Another Aussie GS rebuild - GS1100G

[JimmyR]

That's funny - mine is hampered by lack of funds and very hot weather! But I am determined to finish it. This is my quiet time of year for business and I get bored very easily. Fortunately I have an incredibly supportive wife. And the Aussie dollar is very strong at the moment which makes things a helluva lot easier.

BTW there is most definitely a northern Irish accent. If you think of someone saying "How now brown cow" it might be a bit "High nigh brine kye" Well not exactly but it's very different from say a Dublin accent. When Dubliners say "Dublin" it almost sounds like "Doblin". Someone from from Belfast says something a bit like "Beyalfast". At least that's how my friend from Belfast explained it to me.

[Charlie G]

That's funny - mine is hampered by lack of funds and very hot weather! But I am determined to finish it. This is my quiet time of year for business and I get bored very easily. Fortunately I have an incredibly supportive wife. And the Aussie dollar is very strong at the moment which makes things a helluva lot easier.

BTW there is most definitely a northern Irish accent. If you think of someone saying "How now brown cow" it might be a bit "High nigh brine kye" Well not exactly but it's very different from say a Dublin accent. When Dubliners say "Dublin" it almost sounds like "Doblin". Someone from from Belfast says something a bit like "Beyalfast". At least that's how my friend from Belfast explained it to me.

My comment on the N I accent was a bit tongue in cheek, as I met Johnny last summer, but you confirmed what I nigh understand. Thanks

I get motivated to work on the bike when the sun come out and it gets above 50F. Numb hands cut easier.

cg

[JimmyR]

Haha! Nigh I geyat it.

Sigh. My battery needs a recharge. What with all the excitement yesterday now it's running like a dog with the airbox on, the battery has gone flat and I stink of petrol. Oh well. I'll let it charge overnight and try again tomorrow.

I hope I can get it going so I can get rego next week.

[pete]

Rode home in constant rain this avo and she didn't miss a beat with the pods... admittedly it wasn't blowing a gale and making the rain go sideways into the pods directly, but I don't have side covers or a rain shroud or anything fancy like that...

[JimmyR]

You guys get a lot of rain in Qld this time of you don't you? We could use a lot of your rain over here. It's cruel that we have drought over here and you guys have floods.

You know how they say if you want something done right you gotta do it yourself? When I got my carbies ultrasonically cleaned I took them apart myself and took them to a bike service joint where they can clean them. The head bloke there said that they could reassemble them for me because then they would be done right. Ok, I haven't put many carbs together before... So we put the carbies on the bike yesterday and the second carb's slide sticks. Take the top off and it turns out that not only had they creased the diaphragm under the cover but also bent the spring. We managed to save the diaphragm and straighten the spring as best we could so now it works ok. Then we fill the float bowls and start the engine and fuel come rushing out of the float bowls. So we tighten the screws and drain plugs and eventually they stop leaking. Now I know a new gasket may need some fuel to make it swell and seal but this was ridiculous.

I think it's going to take a bit more work to get this to run right.

[Johnny Drummond]

you can tell by my typing????

I wondered when you would turn up Charlie,and just to clarify something, it's Norn Iron ok??.I rode a GS1100G about 20 years ago, plenty of power and decent handling(slightly more than the 1000G),the only problem I had was going around a sweeping bend with a culvert cut across the curve leaving a slight hollow, the resulting wallowing while leaned over was a bit "interesting"-but I was doing about 70 and the suspension was set up for the owner(he weighed around 190 kilos, whereas I was about 55kg!!) but I did enjoy it.I meant to say in my last post if you want an easy way to restrict the airflow of the pods while at the same time quickly removable get an old motorcycle front inner tube,cut 4 pieces about 35-40mm in length and place them over the end of the pods,it will cut down the flow while removing the hazard of anything being sucked into the engine(you said in an earlier post about putting some kind of wadding up the inside of the pods)it means that you can then trim it a little at a time until you get the flow rate you are happy with.I remember when I started to work with bikes that a GS550DB I had started to surge really badly-so being too scared to check it myself I took it to a good(ex Honda Britian race mechanic) and explained what was happening.He lifted the seat to check that the airfilter hadn't disintegrated and been sucked through the carbs and found that a piece of rag I kept in the tool tray had got sucked into the little scoop at the top of the airbox and was restricting it almost completley!- man did he take the p*ss out of me for that,everey time I went in for about 18 months after that all I got was "hiya oily rag",just thought I'd share that one to illustrate how putting something inside the pods may not be a good idea. If you are wondering about the title of this post, in the mid'60s my father was living in London.One night he stopped with a motorist who had broken down, after a few minutes conversation he said to the man"excuse me for asking a possibly offensive question,but are you jewish?", the man was silent for a few seconds then replied"you can tell in the dark?" hahahaha.Johnny

[Charlie G]

Ok,you two have got me walking around saying "High nigh brine kye and Norn Iron. No more hi jack.

cg

[JimmyR]

Man the way this board puts the posts in such random order does my head in!

