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Is there a trick to taking the carbs/airbox off?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
  • Start date Start date
A

Anonymous

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This may seem like a silly question, but I have had a rather difficult time getting the carbs and airbox off of my '79 GS1000. Is there a trick to it? Should I just say to hell with it and put 4 K&N's on it so I don't have to worry about the airbox? I have fairly good sized hands, and getting my paws in there to make sure all the carbs are in the rubber boots on both sides is like solving a rubix cube with 10 white squares on it.

Thanks in advance,

Chris (Psychoholic)
 
I'm not positive on the way to do them on your bike, but I have a 1983 GS1100GK and the easiest way that I've found is to take the air box loose first and pull it out from the right side. Then take the carbs loose from the intake boots and just push down on them, they should pop right out, once they are out of the boots disconect the choke cable and throttle cable. To install them is basically the oppisite, first thing is to connect the cables then I've found it easier to straddle the bike and work the carbs into the boots which should be well lubbed, I use high temp grease, but others have suggested things like silicone lube also. Oh and make sure the rubber on the intake boots is still pliable I used a Mothers product I think it is called back to black, seemed to soften them up pretty well. You will probably have to wiggle the carbs up and down while pushing them towards the front of the bike to get them to drop in, it does take a little (OK sometimes a lot) of force. That is why I like to straddle the bike I can hold it back with my legs and butt while I'm pushing on the carbs. Once the carbs are into the boot all the way tighten down on the clamps then push the air box back in from the right hand side and work those boots back onto the carbs, it can be kind of tricky, but if the boots are soft and pliable and well lubbed it shouldn't be too bad. Hope this helps you out. Oh and if you do go with the pod filters you will definatly have to re-jet the carbs which means taking them off and putting them back on numerous times, but you will probably have to do that anyway if you go with a 4-1 header. And as for the header keep an eye on e-bay there are often mac or other headers that will work for your bike.
 
There is not an easy way, we all have a hard time with them. Normally I don't like to force anything, but sometimes with these carbs, you will have to force them. The air box is a hard job, but personally I'd rather go to the extra trouble, I'm not fond of pods.
 
Going with everyones suggestions, I think I'll just keep the airbox for a while (I ride an '80 XS400 Yamaha everyday, souping up the big Zuke just isn't a high priority just yet, I need to ride it and get used to it before I get bored with the power).

I was discussing with the gentleman I bought the bike from today about it's non-running state.

Let me actually give the run down of what we've got so far.

We have a bike that hasn't run in about 9 years (give or take), upon removal of one of the bowls it appears that there is a minimal amount of 'gum' at the bottom of the bowl, and the floats move freely and easily. I was able to start the bike on a few squirts of ether, it fired right up (after taking the plugs out, dousing each cylinder with ATF and spinning the rotating assembly by hand to insure that I didn't have any stuck rings) and ran for a few seconds (smoking like a WWII destroyer from all the ATF) at which point I discovered a 4th pinhole leak in the gas tank that was spray right at the mouth of the airbox when it backfired, shooting a fireball at me and igniting the pool from the pinhole and thusly ruining a perfect (and I mean PERFECT) seat from a 26 year old bike. I had to put out the 2 foot flames with a fire extenguisher. I know this sounds like the work of a moron, but it was a simple oversight (I had patched 3 holes already and it didn't appear to be leaking when I put the tank on and turned it over). And yes I know this could have ended in tragedy, but I am never without a fire extenguisher within arms reach at any time I'm working on any of my old toys...

Why do I mention this? Because I learned a few things at this point:

All 4 cylinders are firing
Ether is bad, mmmkay
I need a new gas tank
and I am getting fuel into the bowls, just not into the cylinders.

I believe there is a pickup tube that goes to the bottom of each carb, and with the small amount of gum at the bottom of the bowls, it is possible that they are clogged and not passing fuel. I am going to try and clean those out first, and go from there.

Is there a good way to tell if the cylinders are actually getting any fuel?

I'm totally open to suggestion here...

Thanks!

Chris
 
Provided I don't wrap on the throttle too hard, and for the purposes of getting the bike running, would it do too much harm to leave the air box off until I get it running well?
 
