'83 1100E assorted newbie questions - what am I dealing with?

[eldevigo]

Howdy y'all, newbie GS owner here. I picked up an '83 1100E off craigslist recently (not my first bike, but my first GS), and I got hot to trot and started getting myself into a bunch of maintenance items before doing all the research I needed to.
For the last few weeks the bike's been sitting in the garage while I educate myself on what I'm doing. I haven't done anything too crazy yet, and I'm not in any real trouble as far as I can tell (fortunate!). I've replaced the plugs (carefully numbered everything first!), drained the oil and replaced the filter, and got myself all worked up looking inside the cylinder bores with a bore scope over nothing-much-serious.
I've been reading some of the intro guides on the forum (top newbie mistakes, and the PPP dont-panic guide, etc) to try to avoid asking any of the really basic stuff everybody is tired of answering.

I have a few miscellaneous questions about the bike that I couldn't find obvious clear answers to in previous posts. I decided to put them all here in hopes that someone kind and patient would be willing to spare some time to read through everything, rather than putting up a bunch of small posts all over the forum.


First item - carb O-rings. I've read repeatedly that they're a top maintenance item on old GS bikes. However, in the "Top 10 newbie mistakes" guide sticky, if I understand what I'm reading correctly, it says that my bike may be one of the few GSes that do not have this particular O-ring - meaning I don't need to worry about replacing it as an up-front maintenance item.
If I understand correctly, the O-ring in question seals the carb to the intake port on the head, and on my bike this is not a direct connection - rather, each carb is coupled to the intake port by a short (~1") rubber boot. I intend to replace these boots once I get into cleaning the carbs (planning to go get an ultrasonic cleaner before I take them off), so I believe this should cover this maintenance item.
Am I right about this? Is there anything I've got wrong, or that I'm overlooking?


Second - exhaust system swap - anything I need to look out for? besides a possible carb jet resize?
I understand from the "Pods, Pipes, Panic" post (I do indeed have "pods and pipes" on this bike) that an exhaust system change can call for a corresponding change in carb jet size.
I got this bike with a (delkevic?) 4-into-1 exhaust with a slip-on which makes my ears ring thru my helmet just riding calmly around the block. The exhaust system is badly rusted and pitted, and I'm not a loud pipes lover myself - I also happen to think that the exhaust styling belongs on a post-2000's era sport bike design, and that looks out of place on this gorgeous 80's japanese muscle bike.
My intent is to replace it with a fully OEM chrome system off an '82 1100 (which I understand to be essentially identical aside from being bright chrome instead of the stock 'black chrome').
I'm prepared to need to rejet the carbs to keep the bike running well after making this swap.
Is there anything else I should be concerned about, or look out for, when I swap back to the OEM 4-into-2 setup?


Third - what's up with my oil filter cover? (see attached photo)
It looks basically similar to all the photos and diagrams of OEM covers that I've seen, except it has two threaded holes through it at the lower right and left corner, with right-angle brass hose nipples threaded in and a short piece of hose connecting them.
The hose loop clearly doesn't attach to anything else in its current form, and it looks very much like someone's garage solution to plugging up the two threaded holes.
When I had the cover off and looked at the inside, it was a little difficult to tell whether the holes were drilled and tapped by some PO or whether it was manufactured that way - it kinda looks like there was some sort of manufacturing feature here but it was modified by someone at some point, possibly enlarged and re-tapped.
Anybody know why? Is this a mod? Is it off a different bike with a similar cover that for some reason ran hoses here?


Fourth - is "fully relaxed" the correct place for my ignition timing to be set?
I made a real silly mistake on this one. While I was messing around in the cylinder heads with the bore scope, I pulled off the timing cover to get at the crank shaft so I could rotate the engine to see the bores fully.
While I was in there, I got excited about tuning up the ignition timing before I looked close enough to realize that my hasty assumption that this bike would have a points system was in fact incorrect. (it was night time and the lighting in my garage is really bad, I swear I'm not normally this careless). Unfortunately, I cracked loose the smaller shaft-end bolt that sets into the end of the crank shaft so I could start adjusting stuff, and now I'm not exactly sure where it was set before I started messing with it.
So now I'm a little unsure how much of a problem I may have caused for myself. I'm not really familiar with transistorized timing (I'm pretty new to doing my own timing in general!), I don't have a strobe, and I can't find much info at all on how to do static timing for this system. The thing that I thought was the breaker cam, which is in fact the signal generator, seems to have a "rest position" that's all the way counter-clockwise on the shaft, and it appears that I can turn it clockwise to advance the timing before re-tightening the retaining bolt.
I know that advancing the timing too far can cause knock and damage an engine badly if done carelessly, and as far as I understand retarding the timing too much will just tend to cause the engine performance to be poor and possibly make it hard to start, so my instinct is that the safest thing will be to leave it at its resting, least-advanced position and tighten it back down again. And if my memory is correct, the position it was in before I cracked this bolt loose was at or near this position already.
However, since I've already put myself in this position of not being sure, I'd like to know - is it common for people to mess with the timing advance on these bikes? Is there a recommended best practice here, or a common adjustment to make? Am I missing anything important in my analysis outlined here? Any reason I should do anything besides just leave it where it wants to be and tighten it back up?


