At my wits end. Does this sound like a fuel issue?

[Guest]

For too long my 1983 GS550L has been driving me crazy with various issues. Just when I think I have it sorted out, I don't.

A little background:

- Performed direct to battery, relay power to coils.
- Replaced the intake manifold o-rings.
- Had carbs rebuilt by a reputable shop.
- Replaced float bowl needle and seats.
- Replaced stock ignition with Dynatek Dyna S

After the above mods the bike fired up immediately and idled better then it ever has with little to no choke needed. I was stoked, I had never experienced such behavior from this bike for a long time. Good power, perfect idle and nice throttle response at idle.

Gone were the hanging idle, dying on throttle or simply refusing to start. Happy day. Until I took her for a spin.

The bike seemed to be performing well until I came to my first stop light. The bike died, idle dropped to zero as soon as I pulled in the clutch and rolled to a stop. It did start right back up however and off I went. Again, things were great until the next stop. Prepared this time, I was able to keep it running by blipping the throttle. After a few blips of the throttle the problem went away and it settled back into a nice stable idle and off I went when the light changed.

This repeated at every stop until I noticed that the right carb was dripping fuel. Ah ha! float height incorrectly set, flooding thus my problem. Or so I thought. Went home pulled the bowl and reset the float height. Took the bike for another ride with the same results minus the fuel dripping. It appears that I had solved the float height fuel dripping but it seems to have had no affect on the intermittent dying at idle.

I have reached the end of my debugging abilities. Can anyone give me any clues as to what might be causing this dying at idle which only happens when stopping after a cruise down the road and which will go away after a few blips of the throttle while waiting a the stop?

I have spent hours reading the forum but have not had any ah ha! moments where something jumped out as applicable. I almost hesitate to ask as I don't want to come across as yet another newbie spamming the board with my problem de jour but here I am doing just that I guess. Sorry about that.

Any tips would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Bruce

[mikerophone]

Welcome! If you put your location in your profile there maybe someone nearby that can help..,also post some pictures of your bike would love to see pics here

It does sound like a fuel issue so I'd pull the plugs as soon as it happens again and see if they're wet... It's possible they're flooding or starving... My first thought would be flooding but I'm sure you'll get some more help in the morning from the resident experts.

In the meantime - spark is good/battery/stator and R/R are known good? Airbox sealed tight or are you running pods?

[glib]

Welcome. There are many helpful people here and no newbie should have to hesitate about asking a question. There will be some condescending responses on occasion but best to just suck it up and wait for the help you need. I have no personal experience with your particular problem but I can testify that the help I have received here with my own carb issues has been invaluable...and plentiful. I wouldn't be surprised if it is suggested that you redo the carb rebuild including chemical dip so that you can completely control the quality of the work done. It is that important. I thought mine had been done only to find the main jets badly clogged.

[cowboyup3371]

As Glib mentioned, you're best to do the carb cleaning on your own instead of a shop doing it as they probably just spritzed carb cleaner spray through the holes. There are many internal passages that won't get cleaned very well by doing just that. Although you probably have the Siamese carbs on that bike, follow the basic procedures found in Nessism's carb cleaning guide found on Basscliff's website - http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff. Contact Robert Barr on here to see if he has the oring kit for your bike but you shouldn't need to replace any jets if they are still stock.

Do you also have a synch tool like a Morgan Carbtune? If not, you'll want to get one or find someone who does.

[allojohn]

+1 with Cowboy, likely the carbs are not clean. You can do this yourself with ease, do it correctly and you can forget about it for years.

[chef1366]

Is your tank free of rust?

[bjones2]

Good morning and thanks for all the replies everyone.

mikerophone-
I took your suggestion and added my location to my profile. I am in Salt Lake City, UT
I should have thought to look at the plugs when I pulled into the driveway and it as doing the bog/die at idle. Will check this tonight. Thanks.
I believe the charge system to be in good order. New battery and regulator (Due to an unfortunate jump start from a running car. Learned that lesson the hard way). 14ish volts indicated at the battery when running.
I also believe that spark is good. This was not always the case but the coil relay mod and Dyna S seem to have really helped.
Stock airbox is installed. I have had issues with the airfilter to airbox seal in the past but thought that I had taken care of it. Will double check.
The carb to airbox boots are a bit stiff with age and one of the airbox to boot outlets is a bit mangled (distorted plastic on the airbox) due to over tightening but I thought I was getting a good seal.

glib, cowboyup & allojohn
Its true, I have no idea what they really did to the carb. The fact that I had to reset the float height did not inspire confidence. I will say though that I have been in the carbs myself last year. I dipped them, pulled the jets, ran wire thru the jets, replaced needle and seat and one float, squirt carb clearer thru all passages. Did this last year and things seemed ok until this spring when the bike would not start and I threw up my hands and took the carbs to the shop.
As I said, I was immediately impressed with how it started and runs initially so I thought they had done the job. Sadly perhaps not.
Perhaps I should also mention that this bog/stall behavior is a long standing issue that predates all of this carb work.

chef1366
Is the tank rust free? Likely not. I have seen evidence of rust colored film on the inside of the float bowls. I wondered about this and how to manage it at a reasonable cost. At one time I had an inline filter installed due to rust concerns but do not currently have one installed.
Is there any sort of DIY coating that can be done to the tank?

Thanks everyone

[chef1366]

POR-15 is a good tank coating.
Your issues will remain until you clean the tank and do a last cleaning of the carbs.