Mechanical help in San Jose, CA?

[Guest]

Sad realization this week that I do not have time to tune up my new GS myself and I think it’s time for valve and carb adjustments.

I don’t have the money for something newer which would supposedly be more reliable. I do not have the time to work on the bike myself, more than maybe an hour a night, and I cannot start the motor at night. I cannot really afford to take it to a dealer to work on it – they would probably charge me more than the bike is worth.

So I am asking if someone knows of a good mechanic with reasonable rates in the San Jose, CA area who can tune up my 1982 GS1100GL?

Here is the most urgent trouble: I noticed soon after I got the bike that it was sputtering a bit when trying to hold a constant speed, usually when the revs are in the 3000-4000 range. About 2000 miles later, it seems to have opened up to the 3000-5000 range.

When I accelerate, either while moving or from a stop light, no trouble at all. She pulls pretty well and power is pretty good. It’s just when I’m trying to hold anything close to a constant RPM. She's got brand new K&N filters the previous owner installed so I don't think that is the trouble. A friend said my 4-1 exhaust may be causing trouble - maybe my carbs are not adjusted properly for this(?). Seemed to work OK for a while when I got the bike, at least the first ~400 miles.

The good news is the bike idles just fine at about 1000 RPM, and doesn’t leak fluids, except for a little seepage around the head.

So this in addition to the charging problem – in which the battery is completely drained after about 100 miles of riding - I feel like I’m running this bike into the ground!

Any ideas?

Thanks again,
-Bob

[matt_gs450]

Doug's Motorcycle in San Mateo is a great shop. He's worked on my bikes a couple times and is really good about writing down everything he does. It's a trek from San Jose I know. But I know people who cross the bridge from the east bay to take their bike to him.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/dougs-motorcycle-service-san-mateo

The one bad review does hit upon the drawbacks: he's a small operation so he doesn't always pick up the phone and he does get backed up at times.

[Tom MLC]

Bob, it was good to meet up with you and work on your bike for a while. That 1100 is an awesome machine. Shes looks and sounds terrific. Hopefully we can take a few trips through the Santa Cruz mountains this summer.

Nice to meet Janette (sp?) and a few of your girls, too.

Sorry about that broken wire. I feel kinda bad about "hey nice to meetcha...oops, you gotta fix that wire...see ya later". I think that connection was gonna break anyway. I have some of those bullet type connectors in the garage if you want to have 'em. It's the least I can do.

Then next time we get together I want to invite you to my place. We can check your compression, and make sure those carbs are synced up. In the mean time, see if you can locate the correct manual. Try BassCliff's site for a pdf download. I'll check and see if my Suzuki service manual covers the '82 GS1100L model.

Cheers,

Tom

[littleroot]

Bob, it was good to meet up with you and work on your bike for a while. That 1100 is an awesome machine. Shes looks and sounds terrific. Hopefully we can take a few trips through the Santa Cruz mountains this summer.

Nice to meet Janette (sp?) and a few of your girls, too.

Sorry about that broken wire. I feel kinda bad about "hey nice to meetcha...oops, you gotta fix that wire...see ya later". I think that connection was gonna break anyway. I have some of those bullet type connectors in the garage if you want to have 'em. It's the least I can do.

Then next time we get together I want to invite you to my place. We can check your compression, and make sure those carbs are synced up. In the mean time, see if you can locate the correct manual. Try BassCliff's site for a pdf download. I'll check and see if my Suzuki service manual covers the '82 GS1100L model.

Cheers,

Tom

Hey Tom,

No worries - it's all good and she's running as good as before. Hopefully Friday we can get together. Send me your address and what time to be there.

I did a poor job of putting it together last Saturday because after a long trouble-free ride Saturday, Sunday morning she starting running really bad at low RPM and I actually had AAA flat tow me back home. But last night I did the wires again and now she's running great.

When I put all the wires back together Saturday, I thought I had done a great job because later that day my daughter rode with me about 85 miles up to HWY 35 and HWY 92 and back.

But Sunday morning trouble arrived: We had just rode over the mountain on Santa Cruz/Soquel road and when I stopped at the light on Soquel, I used my turn signal and the engine started surging, or cutting out on two cylinders. I honestly don't know what it was doing, but it was doing this with every blink of the turn light.

That was not really the first sign of trouble on that ride, as I noticed the dash went very dim after only 20 miles, and usually it doens't go dim until 100 miles, when the battery is too weak to start the engine. At that point I thought the worst of it was I would have to bump start the bike the rest of the day, which has happened several times since I got the bike. No biggie I thought.

We got on to 17 North with the idea of just heading back to the barn but I had to take the second exit at El Rancho as even at high revs the engine was cutting out. At that point I decided to park and get it trucked home as I didn't what to damage anything.

As I was to be gone the rest of Sunday I charged the battery on the .75 amp charger until full and then took it off the charger and let it sit for over 24 hours and she was still holding 12.9 volts.

I am surprised as I thought for sure the battery was gone, from how bad it was running when I stopped Sunday morning. Up until then I didn't suspect a wiring problem, just the battery being fried, from 3000 miles without a working R/R.

So late last night was my first chance to work on it again and managed to redo all the connectors a lot better than I had Saturday now she's running great again! Knock on wood! No long trips until I see some stability for at least 100 miles around town. For now she has full power and running great. KNOCK WOOD!

Today I rode to work and home for lunch and it's still 12.8 volts. I tested the charging again and still not getting above 13 volts at 2500 RPM so no luck finding a loose wire to fix the R/R.

I just need to get the R/R on order - waiting on a PM.

I did find the correct manual on basscliff site, both the user manual and the service manual.

Oh and wife's name it spelled "Janet". First american name in her family. :-)

Thanks again,
-Bob