Diagnosis?

[red_phil]

Hi all, My bikes been acting oddly recently I was wondering if anyone
recognised the symptoms.

The bike is a 1994 GS 500-E, it's a UK model so the carbs are not set
up as lean as the US models seem to be.

The symptoms are that I loose a little power and the bike judders slightly
for a few seconds and then recovers whilest under way.
This only seems to occur when the throttle is held steady for a few
seconds. If I'm accelerating or breaking I don't notice anything.
The bike sometimes get's this during idle which has twice caused the
engine to stall, but it restarted fine.

I 1st noticed this as the weather turned cold and the bike had got wet
the night before also. I haven't checked the valve clearances yet or checked float levels or balanced the carbs. Up until now the bike has run pretty sweet so I figured "if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it."

My current theorys are;
1) The valve clearances are out and the cold weather has made the
   problem noticable.
2) The carbs are unbalanced and one cylinder is occasionally missfiring
   due to this.
3) The HT leads are dodgy and in the wet one of the cylinders was
   missfiring.
4) I've managed to get some crud blocking up my carbs.


Hope that's enough information, let the guess-work begin! :mrgreen:

[The Buddha]

OK my guess is 3-1-2-4 ... in that order... Electrical shaZam! blows to high heaven in water ... yea... been there done that, and hated it... Solution... Yea ask the rain to stop for a good 3-4 weeks and make the sun shine brightly for 14-16 hours a day, then try it.  :lol:
Cool.
Srinath.

[red_phil]

Solution... Yea ask the rain to stop for a good 3-4 weeks and make the sun shine brightly for 14-16 hours a day, then try it.  

You do realise that I live in Scotland, don't you?
We envy the fine dry weather of Seatle!
oh and at today I only got just over 7 hours of Daylight today,
nevermind sunshine.

Is there anyway to waterproof the electrics on the GS better?
Would newer HT lead help or would they probably just be the same? :dunno:

[scratch]

I agree with Srinath in the order that he has listed. And, I'm gonna throw in water in the gas. Was your tank mostly empty when it rained? I would suspect condensation inside the tank and as the carbs processed the water the bike hesitated at those times. The cure? Keep the tank up on petrol to displace air and minimize condensation. Cover the bike.

[red_phil]

Hmm, I was low on fuel at the time.

I think I'll try and keep the tank fullish over winter.
Thanks.

[werase643]

don't yall also have that dreaded carb icing problem over there.


here most riders are ?@$$!*$ and don't ride in all kinds of weather...

[The Buddha]

I doubt the GS can have carb icing ... the engine heat in the carb area is rather high ... short manifolds and covered up carbs make it near impossible. Maybe our canadian winter riders can pitch in here ...
Cool.
Srinath.