Sluggish take off!

[scottybgood]

Hello my fellow Gee-Es-r's

Finally installed my new regulator / rectifier in my 1981 GS650G, cleaned the carbs, installed the air box unit (MY GOD THAT WAS THE HARDEST THING TO DO!) and starts right up. I take her out for her maiden voyage and she is sluggish.....

Very sluggish on the goose if you know what I mean. I give'er the gas and she takes a few seconds to unhook the trailer.

What can I do to change that? I need that thing to go when I give it the gas. Did I screw something up in the Mac Carbs?

Please help!!!

[TheCafeKid]

Is she stock? No new pipe, obviously not pods as you had that bear of a time with the airbox...but the pipe is stock no?

[chef1366]

Over oiled the air filter? Need more info and what you did. Take out the air filter and see the difference.
These bikes need a good seal on the airbox. Did you change the o-rings behind the intakes.
What do you mean by Mac carbs?

[TheCafeKid]

I think he means Mikunis?

[spyug]

You've got a carb or carb linkage issue or possibly even valve clearance problems. Likely even a combination of issues.

Cleaning the carbs is easy enough to do but often difficult to do right the first time. Sometimes it takes 2 or 3 tries to get them sorted. It sounds to me like the primary and or main jets are still dirty and or your throttle linkage is misrouted or binding.

Additionally, if carbs are not synchronized you can get less than acceptable performance. Did you bench synch then do it with a manometer when mounted on the bike?

You don't mention any adjustment to valves and this could be contributing.

Could you tell exactly what you did and in what order. The more information provided the easier it is to get a diagnosis.

Cheers,
spyug.

[scottybgood]

Wow, I really didn't give enough info on this issue. Mac carbs are the Mikuni carbs.

Ok...Sync has not taken place as of yet. I was dreading that. It is a stock bike, No upgrades to my knowledge. I have taken these carbs on and off a dozen times in the last few weeks. Cleaned, recleaned and cleaned again (Professionaly) .
I checked the linkage (Where it mounts to the carb) and it was a little loose. No luck on running better once I tightened it.

Air filter issue... I hope this is it. It doesnt have one on yet. Could it be too air rich?

Here is what I did. Pulled and clean carbs, Had a mech come to my home and recleaned them. He drilled out some caps to make further adjustments and the bike still didn't run. He could not figure it out and now Im down $100 for his labor.
Following day, Pulled and cleaned again put in new pin valve "o" rings.
Somehow that did the trick. It ran...until the battery died.
Installed new regulator and that fixed that issue.
Took her for a spin and found the "sluggish" issue and now Im talking to the pro's! (That means you guys)

[Dave8338]

The carbs need to be at least bench synced to get the thing to run right at all. When you cleand the carbs, did you take them off of the rack? Did you pull everything apart and replace all of the o-rings. The lack of an air filter will make the bike run in the shop, but not at all under load. Ask me how I know! Those caps that your friend drilled out (after the cleaning?), are fine but if it was done after things were cleaned up, there could be issues with the idle circuit passages, the needle bore, the needle o-rings or a combo of all of the above. First get a filter and LIGHTLY oil it and then remove the excess by squeezing the filter in your hands with paper towels. Does your air box seal up tightly? Sounds just like every other GS that has sat for a while.

[salty_monk]

Tuning without an airfilter will lead you to all sorts of problems...

Dan

[TheCafeKid]

yeah hands down that could be the problem itself, probably not but ive seen smaller issues cause just as much problems..get yourself a filter boyo!

[rkubik]

too rich

Air filter issue... I hope this is it. It doesn't have one on yet. Could it be too air rich?

I suspect you're right.

With no filter, you probably are indeed running air-rich (what most folk here would call "lean", in reference to fuel proportion). Get a filter, stockers are a bit pricey (about $30) but work fine. Check dealer or Bike Bandit.