I have a 1978 GS750(E?) that I came to Oregon to pick up. durinbg storage the last few months it has been garaged. It has been started pretty regularly (monthly) over that time, but not run down the road too far until recently.
The idle has been "off", idling low and dying. When we were trying to adjust it, it then wanted to idle at 2k.
I thought we had all the bugs worked out, but here's a description of what happened last Thurday:
The 750 started off running well. When we started getting into hills though, the first issue cropped up: lost power. I could hold speed (70mph/5k rpm) on flat sections, but going up hill when I rolled on throttle to try to maintain speed, it wouldn't hold well or, when pinned, I would lose power and slow more. I could downshift to 4th, but this would only help keep the speed limit- max under load on a hill was 6k rpm.
Upon further testing on the freeway I discovered that on downhill sections I could go faster in 5th, but not more then 6k. 4th gear downhill was good for 80-90 mph, 7k or a little more. If I engaged the clutch, the engine could/would accelerate to near redline. I wasn't noticing any missing or backfiring, it felt/sounded like it was running smooth.
The next issue came up when we stopped for gas. The engine died at a stop sign (Dave & I had been working with the idle speed among other things the day before) and I didn't have enough battery power to start using the "easy button"-I had just enough power to crank once or twice slowly. I bump started the bike and got to the gas station, where Bob was
waiting. We poked the battery with a meter and found it was low (of course), about 11.5 volts. After kick-starting the bike, he put the meter on and found I wasn't getting much more charging power at all, maybe 1/2 a volt at the most. While revving the engine for volt testing, I did notice one puff of darker exhaust, but otherwise the pipes were putting out clean looking emissions.
And, I'd burned 3.88 gallons of gas in 93 miles.
I turned off the headlight and limped back to Eugene. I hoped that I could make it or get close before the battery completely died. I had the same problems with power loss under load. Not only did I make it back, with the headlight off I charged the battery enough to be able to start it again...
Any help, suggestions, or links to previous threads with help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
RK
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