79 GS 550e rebuild

[Sand_fiend]

[Sand_fiend]

The front fender had a big hole at the bottom. the chrome was rusted off in spots and it had dents.. I opted to keep the fender. welded it up and ground the chrome off. fixed the dents and it's ready for paint. i did abut body work for 8 years when i was younger..

[ShadowFocus603]

well, I started it up yesterday. even with rebuilding the carbs it will not idle under 2K just like before. I spent two days re cleaning, jetting, adjusting things, changing things. I did a compression test all are even across the board. did a leak test on the boots.. nothing leaking. timing is on point. new timing chain, valve job. pistons, valves are set at 5, the cams call for 4 to 6. i guess its just time to get new carbs.

Don't get hung up on the idle rpm indicated by your tach. None of my bikes will idle at less than 2k, or if they do it's not by much less. I don't think the factory tachs are terribly accurate, at least not at lower rpm's. Just ride the bike. If it feels good and runs well be happy. replacing the carbs will likely net you nothing but frustration.

[Sand_fiend]

Update... after reading through some of the threads i learned some valuable info on these carbs. what i thought was clean, twice.... still was not clean enough. i found that one air mixture screw passage hole was plugged way more than the others. then two carbs had blockages in the rear air jet passage not the jet. cleaned them out last night and it runs and idles great even before i have the chance to sync them. So it was all in the carbs.. i cleaned and soked them twice but that was still not enough. i learned there is more to cleaning a carb besides the jets and pilot holes only.. once i was given a schematic of how the inside of the carbs work, i was about to find the blockages.. . my friend marco said i will never get these carbs to work right again... I just ordered new air filters, i didn't want to order then if i had to buy new carbs. i am at about 95% done.. just need to make a new mount for the tail and paint it... it now will idle at about 800 rpm with these cams..

Here is a video of the start up.. https://youtu.be/7G2ZnbbvI4Y

[jameson079]

Sweet build!

Quick question. Is that the stock swing arm or one off a different bike / aftermarket?

[Sand_fiend]

Stock swing arm..

[jameson079]

nice! for some reason mine looks butt ugly compared to yours.

[Gsgsxr]

Where did u get the cooler from its nice

[Sand_fiend]

Got it off e-bay. I had to order banjo bolts from a hydraulic shop. the new banjo fittings and bolts have bigger passages on the inside for more oil to flow..

[Sand_fiend]

So i had a major set back today. the bike was running great with the new carbs and was working on fine tuning. been riding it around the neighborhood. today a shim shattered in to a million pieces. Shims dont shatter WT?.. it stuck the valve bucket down so now it has a bent valve, it also chipped the cam so it will have to be re welded and ground.

[Sand_fiend]

[ShadowFocus603]

Ouch. Sorry to hear about your misfortune.

[Sand_fiend]

got it apart and found another cracked shim. these were two of the three of the new shims i bought off ebay. got to replace a valve and send the cam out to be welded and ground...

[Sand_fiend]

Got the top end off and the lower end cleaned out of all debris I will put the new valve in tomorrow and put the head back on. i should get the cam back in about 5 days...

[8ball]

Nice work...good luck with the head work.

How do you have a 79 and were able to install CV carbs?