OK, now for the run-down

[KRISTI'SGS550]

Ive run Seafoam in my tank to run thru the carbs, but i dunno bout its parts soaking properties. Im sure it wouldnt hurt them, but im not sure that its as effective as Berrymans or similar products. This may have been mentioned, possibly even by me, but a word of caution with Berrymans. Its some heavy duty stuff, and kinda stinky. So obviously using it in a ventilated area would be wise. Also, it will destroy rubber, and isnt real nice to plastic either, so DO remove the carb parts that arent metal before soaking them. This includes the orings (which you should likely replace anyway) and the choke clips ( i dunno if your carbs have those or not, but mine did, and i didnt, and they became brittle and broke. Live and learn.) Also, be sure to flush the Berrymans out of the carbs with water and air, as after it evaporates or whatever, it turns into a sticky film that will likely leave your jets clogged worse than before. Some have said the dip will turn thier carb boddies black, and they cant get it off. It did indeed turn mine black, but a lil washing with water and scruby scruby with an old toothbrush took care of that.

thecafekid,
would you suggest I take the carbs completely apart to soak them. I know you mentioned taking rubber and plastic parts off, but should I soak the jets and needles off of the carbs as well (off the carbs but still soaking in the solution).

[TheCafeKid]

Yes thats the only way you're assured to get them completely clean. There are alot of little passageways besides the jets themselves built into the carb bodies, mainly for the pilot or idle circuit of the system. You can get the jets clean, but if those passageways still have crap in em, they'll still run like crap. I would suggest getting an egg carton and numbering them to keep the parts from each carb together, as Keith pointed out, they all wear differently, and putting parts from one carb in another could lead to premature failure, or simply not running right in general. After soaking them, i would use some spray carb cleaner with the red spray straw on it, and stick it in those passageways to blow them out and assure that they are flowing freely. BE CAREFULL however, as some of the passageways you cant tell where they come out at, some goin in one way and come right around back at you. I caught some carb cleaner right in the eyeball doing mine. Lemme tell you, the pain was magnificent. I thought i was going to be blind. lol

[TheCafeKid]

Also, keep track of which carb went where on the rack as you take them apart. One of them is usually the master carb, and doesnt have the same ports as the rest. It usually has one blocked off to create vaccum for the petcock. As long as you keep track of what went where, you should have no problem. Take pictures if you need to. They really arent as complicated as you'd think. Also, when unscrewing the air and/or fuel screws to soak them, screw them in untill they softly bottom out (no gorilla torque or you could damage them) and count how many full and half turns you made to get it there, so you can set them the same way when you put them back in, ie the air screw took 1 and a half turns to bottom out. When you put it back in after cleaning, you'll turn it till it bottoms out, and then back off one and a half turns.

[KRISTI'SGS550]

thecafekid,
thanks again for the info! I will be tearing my carbs apart hopefully today and setting them in some Barryman's over night. I have some plastic containers that will work great to soak the parts in while still keeping them separate.
I haven't found anywhere yet how to seperate the carbs on a 1981 GS550, my manual doesn't explain it very well. Is it very easy? How can I find out how to do this? I have a clyemer, but it really doesn't expand on taking them apart, it just says seperate the carbs. There seems to be some springs holding them together, do they get "tapped" with a hammer to "break" them apart? Thanks again for the all the help. It willl be because of you and everyone else on this forum that my wife's bike will once again run.

Cory

[Nessism]

The carbs are different accross the rack so it might save you some time if you scribe a 1 - 4 into the body to keep track. Take some photos as well before you tear them apart so you can refer back in case you forget where all the hoses go. And don't forget the carb rebuild series in the GSR homepage. Lots of good info there.

[Steve]

Kristi's hubby (Cory),

Have you seen the Carb Series in the garage section? It is a nice pictorial on how to work on the carbs. Print it out if you have the paper and ink, it's 53 pages, but well worth printing and placing in your service manual supplement.

