My 1982 GS 450 - journal thread

[bren]

well, it's pretty much done now. Yesterday was insanely productive. I stayed up late and knocked off the rest of the list, mostly electrical stuff. flasher relay replacement and sh775 mod. I even oiled the chain. it's pretty much down to just slapping on the seat and tank...

The flasher relay was easier to fix than i thought. I found a 2 blade relay at oreilly's that matched the existing harness which worked. I just zip tied it onto the rubber mounting thingy and that was that.

I velcroed the r/r to the right side of the airbox. I guess I'll figure out a different place for the tool bag. maybe I'll velcro it to the inside of the plastic. the bracket that was in there for the tool set had to go. I cut and soldered the bullet connectors off the old reg rec and spliced them to the new one. left enough wire hanging off of the old one that it could be set back to stock if someone ever wanted to.

i also removed the glass fuse and replaced it with a mini blade style one.

now I just need to finish getting it running right. It still seems a bit lean, it's slow to come down after a throttle blip. I'm hoping it comes down to pilot screw adjustment. Maybe the floats need to come up a hair more. I do have a carbtune and got the carbs in the ballpark. I'll definitely run some seafoam through the first few tanks.

[bren]

I'm still having running issues. it's hanging like it's lean and taking a long time to go back to idle.
-compression in both cyls is good, 155 (the one i re-shimmed) and 145
-I peeked at the advancer, it's free and the springs seem strong

here's the plugs though. these are the ones that came with the bike and they were both black when I got it. but now the electrode on the right hand cyl has gone white, and the left cyl still looks quite black. this is after running for maybe 15 mins total. these are ngk b8es.

i'm not sure how to determine if this is fuel related, or maybe electrical... I guess I need to get some fresh plugs and do a chop to see what's going on better? I need a hint on what to do next.

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[grcamna2]

Following along

[bren]

recheck for vacuum leaks with carb cleaner, none found.

It's colder today - One cyliner was visibly producing white smoke, or vapor - which I presume is probably unburnt fuel from a misfire (it wasn't doing it every hit). I can hear it periodically stumble/miss. It's in the left cylinder, which has the blackened spark plug. So that would make sense.

I also went to the parts store to pick up some more B8ES plugs. I found out, as probably most of you forum old-heads already know, that plug is discontinued. I'd have to get resistor plugs.

So - I'm gonna order a dyna S and do the ignition mod.

I was hoping to avoid it, as it's expensive on this bike (you have to get the coils) but it seems like a better deal anyway (as compared to tracking down new old stock, used, or knockoff replacements). I'm grateful for brick house builds on youtube for showing the process on a 450 in pretty good detail. I've heard that the dyna coils don't fit so great under the tank, I wish I could see pictures on how people have dealt with this.

Well I guess it's back to the waiting game, waiting on the mail man ........

[rphillips]

I wish I could help, or somebody more informed than me would, or could chime in with ideas. Personally, to me, your problems seem way more apt to be fuel than ign.... Hoping you the best.

[bren]

Yea I guess I'll find out. If it's still broken with a new ignition then at least I'll know. and it will have a new ignition ...

it wouldn't be the first time i've thrown parts at it in vain. My intake boots for instance were fine in the end. But at the same time they weren't looking hot either. So I don't feel bad for replacing them even though they didn't solve my issue.

The main reason I'm jumping to ignition is because my symptoms are absolutely identical to a bike that BHB showed on his channel, and the fix ended up being an ignition replacement.