What Could This Be - GS850GT problems

[Anonymous]

Hi!

On my 1980 GS850GT

I've been working on my fuel petcock - which doesn't seem to be cooperating. However, I have plastic in-line fuel shut-off between the petcock and the carbs. So, I'm using this for now - it works fine.

So, here's the problem. I went out to start my bike last night and it wouldn't stay idling on choke - it kept dying. It also won't idle even though it is warmed up with the choke off without dying.

I've got gas leaking out of the airbox while it is running, and smoke coming out of my left tailpipe. When I shut off the plastic fuel valve, it seems to idle okay. But when I open it back up so fuel is flowing it dies out again.

The second from the left pipe isn't very hot at all compared to the other three. When I pull the plug on the second spark plug in on the left side (lining up with the cooler pipe) it doesn't make any difference in the idle at all.

So, question - do these symptoms sould like something as simple as a new spark plug (that would cause it to not idle and drip fuel out of airbox).

Or does this sound like a float issue of some kind? What do you guys think?

--Dwight

[Anonymous]

It sounds like you're going to have to pull the carbs and find out why that carb isn't shutting off the fuel. Number 2 cylinder isn't firing because it's flooded which is also why you have fuel in the air box.

[Anonymous]

I was kind of afraid of that.

Is there something else that it could be that would be a simpler possibility? :roll:

I would love for it to be a spark plug or something wonderful like that !

--Dwight

[SqDancerLynn1]

With the bad petcock?? did you plug the vacuum line going to the #2 carb

[Anonymous]

Yes, I did plug that vacuum line back in. Could something with that be causing these problems??

--Dwight

[Anonymous]

I agree with Gary. Carb #2 seems to be overflowing.
Removing the carbs from a GS850 is quite easy:
remove the choke and throttle cables, loosen all the clamps on the carbs, remove the airbox and pull the carbs out.

Perhaps you should read the carb cleanup article on this site:

http://www.thegsresources.com/gs_carbrebuild.htm

[bybowtie]

sounds like a stuck float! Get to working on those carbs.... Not too bad once you get them off...

[Anonymous]

Okay,

I guess I'll be tackling my first carb job tomorrow (Monday) evening. 8O

Well I guess I wanted to learn more about bikes - it all starts here!

--Dwight

[Anonymous]

Rebuild that petcock first.

You might as well rebuild the petcock first. Mine was bad. After rebuilding the carbs it coused fuel to dump even when running.

[Anonymous]

I just did, but it didn't work. I used a petcock rebuild kit off of ebay and it seemed to go in okay, but still have the leaking problem. Any ideas?

--Dwight

[Anonymous]

If the petckock is ok you need to rebuild.

If the petcock is ok. (doesn't leak while the fuel line is un-hooked). You'll have to fix the carbs. If you take your old float needles to the dealer they can swap them out for you with rubber ended ones. The newer bikes use them and they will seat better even in your old sockets. They are also not expensive. If your carbs have never been rebuilt though You should atleast tear them down and dip them. If you use rebuild kits you won't have to wory about cleaning every little piece. At a min. though Replace all the o-rings, and blow everything out with compressed air.

[Anonymous]

I got a rebuild off of ebay as well from suriusonic, it worked well for a week or so and then started leaking, I disassembled the petcock only to find the all the rubber pieces had swelled to 1/8" or so bigger the 4 hole rubber seal wouldn't sit flat and the rubber oring around the dial swelled big time causing a problem. I contacted them and they said that they had received a bad batch of 850 p/cock kits and replaced without hesitation.

[Anonymous]

I got a rebuild off of ebay as well from suriusonic, it worked well for a week or so and then started leaking, I disassembled the petcock only to find the all the rubber pieces had swelled to 1/8" or so bigger the 4 hole rubber seal wouldn't sit flat and the rubber oring around the dial swelled big time causing a problem. I contacted them and they said that they had received a bad batch of 850 p/#### kits and replaced without hesitation.

That's good news. That is where I got my petcock rebuild kit as well. I'll contact them and see if they will ship me a replacement as well. Does your new repair kit work?

--Dwight

[Anonymous]

So far it seems to be working fine, I haven't disassembled to inspect but it seems fine at the moment.

[Anonymous]

I took off my carbs last night and found what seems to be bad news.

I saw that there was gas in the tube going to the airbox from the #1 carb and the other three were dry. This makes me believe that the #1 float was the one that wasn't working properly...no big deal. HOWEVER! It was my #2 pipe that was cold when the bike was idling.

This seems to mean that I have two unrelated issues (true???).

How deep should I go into the carbs in order to try and fix this non-firing issue in number 2? The carbs have been cleaned just last fall.

Should I just reassemble everything and see if I fixed the float issue and then work on number 2 or should I do something else while I'm in here.

By the way. I'm cleaning out each float bowl and blowing air through the main and pilot jets and am going to measure the float level on each one. It looks like the float needle has a wear ring in number 1 (at least...I haven't taken each one off yet.) So, I thought I'd order new rubber tipped float needles.

I wish I was riding more right now, but I'm having a blast getting in and learning about this stuff - just with it was in JANUARY!