Thanks a ton to anybody who read through all these questions, and any feedback on any of these items is greatly appreciated!
I do plan to post a picture of the bike soon (since somebody suggested I should in response to my intro post).

[Rob S.]

Welcome.

First: when you clean your carbs, there are o-rings inside that will need replacing. I'm not aware of any external rings.

Second: no problems with the exhaust.

Third: those holes are for an oil cooler. If you do get one, the stock OEM filter cover needs to be modified or replaced with one from an '84 or '85 GS1150.

Fourth: can't help you, out of my league.

Many consider your bike (or mine, an '82) to be the apex of air-cooled muscle or sportbikes. Cycle World's Bike Of The Year 3 years running. Treat her well. Red or blue? (Red is faster. )

[Nessism]

First: your bike doesn't have intake boot O-rings, but there are O-rings inside the carbs, which should be updated due to age.

Second: a header exhaust system is not what changes the jetting needs, it's running pods. And speaking of pods, make sure you have quality pods, not junk china crap. If you bike runs decently now, installing a stock exhaust won't require rejetting.

Third: that oil filter cover is aftermarket, intended for use with an oil cooler. It's a crap application, because the 1100E has ports on the engine case, below the filter cover, which are a much better place to tap for an oil cooler. In your case, personally, I buy a new OEM cover. And make sure the engine doesn't have any monkey business behind the cover where the feed ports are.

Forth: the electronic ignition system isn't adjustable. Don't worry about messing anything up, unless you broke something.

[oldGSfan]

1: Yes you're right, no O ring.

2: I like stock exhaust and if you have the stock airbox, the other part of the equation is to get the jetting right, which is easily found in the sites like Partzilla or in the manuals you can download in PDF form here

3. That's for oil cooler takeoff lines and has been bypassed. There's a cleaner way, it seems to me anyway, as I believe Suzuki used them - immediately to the outside of that cover are plugs (19mm socket to remove) that will feed the oil cooler. My turbo had a cover like yours, I don't know the advantage of one over the other, but it doesn't make sense to me why the aftermarket came up with this modified oil filter cover solution. All I can guess is they didn't know that a way already existed by a simple fitting in the female threads once the plugs are removed.

4: I'm probably not the best person to advise on this, but I have, in the past, dealt with the ignitions, both stock and Dyna, and it seems fairly simple and not easy to goof up. But you know, I found a way. I remember assembling it 180 out of whack once and getting a terrific 'bang' backfire. No damage thankfully Then realizing the error of my ways I reversed it and all was good. Others will chime in but I think it is sort of simple (?) and there's only one screw-up you can do - which I did. Don't quote me though, it's been a while. The manual should help and careful examining of the mechanism.

[oldGSfan]

First: your bike doesn't have intake boot O-rings, but there are O-rings inside the carbs, which should be updated due to age.

Second: a header exhaust system is not what changes the jetting needs, it's running pods. And speaking of pods, make sure you have quality pods, not junk china crap. If you bike runs decently now, installing a stock exhaust won't require rejetting.

Third: that oil filter cover is aftermarket, intended for use with an oil cooler. It's a crap application, because the 1100E has ports on the engine case, below the filter cover, which are a much better place to tap for an oil cooler. In your case, personally, I buy a new OEM cover. And make sure the engine doesn't have any monkey business behind the cover where the feed ports are.

Forth: the electronic ignition system isn't adjustable. Don't worry about messing anything up, unless you broke something.

And where might we get such O-Rings Ed? haha! Thanks for sending me the set and keeping the faith. Just finishing up my set of carbs and they are really coming up nice.

[oldGSfan]

I think we all were replying same time haha

[eldevigo]

Thank you all for the info!!

Rob: it's blue, but the body plastics are roughed up (can't see much from a casual walk-by but the side panels are held on with zipties and the tail fairing is cracked and glued at the attachment points) and the tank has some unsightly gouges in the paint...
I'm gonna leave it as-is for the time being, but I'm considering the notion of sourcing some cleaner body panels and taking them and the tank to a body shop to have them all painted something garish and highly nonstandard. I love loud 80's neons, so it might end up being electric purple or sunset orange or something like this haha. I guess some people will hate it... but hey, it's my bike, and it *is* from the 80s after all!

Nessim: I see you're in the O-ring business! I'll send you a DM, I would love to get one (maybe two) of those sets for when I inevitably need them

[eldevigo]

Y'all have got me wondering now if I understand even less about the ignition system on this bike than I think I do haha

I took a short video on my phone to show the component I mentioned in my question 4 above. I thought it was for timing adjustment, maybe someone can tell me what it actually is. Video link attached...

[Nessism]

Tighten that screw back down, then twist the rotor, and make sure it rotates and snaps back, just as it does during the video. It's supposed to do that. It's a mechanical spark advance mechanism. With high rpm, the advance mechanism moves, advancing the timing. If you want to be super fancy, pull it all part, and lubricate the mechanism, so it moves even smoother, and stays that way.

[eldevigo]

Great, I'll do that haha. I guess I got worried over nothing!