My '82 GS550MZ Refit

awesome! it's supprising how much difference some basic maintenece on the fuel delivery system will make, ya?

glad to see you decided to keep the old girl, she's a looker!

[Larry D]

Looking good !!

Get that airbox boot all the way onto the carb.

[Big T]

Some photos

left over parts, if you can identify any of these please let me know. I know at least one is to hold the airbox filter cover on.

Lower left - they go inside rubber bushings for the instruments, or where the bolts go thru the sides of the headlight bucket

Upper right - battery terminal bolt

The bike has been reassembled and is running well. No more leaking fuel. There are still a couple lingering issues, namely the tach and break light. Still need to replace the tires and have the carbs synced, but it looks like I'll be road ready soon.

Some photos


Some smoke is coming out of the pipe here. Not sure if its just dirt from sitting or a real problem.


Cleaned and installed carbs



new turn signal lens




new cluster installed


left over parts, if you can identify any of these please let me know. I know at least one is to hold the airbox filter cover on.

Updates.

Thanks to the help of a fellow forum user the carbs are clean and have all new o-rings, and are ready to go back in.


I have the clusters apart and I am preparing the frankenstein install


Thanks to my wife's late father who used to wrench on Corvettes I have a lot of new tools to get the rest of the work done. He has been dead for 10 years now, but his tools are being pressed back into service. Not to get mushy, but there is something very poetic about that...

(Torque wrench, compression tester, a good socket set, cheater bar, feeler gauges, impact screwdriver, etc.

I have new vacuum and fuel line hoses and petcock o-ring still to install. And the new tires are here


Not sure yet how much is left to pass inspection (my first goal), but I think I see light at the end of that tunnel.

[Larry D]

Nice job !! Look under "GS Parts and Services", if you want to ship those carbs off for someone else to clean them up for you.

So I don't know if it is the way that this bike in particular is set up, but this was pretty difficult. I disconnected the air box from the intake, but the intake was wider than the frame so there was no where to go with it really. I ended up pulling the intake up while pressing the carbs down and got them free. Though a clamp was lost in the process.



Already ordered the replacement and the replacement vacuum hose for the petcock.

carbs before shot:




Carbs out:


If any of the locals want to help me get these clean and the bike reassembled, I am not too proud to ask for help.

I've found that on replacing carbs it is immensely helpful to spray a little silicon lubricant into the intake boots, and to the airbox rubbers. Softens them up a bit and slipperies them up a bunch. Turned my 84 Kat 750 carb rebuild into an almost pleasurable experience.

the first time i removed my carbs i had a tough time because I too thought "my clutch cable was in the way."

It's not really in the way at all, it just appears to be. There is enough slack in the cable if you pull it through the frame some more to slide the carb past it and remove them from the bike.

The first time I took them out I also backed that lower adjustment bolt all the way out just to give myself some room, that's when i realized you can just pull more down from the top and it will fit just fine. Worst case.. you can remove the lever end if you really can't make enough slack but most people don't have to do that.

It looks harder than it is to remove all that stuff, losen all 8 clamps on boots.. unscrew all the electrical stuff from side of air box.. remove air box from carbs by pulling air box back off the carbs.. pull carbs backwards out of head boots and wiggle your carbs out. from there it's all fairly easy.

[Larry D]

Loosen up everything, boots, airbox, move around the boots as much as you can to loosen them. Then, it's a matter of wrastlin' them outta there. If you get the new boots, you'll be amazed at how much easier they go back in. Check the boots you have though, they may still be serviceable.

Make sure to disconnect the throttle and choke cables first.

manual is not clear.

With school done I started the refit in ernest today. Some good news first. The tank doesn't appear to be leaking. The petcock vacuum (the smaller hose on the petcock, I think thats what it is) hose was off and split at the end. The petcock itself seems to be fine, though I have ordered the o-ring so I will probably install the new one.

I was originally going to get all oem replacement parts, but now I think upgrading a couple of things may be cheeper and better for the long term health of the bike. So, if you have recommendations for replacement hoses let me know.

The bad news. This thing is unreal to get apart. The clutch cable runs through the carb assembly.


Question: Is it okay to unhook the clutch cable from the trans side (pictured)?


Still haven't managed to get the carbs out, I will take another run at it saturday. The bike is apart not, so if I wasn't committed before I sure am now.


Seriously, the instructions in the manual for removing the carbs are "Remove the Carburetors."

The popcorn noise sounds from your second video is typical of a motorcycle cooling down after shutdown. Nothing to worry about, just metal contracting as it cools, all of my bikes make these sounds. The running condition of any bike is hard to tell from audio recordings, at least to my ears.

Before throwing gobs of money at the intake boots, remove carbs and check to see if the boots are ripped or cracked on the inside. The flaking you see is not always indicative that they are trashed. Personally, I would be most concerned about carb condition and after a thorough clean by soaking, put them back on and see how it runs. I had a torn intake boot that I temporarily repaired using high temp RTV just to make sure motor was sound. Then I replaced boot after finding that all four cylinders were firing. I didn't want to sink too much money into project before I found out if it was going to end well. In your case, I would give that tank a close inspection, hopefully it is rust free on the inside and that is a spot of exterior corrosion. If not, then getting it fixed could be rather involved and potentially expensive if you need to replace since this bike is kinda scarce to find parts for.

I wish to welcome you to the forum and I am not trying to scare you away from fixing this bike. I am sure that you cannot wait to hop on bike and take off, but unfortunately, this bike like almost all used bikes will need some maintenance first.

[Big T]

Those plugs look thrashed -#3 may not be firing, which us what your vid kinda sounds like

That thing on the tank looks like rust through - let me guess, it sat for years on the side stand, condensing water into the low spot on the tank

Have you looked inside the tank? Rusty? Get one of those little inspection mirrors on a handle and check it out

updates.

Put the new plugs in today and all four cylinders fired. So at least we know the engine does work. Here is a clear pic of the old plugs in order (one is to the left).



I can't tell if it is the gas tank leaking or just the overflow splashing. I hope I don't have to add seal tank to the list. I'll know more once I get the tank off.


short vid of it running and stalling out with the leak shown. (vid). It didn't stall right out when I rolled the throttle, so it must have been the bad plugs not firing and flooding it out.

I played with the intake boots a little and the covering on them just started falling off .


finally, after shut down it made a weird pop corn noise, any ides? (vid)

the o-ring package arrived today, so I may be able to get the carbs done this weekend. woohoo

Why do you think you need them?
are they torn, cracked or hard, or do you just like to spend money?

pictures of them please...

I would have rather not had to replace anything

But since I'm going to be in there and all... I'll take some photos once the carbs are off.

But the why is that I'm just going to work through the common problems part of the super greeting. This bike hasn't been serviced in 25 years, so the stuff that can go wrong probably will.