue side and smells like burning oil.

That said, you should look up BassCliff's web site, he has all kinds of support documentation, and rebuild tutorials. Also use the search feature and look up the top 10 newbie mistakes. then report back.

V

[londonboards]

In my case it was a carb that was completely out of sync with the others:

Take the header off and you may see it spitting fire at you:

then do this:

Sorted. As we say over here.

Greetings

[Griffin]

I was wondering if anyone has had a similar experience or knows how to fix this problem. I've been reading older posts and I do not believe it is a faulty valve stem seal because it never smokes after it starts. The smoke smells strongly of gas and I've tried adjusting the carb floats in case it was just running really rich but it didn't help. Any ideas?

Had that happen on a 1980 GS550L. Thick, bluish white smoke coming out of only one pipe. Could fog out a neighborhood and kill every mosquito on the block as thick as the fog was.

Turns out it was a bad petcock diaphragm that allowed gas to be dumped straight into #2 carb inlet through the vacuum port. New petcock fixed it.

[ColinClayton]

Ive owned the bike for 3 years now. Im not sure how many miles it has because the previous owner replaced the electronic cluster with just a small circular speedometer which read 1000 miles. It has the stock exhaust, stock air box, and dual mikuni carbs. When I first got it, it was running fine I rode it quite a bit. Then it spent a year outside because I lost the keys and thus I thought the bike was a lost cause because a new key was $300+, which was pretty dumb of me. About 7 months ago I realized I could just hot wire it and ride it anyway, so I wired in a toggle switch and have been using it like that since. Then i found out the ignition switch assembly with a new key was only $45, oh well.

Ever since I started riding it again after sitting for a year it's been smoking. What I mean by it never smokes when it starts is, only after about 10-15 minutes of riding does the smoke appear. After starting the bike for the first time in the morning, its just fine. If I ride it for a while then turn it off and give it a small break for a few minutes or so the smoke isn't there when I start it up again. It used to only smoke out of the right tailpipe, but as of this morning it seems to smoke out of both, yet more out of the right than left - the only thing I've changed was the float height. There is also a small bit of wispy smoke when i open up the oil fill cap on the right side of the bike.

Ive chemically stripped the whole gas tank, got a new petcock, and changed the air filter and spark plugs. One of the choke plungers was missing a spring so I replaced that with something close to the original size from OSH. I've cleaned the carbs and had them synced at a shop. One shop I took it to said they were sure it needed the valve seals replaced and another said it was just dumping too much gas in. Ive done compression tests and got around 110 to 120. I got a clymer manual but that seems useless unless I can figure out whats causing the smoke.

Here are some videos I took this morning

http://youtu.be/x3ntxXH6BCY

http://youtu.be/Zo-U4Jxfu5A

[JTGS850GL]

Check to see if the oil smells like gas. If it does, then you may have a leaking float valve. You may also want to check the carb sync. Several have noted smoke until the sync was completed correctly.

If that's all the smoke you're getting and the oil smells OK and you done the sync, then ride it.