mounting carbs

[Guest]

I know, we all struggle with getting the carbs off these GSes, but for the life of me, I can't get the carbs to pop back in to the rubber intake manifolds and seat back in on the 1100E project. I lubed them a little first and got them lined up after the usual struggling. The airbox side slid into place ok but even with wiggling, tapping, and 2 people pushing they just don't want to pop in. I read of someone else heating the rubber intake manifolds to soften them and will try that next. Any other ideas? Think a hair dryer will heat them enough, since I'm working on the bike in a 20 degree, non heated garage?
I've done this on at least 6 other GS bikes without this much headache!

[qwqb]

I would try the hair dryer and see if you have any luck. I put my carb rack back on my bike last night, and its pretty cold here in Minnesota! It surely didn't take as much struggling as you seem to be experiencing. I put one hand on the forks for stability and used the other hand to push the carbs into the boots. Good luck!

[spyug]

Well if you've followed my thread on the trials of trying to get the Kat motor to start, you will see that I am an expert now at getting them on and off. The Key in this weather is definitely heat. Once those puppies freeze they get rigid and brittle. A hairdryer is a good tool but one of the paint stripper guns is better as it throws way more heat. You actually have to watch those as they can and will burn the rubber.

I leave the clamps on the hoses since they act as a heat conductor. Play the heat gun on each hose for a few seconds , move to the next and back again until they become pliable. Watch you don't burn your fingers. when you get them to the right temp they'll slip right in. No fuss no muss and no strain.

I'm so good at it now I can get them off and back on again in less than 5 minutes. The other night I switch out 3 sets in about 11 minutes flat.

The other thing I do when working on the carbs and engine in general is to leave a couple of halogen light playing on them about 6 or 8 inches away from any surface. After an hour or so things will be toast to work on.

I hate the winter but with the right tools you can manage to get things done. Trust me I've put in over 30 hours at night in the manroom over the last 6 or 7 days.

Good luck with it and let us know how you make out.

Cheers,
Spyug

[chef1366]

While sitting on the bike wiggle up and down on the carbs while pushing forward.

[mike10]

pushing the carbs on

I work alone and I was haveing a hard time pushing my carbs on. So I lubed the boots and lined them up real good. Then took a 2x2 about 2, 1/2 foot long stuck it down from the top between the frame so the end of the wood was on the back of the carb worked across real easy like from#1 to #4 and popped them all in sort of 1 and a half at a time. noted no adverse effects. I had another set of carbs I didn't use and I could just push them on by hand easy. I don't know what the difference was.

[lurch12_2000]

Well if you've followed my thread on the trials of trying to get the Kat motor to start, you will see that I am an expert now at getting them on and off. The Key in this weather is definitely heat. Once those puppies freeze they get rigid and brittle. A hairdryer is a good tool but one of the paint stripper guns is better as it throws way more heat. You actually have to watch those as they can and will burn the rubber.

I leave the clamps on the hoses since they act as a heat conductor. Play the heat gun on each hose for a few seconds , move to the next and back again until they become pliable. Watch you don't burn your fingers. when you get them to the right temp they'll slip right in. No fuss no muss and no strain.

I'm so good at it now I can get them off and back on again in less than 5 minutes. The other night I switch out 3 sets in about 11 minutes flat.

The other thing I do when working on the carbs and engine in general is to leave a couple of halogen light playing on them about 6 or 8 inches away from any surface. After an hour or so things will be toast to work on.

I hate the winter but with the right tools you can manage to get things done. Trust me I've put in over 30 hours at night in the manroom over the last 6 or 7 days.

Good luck with it and let us know how you make out.

Cheers,
Spyug

Well, the good news is after pointing my 55k BTU ruddy heater at it from 6 ft away for 5 min, those carbs slipped right in with little effort (and warmed me up too). Thanks, Spyug for the virtual advice. Sometimes we need someone to mention the simple solution!
The bad news, is with everything hooked back up and using jumper cables from my car (turned off and no battery in the bike), I couldn't get it started or fire yet. It's cranking a little slow. Had WD40'ed inside the cylinders and let sit overnight, pulled and clean the starter and bench tested ok, rotated the crank to manually check that the engine turns over easily, and easily spins with bike's starter back in and no plugs or compression...but with the plugs back in and compression on it, it turns a little sluggish to start it, I think. ...back to troubleshooting....pull the plugs, check for spark and gas, etc....

[Griffin]

Well, the good news is after pointing my 55k BTU ruddy heater at it from 6 ft away for 5 min, those carbs slipped right in with little effort (and warmed me up too). Thanks, Spyug for the virtual advice. Sometimes we need someone to mention the simple solution!
The bad news, is with everything hooked back up and using jumper cables from my car (turned off and no battery in the bike), I couldn't get it started or fire yet. It's cranking a little slow. Had WD40'ed inside the cylinders and let sit overnight, pulled and clean the starter and bench tested ok, rotated the crank to manually check that the engine turns over easily, and easily spins with bike's starter back in and no plugs or compression...but with the plugs back in and compression on it, it turns a little sluggish to start it, I think. ...back to troubleshooting....pull the plugs, check for spark and gas, etc....

Obviously you need to check for spark and gas, as you stated. If those check out ok, then I'd try this for my next troubleshooting step.

Check connections throughout the starting circuit (starter button through starter solenoid to starter motor). If all that's good, you might want to pull the starter motor and check the brushes, as well as the amount of carbon buidup on the windings and connections in the motor housing itself.

Every bike will turn a little faster with the plugs out (simply less resistance for the starter motor to overcome), but if the starting system is in good working order (and running off a well-charged car battery), you shouldn't see a significant dropoff in cranking speed with the plugs back in.

[Nessism]

If you put a volt meter accross the starter solonoid and crank the engine, the voltage should pretty much match the battery voltage. If it doesn't, you have a solonoid issue. If the starter is getting full voltage as it should yet you still get slow cranking, it's time to open up the starter. The GS starters are dead easy to work on as long as you can get those long thin phillips screws out that is. Pull the motor apart and look for physical contact between the stator and the rotor. Assuming there is none, look at the commutator to make sure it's smooth and the brushes are still in good shape. Most likely a good cleaning and lubing of the bushings is all the starter needs to get back up to full speed.

[lurch12_2000]

Well after no success using jumper cables off my car (with no battery in the bike) and getting no spark at any of the plugs, I decided to pull the new battery out of my GS1000 and put it in the 1100E. Pulled plug #1 and layed against the head, turned the key on and wanting to see if I get any sparking I pressed the starter and the thing spins right up nice and fast as it should....and vvvroooom, the bike fires up, totally surprising me, and running on 3 cylinders (laboring a little) with a nice healthy spark flashing away on #1 plug laying out there. After 10-15 seconds of running, I shut it off not wanting to try revving it with one plug out. What a high point!
After putting the plug back in and connecting the plug wire, I eagerly repeated my attempt at starting. Nothing! Not even a click. So after a few more attempts with nothing, I jumped the starter solenoid with a screwdriver and it cranks but not as fast. Pulled the plug again and now no spark again. After a few short intervals letting the 2 amp charger do a little re-charging , I gave up with nothing when pressing the starter button or crossing the starter solenoid, and still no more spark.
Now I'm sitting here typing away in defeat for now while the charger does it's work overnight. Then I'll see what happens tomorrow.
Any thoughts on whether my starter switch is flaky, or the starter solenoid is flaky, or why it's requiring more juice from the battery?