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New to me '79 GS550, what carb options do I have?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
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Guest

Guest
Hey everyone, new to the forum. This bike is all stock and is actually in very good condition. I bought it from a guy who "tried to make it run" but this was his first rodeo and he made some mistakes. The one that's relevant here is that he had cranked down the fuel screws at the bottom of the carbs (accessible outside of the float bowls) and had broken the tips of the needles off into the carb on two of them. He obviously had the carbs apart because the fuel screw springs were missing, and I ended up finding them under the long jets (not sure what you call them) that you can remove after removing the pilot jets.

I have no idea how I'm going to get those pieces out, I honestly don't think it's possible. I tried compressed air, was thinking about running a very long very thin drill bit down there but I think it's a lost cause. I am not familiar with these carbs, there being a fuel screw AND air/pilot mix screw, but I assume with those fuel ports clogged for good this thing will never run right. So do I find 2 used carbs or would this be a good opportunity to "upgrade" them to a newer model year's carbs? What are the consideration there? Anyone got two of the VM22SS carbs around?

The only other major issue is an oil leak which I believe is coming from the clutch push rod seal under the sprocket cover. There is a plate on top of it, are these pretty straight forward to replace?
 

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there's a tutorial there for removing the pilot fuel tips, as well as cleaning the VM carbs and most everything else you need to know.
 
Thanks guys. I actually used a 90 degree pick that I ground thinner and forced them out that way, but on one I broke the tip off my pick. Had to use a straight pick from the screw side to get it out. Really happy about getting them out and I ordered rebuild kits with new screws. So now a few of the holes are too wide. The screws are apparently set from the factory so not sure what the setting should be, but I assume I should be setting them to less than that because the bores are bigger. I will look at the resources to see if there's a goos starting place for the screw setting, but do you think I should go something like 25% more closed than that to compensate for the damaged holes?
 
Nice that you got them out, but for others that might read this thread later, here is another method I have used:

First, determine whether the point of the screw is sticking out in the bore. If it's not, the pointed awl shown in the above attachment will work well. If the point IS showing, use a larger (#3?) Phillips screwdriver. Place it into the bore of the carb, roll the metal shaft over the tip of the screw, it will probably push it out.
 
Where can I find intake boots for this bike? All I can find is for 1980+, the only '79 set I could find is at cruzinimage.net which could be legit but it's hard to tell. Says it's a Japanese based international company and it won't give any information about where it's shipping from, if it's in stock, what shipper they use, etc.
 
I've had great experiences with Cruzinimage. Fast shipping, good products.
Why are you using rebuild kits? Did you read the VM rebuild tutorial?
 
Ok thanks, I guess I'll trust them and put the order in.

Not sure what you mean by why I'm using the rebuild kits, the T connector for the fuel inlet is leaking so I need to take the carb assembly apart. I needed new fuel screws because of the situation above, and will at a minimum need new float bowl and top gaskets for the clean and rebuild, so I just got a kit for each carb. Maybe I didn't get your question?
 
How much larger did the pinhole become? When my original carb was trashed due to excessive critter damage, I tried to use a carb with enlarged hole (see pic) and it never worked correctly, even with the mixture screw all the way in. I also had terrible mileage, a dark spark plug, and gassy smell, so I assume it was just letting way too much fuel through. A replacement carb is on the way.
PXL_20211219_131326268.jpg
 
sacruickshank said:
How much larger did the pinhole become? When my original carb was trashed due to excessive critter damage, I tried to use a carb with enlarged hole (see pic) and it never worked correctly, even with the mixture screw all the way in. I also had terrible mileage, a dark spark plug, and gassy smell, so I assume it was just letting way too much fuel through. A replacement carb is on the way.
Click to expand...

Yeah, a few of them have blown out holes, 3 of the 4 show the fuel screw tips protruding quite a bit when screwed all the way in. Currently have them at 2 turns out each and the bike was idling and revving pretty nicely. Then I started getting spark issues so I'll need to get that sorted before evaluating the carb situation. Where did you get your new carb?
 
woodsracer said:
Yeah, a few of them have blown out holes, 3 of the 4 show the fuel screw tips protruding quite a bit when screwed all the way in. Currently have them at 2 turns out each and the bike was idling and revving pretty nicely. Then I started getting spark issues so I'll need to get that sorted before evaluating the carb situation. Where did you get your new carb?
Click to expand...

I got my replacement carb from someone on the FB GS550 group. I don't think he's on this board but msg me and I'll try to hook you guys up
 
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