rust in float bowls!

[commuterdude]

Looks like I'll still need to get that tank lined!  LOL!

[natewesselink]

it seems to be common if you havent taken your carbs apart in a while
when i rejetted mine i had about the same amount in my float bowls as that

[ohgood]

don't blame your tank. the station's tanks have so much crap in them... rainwater, frogs, cigarete butts (yikes!) etc

just dump the float bowls and carry on friend

[The Buddha]

Wait a sec there ... atleast look into the tank with a flash light ... then carry on.
I have opened up my floats after 2+ years of just riding, and found nothing ... but maybe its the times. The last running long term GS I had was in 2005 ... 
The virago got tank rust, the maxim is sitting for 1 year, the seca was sold 6 months ago after being run for 6 months, various other short term GS'es came and went before I got the mileage out of it. So, just check first.
Cool.
Buddha.

[reminor]

Implant a fuel filter (~$3) in the main gas hose and treat your tank with POR-15. That's my vote.

When I bought my bike in 2006 I did the carbs overhaul at once, all with new parts (floats, rings, needles, gaskets, etc). I also put in the fuel filter. Guess what. That one carb kit lasted me less than a season. I quickly started having all kinds of carburetor problems again, the needles got stuck, overflow, underflow, etc. Turned out that the carbs were filthy and full of rust again, in just 2 month! Almost as bad as they were before. 

It's a well known fact that GS500 by design has a "dirt pocket" in the tank (the part lower than fuel chicken), so apparently all the bad stuff that sits there was shaken on road bumps and was getting into my carbs. The fuel filter helps, but it only arrests relatively large particles, so that fine rust powder was all over my carbs despite the filter.

I wised up and I did the POR-15 treatment (though looking in the tank did NOT reveal a severe rust/gunk problem, now I know it is just because you cannot really see into that "pocket" part of the tank.).


So far I am doing just fine (gas as clean as a teardrop) for almost 2 seasons. On how-to see my contributions to the Wiki - filter http://cgi.stanford.edu/~sanjayd/gs500/Upgrades/FuelFilter, POR-15 http://cgi.stanford.edu/~sanjayd/gs500/Restoration/TankRust

Hope this helps.