brand new excited '09 owner with '09 problems!

[stegasaurusrex]

Hey guys! I just recently bought a 2009 gs500 with 4.5k miles. I got it for really, really, really cheap (think $2300) and I'm in love. It's my first bike and it is perfect. The previous owner took ridiculously good care of it and converted it to the naked look which I now love. He also managed to put on a yoshimira exhaust, dynojet stage 1 jet kit, and the k and n air filter.

Which leads me to my next point. The bike is phenomenal and rides great. However whenever I give it the beans it starts to bog on me around 8k and takes forever to climb, like I mean this thing just will not climb. Then I shift and the power comes back until high rpm where it bogs again.

I thought this meant dirty carbs so I took them out and cleaned the jets. The whole carb was spotless but I sprayed Berry Mans b12 everywhere. That didn't make a difference. I drove around in prime and it didn't make a difference either so its not the petcock.
So now I'm thinking driver error. Is there a throttle roll on technique that I didn't read somewhere? Or is my bike running way to lean?

[gti5notrkt]

Run it up to 8K, do a plug chop and look at the plugs. That will tell you if its lean on the top end.

[stegasaurusrex]

what do you mean by plug chop? take em out? sorry i'm a motorcycle noob but i learn rather quickly

[stegasaurusrex]

so i went out and went up as high as i reasonably could before the bucking scared me but i did make it to 9 or 10k rpm. came home about a minute later and took of the spark plugs and this was the result

[attachment deleted by admin]

[BockinBboy]

What type of K&N filter is on there, lunchbox, or drop-in? 

- Bboy

[stegasaurusrex]

What type of K&N filter is on there, lunchbox, or drop-in? 

- Bboy

its a lunchbox style with a hole in the center for the filter!

[mister]

Ok... stop pulling apart your bike for a sec.

Let's just start with first things first...

What gears are you trying to "give it the beans" in?

Take the bike to the following rpms and tell us what your speeds are....

4th gear, 4000
5th gear 4000, 4500, 5000
6th gear, 4000, 4500, 5000, 5500, 6000

In 4th gear, do 50mph and tell us your rpm.

Do this first, ok?

[Twisted]

The white on your plugs mean that your bike is running lean. I would try a stock air filter to see if your flat spot improves. 

[Wagoneer]

Looks like a lean problem to me. I'd move up in jets.

And is it just the angle or does that plug gap seem awfully tight?

I'd stop doing tests immediately before you start to melt things.

[gti5notrkt]

Assumption - left plug in picture = left cylinder etc.

The left plug is a tiny bit lean , the right one is quite a lot lean. You're looking for med-chocolate color. Could be a carb balance issue , 2 different mains (unlikely) or you have an airleak on the right cylinder such as loose hose clamp on the rubber boot or a split . I would pull the carb, clean it, check the rubber boots and confirm you have something close to the preferred jet setup. Reassemble with a a new non-holed lunchbox filter.

BTW lunchbox+slipon should be in the 20/65/142.5-147.5 range

Jon.

[Slack]

From his description I'd assume that he has a stock air box and drop in filter, not a lunch box, even though that's what he said.

[BockinBboy]

Hmm, yeah maybe we need clarification on the filter.

This is a K&N Lunchbox air filter.


This is a K&N Drop-In air filter, which goes into the stock black airbox.  The restrictor ring is shown beside it.



- Bboy

[stegasaurusrex]

Alright so its the drop in K and N filter. I thought it was the lunchbox because the stock box does look like a lunchbox haha and the lunchbox is the recommended one for the stage 1 dynojet kit, but guess I'm still stock there. I have some errands to run so I'll go on a ride and figure out the rpm ranges for 4th through 6th from 4k-6k for each.

When I previously said that I was "giving it the beans" it doesn't matter what gear I'm in, the bike bogs consistently at 7-8k rpm and up. Although with a very light throttle I was once able to get to 9.5k in 2nd, but there wasn't any power up there.

Also, when I took the carbs apart the first time, the jets were super clean but I remember that the main jet for the right carb would not come out of the nut or whatever it is attached to so I had to take the whole thing out of the carb to clean it... could this be a cause? I'll be looking to take out the carbs again, and maybe even taking them fully apart this time, with everyone's advice. When I put it back together, I made sure that the clamps were on super tight too. One last thing... where is the o-ring that's apparently a pain in the rear end that everyone forgets about on the 2009 carbs? I want to make sure it's there

Thank you guys so much!

[stegasaurusrex]

Alright so I'm back and here are my RPM ranges
in 4th 36mph at 4k rpm
50 in fourth comes in at 5400
in 5th, 44mph at 4k, 49 at 4.5k, 54 at 5k, and 60 at 5.5k
in 6th, 49 at 4k, 54 at 4.5k, 61 at 5k, 68 at 5.5k, and 74 at 6k rpm

[The Buddha]

You're lean and ready to detonate.
Rejet it now ... and for good measure go back to the stock filter, or soak a sock in filter oil or lemon pledge and suspend it in the mouth of the K&N.
You want to clean the air going in the motor a bit.
Anyway I can sell you a jet pack - you need 132.5 and 20 for stock, or 135 and 20 with that K&N. Either is $25 in US, 30 anywhere in the world.
Cool.
Buddha.

[The Buddha]

Oh scroooo that. DJ - never mind. Try the sock in the airfilter. If not, swap to the stock type. It can be washed in gas and re used a bunch of times.
Cool.
Buddha.

[stegasaurusrex]

Oh scroooo that. DJ - never mind. Try the sock in the airfilter. If not, swap to the stock type. It can be washed in gas and re used a bunch of times.
Cool.
Buddha.

screw what, rejetting it? Is the stage 1 dynojet kit making it run bad and if so, can't I adjust the air fuel mixture by adjusting some screws on the carbs? I don't have the stock air filter but I can buy one, hopefully autozone would have something of the nature.
Sorry for all the questions, this is all so new to me. But thanks for the help!

[The Buddha]

I was suggesting you try rejetting it with my kit (using mikuni jets but larger sizes) but it needs the stock needle, else it wont work like its supposed to.
You can adjust away ... but DJ junk somehow comes back to bite you. Or not ... we cant be sure, DJ doesn;t sell 1 size bigger jets, say you have 118, and logically 1 step up = 120, cos 117.5 in mikuni and 120 mikuni ... except, 120 is not sold by DJ. our next option is 124. Far too much maybe.

Anyway you can work on it, and post back here, we'll try our best to see if we can figure it out.
Cool.
Buddha.

[stegasaurusrex]

Unfortunately I just learned what the jets were before i took the carbs apart. So with rejetting I'd have to buy new jets, can I get away with adjusting something? Just a little short on cash at the moment and I'd rather not lose the power that the DJ kit gave me haha

[mjj4]

You are definitely running very lean, if your bike bike is fine through the rest of the rpm range and throttle opening then I don't think raising the needle will help so a definite main and possibly mid main re jet is required. You need to go larger with your mains. Have you tried full throttle whilst on choke? Choke richens the mixture so you may get some improvement. This is only as a test obviously.

Also, how do you it has a dyno jet kit? What size jets are in it at the moment? Are you sure he wasn't just lieing to you? Write down the jet sizes. You don't get loads of power by just putting a dyno jet kit on and you haven't experienced a bike properly jetted with mikuni jets and not a DJ kit, a properly jetted bike with any jets will produce more power than a guess work dyno jet kit so don't worry about "the power you have from the kit" as it isn't jetted correctly so you have probably lost power.