Hi all,
New to the forums and a new 1994 gs500e owner.

Need some help since the previous owner didn't do much with the bike. It sat for the past year only started every now and then just to run. Battery was dead so it was jumped when I looked at it and was told it needed tires. After looking it over the one carb was leaking pretty bad.

Now that it's home it starts fine, only drips a little fuel from between the carbs but doesn't idle, it'll bog out and die. Pulled the tank to look at the carbs and the airbox has no filter. Could this affect the idle?
Thanks

aside from the dripping fuel.... fix it!! ...

yes .. the lack of air filter will affect the mix ... as i understand it .. it will make it even more lean ... and if its stock/oem jetting then it is set lean from factory....

however when you have the carbs out/apart to stop that fuel drip.. its gonna be a good idea to try identify what jets ARE in there... with no known baseline of jetting it is gonna be a double biatch to get running smooth.

note ... dripping fuel around a hot engine.... is more your primary concern right now 

Ditto what Janx said, fix the fuel drip first; they're probably due for a good cleaning anyways.

And a less restrictive intake or exhaust has a huge effect on the mixture making it even leaner that it already is from the factory.  People will even rejet a fully stock GS because it's so lean (e.g. me).  Also, clogged jets or passageways in the carbs will also make it run worse (more lean) so get all that sorted and an air filter on it then go from there.

Thanks for the replies. I guess I'll pull the carbs off and clean them out.

I put the air filter in today and started it up to see how she ran. The fuel leaks looks to be coming out of the rear of the left carb where it meets the air filter box. Any suggestions? Does it sound like a stuck float? Thanks.
John

Quote from: johncolon91 on February 26, 2014, 01:59:29 PM
I put the air filter in today and started it up to see how she ran. The fuel leaks looks to be coming out of the rear of the left carb where it meets the air filter box. Any suggestions? Does it sound like a stuck float? Thanks.
John

Could be some crap in the needle valve or the float set too high; both of which would result in the fuel overflowing through the main jet.

Alright once this damn weather stops killing us in the northeast I'll pull the carbs and clean them good. Should I bother ordering a rebuild kit or just reuse whats there?

John

Never hurts to put in new parts. At least the rebuild kist give you spare parts when you drop things on the floor.

Plan on replacing the float bowl screws and cap screws with allen stainless ones to make disassembly easier in the future.

pulled the carbs apart last night and they were all gunked up. Looks like the needle valve has a small tear and the rubber on it was somewhat deformed. Everything else was stock in there. I read about putting an m3 washer to use as a spacer on the needle to fix the factory lean settings. Should I do this or leave it as is? Also, what is the correct size Allen head screw to replace the float bowl screws? Are they m5 or m4 x 10mm? Its a 94 with 2 float bowl screws

Hate to keep asking questions but I put the motorcycle back together today after cleaning and replacing carb bowl parts. Battery was dead when I put everything back together.The problem I'm having now is the bike won't start. It was starting up and reving to about 4k then would die. Now it won't start at all. Its getting gas and spark. Any ideas?

Did you reassemble the parts on the needles correctly?
I won't say who, but someone in the GS500 Club reassembled the carb needles wrong. His bike would run a little then die. (Swapped carbs and bike ran fine). Bike had off symptoms: runs a little then nothing at all. Dies. hangs. Weird.

He found the nylon washer on the needles was put on below the clip. It goes on top of the clip because that's what the spring pushes on to force the needles back down. With nothing for the spring to push on, the needles would fly up and flood the motor.

So maybe take another look at how the needle parts were stacked up?

Yes I have the nylon piece, then the clip and then the wider nylon washer on top. Is that correct?

Sounds correct. The bug nylon piece just sits on top. The spring pushes on it.

Good to check it. It was 2 weeks before we discovered that mistake - and only when we decided he should swap slides & needles from a good set of carbs to see if the diaphragms or needles were the problem.

It sure is handy having spare parts around to compare things.

Yeah the only other thing I can think of is that the float needle seat orings didn't sit right of the float orings but wouldn't I be able to see gas dripping? That's the problem I had before and the reason I pulled the carbs apart. They seemed tight when I put them in.

Not sure what I did but I pulled the carbs apart again and put them back together, Now its running perfect. Thanks to these forums they essentially walked me through. Thanks guys.