Extremely rich mixture, crappy fuel mileage, newbie needs help

[flyanimator]

Sounds like there is something wrong with your wiring. It is the orange-white wires that should have the 12+ volts on them. Regardless, the 12.5 volts is good, but you also need to know what the battery voltage was at the same time. Because of the lower voltage on the other coil wire, I am assuming that the bike was running at the time. If it was running, the voltage (at the battery) could have been anywhere between 12 and 15. If it was 12, then you had good voltage at the coils. If it was 15, you have dirty connections somewhere.




I have done the headlight cut-out when starting one, but I have not read up on the "hi/low beam on when switched to high". If you mean wiring it so both the high and low beams come on when you select high, please don't. The wiring on the bike just isn't heavy enough for the extra load of having both filaments on at the same time.

About the signals on with the horn ... I have not seen that one, either. Do you mean "signals on with the horn" or "horn on with the signals"? If you intend to have the horn come on with the signals, I think it might be useless and frustrating. Maybe even embarassing. At speed, you signal a lane change. "Beep, beep, beep." Who's going to hear it besides you? Sitting at a light, waiting to turn left. "Beep, beep, beep." Who's going to hear it? EVERYBODY. The person ahead of you might get a little twitterpated about it, too, thinking that you are urging him on.

.

The bike was running when I Checked the voltage to the coils and the battery voltage was around 15v. I will be cleaning up my connections today and adding the relay mod for the coils.


The hi/lo beam on when switched to high is also a relay mod that is explained by Mr. Matchless in his PDF. http://members.dslextreme.com/users/...yMatchless.pdf

The horn signal light mod is also explained there. the horn does not come on when you signal though. All four signals come on when you use the horn so that who ever you are honking at for cutting you off sees you as well as hears you. Still not sure if they flash or just stay steady when you hoink though. Either way it should help a little with being visible out on the streets.

[chef1366]

15 Volts at idle?

[flyanimator]

sorry, 12.2 v @ idle, I got the 15v @ about 3500 rpm

[Steve]

Thanks for the replies to our questions.

Before you go to the work of doing the coil relay mod, clean all your connections to see if you get more than 12v at the coils. If you manage to get over 13, you should not really need to do the mod.

As mentioned, I had not seen the other two mods you were considering, so thanks for the explaination on them. The signals-with-the-horn sounds intriguing (have still not looked into it to determine complexity), but I would still advise against having both headlight beams on unless you upgrade the wiring to the headlight.

.

[flyanimator]

I had a question about this modification. In the write up it says that the 2 12v orange and white wires operate the switch,thus making it a 2 into 1 connection. and then if you use a dual output relay you can connect the coils independently or if you use the 4 blade relay you connect the output orange/white wires to the same blade on the relay. Is this correct? Just wantedt to make sure before I dive into this. Also does this mean that the same orange/white 12v could feed both coils without the relay modification? Again, just want to make sure I understand correctly. Took an electronics course some time back and I'm just trying to apply what electrical knowledge I have. Thanks for all of your input.
-Rudy

[flyanimator]

New problem, now it won't go past 6k rpm

This may not be related to my original problem of the rich mixture or the low volatage to the coils, but here it goes. I performed the coil relay mod on my bike AFTER cleaning all the electrical connections with a dremel and a small wire brush attachment and now my bike runs but will not rev past around 6000 rpms. May the modification or another electrical issue have caused this? Just to ad some relevant info; the filter box to carb boots are old and hard so they are not fitted on all the way and ambient air leaks into the carbs. This was present before the previous problem and subsequent actions to correct it but it did rev all the way up to the ~9k rpm redline without a problem (although i rarely take her above 6k rpm). I've read that this problem can present itself when changing to pods on bike with certain kinds of carbs or maybe even all carb'd bikes due to a lack or reduction of vacuume needed for proper carb function. Might this be the case in my situation? This is all under a no load situation (bike is on centre stand). I have not yet tested it on the road to see if power has been affected in any other rev range. Please help!!! Thanks.
-Rudy

[Rock]

If the boots for carb air cleaner are bad, the carb intake boots are probably bad as well. I would check them out. I thought mine were good by looking at them while installed but when I removed them and flexed them they were pretty bad.

