'83 850GL Maintenance and other repairs

[93Bandit]

Howdy All,

After selling off all my project bikes, I've come full circle back to where I started my GS journey, 5 years ago. My 1983 GS850GL is my first bike and my wife and I went on many rides when we were dating, and is sentimental to me because of this. However due to my unrealistic ambitions and dreams, I acquired several other projects over the last 5 years in addition to buying a house. All that to say, I neglected my 850L. The day I bought it, it ran pretty well but was due for carb rebuild and all the other typical GS maintenance items, but I put it off. I've put about 8,000 miles on the bike since I bought it and have done enough work to keep it on the road, but now it's garage bound due to running very poorly. The carbs have finally thrown in the towel, it barely wants to run. So now that I've downsized all my projects, it's time to invest some of the cash I got from those sales into getting this 850L back on the road and do the many maintenance items I should have done when I bought the bike.

First of all, a list of what I've done over the last 5 years in no particular order, and may be missing a few items. I'll keep this list updated as things progress:
- Clutch cable
- Speedo cable
- Battery
- Adjust valves
- Installed new OEM clutch springs
- SH775 installed
- New tires
- New rear shaft drive joint
- Installed phone mount and charger
- Installed heated grips
- Front and rear wheel bearings
- Rebuilt Carbs
- New intakes
- New plugs and caps
- New air filter
- Rebuilt cam chain tensioner
- Installed new brake lines
- New pressure front brake switch
- Valve adjustment
- Fixed tach gear drive

This is the list of items I need to address in the future, in no particular order, although the carbs will likely be first so I can ride it. Most of this work will likely be done in the off season since I ride the bike fairly often.

To Do List:
- Steering head bearings
- Fork rebuild
- New Stator
- Reseal engine
- Rebuild starter
- Change gear oil

As promised, here's a picture of the bike I'm working with. This is when I first brought the bike home 5 years ago. It looks the same today, but with a few more accessories and a lot more dirt.

[rphillips]

How bad are the carbs ?? These carbs rarely give problems, other than gumming up from non use. If it's currently not running good enough to ride it probably won't work, but more than once I've had a bike not idling properly or running bad or misfire & a heavy dose of Seafoam in a tank of gas & a good run would clear it right up. Sure won't fix all problems, but when it does, it sure is a great feeling for $8.

[93Bandit]

How bad are the carbs ?? These carbs rarely give problems, other than gumming up from non use. If it's currently not running good enough to ride it probably won't work, but more than once I've had a bike not idling properly or running bad or misfire & a heavy dose of Seafoam in a tank of gas & a good run would clear it right up. Sure won't fix all problems, but when it does, it sure is a great feeling for $8.

Funny you mention that because that's what I've been doing every spring with the bike since I bought it. A can of seafoam worked pretty well the first few years but didn't help this year. They're way past due, I'd be surprised if they've ever been rebuilt so I'm sure the orings are shot. It idles fine and I can ride it around at low speeds, but it does not like anything beyond ~1/2 throttle. Appreciate the input though.

[93Bandit]

I'm feeling a burst of motivation so I will try to rebuild the carbs this upcoming week. It's a bummer because the weather next week is PERFECT for riding, but I won't be able to ride. Oh well. I have the orings on the shelf, just been too lazy/busy with other things to get it done. I do need to order some new intakes but otherwise should have everything I need to get it done.

[93Bandit]

Had some work come up that prevented me from working on the carbs this week. Hopefully that job will be done by the end of next week, then my daughters birthday party next weekend, then maybe I can finally get started on the carbs. In the meantime, I've been ordering more parts in an attempt to be prepared for the few moments I have time to work on the bike. I ordered the K&L BS carb O-ring and gasket kit, we'll see how that works out. Also ordered new OEM rubber intakes, a stash of oil filters for the shelf, and steering head bearings. Next on the list to order is Earl brake line parts and fork rebuild parts.

[93Bandit]

Earls brake parts are ordered. I think I'm going to wait on suspension parts for now. I want to get the carbs and brakes dialed in, then visit suspension front and rear all at once.

[93Bandit]

Had some free time yesterday evening so I pulled the carbs off the bike. During the process, I discovered a few things.

1. The china-made ebay intake rubbers are absolute trash. I knew this based off what has been documented here, however I had a set of 4 new-in-bag that came with another bike I bought and sold, so I figured I'd try them to see how exactly long they would last. They lasted just about 4 years. The surface is severely cracked and the orings that came with them were flat and starting to ooze out, if that makes sense. The carbs are quite clean inside, and orings aren't shot, so I really hope my running issue was due to the china intakes. If not, I'm not very confident a carb rebuild will solve that issue... We'll see...

2. In my list of planned repairs on this bike is to reseal the engine to stop the oil leaks. I assumed the head/base gaskets were leaking, but after pulling the carbs and closely inspecting the engine, the leak appears to only be coming from the cam chain tensioner. That being the case, I ordered the parts needed to rebuild the tensioner and if they arrive soon enough, I will rebuild that while the carbs are off. I'm kind of in a hurry to get the carbs back on so I can ride a few more times before the end of the season, so if the tensioner parts don't show up within a week I'll probably leave that repair on this winter's project list.

3. The carbs are incredibly clean. I guess that makes sense since the bike ran well up until the last time I road it. That being the case, I suspect the main issue was the china intakes causing air leaks. I'm going to clean the carbs and get the fresh new OEM intakes on and see how that goes.

