Started on my new bike today

[Guest]

Finished cleaning up my 81 honda cb750 Saturday and started in on my new purchase, an 82 GS850GLZ

Today, did my valves, rebuilt 3 of 4 carbs. Will do fourth tomorrow night and hang carbs back on. Man I was so happy that the carb bank comes off so easy. It is a nightmare on my cb750 because you cannot remove the air box. The GS850 was well designed !

Contemplated staying up and finishing 4th but I am beat.

Also did plugs, gapped pulsars, adjusted lots of items too mundane to mention.

Need to order new oil and filter. Also, is it ok to put fuel filter in fuel line on this thing. Thought I should ask because I don't know crap about CV carbs.

Gary

[Gary_t200]

Update

Finished carbs...reinstalled...installed new fuel line and a filter. Ordered a new petcock online. Will refill tank and fire it up tonight. then I will do a carb synch and try to get it tuned. If all goes according to plan I will ride it to work Thursday.

I might need new fork seals...thats an item I havent done before at home. I will be searching threads and trying to figure out if I can handle it without too much hassle.

How much would it cost to have done at a suzuki shop?

Thanks

[koolaid_kid]

Too much. Lots of threads on replacing the seals. While not a walk in the park, it can be successfully done in a home garage.
Sounds like you have found what you needed for other items, just keep going.

[tkent02]

The hardest part about forks is cleaning up the oil afterwards. They are very simple on these old Suzukis.

[chuck hahn]

Adjust the valves BEFORE you start it or do the carb syncing. have everything in the system optimal and youll only have to do the carbs sync once.

[subid]

this should help with the forks

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/cbsaunders/gs/Fork_Seal_Replacement_GS850GT.pdf

[Gary_t200]

Good link on the fork seal. I bought the seals online but hadnt thought of new retainer ring etc. Any place you can recommend me to go for those other items?

I am currently trying to dial in my idle. Started my bike last night and it runs. It does fine on choke but plummets and dies quickly off choke. So I think its running rich. I had started at 3 turns out and then went to 2 turns out. But it still plummets fast and dies. I will work on it tonight some more... My floats are at 22.5mm and my idle circuit is clean. My pilot needles seem fine.

[Gary_t200]

Well...tried to synch and I couldn't get it to hold idle...I had hoped my quick run through all the needle jets had set me up. But I must have clogged idle circuits somehow. So I ordered all new orings and I will take them apart and soak them. And rebuild.

Am so excited to get this gorgeous bike on the road I had hoped it would run with a quick flush on needles. I confessed so don't rub it in...

Bike also not charging so I will also be going through full charge system testing. Probably and stator and RR in my future.

My project for next weekend.

[Gary_t200]

Update. 850 carbs

I worked about 16 hours on the bike this weekend. Just took it for its first ride after a long day working it. Ran smooth to 70 mph. All gears work. Gear Indicator light works. Only issue was it was a bit tricky to get in neutral. I will be searching the forum for any issues around "neutral".

Completely tore down carb bank, soaked carbs in gunk. Put all new o-rings in. Bench synchd. Also tore airbox down and made it airtight.

Also replaced the insulator orings on exhaust side.

Put it back together. Fired it up. Used my carb tune and synchd carbs. It idles nice now where it wouldn't idle at all before. Took it for first ride down road. It's very smooth but wasn't uniformly smooth through power band. Kind of bogged down a bit at points.

Some of it may be due to lack of effective charging. My system doesn't charge at all so plugs probably arent sparking well. I will be running the stator tests to identify my problem. I did put a new AGM batt in this weekend too.

I also recently bought a color tune. I will give that a try and see it it helps me get pilot screws set right. It hasn't arrived yet but hopefully I can do it this week. I have read various accounts of it. From very helpful to not worth much. I will make my own determination and let you know.

I did the valves last week. So they are all set. Oh yeah. Forgot I just put new petcock on too.

No idea how many years its been since this bike worked. But it looks in fantastic shape externally and has 9700 miles on it. It will be a real showpiece when all the bugs are worked out. I can't wait to detail it once its working perfectly. I refuse to wax it until it works perfectly.

I want this baby to run like my cb750 and my yamaha 750 triple. They are both running like new.

Thanks.

[Autonomous]

Really enjoying your write up. The wife has finally agreed that i should buy something for myself, so I am patiently waiting on a good deal on a GS that i can wrench on the weekends. It could take a long while, but its worth it to me. This site is packed full of everything a new or potential owner could need, and the community seems more than willing to teach.

