Bogging Down Issues?

[nowherekid109]

Hello again,

I got my 83 GS650L a couple days ago, and have been working on it since. I just replaced the battery and spark plugs, and did the oil as well. The bike is starting right up and starting to idle well, however after a few minutes, it starts to seem like its bogging down a little bit. When i try to open the throttle up a bit it seems to choke out. My buddy thought it was a choke issue, and that the choke wasn't closing right, so i checked the choke bar on the carbs. It seemed to me that it was working fine, and closing completely. I still have the same problem of it sounding like its bogging down, or choking out. Also, Sometimes after i hit a certain point it starts to idle well again, and then within a minute it starts choking again. Any Ideas? Thanks in Advance.

[dr_fosg8]

Hi there, if you have not cleaned your carbureters yet go to this page here, http://thegsresources.com/gs_carbrebuild.htm and follow the directions exactly. This may solve a lot of problems.

[chef1366]

Check the fuel flow at the petcock and as stated above.

[nowherekid109]

Ok, I will try the petcock first, and then if that doesnt work ill work on the carbs. Thanks for the help

[nowherekid109]

Is there any special way that i should be going about checking the petcock? I dont know much about bikes, as this is my first one, so im not completely sure what to do.

[Nessism]

Pull off both of the hoses on the petcock - make sure the lever is turned to ON or RES first. The small hose is a vacuum hose and the large one is for gas. When there is vacuum pulling on the vacuum nipple, it pulls a diaphram open inside of the petcock and fuel will flow. ON is the normal position, it will allow all but 1 gallon of fuel to flow. RES is for reserve, turn the petcock to this position when the tank gets low on fuel...find a gas station also and refill. The PRI is for prime; gas will flow at all times when the lever is turned to this position. You don't normally want to use this position unless the bike has sat for a couple of weeks and all the gas evaporated out of the carbs. Turn the lever to PRI for about 30 seconds or so and then back to either RES or ON and start the bike.

When the petcock fails, gas sometimes flows backwards down the vacuum line and into the engine. Also, sometimes when the petcock fails, gas will flow all the time. When the gas flows all the time, it places stess on the float needles in the carbs and can cause them to overflow - either on the ground or into the engine. Not good.

All this said...my estimation is about 95% that the problem with your bike is the carbs. The bike is 25 years old and all the carb o-rings are hard and brittle. Most likely the carbs are gunked up also. This is the price of admission into the GS club. Use the carb clean up series and get o-rings from cycleorings.com.

All this stuff is in the archives. You could have gotten your answer and spared yourself reading this long winded answer.

Good luck and enjoy your bike.