carb boot o-rings

[Guest]

Again, I'll tell you of my winter maintenance projects in hopes it might help someone else out there who might consider tackling these tasks.
Today I pulled the carbs to get at replacing the o-rings and phillips head screws holding the carb boots with new stuff received from fellow GSR Robert Barr.
My bike is a 1983 GS1100G and the first thing was removing the 2 bolts holding the tank and disconnecting the vacuum line and fuel line and the 2 wire leads for the fuel gauge. Lift up and away on the tank easily and pulling the vent line with it.
Next I loosened the 4 clamps on the rubber boots, and removed the 2 bolts holding the stock airbox to the frame and also removed the 2 nuts that hold the bracket(and remove the bracket 1st) to the airbox. I think this eliminates one thing that can get hung up when sliding the airbox out. It slid out very easily to the right side.
Next I unhooked the choke cable by sliding the arm over to the left creating slack in the cable(pretty easy). Then I used a long phillips head screwdriver to remove the 2 screws on top of the #3 carb freeing up the throttle cable bracket. After loosening the 4 clamps on the carb boots, I carefully pryed with a putty knife and a wide flat head screwdriver to loosen the carbs and break the seal from the boots. Take it slow and keep going from carb #1 over to #4 and wiggle it free. You might have to pry a little on #3 and 4 too. Don't mar any surfaces!! Hold on to it as it breaks free and then tilt backwards(not too far or gas might pour out) so you can easily unhook the throttle cable. Pull out the carb assembly to the right side and remove. While letting my carbs soak in a plastic drain pan filled with gas I sprayed the 8 screws holding the carb boots to the head with liquid wrench. Let sit for at least 10 min. Now with the impact driver I broke free all but the lower 2 screws on #2 and 3 cyl(because I didn't have the room to swing the hammer). Don't try to use a phillips screwdriver first and chance buggering up the screw heads!!
This is where I used a tip from the GSR forum and using a block of wood and hammer tapped on the #2 and 3 boots in a counterclockwise rotation and was able to turn the whole boot less than a half turn breaking free the last 2 screws.
Removed all the boots and cleaned/inspected for damage. Found all 4 o-rings were in 2 or 3 pieces with 1/16" air gaps and pretty flattened.
I pretty much did everthing in reverse when putting it back together, using a very light coat of grease( or use silicone spray as someone else suggested) on the mouth of the rubber of the carb intake boots and air box boots to make sliding the carbs back in place much easier. I used the new allen bolts in the package for the carb boots and a little grease to hold the new o-rings in place while mounting.
I wound up using hose clamps(flat screwless metal type) for new vacuum and fuel lines but that was a pain in the *ss! At least they won't come off and spray my crotch with fuel!!
All in all it was easier than I thought, hearing others struggling with removing stock airboxes. When I primed it for a minute and then started it ran rough for a few minutes and then nice and smooth, and was able to shut off the choke sooner too. I let it run for 15 min(tested idle and up to 4k rpm) in the garage. The way I did it I did not have to do any adjusting of either the throttle or choke cables and it idles nicely at 1100rpm. I think it ran rough at first because of the soaking and maybe having a lot of gas sitting in the carbs ...or was it just the opposite because there was not enough gas in the bowls yet?
Unfortunately due to 3 inches of snowfall today I couldn't take it for a 20 minute test run.
That's it...hope I didn't bore you but I could have covered more details........

[robertbarr]

Found all 4 o-rings were in 2 or 3 pieces with 1/16" air gaps and pretty flattended.

... another happy customer. Wise move, Lurch.

I wonder how many people have posted carb tuning questions here, asking about float level, jet sizes, # of turns of the bleed screws, sync, pod-vs-airbox, etcetera, etcetera -- all the while using crumbly carbon bits for intake seals.

We need to keep that Bwringer 'baseline' post handy!

[BassCliff]

I think I found it

Here's a couple of bits of wisdom from our beloved Mr. bwringer. Is this what you mean?

***********Quoted from Mr. bwringer************

Carburetor maintenance:

Replace the intake boot o-rings, and possibly the intake boots. Here's the procedure:

http://bwringer.com/gs/intakeorings.html

Here's an overview of what happens with this particular problem:

http://cycleorings.com/intake.html

You'll also want to examine the boots between the carbs and the airbox. There's a good chance these are OK, but check them over.

And finally, if things still aren't exactly right, you'll want to order a set of o-rings for BS carbs from the GS owner's best friend, Robert Barr:

http://cycleorings.com

Once you receive these rare rings of delight, then you'll want to thoroughly clean and rebuild your carburetors. Here are step-by-step instructions that make this simple:

http://thegsresources.com/gs_carbrebuild.htm

*************End Quote*************

*****************************
From Mr. bwringer:

Every GS850 has (or had) a set of well-known issues that MUST be addressed before you have a solid baseline for further troubleshooting.

It's a vintage bike, and it's quite common (as in, every single GS850 I have had contact with) that there are multiple problems that have crept up and slowly gotten worse over the years.

It's not like a newer vehicle, where there's generally one problem at a time.


These common issues are:

Intake O-rings (install NEW OEM or Viton only - common nitrile o-rings will quickly deteriorate from heat)

Intake Boots (install NEW -- these cannot be repaired)

Valve clearances (more important than most people think)

Carb/airbox boots

Airbox sealing

Air filter sealing

Petcock (install a NEW one)

On '79 models, install new points or Dyna electronic ignition (or at least verify that the old points are working correctly)

On all models, it's fairly common to have problems with the spark plug caps. These are $3 or $4 each, and often worth replacing if you're keeping the stock coils/wires.

Stock exhaust with NO leaks or holes -- good seals at the head and at the junctions underneath.


None of these things can be neglected, worked around, or half-assed in any way. Once they are squared away, you most likely have a bike that runs like a dream -- these issues account for a very large portion of running problems.

If not, then you can pursue more exotic problems. For example, I have found incorrect float heights a couple of times due to a common misunderstanding in how these are best measured. But you can't uncover other problems without making sure the intake/exhaust paths are leak-free, the valves are adjusted correctly, and you're getting good spark.
**************End Quote***********

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[lurch12_2000]

Just to avoid confusion, the intake boots are different between the 850G and 1100G models. The 850G appears to be thicker with the synch ports on them whereas my 1100G are thinner and the synch ports are on the head and not on the boot.
Hopefully, I added some helpful details about the process of removal to get at the boots that the bwringer article doesn't go into.
Jeez, I'm starting to get like you Basscliff in writing little tutorials- have to start including pics like you....you know a picture is worth a 1000 words...
I'll do the 1100G and you do the 850G and we'll write a manual together....then I can retire on the royalties and move to So Cal with my wife and kids:-D?! Sun and warm weather....oh wait a minute...that would be rain and mudslides now wouldn't it:shock:?

[robertbarr]

Here's a couple of bits of wisdom from our beloved Mr. bwringer. Is this what you mean?

That would be the text in question, yes. I'm saving a copy to a text file, along with my own carb leak rant, because I'm seeing so many people trying hit-or-miss tactics again.

[bwringer]

That would be the text in question, yes. I'm saving a copy to a text file, along with my own carb leak rant, because I'm seeing so many people trying hit-or-miss tactics again.

Aw shucks, I'm blushing.


Brace yourselves, gentlemen, for the spring rush of questions like these: "I leaned my GS up against the shed behind my Grannie's house last October so it would be out of the weather, and now this stupid thing won't start. Why is this such a crappy motorcycle?"