Fired up dormant '83 GS1100E #2, getting close

[oldGSfan]

This one has been patiently awaiting the blue bodywork, which is ready to go on. I have run it before, last time with some Sta-bil in the aux tank and shut fuel off, ran it till it quit. Taking temps on the exhaust pipes, #1 and #2 were a bit cold, and it struggled to rev. I remembered that the other bike had a similar issue (well, several issues including a bad coil). Since it's on adjacent cylinders I don't suspect coil trouble. As I did to the first GS, I took out the two mixture screws from the top forward of the carbs and blasted the passages with carb cleaner, re-adjusted all of them to 2 turns out, and now it's good on 3 cylinders and revs as you can see. They seem to be sensitive to sitting dormant regardless of what I try. Exhaust temp is about 75% on #2 vs the others. I will do some other checks and swaps - plugs, wires. I suspect a good Italian tune-up may improve things.

This one has 20K like the other did, very similar, but has CBR900RR brakes and an oil cooler. Looking forward to riding soon, should be very soon. GS #1 is a stormer, hasn't missed a beat in about 4K miles since I put the stock coils back on to replace the faulty Chinese no-name ones.

 

[oldGSfan]

Big Blue runs great, just a couple of things to address. The front end isn't aligned quite right, so I'll tend to that. There's a bulb out in the speedometer, and I'll be getting some new pads for the CBR9000 brakes. I tried cleaning them and they are OK, but not great. Shifting into 1st was clunky, but that took a minute to fix, just linkage adjustment and repositioning it on the shaft's splines.

I have the side covers painted and cleared, but need to glue on the replacement posts. It's time to take it off non-op and start riding along with my son on Big Red.

 

[oldGSfan]

Fighting with the front end, alignment hasn't been easy. This had been dumped, and one issue was the fork ear on the left (clutch lever) side was bent out of shape, and the stator cover was damaged. I fixed those cosmetic issues. I inspected all the bits as they sat in the pile (bike a basket case). Frame, yokes, bearings, fork tubes, etc. All seemed OK. After riding for the first time after re-assembly a few days ago it had major wobbles.

I took the front end apart and rechecked the forks, which aren't bent at all. The yokes / AKA triples aren't bent. Hmm. It seemed the headlight bracket's 'ear' was still sort of whacked, so I tweaked it a bit more. The front end doesn't want to 'get right with the usual 'loosen things up and bounce' method. The bars were just a bit off-center when the bike rolled straight. So I loosened everything up, wiggled and wobbled, very careful to align the bars to forks to wheel, and make sure it didn't bind. Then I tightened things up, from bottom up. It feels a lot better now, but it still isn't right. On my test ride, I take it up to about 30 mph in 3rd gear and cut throttle with a loose grip on the bars. Well, it's shaking noticeably when doing that. Dayyum. So something is hinky.

 

[oldGSfan]

Well, I got the front end figured out, did the bounce front end trick with the hoist holding up the rear. A bit of fuel overflow and a depleted battery to figure out, the latter may just be lots of short rides. The petcock seemed fine when testing it off the bike, and isn't leaking from the mounts (new O-ring and bonded washers), but on the side stand it spilled some. Hmm, normal fun.

I'll take a look tomorrow, see what's up. Sure looks good though, and all major stuff is fine. This one was all disassembled but complete, has the oil cooler, rebuilt Koni shocks, some Progressive springs up front, and CBR900RR brakes. Power very good, shifting, clutch is Suzuki-like, i.e. perfect.

 

[hhart]

No wood feeling brakes on that baby, very nice.