Stalling

[jakeoster]

Hello,

I've had my 2009 GS500F for a few months. Its my first bike and I am now hooked on riding. I plan to keep the GS as my commuter.

The bike has been great except for one annoyance, it likes to stall when I come to a stop unless the engine's warm (i.e. coming off a 10 mile freeeway run at ~70mph). Even when fully warm when I come to a stop the RPMs usually momentarily dip below 1k RPMs but usually it wont die if its sufficiently warm.

Ive done some searching around on the forum and one of the main suggestions was the exhaust valve clearance could be too tight. After thinking about it for a while that doesn't make much sense because I would imagine that due to the expansion of metal the stalling would get worse the warmer the engine gets, not better.

Any ideas?

Thank you!

[bmf]

Valves problems  are difficult to predict.  What are you doing with your choke?

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

[jakeoster]

Valves problems  are difficult to predict.  What are you doing with your choke?

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

I use the choke when I first start the bike to warm it up. Doesnt take long to warm up and be able to sit there and idle, seems normal. I put it in the off position before I start moving.

[EdChen]

I think either way, unless the valves were recently checked, there's no reason not to do that as your first course of action. Even a perfectly running bike need to have proper valve clearances and it does seem to create weird symptoms when not in spec, although I had your exact symptoms when mine were way too tight.

[Joolstacho]

Valves wouldn't be MY first check because valve clearance problems will usually be accompanied by other symptoms, like loss of power, top end rattling noises etc.

Go for the basic easy checks first, and if they don't work there are plenty of other things to check later.

It's quite likely that your bike just needs a little TLC to the carbs, that is, adjustment of the pilot jets and tickover screws to get the mixture correct for a nice tickover when it's warm.
It may need a carb synchronisation (so that the throttle slides are set at the same position). First step, I'd put in new spark plugs, maybe put in a new air filter if that hasn't been done recently.

[EdChen]

I don't disagree. I think my point of view is that all the basic maintenance should be done first, since it needs to be done either way. If it happens to help/fix the problem, even better.

[jakeoster]

Ok, thanks everyone.

I have the feeler gauges already on order so I'll take a look at that. Hopefully, that will solve the problem.

Don't you guys think these CAPTCHAs are a little bit overkill? They're extremely difficult to read. Arnt these things meant to be human readable? It took me over 10 attempts to post this! I nearly gave up lol.

[ShowBizWolf]

I know they are a pain but they keep the spam away!! Post two more times and they will be gone... you won't have to do them anymore 

Congrats on the bike and it's awesome you are already hooked. I felt the same way back when I got my gs!

[jakeoster]

I checked the valve clearances this weekend. One of the intake valves was at .08mm and the other was at .09mm.

The exhaust side was at .04mm and the other was tighter than the thinnest gauge I had at .02mm. The bike has about 12k miles on it. What are the chances of this causing lasting damage?

Thanks

[akapellen17]

You run a huge risk of burning a valve. Spec I think is .04 to .08 but a lot of people run them at .1 so that they don't run the risk of burning valves.

[HPP8140]

I checked the valve clearances this weekend. One of the intake valves was at .08mm and the other was at .09mm.

The exhaust side was at .04mm and the other was tighter than the thinnest gauge I had at .02mm. The bike has about 12k miles on it. What are the chances of this causing lasting damage?

Thanks

were you able to turn the bucket? If so, then not so bad.

[jakeoster]

I checked the valve clearances this weekend. One of the intake valves was at .08mm and the other was at .09mm.

The exhaust side was at .04mm and the other was tighter than the thinnest gauge I had at .02mm. The bike has about 12k miles on it. What are the chances of this causing lasting damage?

Thanks

were you able to turn the bucket? If so, then not so bad.

I'll have to try this when I get home. The bike seems to run well besides occasionally stalling when coming to a stop. Hopefully no lasting damage. Today I should get the valve tool so I can pull the shims, measure, then order the new ones.

[Bluesmudge]

My GS did the same thing until I adjusted the valves for the first time. Take the exhaust valves out to .08 - .12 and the bike will warm up and run much better. Your mileage is right where I would expect it to be for this problem if nobody has ever adjusted the valves. Do this ASAP.
According to GS Jack, you also won't need to adjust valves as often with the looser spec.

[EdChen]

Jake, I don't remember off the top of my head the exact clearance, but when I did my first adjustment, it was tighter than the low end of the specs. I was nervous of long term damage too. I swapped out the exhaust shims to get it to about .11. 2 years and about 4,000mi later, I checked earlier this summer and all of them were still around .10/.11. No lasting damage as far as I can tell, and the wider clearances don't seem to wear as much too. I think you'll be fine, good thing you caught it when you did.

[HPP8140]

I checked the valve clearances this weekend. One of the intake valves was at .08mm and the other was at .09mm.

The exhaust side was at .04mm and the other was tighter than the thinnest gauge I had at .02mm. The bike has about 12k miles on it. What are the chances of this causing lasting damage?

Thanks

were you able to turn the bucket? If so, then not so bad.

I'll have to try this when I get home. The bike seems to run well besides occasionally stalling when coming to a stop. Hopefully no lasting damage. Today I should get the valve tool so I can pull the shims, measure, then order the new ones.

I bought a 2002 GS with 14k mi and had to go down 3 shim sizes to get clearance in the left exhaust. Now have 32k on it, but that valve wears much faster than the others.

[jakeoster]

Thankfully the cam bucket on the sub-0.02mm clearance exhaust valve freely turns with my finger. I think I'm in the clear

Was hoping the cam tool would show up after work before class but it's not here yet. I'm itching to get the new shims ordered. Being forced to drive my car sucks haha

Thanks for the insight everyone, it's been immensely helpful.

[jakeoster]

My right intake valve is .01mm over spec at .09mm

Do you think it is worth trying to reduce it?

[gsJack]

No

[Bluesmudge]

Shims come in .05mm increments, so you would be taking it down to .04 which is almost out of spec in the other direction and effectively shortening your next valve check interval. Better to be a little too loose than a little too tight.

[jakeoster]

Ok, I'll leave it.

I think I read an old thread on here about someone having a strong urge to throw the motion pro tool into the woods. It worked great on the right side exhaust valve but the left side gave me the strong urge to throw said tool into the woods. I can barely get it to start and then it just pops off every time. I've tried everything I can think of, very frustrating.