carb boots = rough idle?

[BassCliff]

Hi,

Your gas cap should be vented. It sounds like you need to take the cap apart and clean it.

You're working with a 25 year old machine. Go through the maintenance lists in your "mega-welcome". They are guaranteed to deliver you to GS nirvana, if you take no shortcuts. Let us know how it goes.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[tejasmud]

So, motman.

Still no starty.

You now have the new carb flanges mounted with new o-rings, carburetors installed, and cleaned out the tank.

Pulling the carbs and reinstalling them should be a "piece of cake" now.

You mentioned that you purchased the bike some months ago, and the carburetors were cleaned and adjusted just before you purchased the bike.

I would recomend pulling the carbs back off and cleaning them correctly.

Break them down, dip, new orings, and sync.

But, to be honest, the reason I know how to remove the carbs by memory is because if a bike sits for more than a few months the tiny passages can and usually get clogged by the gum/varnish left behind from the fuel after it evaporates and there will be problems starting and getting the bike to idle.

I have experienced this many times due to my laziness in storing my bike and not treating the fuel. So my practice of removing and installing carbs is pretty good.

Now, if you trust the PO, and you know the carbs are/were cleaned and adjusted, pull them back off.

Here is what I have done in the past, but I knew the carbs were in good shape, and just needed the small holes cleaned out.

This is a "short cut method," which if it doesn't work it is actually the "long cut method" being you really need to do a full disassembly and rebuild.

Remove the float bowls on the carburetors. If they have black/brown gum/residue inside the bowls, again a full rebuild is really needed. But if they appear to be free of major gunk, there should be a rubber cap/plug covering the "pilot jets" in each carb. If you look through the "carb rebuild series" on your "mega-welcome" you will see the steps on making a tool using a piece of wire to poke the tiny passages. (Step #66) I normally use one piece of copper wire from a 18g stranded wire. Poke it through the pilot jet to clean the hole. If the carbs are clean inside you may be able to just poke the pilot jets without removing them. These control fuel to supply the idle circut. Cleaning out the air/fuel screws would be a good idea also. Then look at the steps #75 through #78, these provide fuel to the choke function, and poke these tiny passages. Then use spray carb cleaner to spray through all these holes. With saftey glasses, prefered. Carb cleaner burns like a "some beech" if induced in to an eye. Make sure the cleaner blows through the passages.

Check the slides inside the carburetors by lifting up on each one. They should move freely and close without any sticking. If they don't, again the full cleaning is a must.

Put the carbs back together, and back on the bike then try and start it.

This method usually will get the bike started and running if the carbs have been rebuilt properly in the recent past year or so.

Being I have not seen your carbs, or actually know the current/past history of them tells me to say do a full break down and cleaning. (the "non short cut method").

I would also check the oil to see if it smells like gasoline. If it does, the petcock/fuel valve at the tank needs to be replaced. Or, try your skill at rebuild.

You can test it to see if it is functioning correctly also, but not knowing how old it is, it is bound to go out in the near future. I would just replace it.

I don't know why I even wrote how to "short-cut" carb cleaning....

If it were me, I would just break them down and dip, replace the o-rings, sync, and have the knowledge they are done correctly and any other potential problem resides elswhere.

E