Again, thanks for sharing your experience, it is really wetting my appetite for a classic/vintage ride.

[Steve]

I was wondering how you were going to get along with "rebuilding the carbs" at the rate of three in one day.

Good luck with the Colortune. I used one on a set of VM carbs, it worked perfectly. Took it home, used it on a set of BS carbs, not the same results.
The color never changed, only the consistency of the firing, which was easy enough to see. Just start with your mixture screws about 3 turns out, to make sure they are firing well. Yeah, it will be a little rich, but they will fire. Slowly turn the screws in until you see the flame start to stutter a bit, back out until it's steady again, repeat on the next cylinder.

.

[Gary_t200]

Thanks. That sounds like good advice. The carb tune finally came. So today I am going to be in my garage. Doing stator papers testing. So I can order correct items and get charging system up.

Also I need to do some tuning on my pilot circuit.

As you can see in my signature I started with a cb750 from original owner which is in nice shape. Had 4000 miles on it three years ago when I bought it. I paid 1700 which is prob a bit high but I was so excited to get this low mile bike that I plunged in. I spent quite a bit to fix it up. New tires. New rotor. I did the valve shimming. New pulsars. New batt. I really don't want to add it up. I had never worked on bikes before so I learned a ton from the cb750c forum. But I had never done the carbs so I sent them away for 350 bucks and had someone do them. They came back and one carb still wouldn't synch. So I figured the idle circuit was clogged. It was. And that was the first time I cracked a carb. It wasn't as hard as I thought.

Soooo I did the carbs on my 850 from scratch. New orings etc. and lo and behold...it worked !!! The suzuki was a mechanical mess and wouldn't run at all when I bought it. But it looked perfect. Like museum perfect. So here I really over spent to get this bike. Had 9000 miles. I don't wanna say what I paid. But I had to have it as it was soooo gorgeous. So now I am spending on it. New batt. Did valves. Did carbs. Synchd w my carb tune. Bought color tune. Now will prob have to buy stator and reg cause it doesn't charge at all.

Just before I bought the suzuki 850 I bought a 79 yamaha 750 special triple. I bought at first sight from original owner. It's black. All original. Perfect shape. Not a mark on it. Runs very well. 18,000 miles. I haven't done a thing to it. And I ride it a bit to work. I paid 1,300 for it. So I did very very well there. He kept always garaged and always serviced in a shop. No marks. No rust. Crazy nice shape. I feel like I stole it. Original title etc.

Then my 21 year old daughter, who is my buddy, who scuba dives w me too, wanted her own bike. So I bought a 79 honda cm400t with 12000 miles which runs ok (I haven't touched it yet...winter project). I spent 1,000 on it. But it's in very nice shape and she loves it.

So that's my story. It took me about 18 months of slow effort on the honda to make it run like new. I figure it will take me 2 months total to make my suzuki run like new. I am super excited to make it perfect. What a pretty bike. My wife thinks I am insane. I cleaned my garage and positioned my four bikes just so...so they look nice all line up on center stands in the garage. Lol

So i use the yamaha triple forum on my yamaha. And the honda twin forum on my honda twin.

And this GS resources forum and bikecliff writeups are awesome. I know I can fix anything at this point. So I say "find an old bike and buy that b$tch !!!"

[850 Combat]

The shaft system on the Suzike is light years better than on the Yamaha. The amount of shaft jacking on those Yamahas is unbelieveable. It can be fun, hadding it and both ends leap. Like riding a lion! ha ha

On the other hand, chopping the throttle goung into a turn and losing a bunch of ground clearance suddenly might not be so fun. The Suzuki has hardly any of that. You will like the way they handle I think.

[Gary_t200]

Thanks. Well today I did charging system checks. Stator is a piece of slag. Connectors to RR are melted. Soooo ordered new stator and RR. I am taking the bike on short rides. It seems to be running quieter. When I first started riding it the cam chain noise was very loud. Maybe it's settling in again. I do believe its been many years since the bike ran. It idles very nice now.

[LarryJ]

I, also, had a Yamaha 750 triple, a '77 standard. Loved the bike, even for all It's quirks. I put a full Vetter fairing & bags on it, & a saddlemen touring bucketseat. Then, I rode the carp out of it for five years. It never let me down.
I picked up the GSM1100GK for two-up & interstate touring, & got better handling to boot!
The Yamaha was more reliable, but the GS engine will last forever.
You will really love the GS. Yea, the trans is better & so is the handling, but's all about that great engine!