[JimmyR]

BTW Johnny I LOVE your story about your dad!

My dad has a story about Melbourne in the fifties. There was an old drunk guy who used to "help" people parking their cars in tight spaces by very authoritatively giving directions. He would wear a grey coat like car park attendants did in those days and would call out and give hand directions and it was very helpful until their cars would smash into another. Then he would simply look the other way and walk off.

[JimmyR]

Oh, and 'til recently I was playing in a band with a guy from County Louth, or as he called it "County loud". Appropriate.

[Johnny Drummond]

ok,back to topic(just for you Charlie)

AAHH another "expert" eh,I read your post about the carb re-builder after I posted the last time,so now you can have a go at building them yourself!,before I jetted mine I'd never touched carbs but having no money is a great incentive to try.A mate of mine went to one of those guys because he had the old rising idle problem(air leaks), the guy charged him £350 and 2 days later it started again!!, he called me(as the only other person he knew with a GS)-long story short the guy put black silicone over the cracked inlet rubbers and the diaphragms-he also used it instead of a rocker cover gasket-pillock.Heres a couple of line sketches I did for Redman some time ago one of them shows the correct and easiest way to re-fit the diaphragms so they don't wrinkle and the other is just an exploded diagram of the piston,needle,springs etc.

don't know how your emissions work so you may not have the notches on the needle to allow fine adjustment but the basic principal is the same on the GSX1100,GS1000 and GS550 E carbs I have worked with, sorry about the quality of the drawings I did them in about 15 minutes.

Hey Pete, maybe the rain swirls away from you guys down there-you know just like the water in the sink, we might not get the really heavy showers you guys get but I would say that the clouds seem to like it here so they stay, usually for several weeks.

Charlie, If all you knew about here was from the news-you would know that hi-jacking is one of the things that people here do best.Johnny

[pete]

Johnny your diagrams are awesome, and that is spot on what my carbies are like as well, although I only have two funnily enough

Mine has the adjustable needles so good chance Jimmy's are also.

I want to go the Dynojet kit to make it easier for me but at $160 - 170 it's just too much...

Also, 200km's today in sun and pouring rain and again no issues with the pods... and there was a fair bit of wind around as well, strong enough to blow me around on the road but still no issues with the pods... I'm thinking they may get enough sheltering from my legs not to have issues...

[Johnny Drummond]

Cheers Pete,I just remembered that I sent you some when you were doing your paint!.I think the problem with the 4 cylinder bikes is that the outer 2 filters edges are almost sticking out past the cylinders whereas yours (being a twin) are covered by the cylinders thats why the bike ran so badly that first time I took it out in the rain,it might also have had something to do with the fact it had rained solidly for 3 days before and there were rivers running down the sides of the road and across most of the corners.Maybe you can get some use from the sketches as well-what groove are the "e" clips on your needles in?, if it was me I would try raising or lowering them one notch at a time(MUCH easier than taking the whole carb assmbley off to mess with jetting) to see if that helps.You must be very close jetting wise-I'm having a similar kind of hassle of hearing boom boom boom from the carbs when I sit at 30 mph for any time(or maybe my bike just doesn't like sitting at the urban speed limit here), I need to service her anyway so I'll try lifting the needles a notch as recommended by a guy I know and trust(ex race mechanic& racer) to see if it helps.Johnny

[pete]

Good point Johnny, yes the outside pods on the fours would definitely be much more exposed than mine, didn't think of that!

And it wasn't quite that wet here on Sunday, so you could be right

My real issue is bogging off idle, and I think my mains are too big, and I've lifted the needles one notch. They were all stab in the dark settings I did expecting her to run lean, so I just need to go back and get the Colortune going. I reckon I'm close though

I figured I should be able to do all the jetting work without ripping the carbs out. I can get the float bowls off fairly easily but I haven't tried getting the diaphragm covers off while mounted yet. I did the needle change during the carb rebuild...

Oh, and I started jetting the wrong way around for the CV carbs too, started with the pilots rather than the mains...

[JimmyR]

Well I've gotten a little hung up on carburettors at the moment, as you do. Pulled 'em all apart AGAIN! They're currently being cleaned at a carby specialist and I am told will look like new tomorrow! So I will reassemble them all myself to try and get everything right. The tutorials at Cliff's site are amazing.

Anyway, there is something I can show off. I have cut off the two round attachment loops at the rear of the fuel tank as they would get in the way of my new seat. So I had my welder mate weld a new tab I fabbed so the the tank will mount like the earlier models.





I have some matt black primer which I will use just on the underside of the tank to cover the newly exposed metal. I quite like this tank. It's not the original tank but is in very good nick. It's an ebay purchase from a parted out bike.

And here is my powdercoated starter motor cover: