I am probably in over my head

[Anonymous]

Great site, am new here, and new to bike maintenance. I bought myself a 1982 GS 1100 GL recently in an effort to "Teach Myself" how to maintain a motorcycle. HA. So a month or so into riding I have: replaced the handelbars, clutch cable, throttle cable, starter solenoid, and removed all the sissy bar luggage rack stuff. The bike runs pretty well and that is why I bough it, however, the problems have begun.
First of all, it smells like gas recently (last 3 weeks or so) all the time. Not just at start up etc.
Second, it runs hot, I MEAN HOT the front of the bike where the exhaust starts is nuclear. This is just in the last 3 weeks or so as well.
Third, I hit a bump last night and all the electrical (save the front headlight) went out.

My guesses: blew a fuse on the light (will check today) and there is something off in my carb mixture? To be frank I think I am in over my head but hate the idea of taking this bike to a mechanic. I want to do it myself.

b

[Rock]

Take the plugs out and check the color. Also has the bike been ridden on a regular basis before you got it, or was it stored away? Those answers may help to get you a answer. Some one here will help you as I found out myself. It is a great site. Get yourself a good shop manual also if you don't have one. They are a big help also.

[bjrehill]

The smell of gas may be due to gas leaking in either the line, carb bowls or the petcock. Remove the gas tank and remove the gas line form the tank if gas continues to flow the petcock needs replacing or rebuilding. If this is fine, check for leaks around the fuel line. Sometimes they crack. Replace it. If that is ok check around the botom of the carbs. You may find that the float hight is not set right or that the floats are not floating so fuel is overflowing the bowls.

[mark]

When you say all the electrical went out, what do you mean? Did the bike stop running? No start etc.? Or just all the lights exept the headlight?

The gas smell could come from so many things. Petcock, fuel lines, old gaskets in the carbs. All my bikes have been a little "gassy" when they sit in the garage. Or do you mean it smells like gas at the exhaust? You could be running way to rich.

I don't know about the heat. Most bikes are pretty "nuclear" as you say around the exhaust from my experience, especially on these hot summer days.

Checking the plugs is a great place to start. If they are black and sooty, your too rich, white you're too lean. Best color is a tanish color. Pull off your airbox and check what that looks like, make sure your air filter is new and not blocked. Make sure your petcock works properly, pull the gas lines off and make sure that its not putting gas into the carburetors when the bike is off. Do a compression test to check the pressure of your cylinders. Check your valve clearances, the basic stuff.

I think it just takes a while with a new "old" bike.

If you're in over your head, that's probably a good thing. That's how you learn to swim. I'm not that much of an expert but there's a lot of people who are. Keep at it, its fun to figure things out. The good thing is that these bikes are pretty easy to work on and there is a lot of good information out there (and here).

[cloudbreakmd]

When you replaced the handlebars did you use a correct size choke line? If not it may be binding and causing your motor to run rich. That would explain gas smell, etc.

[Anonymous]

Lemme Clarify

Thanks for the great replies all ready. First off clarification:
When I say electrical went out I mean rear lights, turn signals, and lights in the spedometer etc. Only light that works is the headlight.

The choke is I bet the deal. Since I changed out the handlebars the choke has been kinda crazy so I bet that is the problem. Thanks for all the ideas, heading out to the bike now to start fiddling.

[kalessin]

Nice bike! A most excellent choice, if I do say so myself..

Since the bike is air-cooled, it needs to be moving to get heat off the fins on the engine. And even when running normally, it'll roast your legs in stop-and-go traffic in hot weather. On the other hand, when it's cold out, you can hold your gloves close to the cooling fins. And yes, those exposed exhaust headers are hot hot HOT!

If you need to let it idle when working on it, you might want to set up a strong electric fan to blow some of the heat off the engine.

[Anonymous]

Check your fuses. A blown fuse will cause the lights you listed to go out. I speak from experience.

[Anonymous]

Bollucksed up, update

OK, so I checked a ton of stuff on the bike, and here are my findings.
1- low on oil- I put in some of the 5w-20 on recomendation due to the heat.
2- Fuse is blown- replaced the fuse, and then it blew again (twice) but only when I get it up around 30 MPH. Now I try to replace the fuse and it doesn't matter, turn signals, rearlight, and spedometer lights just don't work.
3- Replaced choke cable and dial. Now the bike doesn't smell as much like gas and seems to run 'cleaner', but I'll be darned if the bloody thing doesn't seem like it's getting enough gas now. It dies at the slightest provocation. Also, when I give it gas it kinda coughs a bit and certainly doesn't jump. Serious loss of power.

Anybody got recommendations on finding what I assume is a short in the electrical system?

[mark]

I won't say anything about the electrical because I don't know.

My comment is on your oil. I've never heard of anyone who uses 5w-20 in their motorcycle. An oil like that would be used for extremely cold climates (below freezing), where you probably wouldn't be riding the bike anyway. If you're riding in very hot weather 5w-20 has a viscosity that is way to low, from what I know.

People argue about the right oil, but for most "normal" temperatures it seems most go with 10-40 or 20-50. Good Luck.

[bwringer]

I hope that 5W-20 is a typo! That's WAAAAAY too thin.

20W-50 is what you need in the heat. 10W-40 is also OK, if you believe everything you see printed near the oil cap.

But I know for a fact that 8 valve GS bikes are far happier on 20W-50 when the temperature is anywhere above freezing.

Dang, hope the oil wars don't start up again...