Fuel and air screw settings for GS550

[hannibal]

Helping a friend with her 1978 GS550. She dipped and cleaned the carbs according to the guide on BikeCliff's site. New carb and inlet pipe O rings from Bob.

She has the stock airbox with K&N filter and a 4 into 1 exhaust. Would you recommend 3/4 turns out on the fuel screws and 1 1/2 turns on the air screws?

Back story: she had some oil leaks from head and/or base gasket. Another buddy offered to change them for just the cost of parts. He installed new rings and honed the cylinders and put in new OEM base, head, and cylinder gaskets. He also replaced the points with Dyna electronic pickups. He was supposed to clean the carbs but pretty sure he didn't do a thorough clean as recommended here.

She got the bike back after several months and it ran nicely for a week or two, but slowly started running worse and worse. Eventually began stalling several times in a short two mile ride. She got it home and let it sit for a week and hasn't been able to start it since. It has spark so we decided to give the carbs a real cleaning. Hoping this gets her back on the road before winter comes.

[tom203]

"ran nicely for a week or two,"

How's the tank inside, is petcock working right?

[Big T]

The settings you suggest are correct

[Nessism]

Agree on the carb settings.

Be sure to check valve adjust, and torque the head. If cheap gaskets were used there is likely to be significant gasket compression.