Alright, first thread, some issues need help!

[Bobo]

Alright, so just joined the forums and first thread. Anyways I bought a 07 GS500F from my good friend back in April with 7,000 (Currently has 10,800) on the ODO for my first bike. The bike has ran pretty good since then, but few little issues have came up that I don't quite know how to fix. So far the only things I've done to the bike is new fork seals, new front and rear tire and changed the plugs and normal maintenance of chain lubing, tighten and oil change . I don't know if anything has been checked/maintenance before me, besides oil changes, so just going to leave it at a no. Now my issues... (only 2 so not too bad  )

First issue. Warm up time... Wow is it a S.O.B to warm this baby up. 5-10mins to warm her up, even during the summer. Now I thought it was normal, but came to find out (from here), is a bit long, especially at 90 degrees in the summer. Oh, also if it sat for a good 30 mins it needed a bit of choke to stay running (outside heat blazing). So far I've read that, thanks to you guys  , that rejetting speeds up the warm up time, but don't think it should take so long without rejetting. So next was valves might need to be check. Now, I thought about doing this myself, but don't have the confidence in my noob mechanic skills to actually go forth with it. So decided that I'm going to just go get a tune up, but wanted to wait until I got some answer from y'all and maybe save some money. So any help/suggestions on this issue would be nice.

Now second and last issue. Stalling while coming to a stop.... Hasn't done it but twice during the summer, which I thought was highly odd, but now that it's starting to cool down during my rides into work at night, and home in the mornings, it's doing it almost each ride (around 64-70 degrees)This is the issue that's really bothering me the most, because hate not knowing if it'll just stall out or not and don't want to keep holding the throttle to keep it from that. What do y'all think might be/fix this irritating issue. Seems to me that it gets worse the colder it gets, and with winter right around the corner, don't want to stall out every red light, stop sign, turn or what not. Especially in 30 below weather . So please, any assistance would be nice because this is my only mode of transportation

[craigs449]

Sounds like your valves are out of spec......Is there difficulty cold starting?  Checking the valves is easy, many tutorials on here and wiki on how to do it.  I would pull the valve cover and check the clearance, then deal with getting the shims once you find out how many are out of spec. 

Idle adjustment, try that 1st, then I would pull the carbs and give them a good cleaning.  Furthermore, eratic idle is sometimes a sign that the carbs are out of sync (one cylinder is attempting to make enough power at idle to keep both pistons working.

[DoD#i]

Quick and dirty and probably not all your issues....

See what comes out of your carb drains. You might have some water in there. One of my tired old nags is to actually use the things, generally about every chain lube (600-ish miles, 3-4 tanks of gas)

[ggg]

Before you crack anything open, I would suggest you run some Seafoam carb cleaner through your fuel system: 1 oz. per gallon of fuel (roughly 7.5 ml per liter). Do this for 1-2 tankfuls and see if it improves.

Also, is the air system full stock or does it have an aftermarket air filter / air box? If so, then it will definitely be on the lean side and a rejet per the Wiki table will help.

[Bobo]

Quick and dirty and probably not all your issues....

See what comes out of your carb drains. You might have some water in there. One of my tired old nags is to actually use the things, generally about every chain lube (600-ish miles, 3-4 tanks of gas)

Where exactly are they located at? I mean when I say noob, I mean noob. Don't want to be turning something that doesn't need to be turned 

Before you crack anything open, I would suggest you run some Seafoam carb cleaner through your fuel system: 1 oz. per gallon of fuel (roughly 7.5 ml per liter). Do this for 1-2 tankfuls and see if it improves.

Also, is the air system full stock or does it have an aftermarket air filter / air box? If so, then it will definitely be on the lean side and a rejet per the Wiki table will help.

Yeah, I was suggested to that as well. Worth a try I assume. The air system is fully stock. Nothing is after market besides a new fork seal (which is stock spec none-the-less) and front brake lever.

Sounds like your valves are out of spec......Is there difficulty cold starting?  Checking the valves is easy, many tutorials on here and wiki on how to do it.  I would pull the valve cover and check the clearance, then deal with getting the shims once you find out how many are out of spec. 

Idle adjustment, try that 1st, then I would pull the carbs and give them a good cleaning.  Furthermore, eratic idle is sometimes a sign that the carbs are out of sync (one cylinder is attempting to make enough power at idle to keep both pistons working.

No, no difficulty cold starting. Just takes forever to warm up, and then the numerous stalling once coming to a stop at a red light or stop sign. I mean it's weird because once I pull into my garage, it's fine, but the whole way home its idling so low to eventually just cut. I've adjusted the idle to 1200RPMS like stated on the frame sticker on a fully hot motor and kept it there. Even went to 1500 to try and prevent these frequent cut offs. I'll go ahead and try the valves once I have some free time to do it, and a helping hand to monitor.

[weedahoe]

Like others have said, take off and clean the carbs. It's really easy.

Check the valves. That's easy also

Get rid off those old plugs and get those Brisk racing plugs. I dont even have to choke my bike to get it to start anymore.

[Bobo]

Will be taking the steps to check the valves soon. As for the plugs; already did that... Actually didn't help the issue of warm up. Maybe after the carb cleaning and valve check that'll be a different story.

@DoD- I'm assuming the brass color screw coming out of the carbs is the drain screw... One is so tight couldn't even loosen without potentially stripping it, and the the other just kept draining gas out....

[ggg]

http://gstwin.com/float_height_check.htm will confirm whether your assumption is valid.

[DoD#i]

@DoD- I'm assuming the brass color screw coming out of the carbs is the drain screw... One is so tight couldn't even loosen without potentially stripping it, and the the other just kept draining gas out....

GGG has put the link on here. If there's any water/crud, it comes out first - after that, stop, because it will be nothing but gas. Here's the first picture from that:



You should be able to use a wrench on the head of the tight one. Mine, at least, are JIS AND flathead AND a hex you can use a wrench or socket on - use a six point socket if it's really bad. A little penetrant of choice (pb blaster, liquid wrench, kroil, atf/acetone) might also help. In this particular case a shot of carb cleaner might also be worth trying, as it's likely varnished in place.

Usually the "brass color" goes away with carb cleaner - it's varnish from leaking gasoline - they are a dull silver/gray color when clean.

Drop $20-25 on a haynes or clymer manual for the GS500 - well worth it. Might be able to find one cheaper used. I'm guessing at the price, actually, but it was in that ballpark. May be up a bit now.

A note on JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard, I think) screws: They are not Phillips but look similar - anything that looks like a Phillips on a Japanese motorcycle is really JIS - so are the drivers in the toolkit, even though they look cheap - if you have the toolkit, use those drivers. They LOVE to strip when you use a Phillips driver.

[ggg]

I'll second that--just stripped one. Oh well--it was clean last time I checked and I run Seafoam through the system once a month, so I'll hold off. I read on another topic that someone is swapping the OEM drain screws for M4 x 0.7 Allens--not a bad idea, I may do the same.

[DoD#i]

You'd have to grind the tip on them to make a proper drain screw.