Just bought a GK earlier this winter, was running perrty bad when I got it home. (Prev owner had it all warmed up when I went to see it, and maybe I was too excited to be observant enough). Ran real bad untill warmend up, #2 pipe would still be cold while others warming up. ANd even when warmed up still not right at all.
So I took carbs off the bike, took off the the bowls and remove floats to do my version of carb cleaning, which is to just spray carb cleaner in every jet or opening I can find without taking anything else apart. I made a point to lay out the parts in the order and orientation that they came out. Didnt really find anything that looked like it needed to be cleaned, but sprayed away anyway. Then went to put back togeter and it seemed that float #2 would not fit back in place properly, then relaized that I had to turn it over for it to fit - hey - wait a minute - was it in there wrong to start with - naw - well, maybe - naw, I would have noticed, but, but I did lay the parts out in the orintation I took them out, oh, well, dont know, if it was backwards it would have completley shut off the gas flow to that cyclinder, hey, wait, this is #2 carb ... and problem is with #2 cyclinder ... hum.
Got it back together. First poke at the starter button, and OH YEAH BABY!, something is different. All pipes warming up and better throttle responce.
Had to go out on the road. Had to. Had to. Just had to.
But it was 1030 at night, 35 degress, roads dry, snow and colder forcast for next 10 days, gotta go for ride down road right then, gotta, gotta, gotta.
Fairing with headlight in basement, bags with tail lights in basement, seat in baasement, not licenced, not insured, title not changed to my name, but had to go for ride down the road. Had to , just had to.
So I hotwired one of the driving lights, folded up a towel to make a seat, got it running again and ran up and down road a few times. Stopped at school parking lot under a street light cuz something wasnt right, found front tire real soft, and just then county sherrif came down the road, if my heart had a tachometer it would have been past the redline, but the cop just keept on going, wheeew.
Was running much better but had a couple places in rpm range that it had hard time accelerating thru, would almost bogg, then go, but even still not accelrting like I think it should.
Since then I took my carbs apart further than I have taken carbs apart before (with assistance of the 'carb cleaning series' in the garage section of GSR). Did find a few things that needed cleaning and a couple orings needing replacement. Soaked the parts in carb cleaner for a day and cleaned them out with a brush bristle. Got the replacement parts and got carbs back together. But carbs are still in basement, waiting for a 40 degree day (probably not for several weeks yet) before I work in the garage to reinstall them.
Have been working (in basement) with rubbing compound on all the plastic stuff. Is shining up real nice, am happy with that. So am feeling better about the bike recently.
Am not being very patient waiting for spring.
View attachment 113
So I took carbs off the bike, took off the the bowls and remove floats to do my version of carb cleaning, which is to just spray carb cleaner in every jet or opening I can find without taking anything else apart. I made a point to lay out the parts in the order and orientation that they came out. Didnt really find anything that looked like it needed to be cleaned, but sprayed away anyway. Then went to put back togeter and it seemed that float #2 would not fit back in place properly, then relaized that I had to turn it over for it to fit - hey - wait a minute - was it in there wrong to start with - naw - well, maybe - naw, I would have noticed, but, but I did lay the parts out in the orintation I took them out, oh, well, dont know, if it was backwards it would have completley shut off the gas flow to that cyclinder, hey, wait, this is #2 carb ... and problem is with #2 cyclinder ... hum.
Got it back together. First poke at the starter button, and OH YEAH BABY!, something is different. All pipes warming up and better throttle responce.
Had to go out on the road. Had to. Had to. Just had to.
But it was 1030 at night, 35 degress, roads dry, snow and colder forcast for next 10 days, gotta go for ride down road right then, gotta, gotta, gotta.
Fairing with headlight in basement, bags with tail lights in basement, seat in baasement, not licenced, not insured, title not changed to my name, but had to go for ride down the road. Had to , just had to.
So I hotwired one of the driving lights, folded up a towel to make a seat, got it running again and ran up and down road a few times. Stopped at school parking lot under a street light cuz something wasnt right, found front tire real soft, and just then county sherrif came down the road, if my heart had a tachometer it would have been past the redline, but the cop just keept on going, wheeew.
Was running much better but had a couple places in rpm range that it had hard time accelerating thru, would almost bogg, then go, but even still not accelrting like I think it should.
Since then I took my carbs apart further than I have taken carbs apart before (with assistance of the 'carb cleaning series' in the garage section of GSR). Did find a few things that needed cleaning and a couple orings needing replacement. Soaked the parts in carb cleaner for a day and cleaned them out with a brush bristle. Got the replacement parts and got carbs back together. But carbs are still in basement, waiting for a 40 degree day (probably not for several weeks yet) before I work in the garage to reinstall them.
Have been working (in basement) with rubbing compound on all the plastic stuff. Is shining up real nice, am happy with that. So am feeling better about the bike recently.
Am not being very patient waiting for spring.
View attachment 113
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