hard time with 80' gs450

[immeraufdemhund]

I've been trying to get this bike to run for days now and i'm having the dickens of a time. I took the carb out and let it sit in marvel mystery oil to get it all super clean and polished and lubed up. I checked the plunger things and they were kinda hard to move at first but i got those moving right now. I put the carbs back on the bike and tried getting it fired up with new plugs and new gas....

first problem was that gas started coming out of the carbs so i searched here and found that my fuel petcock was bad. So i got that thing replaced and now i'm no longer getting gas out of my carbs... YAHOO!.... but it still will not idle worth nothing. The choke is broken on it so i have to umm...redneck choke it with my hand to get it to start. i noticed the drivers side carb (sorry i work on cars not bikes) does suck as much as the passangers side carb. So i checked on how to sync the carbs and found like 3 pages that said how to do it, so i went out to look at the carbs for the adjusting thing... i know were the master idle knob is, but the fine one i have no clue about. also the fuel float level...again clueless.. how do you adjust that? conclusion is i have no clue how to do none of that...

the bike seems to run good on the one side that sucks hard but i think it runs rich...if i could smell gas, or anything, i'd know for sure... when i try to give it gas after i get the bike warmed up, which takes a bit, it acts like my timing is retarded in that it will either die on me or make that weird deep sucking bogging down sound...

i'll try to be more infomative but i need a place to start looking. I really want to learn how to work on bikes too since i can replace parts like crazy on a honda car, and even can tweak them a bit... but this simple bike stuff has me stumped.... no computers, no injectors... sho far not even a simple sensor...

i'll have tons of questions and would like some pics or a web page with pics. I keep going threw the threads on the 450 and saving the pages to learn more but it's a slow process and i want to ride oh so bad. my last bike was a 83 gr650...now i'm just talking...ok thanx guys or girls, whoever can school me.

i

[snark]

First question...How's your spark? What you are describing could be as simple as a dead cylinder. When we know if you have a good spark on both cylinders we can start trouble shooting it step by step. Buy a Clymer manual for the bike...it will help with some of the specific tests.

Post anything more you find out and we can most like help.

[immeraufdemhund]

were can i get a clymer manual?

[snark]

Just about any bike shop will have one or I just saw a bunch on Ebay. I can look up some things for you if you need...actually, I'm working on my 3rd 450 now so I probably have some parts of the book memorized.

[immeraufdemhund]

ok well i'm charging up my battery right now (i'm using a car battery) so it will be while before i can check spark. My compression tester took a crap on me so i'll have to get another one. i should have guessed that when i discovered less vacuum.

edit: snark i'll add you to my buddy list so that i can access your brain easily...thank you for your offer of help. i'm still reading up and trying to learn the terminology... gosh i could use some pics...

[snark]

You need the motorcycle battery to run it right. I've never figured out how to post pics so worse comes to worst I'll email what I can to you.
Beleive it or not, the GS is a great bike to start with. The electical system is pretty straight forward and you really don't need any special knowlege or tools to be able to fix these bikes.
Good luck and I'm glad to help.

[bgmart450]

If you want to check float height here are the specs: (from - http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum...ad.php?t=73723 )
Float Height:
ED, LD, TXD, LF: 23.0 +- 1.0 mm (0.89 +- 0.04 in)
Other Models: 22.4 +- 1.0 mm (0.88 +- 0.04 in)

Check them sitting upsidedown from the top of the float to the base of the floatbowl gasket.


Knoxville eh? I spent 2nd - 7th grade there, kinda miss it. We moved to Tx in '83.

[immeraufdemhund]

i grew up in Minnesota and moved here in 2001. I miss MN, but the longer riding season down here makes it kinda worth it...WHEN I HAVE A BIKE!!!... soon i keep telling my self.

time to go check spark...

[Dave8338]

MINNESOTA...did I hear someone say Minnesota! Welcome to the forums. These guys will get you through this project, they got mine running great!!!=D> The 42 degree ride in to work this morning makes any place south of Iowa sound inviting. You've found the right place friend!

Dave
Minneapolis area.

[immeraufdemhund]

ok, so a little update to my problems...and non-problems... First thing that took me away from the board is marriage (YAHOO!) and the second was moving to her place after we got married.

Dave8338, i was nearly raised on da range... i lived in hibbing for the longest time. But now i'm in knoxville TN....anywho.

The bike sat at my mom's untill i could get a chance to work on it, which has been today preaty much. I took all the wires off and striped the bike. I was in preperation to putting a gs550 motor in it. (WHICH DOESN"T FIT!!!! grr) so now i have a motor half put into the bike no wires, no seat. A dinged and rusted gas tank with no gas cap....this project is sounding more and more daunting. So that's the back ground story as of now.

I have been searching for two days straight on how to sync my carbs. I got that i have to make a manometer (no problem) and connect them to the two ports on the carb ( i think i got those right) i know i'm supppsed to turn on the bike (which is impossible right now) then i have to adjust the skrew............WHAT SKREW??? i can't find any skrew the makes it different. when i blow into the carb i can tell that they are at different levels. but i have no clue how to adjust them. When i had the bike almost running i could get it to run on one cylinder. It would back fire some. When i put my hand over the carb to choke it (my chokes are broke) i noticed that the umm... drivers side cylinder is WAY weaker than the passanger side cylinder. I checked compression and they are both even... which to me tells me to sync carbs and i'll be running good... I need visuals. I can't find this thing at all... Thank you guys.

[Lil_Red]

I'll see if there is a pic in my Clymers. If they have one, I'll scan it for you and post it.

[Kabonkie]

The adjustment screw is right at the junction of the two carbs throttles. So look at the rack and see on the front side of the engine. Upper side or side toward the gas tank. Right in the center of that you will see a tiny flat bladed screw with a nut around it.

That's it. If no one else posts a pic, I'll try to get one tomorrow and post it.