Sticking slides

[lhanscom]

I'm doing some work on MaineZuki's bike, he came over last night for a carb sync, and brake work, and ended up not being able to leave with the bike. :?
Anyway, the bike is a 83 GS550, and has the CV carbs that are 2 carbs in 1 body. I've tracked the problem down to the slides sticking open a bit, so when I first start it, it works ok, but when I crack the throttle, the slides on 2 of the cylinders are already open, causing the bike to die. If I very slowly roll on the throttle, I can sometimes get it to raise rpms, once it's got 5k or so it clears out and runs great, since at that point having the slide all the way up is fine. I've taken the carbs apart a couple times, trying to get the slides to work right, but I can't get one side to come back down on its own consistently. It feels like it's getting jammed up just a little bit, if you barely touch the top of the slide, it will go back down. Does anybody have a solution to this?
TIA.

[Detman101]

Not to sound like a wiseass or anything but I always lightly coat mine with oil before I reinstall them.
I couldn't think of any other way of getting to not bind.


Dm of mD

[Anonymous]

Carb slides stick for a couple reasons...

1. the surface the slide rides on or the slide is rough
2. holed diaphram

Not many other alternatives on a CV type carb. On a slide carb, the slide can stick because it is on a pivot mechanism and I have seen those get bunged up.

Take the slides out and use steel wool and the blow out with compressed air. See if there is any scoring on the slide or surface the slide move across.

[KennyJ]

Oh yeah baby, that has happened on mine more than once. I think it is the way the diaphram/slide holder assembly is put together. It can be installed 180 degress either way and work, but on mine, if I have it one way, the slides like to stick, the other they work smooth as glass.

They also seem to gum up if they sit for too long, so I finally resorted to soaking the bodies and slides in dunk carb cleaner. This has helped a lot. I would try to get the top off the offending carb, pull the slides, clean all the parts, and reassemble backwards of the way it was.

Kenny

[Anonymous]

i also agree with the oiling the slides. but i wouldn't reccomend letting the diaphragm sit in the carb cleaner for too long, it could start to degrade it and possibly start a hole. this may be a distant possibility, but could the slide spring have lost its flex and no longer pushes as hard as it used to? is it rusted or anything?

[KennyJ]

No slide springs in those carbs. The weight of 2 slides does the work.

Kenny
85 550E

[Anonymous]

Oh yeah baby, that has happened on mine more than once. I think it is the way the diaphram/slide holder assembly is put together. It can be installed 180 degress either way and work, but on mine, if I have it one way, the slides like to stick, the other they work smooth as glass.

They also seem to gum up if they sit for too long, so I finally resorted to soaking the bodies and slides in dunk carb cleaner. This has helped a lot. I would try to get the top off the offending carb, pull the slides, clean all the parts, and reassemble backwards of the way it was.

Kenny

I took the carbs apart a couple of weeks ago and did a little cleaning (no carb dunk tho) I put them back together and it ran pretty good, with the exception of VERY poor gas mileage. When I was putting the diaphram/slide holder back in place I may have put them in backwards, but like I said it worked ok. So Luke and I were synching the carbs last night and all of a sudden stopped working. We're going to tackle it again tonight. We'll try fliping the diaphram 180 degrees and oiling them up a bit, see if that works.
Thanks Kenny J

-Matt

[Hoomgar]

Good luck guys. Keep us posted

[Anonymous]

Well Suzy is running better than ever. Luke and I worked pretty well the better part of 3 hours on the carbs (mostly Luke he was the brains in the operation) We steel wooled the slides and needles on the slides, added a little bit of oil to lubricate, and boom, works like a charm. Theres a little very low end hesitation, and a little loss of power at the top end, but nothing I cant deal with. I've only had the GS for about a month now and shes purring better than ever.

Thanks guys for all of your tips.
Riding has never been better 8)

-Matt