It lives..well, sort of: Idle issues after rejetting?

[Anonymous]

Well, got my 83 GS1100E to start after Yosh pipe, emgo pods, and dynojet stage 3, But... I can't get it to run well enough to start troubleshooting. It will not idle well, with the choke on it smooths out (with some popping) and if I turn the idle up the same. I have attempted to adjust the mixture screws, but they do not seem to have much effect except as they approach closed the motor starts to stagger.
After adusting them as best I can, the motor staggers and eventually dies if I set the idle below 1500 rpm.
The only thing I have not done (than I can think of ) is to ballance the carbs (as I am not equipped to do so, and have never done it myself).
How can I tell if it is running lean or rich at idle, the plugs do not seem to change much and the haynes manual is not much help.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, I am missing out on a lot of good winter riding day here in tampa.

thanks,
Derrick

[pano]

You have to balance/sinc the carbs, it really makes a difference if they are not balanced. You probably have other adjustment issues but sincing them will smooth the idle. You need a minimum of a cheap mercury carb tool and a manual. You will need to remove the tank to have access to the adjustment screws. I bought an small aux gas tank to hang above the bike like an IV but others have rigged quart oil containers. I also made my own short screw driver to make the adjustments.

I don't like the mercury tool because of the mercury but it is the cheapest type and that is what I have. Follow the directions and don't crack the throttle when the mercury tool is connected because you can suck mercury into the carbs and then the exhaust is toxic until it cleans out.

Do a search on carb balancing there are a lot of past threads on the subject.

Check out this link

http://bwringer.com/gs/carbsync.html

[Anonymous]

The only thing I have not done (than I can think of ) is to ballance the carbs (as I am not equipped to do so, and have never done it myself).

After all the work you did, they are likely way out of whack. You can do a decent first pass on synchronization visually, though. Take the carbs off and look at the back of the carb butterflies. If you look in the carb bores, there are usually a number of small holes for the idle fuel supply and air bleed, etc. Use these to manually line up the butterflies as close as possible by eye. It will not be perfect, but it certainly should run OK after this if the synch was your problem. I set up my ZX-9 this way last summer and it was OK for the season. Not perfect, but very reasonable to ride with. This should get you by until you can get a synch tool and do a proper job of it.

Mark

[Anonymous]

Good call guys,
Bit the bullet and went out and bought a set of carb sticks and synced my carbs, now I have the best idle I have ever had. Took it out for a test ride and things were going pretty wel, a little poping on decel ,but very little. Then... as I open the throttle a little, I get a loud clatter, souunds like I am dragging a cylinder. still idles well though
Pull the number 4 plug and it looks good, pull the 3 plug and it looks black, but not really fouled.
Well I cleand everything up and reran it, same thing, On a hunch I pulled the # 3 plug wire while it was running, no even a hiccup, repeated with the numer 2 plug and it slows then dies. Repeated with the 1 and 4 plug and it instantly dies.

Could I have a coil/ plug wire problem on top of my carb tuning or is this still a carb tuning problem?


Thanks,
Still not riding

Derrick

[SqDancerLynn1]

swap the 2&3 plug wires and see what happens If the problem moves to the #2 cyl you have a bad plug cap/wire If # 3 still doesn't fire I would do a compression test & check the valve adjustment If you still have problems I would clean the carbs again

[KEITH KRAUSE]

How closely did you synch the cylinders? If #3 vacuum is too high compared to the others, it will run richer. At what rpm did you synch at? Did you slowly exercise the throttle and double check the levels?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies,
I checked the sync on the carbs again and it is pretty close. I think that the loud noise I was (maybe will again) getting is piston slap, secondary to an exhaust gasket leak. I have adapted a exhaust system to fit my GS and I don't think that the headers were well seated, I have retorqued and that has seemed to improve (though I am still getting a lot of valve clattter under load).
I was having a big flat spot, with some stumbling below 3k, and I thought that the plugs were very slightly white, so I bumped the needles out another notch, but the stumbling and hesitation got worse, and now I get some black smoke when I apply load and when I back off the throttle.
So I guess that I should move the needles back down a notch or two?

Strangely enough, the idle smoothed out even more, i though that the neddle had no effect on idle? Could the idle smoothing be related to the fact that I move my crancase breather further from my pods?

Thanks,
Derrick

[Anonymous]

It's getting Better

Well, I moved the needles back down two notches, one notch lower than my initial setting. Due to my earlier changes to the retaining assembly ( I shaved it down to allow my earlier attempt to shim the stock needles) I estimate it is about the 4th notch from the top. It seems to run much better, I did not have time to run it long enough to get a good read on the plugs , but I will get to that tomorrow.Still have not mastered the mixture screws yet, and I will probably recheck the sync too, just to be sure.

But it seems to be ridable enough to start fine tuning the carbs.

thanks for the help and support,------------


Derrick

PS. Pics and write-up of my exhaust adventure coming soon