Hurry up gs500, I gota get to work! (Lean question)

[geneman]

[callmelenny]

My experience is that in the few minutes that it takes to get geared up, the GS is warm enough to run. I leave a little bit of choke on for the first few miles. I think other folks on the site have reported similar experiences.

Obviously, YMMV

[The Buddha]

[Rema1000]

That does not sound like the typical leanness.  It sounds like your pilots may still be partially blocked, leading to very lean behavior.  

If you have cleaned the carbs, then I assume that you took the plugs off from the pilot screws?  If so, then ride it until it's warmed-up, then reset the idle mixture using the screws.  That will probably help, until you have a better reason to clean the carbs again.

Replacing the pilots may fix it also, but I'd start with the adjustment screws.

[mp183]

I had similar symptoms.  Turned out it was the valves.  Once warmed up at speed it was no problem.   From a dead stop I had to slip the clutch like mad.  The other symptom was not able to adjust the idle.  When it got hot the rpms would shoot up to about 4,000.  If I lowered the idle it would die.

[The Buddha]

Hey yes these guys are spot on...
I also had choke cable hanging up the choke slightly openand made for a miserable bike...
Cool.
Srinath.

[geneman]

I hope it's not the valves! I did a compression check and both cylinders came out around 140. Is that up to spec (I got the manual in the mail). What's another good test to check the valves?
It's def not the choke cable, in fact having choke on makes things a bit better.
If I get the carbs stage 1,3 rejetted, (I was thinking about that K&N filter anyway), the probs should all disappear right? (God I hope it's nothing inside the motor).

[Lars]

I think 140 on the compression test is very good. That also means that the valves aren't tight. (you may want to check them though).

I think what Srinath says is the best option. Take the carbs apart and put a #125 mains and #40 pilot in it. Needle with washers under it. ~2 mm.

I'm running the same setup and at temperatures just above freezing it starts immediately and You can ride away on the choke a few SECONDS after that. After a minute I put the choke off and the bike keeps running properly.

So I wouldn't worry. This is going to turn out alright.

[Kerry]

I did a compression check and both cylinders came out around 140. Is that up to spec

From the Haynes manual:



So not the tops, but it sounds fine.

[GSRider]

After I shimmed the needles, warm up time went from forever and a day to about 20 seconds. Easy mod to do as well.

Also, it cooled the engine by increasing the fuel part of the fuel/air mixture, and I also got better fuel mileage.

[The Buddha]

I think 140 on the compression test is very good. That also means that the valves aren't tight. (you may want to check them though).

I think what Srinath says is the best option. Take the carbs apart and put a #125 mains and #40 pilot in it. Needle with washers under it. ~2 mm.

I'm running the same setup and at temperatures just above freezing it starts immediately and You can ride away on the choke a few SECONDS after that. After a minute I put the choke off and the bike keeps running properly.

So I wouldn't worry. This is going to turn out alright.

140 cold ... not so good... my 46K miler made that. Hot was 1555 ... whihc was OK, but the best I have seen cold is 150+, and hot it was 165+... and I saw 2 bikes that made the same.
Cool.
Srinath.

[Lars]

I think 140 on the compression test is very good. That also means that the valves aren't tight. (you may want to check them though).

I think what Srinath says is the best option. Take the carbs apart and put a #125 mains and #40 pilot in it. Needle with washers under it. ~2 mm.

I'm running the same setup and at temperatures just above freezing it starts immediately and You can ride away on the choke a few SECONDS after that. After a minute I put the choke off and the bike keeps running properly.

So I wouldn't worry. This is going to turn out alright.

140 cold ... not so good... my 46K miler made that. Hot was 1555 ... whihc was OK, but the best I have seen cold is 150+, and hot it was 165+... and I saw 2 bikes that made the same.
Cool.
Srinath.

Yeah.. made the mistake of thinking that 140 psi would be about ~14 bar. And that would be very good of course   I think it's time for me to get more accurate on the numbers  

So, it turns out to be not so good. No problem, Even with low numbers the performance can still be decent.  It'll probably affect the lower rpm range mostly.

By the way, there are slight differences between the manuals. I see that Kerry's manual states that if both cylinders record less than 10 bar, you need to overhaul the engine. I have a German manual, which says that overhaul is required if it's less than 8 bar.