[Steve]

Referencing this picture in the coil mod write-up:


your orange/white wires are the ones that used to go from the kill switch to the coils. Tape off one of the connectors that used to attach to the coils, attach the other one to the relay at #86. This is what will trigger the relay and your reduced voltage from bad connectors will be enough to do it. Connect a ground wire to #85. Connect a new wire (12- or 14-gauge wire) from the battery terminal on the starter solenoid to #30 on the relay. Connect another new wire from #87 to both coils. You can either run two wires to the same terminal on the relay or just daisy-chain them at the coils to keep the long run cleaner. When you turn the key ON, you should hear the relay click. That's all there is to it.

.

[flyanimator]

I will check them out today. Could this be causing the problem though?

[flyanimator]

Ok, I've got 12.86 v at the battery, 12.86v at the starter relay, and 12.85 v at the coils now with the relay mod. so I know the coils are getting proper voltage. So now that that problem is resolved, what could be causing my engine to refuse to go over 6k rpm?

[flyanimator]

OK, I finally adjusted the valves and it seems to run a little better now. The exhaust valves were actually within spec but the intake valves were less so I set them at .004" (they were less that .003") so now the engine does not run as rich so that problem seems to be solved. Thank you for all of your help with this issue. I will still be pulling the carbs out this weekend hopefully just to catalogue the jets that are installed and make sure that the "profesionals" that tuned my carbs did not mess anything up. I'm still jhaving the other issue where the engine cuts out at about 5500 rpm (with wot it will reach ~5.5k rpm but won't go any higher). It has gone higher on 2 different occasions but only once soon after it's started up and will not do it after that ( i know this is not exactly a healthy thing to do to a cold engine so please don't bash me. I only do it now because I want to see if what I "fixed" took care of the problem).
Anyway, I'll post more on this problem in my other thread. Thank you to all who helped me with this issue.
-Rudy

[williamcryan]

Hi

I have a 82 GS1100G. I've posted before that I had problems with my #2 plug fouling every 50 miles or so. I rebuilt my carbs, they looked pretty clean prior. I went for a ride and I had about the same mileage as you claim. Luckily, I ran out of gas at the intersection where there was a gas station.
Our Sr. tech guys on this site advised me that it was my fuel valve, the diaphram was leaking and gas was being sucked into #2. I replaced the fuel valve and the bike runs great and my mileage is back to the mid 30's.

How do your plugs look, especially #2?
Bill

[gearhead13]

OK, I finally adjusted the valves and it seems to run a little better now. The exhaust valves were actually within spec but the intake valves were less so I set them at .004" (they were less that .003") so now the engine does not run as rich so that problem seems to be solved. Thank you for all of your help with this issue. I will still be pulling the carbs out this weekend hopefully just to catalogue the jets that are installed and make sure that the "profesionals" that tuned my carbs did not mess anything up. I'm still jhaving the other issue where the engine cuts out at about 5500 rpm (with wot it will reach ~5.5k rpm but won't go any higher). It has gone higher on 2 different occasions but only once soon after it's started up and will not do it after that ( i know this is not exactly a healthy thing to do to a cold engine so please don't bash me. I only do it now because I want to see if what I "fixed" took care of the problem).
Anyway, I'll post more on this problem in my other thread. Thank you to all who helped me with this issue.
-Rudy

A good rule of thumb for jetting issues is that if it runs better cold than hot then its too rich and vice versa, so I would say your needle/main is too rich. Could be your inlet needle/seat leaking as well. do you see any gas leaking from the airbox? Is your number 2 plug really rich?