1982 GS550L Rich and Lean

[Guest]

Long story short I took my newly purchased GL to a shop to have the carbs cleaned, tuned, and synced. About 700 miles later it was hard to start when cold and I could feel it misfire. I took the plugs out and and it appears 1 is running leaning and 2 and 4 are quite rich, lots of carbon build up. (They are ordered 4-1 top to bottom)


I don't really want to take it back to the shop that originally did the work because they did a terrible job and I don't want them touching it anymore. I've checked the sync and they are all synced together properly. They are the original mikuni carbs. Where would you all suggest I start? What could possibly be the issue at this point? Any help would really be appreciated.

[tom203]

Let me break the bad news... You really have to clean the carbs yourself - properly! to know that it's done right. Most shops seem to disdain these old critters.
Have you stumbled across this link?

http://zeus.mtsac.edu/~cliff/storage/gs/Mikuni_BS-CV_Carburetor_Rebuild_Tutorial.pdf

It's likely other maintenance is overdue , so have a look here..

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/images/GSR_Greeting.html