Anyone remember me

[mjn12]

Its been a while, but now that I have all the holiday BS out of the way and I'm moved back to Ohio I've got a little more time to keep playing with my bike.  I've even got to ride it since we've had 50+ degrees for that past few weeks (thanks global warming). 

I had two longs topics a while back about some issues with power in my lower RPM range.  Well, the bikes running(ish) but I still can't take off from a stop without slipping my clutch like crazy.

I dont think this is a rider issue - I've ridden other bikes and I have no problem letting out the clutch, gassing a little and going.  On the gs I have to rev up past 3 or 4k and slip it to go. If it try to take off like I would on any other bike the engine lurches and tries to die on me.  Dad and 2 friends have ridden and had to do the same thing. It seems to be getting way to much gas.  Starts up with 1/4 choke on cold days, floods easily, turns plugs all black and carbon-y like it was made to do it.  Electricals/ignition seem fine - big blue sparks and fires right up - even idles nice till the plugs foul. 

Carbs are set up as follows: 

40/125 jets
stock air filter and exhaust
mix screws at 2 ish turns (hard to remember, been a while since I  tweaked anything)
NO washers on the needle (running way too rich with just one)
floats set so gas rises just to the "seam" where the bowls meet the carb body (as confirmed by U-tube test)

I've checked the air box to make sure that carbs aren't over filling so float valves should be fine.  Pulled out mix screws at one point to make sure that little spring/o ring on them were fine - no problem there. 

As I see it my only options are
1. try lowering the float level bit by bit until plugs stop fouling then I can fine tune adding washers and adjusting mix screws
2. go back to stock jetting and see what happens.

My dad has offered to take it to the dealer and pay to have them do it - but this is a seriuos hit to my man-pride. Plus I hate letting people pay for things (besides college). That means this is my last resort.

Any suggestions or opinions before I tear into this thing for the thousandth time?

[scratch]

I remember ya, welcome back!

Is it possible your choke plungers are leaking?  But then you'd be having a rich problem throughout the range.

I've always had to rev up the bike to get it going.  It chugs anywhere lower than 4000rpm, unless I slip the clutch alot.  That sounds normal to me on this bike; and have experienced this on many small-bore bikes (Yamaha SRX250, Ninja 250, Radian, FZ600, FZR400, FZR600, EX500).

What are these 'other' bikes that we are comparing?

I would also inspect the rubber tips of the float needles, and run a fingernail across the tip and feel for if it hangs up; like you're checking for grooves in a brake disk.

[NiceGuysFinishLast]

Yeah, honestly, I can't launch below about 4K.. took some getting used to, since I'm used to launching cars at like 1.5K

Dunno bout the rich condition though..

[scratch]

O.k., I went back and read just about all of your 115 posts.

First, did you replace those o-rings at the top of your float assemblies?

2nd, you cannot compare a GS to an '06 Kawasaki Vulcan, regardless of size.

3rd, do this: put the bike on the centerstand (if it has one; I already know that it does not have a frame petcock).
Measure the float levels using the u-tube method.
Pull the carbs and measure the float levels.
Adjust the levels so the floats close the float needles sooner.
Put the carbs back on and remeasure the float levels (u-tube).

If the levels are the same, the needles are leaking fuel past.  Replace the needles.

The only other thing I can think of is to pull the pilot jets and make sure they are not bleeder type pilot jets (little holes on the length of the barrel).