Gs550E 1980 Update

[Outlander]

Well, after getting my carbs completely tore down, given them a good bath, and cleaned or replaced jets. I reassembled them, got them ready. I went to install the intake carb boot O-rings, and oops, dummy me! I bought the wrong ones. I needed the larger ones. Many expletives later, I went down to the auto parts store with an old O-ring, knowing it will not hold up, but wanting to see if the bike would fire, I bought four and carefully assembled everything.

Hooked up the tank, pulled up on the choke and she fired. Not great, not bad either. Figured she needed to clear out any debris that may have been floating around in the cylinders. After a bit, she cleared out, and to my surprise, she hit on all 4 cylinders. Clean, powerful, and sounding bad ass all over again. OMG!!! She lives!!!! I got an idle at 1100, bounces up and down, but no where near what she did. I figured when I get the right O-rings she will even out. I also need to play with the idle mixture screws. She is screaming with lots of power and I am at 2 turns on each carb.

Thanks for all the help. I feel like a little kid in a candy store! What a reward for all the hard work, listening to the way this engine was hitting was the sweetest music I have heard in a very very long time.

Definetley, reading the carb rebuild helped a lot. All the great advice and knowledge here has got my baby running. I can not thank you enough. Just some cosmetic work, and some tweaks here and there to the carbs, and I got a lean mean clean running machine! Whoooooooooo Hoooooooo!!!!

[Outlander]

Well, today, I rigged the tank so I could tweak the idle mixture screws to highest rpm, and did plug pulls. Prior to tweaking anything, carbs 2 and 3 were beautiful. So, I left those alone. I have found cylinders 1 and 4 are black and sooty. They are not wet, so not overly flooded with fuel, but definately rich. So, I turned the screws in a bit on 1 and 4, and hoped. After refilling my old decrepid tires with air...crossing fingers they wouldn't blow out, I took her for a ride. Power though out the rpm range, good torque, and definately running better than it has in the last 8 years or so, where it was just sitting.

I have found that shifting into neutral is a real pain, literally. Bike was idling at 1100. I have to reach down and really yank on it to get it into neutral. Yet she shifted fine on the road test. I pulled plugs 1 and 4 after coming back, and found they are better, but not quite there. I will have to lean em out a bit more. Now it is mostly cosmetic, and I have a lot of cosmetic work to do. Right front direction, left mirror, tires (btw what do you all run on yours?) headlight, and then I need to clean the whole thing up. Also...after looking at my rear tire, I am trying to figure out how to get the wheel off, without unbolting the exhaust? Any ideas? My bolt lines up with the center of my mufflers. Hell of a spot to put it.

Once again, thanks for all your help!

[Nessism]

Sounds like you are getting close. Good job.

FYI, the pilot screws should be tuned to achieve the highest idle, they will not have a noticable effect on the plug color.

Good luck.

[Dogma]

A comment on shifting into neutral: Give up if you're not rolling. I was flipping through the GS1100G user manual from BassCliff's site (because it's the closest to my 850), and it said something like "shift into neutral just before stopping". I have found that even that takes practice. I usually just kill the engine if I really need neutral.

[uudfourty]

I'll second that.

[relic-rider]

Well, today, I rigged the tank so I could tweak the idle mixture screws to highest rpm, and did plug pulls. Prior to tweaking anything, carbs 2 and 3 were beautiful. So, I left those alone. I have found cylinders 1 and 4 are black and sooty. They are not wet, so not overly flooded with fuel, but definately rich. So, I turned the screws in a bit on 1 and 4, and hoped. After refilling my old decrepid tires with air...crossing fingers they wouldn't blow out, I took her for a ride. Power though out the rpm range, good torque, and definately running better than it has in the last 8 years or so, where it was just sitting.

I have found that shifting into neutral is a real pain, literally. Bike was idling at 1100. I have to reach down and really yank on it to get it into neutral. Yet she shifted fine on the road test. I pulled plugs 1 and 4 after coming back, and found they are better, but not quite there. I will have to lean em out a bit more. Now it is mostly cosmetic, and I have a lot of cosmetic work to do. Right front direction, left mirror, tires (btw what do you all run on yours?) headlight, and then I need to clean the whole thing up. Also...after looking at my rear tire, I am trying to figure out how to get the wheel off, without unbolting the exhaust? Any ideas? My bolt lines up with the center of my mufflers. Hell of a spot to put it.

Once again, thanks for all your help!

As for getting the rear tire off, remove both your shocks and the swingarm will drop down giving you access to the rear axle bolts.