Dirty carbs?

[jacob92icu]

Hey guys,

I cleaned the tank and that dislodged a bunch of gunk. At first i didn't have fuel filters on, but now I'm on my second set. Plan to do one more before going back to regular open lines. So, the other day the bike ran fine other than a little fuel starvation from the in line filters. However, when i got home the bike kept bogging down to like 1k rpm and i could tell it was going to die. This has happened before. Also the left carb was over flowering.

At this point the throttle was sluggish in the low end. I drained the carbs, sprayed some carb cleaner into the drain hole and tried again in the morning. Full choke it was only pushing 1500 ~2k.. Idle screw is fine. Do you guys think its gunked up carbs/ plugged jets?

Thanks guys

[Soloratov]

Check your floats as well, doesn't take much of a bump to throw off the springs.

[jacob92icu]

Ok, next question,

I have taken apart carbs from another bike before with ease and cleaned them without referencing the manual. I don't have a manual for the gs500, should i get one before proceeding? And also, do you guys think i should buy a rebuild kit? If so, which one and where? Thanks every body. 

[Xevamir]

I had problems with my bike bogging down so bad that it wouldn't even run.

1. Cleaned out the bad gas.
2. Ran some ethanol stabilizer through it several times.
3. Cleaned the carbs with carb cleaner.
4. Ran seafoam through the bike.
5. Adjusted the idle mixture screws.

My problem was that the previous owner had let the bike sit with bad gas, and made the carbs dirty. The bike was also running too lean, as well.

My buddy is a genius mechanic, and he helped my little noob self figure everything out. 

YMMV.

[The Buddha]

Ok, next question,

I have taken apart carbs from another bike before with ease and cleaned them without referencing the manual. I don't have a manual for the gs500, should i get one before proceeding? And also, do you guys think i should buy a rebuild kit? If so, which one and where? Thanks every body. 

GS carbs are as easy as they get.
BTW what bike was it you pulled carbs from ?

Rebuild kit - only if you need to have the float gaskets. The rest are regular O rings - weird sizes, but O rings nonetheless. I can set you with a set for an 89-00 for $10. Or you can take them to your local place and fit em and get em.

Cool.
Buddha.

[jacob92icu]

Buddha,

The carbs i took apart and cleaned were from a 78 xs750 triple. Very simple to clean. Do you think it is wise to reuse the flat bowl gaskets? And i will probably just buy the orings locally.

Xevamir,

Thanks for the input. I have already done most of that, except for clean the carbs thoroughly.

Question for any body, what are your guys thoughts on the gas tank sealer that re coats the inside of your gas tank? I'm thinking about applying some after i run through the last set of filters

[Xevamir]

Xevamir,

Thanks for the input. I have already done most of that, except for clean the carbs.

My friend also took out the jets and cleaned them as well.

[The Buddha]

Buddha,

The carbs i took apart and cleaned were from a 78 xs750 triple. Very simple to clean. Do you think it is wise to reuse the flat bowl gaskets? And i will probably just buy the orings locally.

Xevamir,

Thanks for the input. I have already done most of that, except for clean the carbs thoroughly.

Question for any body, what are your guys thoughts on the gas tank sealer that re coats the inside of your gas tank? I'm thinking about applying some after i run through the last set of filters

Yea GS carbs are not any worse than the xs.
The sealer - its important to get all the rust out, I dont like sealers that seal in spite of rust ... those people that use that are pretty much doing it to get it out the door before the tank rusts out ... it will continue to rust, keep it hidden and crap out ...

Treat the rust, etch the metal proper, dry it properly, and coat it POR15 or kreem ...

Cool.
Buddha.

[jacob92icu]

Xevamir,

Thanks for the input. I have already done most of that, except for clean the carbs.

My friend also took out the jets and cleaned them as well.

i sure hope he did! Haha. That will be done as part of the carbs

[jacob92icu]

Yea GS carbs are not any worse than the xs.
The sealer - its important to get all the rust out, I dont like sealers that seal in spite of rust ... those people that use that are pretty much doing it to get it out the door before the tank rusts out ... it will continue to rust, keep it hidden and crap out ...

Treat the rust, etch the metal proper, dry it properly, and coat it POR15 or kreem ...

Cool.
Buddha.

I cleaned the gas tank with clr and bbs from a bb gun. CLR = Calcium lime and rust. Gets rid of them. Do you think i would be ok to seal it? There is still visual rust but i think the worst of it is gone.

