New GS750ES owner

[acksys]

First post to introduce myself. I became the owner of a 1983 GS750ES today. I have been riding for about 9 months now and started on a 2007 Ninja 250 last year. This is my second bike and I am excited about getting it looked over by a mechanic and getting it up into the mountains.

 

[dorkburger]

Welcome to the fun house. Great looking ES. Good luck with it.

 

[niclpnut]

Pretty bike. Welcome to the ES family.

 

[Vmass]

Great looking bike, congratulations.

 

[eil]

Wow, very nice ES. Go easy on it, it has a fair bit more oomph than that 250 you're used to.

You might reconsider the mechanic option. If you can even find a mechanic that works on vintage bikes, it's going to cost you an arm and a leg, and they are more likely than not to mess something up, or miss something important.

Around here, we strongly advocate being your own mechanic. It's not hard and does not take many tools. Doesn't even take much time. Mostly it takes the willingness to learn about your machine. Bikes are much less complicated than cars but its much more important that they work properly. To get started, see the link to the mega-welcome in my signature.

 

[limeex2]

Nice bike. Of all the bikes I have owned or would like to own, that model, imo is one of the best looking bikes ever.

 

[Guest]

I've owned mine since i took it out of the crate it came in. If you have any questions, PM me and i'd be more than happy to answer them.

 

[SVSooke]

Nice looking ride.Still in love with my 85 EF after 5 years

 

[dorkburger]

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?207497-ES-Picture-Thread&highlight=E's+picture

 

[acksys]

Thanks for the welcome, everyone. I really like the style and the feel of this bike and have gotten some nice compliments riding it the past couple days.

Wow, very nice ES. Go easy on it, it has a fair bit more oomph than that 250 you're used to.

You might reconsider the mechanic option. If you can even find a mechanic that works on vintage bikes, it's going to cost you an arm and a leg, and they are more likely than not to mess something up, or miss something important.

Around here, we strongly advocate being your own mechanic. It's not hard and does not take many tools. Doesn't even take much time. Mostly it takes the willingness to learn about your machine. Bikes are much less complicated than cars but its much more important that they work properly. To get started, see the link to the mega-welcome in my signature.

I want to use this opportunity to learn. The bike came with the service manual. I've been reading through it and through this forum and learning a lot. I've done very little work on cars and motorcycles before.

There is some hesitation at low RPMs and a kind of stutter at freeway speeds. I took the bike to a guy with a good reputation in town to have the 12-year-old tires changed. He thought the main carbs are dirty and wanted to do valve adjustment, carb clean and carb sync. I told him I want to learn and he listened and gave some other pointers.

Today I replaced all spark plugs and did the valve adjustment. Clearance was way out of spec (<0.05mm for all valves). Tomorrow I will pull and clean all the carbs. Is it likely I'll need to rebuild carbs? After I get the carbs sorted out, I'll either take it back to him for sync or I'll try to build one of the DIY sync tools. I like this tutorial: https://youtu.be/GaTRyHxvneY

 

[eil]

Sounds like a solid plan. What I would do is rebuild the carbs yourself exactly as described in the guide(s) on BassCliff's site and then take them into the mechanic to have them synced and ask him to show you how. Then when you have the cash, buy the Morgan Carbtune Pro direct from the UK. It's a little spendy (little more than $100 USD last I looked) but its awesome and it'll last you forever.

I don't know what the air intake setup is like on the 750ES, but make sure the path is well sealed, the filter is clean, and your carb boots are nice and bendy.

 

[acksys]

I have the carbs off now. The Mikuni rebuild tutorial link is dead: http://www.mtsac.edu/%7Ecliff/storage/gs/Mikuni_BS-CV_Carburetor_Rebuild_Tutorial.pdf

Any mirror available?

 

[steve murdoch]

The excellent CV carb rebuild is working for me. http://zeus.mtsac.edu/~cliff/storage/gs/Mikuni_BS-CV_Carburetor_Rebuild_Tutorial.pdf

 

[Griffin]

One of the biggest causes for the stuttering that you describe is intake leakage. Make sure that you pick up some intake boot o-rings from Robert Barr here and replace them. I guarantee you they are hard as a rock and not sealing correctly.

Also, since you still have the stock airbox, it's going to be a bee-otch getting the carbs back in. Use a hair dryer to warm up the intake boots, and spray the insides of them with silicone spray before attempting to insert the carbs. That makes it A LOT easier.

 

[acksys]

Ok, that link works for me. Thank! This looks great.

I did a whole lot of pulling and swearing getting the carbs OUT last night. Thanks for the tip on getting them back in.

I'll try to get the carbs clean and get the bike running again tonight/tomorrow, then order the new O-rings and whatever I break doing this

 

[acksys]

Carbs are apart following the CV rebuild guide and all the internal bits are soaking in spray cleaner.

I broke an o-ring. New carb o-rings and intake boot o-rings ordered.

Is there an airbox upgrade that makes carb removal and installation easier?

 

[SVSooke]

Carbs are apart following the CV rebuild guide and all the internal bits are soaking in spray cleaner.

I broke an o-ring. New carb o-rings and intake boot o-rings ordered.

Is there an airbox upgrade that makes carb removal and installation easier?

No other than what's already been mentioned.One of the performance increasing things Suzuki used on these bikes is the biggest airbox they could fit in the frame.They made it so big it's either to big to get out with the engine in the frame or it can be barely pulled out,depends on who you ask.Never did tryhard to get one out with the engine in.

 

[unclesol]

Only other "airbox" option is removing it altogether, and replacing with individual (K&N, etc.) filters. You still have to wrestle with the box to get it out the first time, but carb maintenance is much easier after that...
Depending on your exhaust system, changing to the filters might require some minor re-jetting, so might be better idea to get yours set-up correctly in the stock form, and get a baseline established, then you know what you've got to work with ;-)

 

[eil]

changing to the filters will require some re-jetting

Fixed

And also more likely than not, hours of trial and error fine-tuning to get the mixture right throughout the various combinations of throttle opening, engine speed, and load.

I'd advise keeping the intake and exhaust systems stock until you've had some motorcycle maintenance experience under your belt.

 

[unclesol]

Wish I'd said that... ;-)

Fixed

And also more likely than not, hours of trial and error fine-tuning to get the mixture right throughout the various combinations of throttle opening, engine speed, and load.

I'd advise keeping the intake and exhaust systems stock until you've had some motorcycle maintenance experience under your belt.