lean vs rich

[twiggy2cents]

okay i just got the bike up and running and i think its rich before i ask a question of whats wrong i will get more info and see if i can figure it out....i have a simple question... on two strokes the mixture is everything..

On 4 strokes when the mixture is lean it will hang onto the higher rpms(slower decent) and eventually go back to idle right?

My bike idles at 1200 right now and after a short highway drive idles at 500 or so then comes back after a while...if you had a guess on fuel that seems more like rich right? being that it goes way under idle...

I will be checking the plugs tomorrow when it screws up again

Darren

[Larry D]

When the mixture is lean the idle will hang, or take some time to settle to an idle. A rich condition will cause the idle to dip or almost kill the engine when dropping the throttle from a higher RPM.

[twiggy2cents]

thats what i thought i will verify this tomorrow thanks for the clarification... btw its my first bike a 1985 GS550LF Ive rode a total of 3 miles on it and completely love it!

[lilbilly]

I had a more experienced GSer look at my plugs and tell me it's running rich. Occasionally I have noticed it dying off on me at idle, not too often, but sometimes.

What is the corrective action on this? Is it a long road?

[mighty13d]

adjust the carbs. it can be a painful process if you don't have the right tools (vacuum gauges etc) and if you try to just guess. I'm betting there is probably someone close to you who would be willing to help you set those up right though

[BassCliff]

Greetings and Salutations!

Hi Mr. twiggy2cents,

For a lot of new GS owners, the carbs are the scariest part of the bike. But they shouldn't be. Let me roll out the welcome mat for you...

Please click here for your mega-welcome, chock full of tips, suggestions, links to vendors, and other information. Then feel free to visit my little BikeCliff website where I've been collecting the wisdom of this generous community. Don't forget, we like pictures! Not you, your bike!

Thanks for joining us. Keep us informed.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[chef1366]

Lean is mean but since you're not jetting for the dragstrip you don't have to wring out the engine. On the rich end is good because you will run cooler and not melt pistons and heads. Ask me how I know.

[twiggy2cents]

lol at chef and personal experience.

I have delt with a lot of 2 stroke carbs so i now my basics i just wanted to get a head start on my diagnosis before i got to the bike.

I have already cleaned the carbs and all is well there, all i have left is a good tuning on it.

I found out these Siemeised carbs are alot more than 2-2.5 turns out on the pilot screws. i had it at 2 and i thought i owned a diesel bike or something with the amount of black smoke it made! Four turns gets me in the ball park though!

Thanks for the advice!

[Steve]

I have already cleaned the carbs and all is well there, all i have left is a good tuning on it.

That's probably a good start, but just how did you clean the carbs?

If you dropped the bowls and sprayed what you can see, you need to go back and CLEAN the carbs.

Unless you can verify and guarantee that the bike has been more or less a daily driver in the very recent past, there is a good chance the carbs are gummed up inside. Your best bet is to take them completely apart, dip each carb body overnight in Berryman's carb cleaner dip, then re-assemble with all new o-rings and gaskets. You can get the o-rings, along with o-rings and stainless screws for the intake tubes (if your bike uses them) from cycleorings.com. Float bowl gaskets are usually reusable, if removed carefully, but can be ordered from any of the vendors on BassCliff's welcome page or a dealer.

I would also suggest that you add a little info to your profile and signature lines. Until you wrote "btw its my first bike ..." in the third post, nobody had any clue what we were discussing. Adding a location lets us see if somebody might be close enough to help in person.

. .

[twiggy2cents]

so for being unclear buy my questions were unspecific also.... And no i took them apart and cleaned them and i also dont belive in dipping butterfly carbs because in some cases it can erode the shaft bushing for the butteflies. And i will make a sig after a while.