[Courtice_GS500]

My old katana had tank sealant in it that was sealed over rust. Like Buddha said that is no good.
I had to take the old sealant out and use the Kreeme kit. In the Kreeme kit, one of the steps is an etch that takes away all the rust and scale. If you follow the directions and be patient with the steps it works great but you have to get all of the rust before you seal. I have read that Kreeme is known to break down and flake causing issues. I've heard nothing bad about the POR15 system but I have no personal experience with it.

Either way make sure every last bit of rust is gone.

[jacob92icu]

There is some solvent stuff at the motorcycle shop i go to that has a pack of three different small containers with different chemicals for sealing the gas tank. I can't remember what its called, but it was like 40 ~ 60 bucks. You think that's the stuff? I'll call for the name later.

[Courtice_GS500]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001J0DHZK/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?qid=1372807046&sr=8-6&pi=SL75

That is the kit I used on my Katana. Worked like a charm.

[The Buddha]

CLR is crap.
I use muriatic acid .. then dry it ... actually neutralise the acid with baking soda, then dry it.
Then prep with acetone ... then dry it again, but no need to dry it 100 off the acetone then kreem sealer.

POR 15 also same steps, but after acid, use their first treatment it lays down a coating of something, but if you put it in a rusty tank, it makes tons of scales and powdery crap. So muriatic acid first.
Then rinse it and dry it as best as you can. Then sealer.

Cool.
Buddha.

[jacob92icu]

Thanks for all the input guys gunna start on it right away.

Tonight I'm going to take the tank off in the little time I have and get it ready for Thursday, my day off, to do the air box and carbs.

One other problem I have is that when I turn the tank pet chicken to off it still slowly leaks drops of gas. I took it apart, cleaned it and replaced the o rings, still have the same problem. Could that plastic valve be worn out?

[Snake2715]

You dont need the books as been answered.

Skip the kit and get the orings and other parts you need, no sense in a kit.

As far as sealing I will leave that one off my response, many seal, others clean as best and run with it.. the seal has to seal the entire inside of an odd shaped tank.. just saying.

I wont disagree with Buddha however, for obvious reasons!.. and because he's The guru Ba-moo-derator

Good luck!

[jacob92icu]

So I took the carbs apart and there was a very thin layer of gunk on the bottom and one of the floats was staying down after being pushed down, with a little pressure it would come back up where as the other was free. Also, the air cleaner was extremely dirty. I'll post pictures later. I don't know if cleaning the carbs will fix my whole problem though, just a little skeptical. I'm sure the air filter has a little to do with it as well.

[Snake2715]

Check this thread.

I think the needle valve is the issue on the one that wont pop back up.

Check this thread where I posted pictures. (stolen from the wiki pics).

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=64706.0

[jacob92icu]

Finally have the time to upload pictures.

So here's the top half of the float bowls. To me it looks pretty clean. Like I said before the float was sticky. I will probably do what you suggested Snake.



All I have to do is remove those gold/brass flat head screws in the middle of the floats and spray some carb cleaner down there? Before all I did was spray a ton of carb cleaner into the small holes in the high speed idle and low speed idle.

Heres the float bowls



Pretty dirty right? I'll clean those up and get all that gunk off.

Heres the comparison of the old air filter and the new filter. What do you guys think? Would this help quite a bit?







Heres the new air filter installed and air box cleaned. Looking nice.

[Janx101]

carbs  .. i dont mess with carbs ... yet ...

air filter ....  ... good grief!! ... does that thing lweigh an extra pound heavier than the new one??.... that is FILTHY!!! .. the inside (dirty side, normally the outside on a car/truck filter) .. actually looks like someone previous to yourself has sprayed 'filter oil' in there to 'help catch the dirt because you use it for foam filters right!? .. so it must be better in here too' ... ?? 

which reminds me i gotta "silicon spray my bike seat again so it makes it easier to slide my ass from side to side in the twisties!!"  ... and yes i have a mate who is that 'elite' a rider that he does this .. claims a '10 seconds quicker' over a particular 2km stretch of twisty road locally!!! ... but he also claims that swingarm flex at 90km/h puts him off .. so he needs a new custom built alloy swingarm with extra re-inforcing! to counter it...  ... he's a good lad really .. just ... young ..