4. I will post pictures soon, I promise!

[93Bandit]

I was able to get the carbs rebuilt yesterday, back on the bike and synced. Seems to be running a lot better, idles smoother than before. Had some family things going on after I got it running so didn't get a chance to take it on a real road test. That's happening this afternoon. Hopefully it runs better! The biggest issue was holding steady throttle at cruising speeds (60-80mph). It was stumbling bad at those speeds which is where I spend the majority of my time riding so I hope that's cleared up.

As I said before, the carbs weren't nearly as bad as I was expecting, so I suspect the majority of the issue was leaks in the china intakes. Speaking of, look at how dry rotted and cracked these intakes are after just 4 years. Also look at how deformed the orings are as well. I think the orings are what came with the intakes.



Here's a few pictures of the carbs before and after. I tell ya what, that ultrasonic cleaner with just some warm water and dish soap really works wonders! I'm impressed, it's my go-to carb cleaner now. I wouldn't say it cleans better than carb dip, but it is a lot less labor intensive and I really like not dealing with harsh chemicals.











Sync time!



Looks about as good as it's going to get for this shade-tree mechanic.



The tensioner parts didn't show up yet, so I fix this oil leak this winter when I tear the bike down for other work.

[93Bandit]

Went for about a 30 mile ride today. It's definitely running better but I'm still getting a miss under high load at low rpms, or going WOT through the gears. Hmmm... It's acting similar to how it did when I got caught in rain and was dropping cylinders 1 & 4 from water intrusion in the plug wires. So I'm thinking it may be an ignition issue. I'll try new plugs and wire ends and see what happens.

[KiwiAlfa156]

1 and 4? I'd be thinking the coil.

[93Bandit]

1 and 4? I'd be thinking the coil.

I believe it was 1 & 4 when I was caught in the rain because those wire caps were full of water. Just a guess though.

I pulled the plugs last night and this what I found. White powder on all plugs, it was/is running lean apparently. I'm sure those china intakes were leaking air, but now that the carbs have been rebuilt and I installed OEM intakes with new orings, it shouldn't be running lean. I checked float height and they were all good, had to adjust one. But otherwise, factory jetting and pilot jets are out 2.5 turns. It's always ran pretty well up until this year, what's going on? I think the last time I put plugs in it was almost 7k miles ago.

[KiwiAlfa156]

They don't appear lean to me. The old plug reading charts were from the 1970s and for leaded gas, which gave different deposits on the plug. Unleaded gas burns cleaner. Here a good link but take note of the caveats re: when to read a plug.

https://www.enginebasics.com/Engine%20Basics%20Root%20Folder/Reading%20Spark%20Plugs.html

Generally:

• The "Ground Strap" = Heat Range
• The "Plug's Base Ring" = Jetting
• The "Porcelain" = signs of preignition/detonation

Looking at you pic, which is not a full examination by any means, and depending whether this was a plug chop or not. So assuming the plugs are reading idle mixture, I'd say 3 looks good, 1 and 2 look slightly rich, and 4 is showing some signs oil control issues -oil on thread and on base ring and more ash than the others. The mixture screw is to adjust for variations between the carbs in idle mixture. Identical number of turns out is just the base setting.

[93Bandit]

They don't appear lean to me. The old plug reading charts were from the 1970s and for leaded gas, which gave different deposits on the plug. Unleaded gas burns cleaner. Here a good link but take note of the caveats re: when to read a plug.

https://www.enginebasics.com/Engine%20Basics%20Root%20Folder/Reading%20Spark%20Plugs.html

Generally:

• The "Ground Strap" = Heat Range
• The "Plug's Base Ring" = Jetting
• The "Porcelain" = signs of preignition/detonation

Looking at you pic, which is not a full examination by any means, and depending whether this was a plug chop or not. So assuming the plugs are reading idle mixture, I'd say 3 looks good, 1 and 2 look slightly rich, and 4 is showing some signs oil control issues -oil on thread and on base ring and more ash than the others. The mixture screw is to adjust for variations between the carbs in idle mixture. Identical number of turns out is just the base setting.

Thanks for the feedback. I knew modern gas burns cleaner than the leaded variant, but I thought these still looked lean. If not, then plugs likely aren't the reason for the miss. Hmmm, wonder what's causing the miss?

[93Bandit]

I ordered new plugs and wire caps, the caps look original so probably wouldn't hurt to replace them. I'm hoping that's the source of my miss under load.

While waiting for those to arrive, I decided to experiment a little. I cleaned off the plugs with a wire wheel, then for fun checked the gap. I installed these plugs new and correctly gapped them, however I discovered the gap opened up a bit. I couldn't see any obvious wear, the strap looked normal. I regapped to .024" and reinstalled the old plugs. Went for a ride and it seemed to run a lot better. I tried several gear/rpm/throttle positions trying to get it to miss and only got it to miss once, but I think it was still a little cold when that happened. Once up to operating temp, it ran well. I know plug gap is important, but I have a hard time believing that was the source of the miss...

[93Bandit]

Got the new plugs and caps installed. Definitely running better! I've put about 300 miles on it since I put the plugs and caps on and it's sooo smooth.

My only concern is this stumble/miss type feeling when cruising at <1/4 throttle. It's the same feeling you get when you're cruising then snap the throttle closed and start to decel, but it's only brief and not as violent. However I noticed the engine sound doesn't change at all when this happens. If it is a miss, I would think the engine tone would change. Maybe what I'm feeling is from wind? I've got a windshield on the bike so that's a bit of a sail. What do you guys think?