Leaky carb

[Nessism]

Yea, what Dale said. I checked them a couple of times each session by pinching off the feed line and then lowering the gauge tube to drain the bowl down a little. You need to place the gauge in position and then remove the clamp on the feed tube. The fuel will come up and stop when the float shuts off flow. Honestly now, it's a pretty big pain in the a$$. Measure, double check, drain the gas, tweak the floats, measure again, etc. Took a good hour of fussing even though the float height measurement was in spec - (+/- 1.0 mm) before the fuel height was in spec.

[rustybronco]

Honestly now, it's a pretty big pain in the a$$. Measure, double check, drain the gas, tweak the floats, measure again, etc...

It's also a pain, when someone asks what's wrong with their carbs after an overhaul...

[tkent02]

It's also a pain, when someone asks what's wrong with there carbs after an overhaul...

"It can't be the floats, they looked about right!"

[Octain]

Whack em!!

[Audioslave784]

Sorry to sound harsh but how can you "clean" your carbs if you never took the float needle out? If you live on So Calif I'm going to come over to your place and slap you upside da head.

It's time to do a hard stop and perform a complete carb rebuild. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Go straight to jail and don't come out until you clean the carbs properly and replace all the O-rings with a kit from cycleorings.com. The 30 year old o-rings in your carbs are hard and brittle, time to change them unless it's been done recently.

You just proved that short cuts are long cuts when it comes to cleaning carbs. Sorry for the public flogging but please treat your GS right. We love our GS's around here and it upsets me to see one abused.

Well now, I'm not sure I deserve all that. This is my first time inside a set of carbs, and I "cleaned" a lot of rust and build-up off of the jets according to a guide linked from Bikecliff's website:

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3017242&pagenumber=1

Now please don't talk down to me about how you "love your GS's around here". It's been a huge challenge for me to try and bring this GS back to life after it was left for dead in some guy's yard. Before getting this bike, the most technical thing I'd ever done on a motorcycle was changing a rear tire (and even that me took forever to do right), and I don't know anyone who works on bikes that could help. Every job I do on the bike takes hours of research online, at least two trips to Autozone to buy new tools and usually a can of some chemical I've never used before, and on top of that actually doing the job still takes five times as long as it should. Even though finances are pretty tight these days, I've spent a lot of money that I'm sure I'll never get back in the bike's value, not to mention all the hours.

So I'm sorry for the rant - I know that you were trying to be funny there and I appreciate that you included some helpful advice, but I just spent my whole Sunday checking valve clearances (they're all low of course) and your somewhat condescending comments about how I treat my bike really hit a nerve.

[Octain]

Hey audioslave, you obviously know how to ride a bicycle right? Ever try to teach someone and get kinda frustrated cause they dont know how?
These guys have so much knowledge of these bikes its kinda hard for some of em to understand why everyone dont.
Take with a grain of salt and use the info you've been givin.

[almarconi]

Don't get discouraged. The more you resurrect these bikes the better you will get at it. It may take multiple attempts to learn how to acquire the skills to repair your bike. Over time you will develop a check list of what needs to be done on a bike that has been sitting for years.

I've noticed that there are many people on this forum that would rather cut corners and ride a bike that runs like crap than take the time and inspect/repair each system on the bike. We all like to ride, but its much more enjoyable on a bike that runs like its supposed to. Once the maintenance has been done on these bikes, they are very reliable machines.

[rustybronco]

This past weekend I cleaned my carbs and put them put them back on the bike. The next morning I noticed that carb #1 was leaking some gas...

Sorry to sound harsh but how can you "clean" your carbs if you never took the float needle out?
It's time to do a hard stop and perform a complete carb rebuild. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Go straight to jail and don't come out until you clean the carbs properly and replace all the O-rings with a kit from cycleorings.com. The 30 year old o-rings in your carbs are hard and brittle, time to change them unless it's been done recently...

You just proved that short cuts are long cuts when it comes to cleaning carbs...

It's also a pain, when someone asks what's wrong with their carbs after an overhaul...

Well now, I'm not sure I deserve all that. This is my first time inside a set of carbs, and I "cleaned" a lot of rust and build-up off of the jets according to a guide linked from Bikecliff's website...


Now please don't talk down to me about how you "love your GS's around here". It's been a huge challenge for me to try and bring this GS back to life after it was left for dead in some guy's yard.

So I'm sorry for the rant - I know that you were trying to be funny there and I appreciate that you included some helpful advice, but I just spent my whole Sunday checking valve clearances (they're all low of course) and your somewhat condescending comments about how I treat my bike really hit a nerve.

Then the best thing you could have done was clean your carbs like you said you did. then, we wouldn't have had to guess where to start.

You had a guide on how to properly clean your carb's, yet you chose not to follow it.

I'd smack you too! j/k, then I would offer, "if you're in my area" to help you clean them...

***edit***

These guys have so much knowledge of these bikes its kinda hard for some of em to understand why everyone dont.

Octain, I think you might have missed the true reason.

[Octain]

Oh no I know...

[Audioslave784]

Then the best thing you could have done was clean your carbs like you said you did. then, we wouldn't have had to guess where to start.

You had a guide on how to properly clean your carb's, yet you chose not to follow it.

I following the walk-through for carb cleaning to a T (it's linked in my last post, and on one of Bikecliff's pages), and it doesn't have you take off the floaters at all. The guide isn't really for a re-build, it just focuses on cleaning the built-up crap out of the needles. I certainly didn't mean to mislead anyone here about what was done.

In my mind I had eliminated the float pin o-ring as a culprit as a leak-free seal is made when the floaters are lifted manually. I'm pretty sure now that the answer is that the floaters were bent or damaged while I had the carbs opened up (although I'll be doing a full rebuild while I'm in there).

I appreciate the helpfulness of everyone who posted here in spite of my frustrating noob-ishness But never fear, I really do care about the bike, and in the end I will make sure that my GS is as road-worthy as any here.

[rustybronco]

Then this will help you...

http://www.thegsresources.com/gs_carbrebuild.htm

if you have any questions, just ask!

[Nessism]

Then this will help you...

http://www.thegsresources.com/gs_carbrebuild.htm

if you have any questions, just ask!

Dale has the real link. The other carb cleaning info is good but incomplete since the carbs were not even unganged and dipped.

Follow these instructions and replace all the various O-rings. Keep going and you will get it.

[lucabond]

Thanks for the tips guys. I'm really not looking forward to getting that float pin out, but I guess it's got to be done, and anyway it looks like there's a lot of good advice on the GSR on getting them out without breaking the posts.

The plan now is to check the following:

1. Float valve seat keeper tap bent?

2. Floaters bent?

3. Floater buoyancy

4. Valve and seal

5. Buy a new damn petcock from z1

Not sure if I can get to it this weekend, but when I do I'll let you guys know how it goes.

I have had luck getting the float pins out buy using a razor knife like you would use to cut sheetrock. Gently slide the razor blade between the post and the fat head of the pin till it moves out a little then go a little deeper it should move some more you then use a little side ways movement or go to a slightly larger blade like a small screw driver and they should come right out. It's when you try to drive them out with something that you get in trouble. good luck