1979 GS850 - Hard starts, super high idle, many problems...

[Anonymous]

I'm new here. Just acquired a 1979 GS850G from a friend for free. It looks pretty bad and needed a lot of work. I replaced the carburetors, got a new battery, the seat was getting rust all over, etc.

Anyway, I've gotten it to the point where it runs and I've driven it for about a half hour and it'll run just fine. When I leave it for two or three hours it starts great afterwards. However, when I leave it overnight it takes about 20 minutes to start. I have to put the petcock on prime and use full choke for about 3 minutes. Then I'll switch to ON and leave the choke on and try for about 6 minutes. Then it'll finally get some sputtering. I'll coax it along like that for about 8 minutes. Then I'll take the choke off and it'll run but quit if I try to give it the slightest bit of throttle. Then I let it idle for 5 minutes or so, alternating choke on and off and it will be perfectly normal.

What's the problem?

PS - I think this site is great and I'll get some pictures of my GS up here in the next couple days. It looks terrible, but I'm in love with it.

[Anonymous]

Check the carb boots for leaks.

[Anonymous]

I noticed that on another thread. I'm pretty new to bikes (I'm 22 and this is my first; I want to learn). What are the boots and what would cause them to leak? How would I find this leak?

[Anonymous]

The boots are the rubber parts that connect the carbs to the heads. You can check them easilly by spraying some carb cleaner on the boots with the engine running. If the idle changes, you have a leak.

What causes them to leak is 25 years of duty.