She's back! Running lean?

[Watevaman]

 Yes, yes, yes, after 9 months of sitting in my garage, the GS ran for the first time today. However, she ran for ~20 seconds because of an apparent lean condition, which is what I want to talk to you guys about.

Refresher: My bike had issues about two months after getting it last October. Gas got into the oil and eventually caused it to blow through the breather tube at the top (which luckily wasn't connected to anything because of my lunchbox). In order to change the oil filter, I removed the exhaust due to not knowing I could simply bend it down a bit to get to the filter cover. In the process, I broke two exhaust bolts on the left hand side.

What I've done since then:
-Took the top end apart, drilled out the bolts, retapped the holes.
-Replaced pretty much all top end gaskets (head, valve cover, breather cover)
-Replaced the tires (oil all over the rear plus they were ~10 years old according to the side)
-Adjusted the floats, which apparently are wrong even now
-Replaced the battery with a Scorpion sealed

What I would like help with:

-The carbs are still letting gas past, despite adjusting the float. I tried the hose method to test the heights this afternoon and the left side was ok, right side was above the gasket. Do I lower or raise the float to get this down? If anyone with a V&H full system + K&N Lunchbox can share their float heights with a 150 main (don't know pilot size), I'd love you.

-The bike shot up to ~4,000 rpm when I started it, no choke, no throttle, idle screw backed out. I'm assuming it's a lean condition, but with the heights changed and one seemingly getting too much gas, how is it lean?

-There seems to be a light smoke coming from the exhaust headers where they meet the engine. It was very light and I couldn't pinpoint if it was just left/right. I also didn't let it run more than 20 seconds so I don't know if it was burning something off. The exhaust has new gaskets I installed when I reinstalled the top end, but I couldn't find a torque so I just hand tightened them.


I think that's it, thanks in advance. I'm just so damn happy right now that it's running again. 

[RossLH]

Float height: use the clear tube method to check the floats. The gas level should be flush with the gasket surface if properly set. If this doesn't fix the fuel issue, you may need a new needle valve.

[salamander]

-The carbs are still letting gas past, despite adjusting the float. I tried the hose method to test the heights this afternoon and the left side was ok, right side was above the gasket. Do I lower or raise the float to get this down? If anyone with a V&H full system + K&N Lunchbox can share their float heights with a 150 main (don't know pilot size), I'd love you.

To lower the fuel level in the right bowl, you want to lower the float height by raising the metal tab that controls the needle valve.  If you have the carbs out of the bike, it may be easier to adjust the tabs with the carbs sitting upside down -- in this case, just keep in mind when you're adjusting the tab that eveything's upside down, and you will be adjusting the tab downward.

-The bike shot up to ~4,000 rpm when I started it, no choke, no throttle, idle screw backed out. I'm assuming it's a lean condition, but with the heights changed and one seemingly getting too much gas, how is it lean?

You could have an air leak somewhere between the air filter and the engine that's letting additional air in.

[Watevaman]

 Didn't even think about an air leak. When I check everything else I'll be sure to check that.