It's all detailed in the guide mentioned above, but the basic idea of separating the carbs is to remove the choke activation rod, remove the screws from both mounting rails, then sliding the carbs apart. There are fuel pipes between all the carbs, and vent tubes between 1&2 and 3&4. These are just tubes with o-rings that slide into machined bores in the carb bodies. Don't worry about the throttle linkage, but DO note how they fit together. There is a tab on the adjacent carb that slides between the adjuster screw and a spring. You will understand that when you see it.

I second the idea for a compartmentalized parts bin for all the screws and jets, but my wife presented me with a better idea than egg cartons. Most of the egg cartons we get are styrofoam, and dissolve upon contact with gas or carb cleaner. She handed me a stack of disposable muffin tins from Big Lots, but they can be found anywhere. Mine have 6 muffin cups each, which is plenty for a carb. Four of these tins lined up side by side keep stuff separated quite nicely. At under a buck for a pair of tins, they won't break the bank, either. I have also found it very useful to have a towel covering the work space. It keeps parts from bouncing off the work area.

[KRISTI'SGS550]

You guys are awesome!

Thank you all for so many great details. I am off this week Wed through Saturday so I will be tearing these guys apart and cleaning them, in the mean time I will order my 0-Rings from Robert. Great ideas and thank you for the link for the carb page. I hope I have enough ink to print the sucker!

Thanks again for all the help guys. I really appreciate it.

Cory

[KRISTI'SGS550]

I got the carbs off the bike!

Before work tonight I worked on the bike for about an hour and got the carbs off and out. I am sure it is because of the information on this forum and the handy carb maual that I got this accomplished, http://www.thegsresources.com/gs_carbrebuild.htm . I pulled the rod out and got one of the brackets off, by doing the hammer and screw driver approach. But I am having trouble with one of the bracket type rails that holds the carbs together so it will be soaking in some "solution" over night. Hopefully this will loosen the screws up enough to get them off. If not I will be seeking help on this. Tomorrow I am going to buy some Barryman's and start tearing down the carbs for cleaning and soaking.

After I clean my carbs will it be okay to keep them apart a week or so while I wait for my O-rings?

While the carbs are off I am going to hook the bike to my truck battery and do some electrical tests. I want to test the plugs, wires and coils. Also while I am in the area I should do a compression test and later follow it all up with a valve adjustment.

Thanks,

Cory

[TheCafeKid]

In my opinion, PB Blaster is the best rusteater/penetrating oil ive used. Helped me out a billion times. SHould be fine to leave the carbs apart, just keep them covered up, or put them someplace where they wouldnt collect dust or whatnot.

[KRISTI'SGS550]

thecafekid,
I believe it is PB Blaster that I am using. I really like the stuff too, it seems to work pretty fast.

Would putting the carbs sealed in a plastic bag when I am done with them be OK?

Cory

[TheCafeKid]

Sure man. Really as long as they arent getting beaten and bent out of shape, (pretty hard to do) and the jets arent near anything that could mung them up, and you keep the diaphrams from getting punctured, they're pretty hard to damage. Just once you clean em, bags would be good to keep em clean

[KRISTI'SGS550]

I wash thinking of soaking everything for 24 hours or so and then putting the small pieces in ziplocks and seperate the carbs and wrap them in plastic as well.

Cory

[TheCafeKid]

yeah i think the Berrymans says to soak for 30 mins or something like that, i took it from a good friend (Steve) to soak em for 30 hours. Worked like a charm

[KRISTI'SGS550]

Yeah steve on here told me to soak it for 30 hours so I think I will try it. I know they can really use the soak.

I just finished reading the "how-to" on the main page for cleaning the carbs. Last time I cleaned them I missed a lot of stuff. I am glad I have that and you guys as a guide. My manual show half of the stuff the walk through on here shows. it is amazing!

Cory

[KRISTI'SGS550]

In the how to clean carbs or carb cleaning 101 overview the person cleaning the carbs used a basket thing with a gallon can of some sort of carb cleaner. He dipped the basket (that came with the cleaner) into the paint can looking container for cleaning. My questions are. What is this cleaner called? Can one still get it? And Where could I get it?

Thanks in advance,

Cory