Carb question (sweet fire)

[devauxr]

So this weekend on my 1980 gs850g I had a wee bit of a fire in the air box. The reason for the fire was excessive use of starting fluid.

After the fire was put out everything seemed to be ok as fire as wires and the air box boots go (with the exception of maybe one). My question has to do with the slides in the carb's are they supposed to go up and down with a twist of the throttle or are they operated via airflow or vacuum? I just want to make sure before i go slapping everything back together that everythings ok.

[tkent02]

they are vacuum operated.

[devauxr]

I thought as much. Breathing a little sigh of relief. I'm still going to tear them apart and give them the once over again just in case but I was fearing i burned those diaphragms or something.

[Steve]

Now do yourself a favor and THROW AWAY THE STARTING FLUID!!!

If your bike is hard to start when cold, you probably need to adjust the valves.

Now that you know that the slides are vacuum operated, you should probably take off the tops of the carbs to visually check the diaphragms. Depending on the severity of the fire, there might not have been any damage to the diaphragms, but the only way to know for sure is to take them out and look at them. You can do this without removing the carbs, making the job just a tad easier.

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[devauxr]

It's not that it's hard to start in the cold. I just rebuilt the entire engine and carbs and i was trying to start it and diagnose why it wasn't running. It turns out that the petcock (brand new) wasn't opening in the prime position like i though it should have and it wasn't getting any fuel. I found this out when i ran out of the garage with the fuel tank and the fire didn't chase me like some sort of cartoon.

[focus frenzy]

It's not that it's hard to start in the cold. I just rebuilt the entire engine and carbs and i was trying to start it and diagnose why it wasn't running. It turns out that the petcock (brand new) wasn't opening in the prime position like i though it should have and it wasn't getting any fuel. I found this out when i ran out of the garage with the fuel tank and the fire didn't chase me like some sort of cartoon.

ok I just got a mental image of Willey coyote running with a gas tank over his head and fire right behind him and it was funny as hell.

another reason to throw the starter fluid away is it washes the oil film off the cylinders and can cause the rings to seize in the cylinder. very bad.

WD-40 is a good starting aid as it uses nice safe propane, butane and is a mild lubricant.

[Steve]

Still, the best starting aid I have found is a properly-adjusted engine and the "choke" lever.

It is positively amazing how quickly one of these beasts will start when everything works right.

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