It won't do much harm, but it probably won't ever run well without the airbox. Especially at low rpm's the air management does more than just keep dirt out of your engine. Also, without the complete intake system you will never know if your mixture is right. SqDancerLynn1 has a good point. Unless you are going to port and polish your head, rejet carbs,recam, and add a tuned exhaust pod air filters really don't help the performance much. Even then, most of the gains will be at the top of the rpm range which impacts driveability on a street bike.
 
Perhaps not run well, but to just run period would be nice. I need to track down where the failure is in the system, and once I have that pinpointed and cured, then I can put it back together the way it is supposed to be and make it run well at that point.

Many many thanks for the input.

Chris
 
Not yet. Which ones would those be? A friend of mine warned me about these carbs saying there were several 'balls' in there that have a tendency to fall out and get lost. Because of this, I'm kinda reluctant to go too deep into the carbs unless it's completely necessary.
 
Psychoholic said:
Not yet. Which ones would those be? A friend of mine warned me about these carbs saying there were several 'balls' in there that have a tendency to fall out and get lost. Because of this, I'm kinda reluctant to go too deep into the carbs unless it's completely necessary.
Click to expand...

043_Pilot%20jet%20plug%20pointed%20out.jpg


Here you are. There are no balls in there but several other small parts that you can looze not related to those 2 jets. Use a good fitting screwdriver so you don't strip em!
 
Chris do you have the CV carbs that look like this?
CV.jpg

or do you have the older style of carbs (not sure what they are called) that look like this?
older%20carbs.jpg

The ones Robinjo is showing is the first ones the CV's. If yours are like that then he is correct there are no balls in them. As far as the other style goes I can't say, because I've never worked on them, and I think those are the ones that you have. There are some others on here that know the older style carbs extremly well, try to contact Keith Krause, he knows that style like the back of his hand.
 
Great info!

I have the second set of carbs. I"m having a party tonight, but tomorrow before I go to work I'll clean out the afore mentioned parts and see if we meet any more success.
 
One of the easiest ways to re-install the carbs, at least on my 83 1100E is to sit on the bike, minus the seat, 8O and put the carbs in that way. Seems to work quite well with helping to get even pressure on putting into the boots.
Good luck
 
After I posted, I re-read what I wrote. 8O :x
Have the carbs already in the position of re-installation and then sit down on the bike.
 
Chris,
I'm sure your on top of it all ready, but did you get that fire exting. mess cleaned up?

I learned last winter about the corosive properties of that sh!%.
I had a bit of a welding fire while working on my hardtail, and long story short, that was one of the biggist messes I've ever had!
Needless to say that many of the tubes were unprimed and ALL the tins took a beating. EVERYTHING went back in the sandblaster.... I lost 10 days
on the project.

live and learn I did....
Rico
 
Yeah, I cleaned up the mess as soon as it had cooled off enough to do so. I've been through hell trying to get this stuff off of other projects that had to get dealt with in a similiar fashion, never ever fun.

But less painful than the alternative, and thats to let the damned thing burn.

Chris
 
The correct way, by the book, is to loosen both set's of clamps on the carb's, remove the air box bolts, pull back on the air box and seperate the box from the carbs. Then pull down on the carbs and they will pop out of the intake rubbers. At that point I'd take mine out the right side of the bike so you don't have to fight with the clutch cable. All this work's great when the bike was new but if yours was like mine, the rubbers on the box are hard and don't flex anymore. I used to heat them up with a hair dryer and that worked a little better, then I went to pods and now it's really easy to do carb work.NOTE- the air box is first in and last out.
 
NOTE- the air box is first in and last out.
Click to expand...
Keith, I hope you mean first out and last in 8O . It would be awful hard to put it in first and take it out last. :lol:
 
Ok,ok;
So maybe I'm not so good at wording what I'm thinking. I'll try again, this time reading directly from the Haynes manual-77/79 GS1000.
4} Loosen the screw clips which secure the air filter hoses and inlet stubs to the carburettors. Remove the air filter mounting bolts and ease the box rearwards so that the hoses leave the carburettor mouths.
5} The carburettors must be removed WITHOUT first removing the front air filter box. Problems will be encountered if the operator attempts to remove the front air box before the carburettors, as the latter component is obstructed by the frame tubes.

Like I said, I used to have to heat the rubbers on the filter box with a hair dryer to get the carb mouths back in. And like most of us it took 3 or 4 tries to get things right on these carbs, I screwed around with that air box alot. Unless I've got a bad case of brain fade when removing and replaceing the carb set, that box is first to go in/last to come out.
 
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