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(1980 GS400E, 52000KM)
Greetings all,
I find myself with a recurring problem and facing the possibility of finally having to 'retire' my 28 year old bike.
After a Nova Scotia winter of one or two hours of riding per month and being kept in a heated self-storage outlet, the bike was only firing on one (left) cylinder this past spring, which appeared to have been cured by replacing some worn ignition points. Then, about 6 weeks ago, when I took it out for a ride, the first 10 minutes or so were so sluggish that I thought there might be water in the fuel line - which I thought must have cleared when normal performance finally returned after a few coughs and lurches. During the next ride about 2 weeks later, the sluggish performance didn't go away as I limped around my neighborhood, so I headed towards my service shop about 30 minutes away - and though it got back its normal performance about 5 minutes from the shop, they were able to tell that the problem had been that the right cylinder hadn't been firing until those last few minutes. (Right pipe nowhere near as hot as the left and right plug coated - presumably with unburned gas.)
So after picking it up 2 weeks ago after a carb strip down/rebuild and carb synch and ignition timing adjustment, my first ride again began with only the left cylinder firing for about the first 10-20 minutes. I'm also not sure that the right cylinder was firing all the time even after it finally kicked in - because on various occasions riding on level ground with a motionless throttle hand, the bike would give minor bucks and lurches as if I was trying to pull away from a dead stop in 2nd or 3rd gear. (Nowhere near as severe as that, but the same sort of feel.) And looking back, that minor bucking was also something I felt on other occasions over the summer even before I experienced the one-cylinder-only starts.
Now I find myself wondering if it's time to chalk the condition up to age, admit to myself that it's terminal, and start to come to terms with retiring the bike. (After 28 years, I certainly can't complain if that's the case.) It's not as if I can afford to replace the bike in the foreseeable future, but I also can't afford to keep taking it in for service if it doesn't fix the problem (though I realize it might be necessary to take it back multiple times before the mechanics possibly finally nail down the source of the trouble).
So my question to those with more expertise than myself is, in your opinion (I know there are no definites here), do you think this still might be a fairly simple problem to fix (any specific theories?), or am I more likely to be looking at a long, expensive process with no guarantees of finding an affordable solution for an old bike.
Thanks
Greetings all,
I find myself with a recurring problem and facing the possibility of finally having to 'retire' my 28 year old bike.
After a Nova Scotia winter of one or two hours of riding per month and being kept in a heated self-storage outlet, the bike was only firing on one (left) cylinder this past spring, which appeared to have been cured by replacing some worn ignition points. Then, about 6 weeks ago, when I took it out for a ride, the first 10 minutes or so were so sluggish that I thought there might be water in the fuel line - which I thought must have cleared when normal performance finally returned after a few coughs and lurches. During the next ride about 2 weeks later, the sluggish performance didn't go away as I limped around my neighborhood, so I headed towards my service shop about 30 minutes away - and though it got back its normal performance about 5 minutes from the shop, they were able to tell that the problem had been that the right cylinder hadn't been firing until those last few minutes. (Right pipe nowhere near as hot as the left and right plug coated - presumably with unburned gas.)
So after picking it up 2 weeks ago after a carb strip down/rebuild and carb synch and ignition timing adjustment, my first ride again began with only the left cylinder firing for about the first 10-20 minutes. I'm also not sure that the right cylinder was firing all the time even after it finally kicked in - because on various occasions riding on level ground with a motionless throttle hand, the bike would give minor bucks and lurches as if I was trying to pull away from a dead stop in 2nd or 3rd gear. (Nowhere near as severe as that, but the same sort of feel.) And looking back, that minor bucking was also something I felt on other occasions over the summer even before I experienced the one-cylinder-only starts.
Now I find myself wondering if it's time to chalk the condition up to age, admit to myself that it's terminal, and start to come to terms with retiring the bike. (After 28 years, I certainly can't complain if that's the case.) It's not as if I can afford to replace the bike in the foreseeable future, but I also can't afford to keep taking it in for service if it doesn't fix the problem (though I realize it might be necessary to take it back multiple times before the mechanics possibly finally nail down the source of the trouble).
So my question to those with more expertise than myself is, in your opinion (I know there are no definites here), do you think this still might be a fairly simple problem to fix (any specific theories?), or am I more likely to be looking at a long, expensive process with no guarantees of finding an affordable solution for an old bike.
Thanks
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