Bad Goldwing Dad & his carb problems

[centurion94]

Good morning all. Although I will continue to spit up on myself regarding my neglect of a 1982 GL1100I, the beginning of the story is over under new members. opcorn:

To continue, this morning I topped off the radiator overflow - once it had cooled down, it sucked coolant down into the radiator, so the system is again sealed. Hit the starter, gave abt an eighth-throttle and it started with no hesitation - the new air cut-off valves did the trick. Now the fun part - the crossover tube leaving carb #2 is again leaking, but not spitting fuel like yesterday (before it dried up completely :headscratch: ) #4 is virtually dry, and that's okay because #2 is now leaking enough gas for both of them. And no white smoke from the tail pipes like yesterday morning, before it quit. But maybe it will start again :yes: .

It rained here pretty hard yesterday, but the streets are drying off. I checked the aftermarket dip-stick and it looks like I've got extra oil in the crank case. I got sold on Spectro oil while hanging out at my sister's shop, "Top Gear Powersports" in Roselle, IL, but I think I should take it out, leak and all, and run it up I-80 a ways to heat it up, and then dump the oil and just replace it with Valvoline 10-40 for the rest of this fall and winter. At least if the leak continues, it's blowin' in the wind and not drippin' on the pipes.

More as it develops... this is starting to look a little like revenge. But motorcycles aren't capable of that, are they? (cue theme from "The Twilight Zone)

(thread title changed to reflect content-aapple)

 

[slabghost]

Smell the oil. I suspect it may be contaminated with fuel. If so I advise you not to run it before a complete oil change. Gasoline makes a fine explosion and a lousy lubricant.

 

[centurion94]

okay, wish I'd read that before going out and putting 26 miles on her (felt good though, 'cept for that left mirror that's loose and wants to give in to the wind until it's showing me my right elbow). Oil is draining right now and I have been warned not to put car oil in it. So, I'm off to drop $30 on a gallon of Bel-Ray.

So, I gotta get this down before I forget. I'm running 70 up the interstate, bucking some 20-30 mph winds from no particular direction it seems. RPM's are at about 4200. Life is good. There are a few hills on the route, long but not steep grades. A few times it felt like I was losing some power and had to apply a little more throttle but we came back up to 70 and the tach returned to abt 4200. At the top of a grade I'd climb to about 75mph and rolled off a little throttle to bring it back to 70.

After about 15 miles, my speed ans rpm's started falling off, and a little more gas wasn't getting it done. At one point I realized the throttle was wide open so I backed off a little, figuring I was going to have to pull it over. When I did, both speed and rpm's picked back up and eventually I was back up to 60-65 again, just wanting to get home before it quit altogether. It never did. It felt like a repeat performance a couple of more times afterward but not as bad. When I hit the exit ramp and downshifted into 4th, it ran great, no hint of trouble.

Here's the theory - due to the wind and the grade, perhaps I was actually lugging the engine and should have downshifted. But at one point my tach was already showing 4500 or better for only 65mph or less.

The engine wasn't missing at all, and sounded fine except for that sickening sensation of losing power while your revs are still up, and it's not responding to throttle (til I actually closed it a little, then the rev's and power picked up - that's the spooky part, and it's not even Halloween).

After I get the oil changed, I guess I'll start it again and see if the carb leak rate has changed. And on top of all this, my gas gauge quit on me, dunno if I blew a fuse or unplugged a wire.

In the middle of this, I started thinking, "sell it, Don, just sell it." And then I thought, "after all this and 8 years of guilt to boot? Admit defeat? Not likely". And then I started thinking, "GL1500, GL1500, GL1500....".

:beer:

 

[joedrum]

well im sure its funky carbs use atf in the gas might loosen things up ...6-8 oz per tank ...might help big time

 

[dan filipi]

Is your air filter clean?
Fuel filter clogged?

Would be a good idea to check fuel pump pressure and flow is ok.

How about compression?
Really need to see at least 130 lbs or better on all 4.

 

[Omega Man]

Omega whispers "GL1500, GL1500, GL1500." :whistling: but seriously wut Joe and Dan said. 82's are geared funny, my rpms were always way up there @ 65mph+

~O~

 

[centurion94]

Carbs are KLEEEN, fuel flow is great - before new needle valves and seats, carb#2 was spitting gas clean across the plenum (well, almost). Air filter good. As I said, after I got off the interstate, problems disappeared, even when gassing it hard in 4th.

Somebody mention a bad coil? Nah, springs are good :yes: !

 

[dan filipi]

centurion94 » Tue Oct 15, 2013 3:37 pm[/url]":e56i8gm2]
Carbs are KLEEEN, fuel flow is great - before new needle valves and seats, carb#2 was spitting gas clean across the plenum (well, almost). Air filter good. As I said, after I got off the interstate, problems disappeared, even when gassing it hard in 4th.

Somebody mention a bad coil? Nah, springs are good :yes: !

I didn't mention coils because the symptoms sound more like a fuel/air delivery problem.
As you said it gained more power when closing the throttle, that sounds like carbs/fuel/air, not spark.

 

[centurion94]

Well, I've cleaned the carbs twice in the last week. Fuel, as I say, is good. I'll pick up a new air filter tomorrow. Oil changed :headscratch: ....

 

[centurion94]

Uhhh, okay, so... why would anyone oil a paper air filter? That's what I realized they'd done when I went to get a new one. Same color of paper and everything. Remember the old saying "don't stare directly into the sun"? You could do that with the old filter and barely see any area of light, but it wasn't until I compared it to the new one that I realized they wuz anchovies in the ice cream. The new filter is in and tomorrow we will go for a ride up I-80 and see what happens on the same route. The only issue I have is that the round recess in the metal top of the filter is 3mm too shallow to fully accommodate the corresponding "bump" in the underside of the airbox lid. So I replaced the wing nut with a regular nut and dogged it down tight with a socket wrench. There's still a little gap between the top edge of the airbox and the underside of the lid which I may try to seal with some foam weatherstrip.

Does this make sense to anyone? That filter did not look excessively dirty like some that scream for replacement, at least to my mind. What kind of chance is there that this was causing the problem with loss of power yesterday?

And the good news is that I just started her up and let it run for a few minutes - no carb leaks, just like before that road trip ten years ago. Wet one day, dry the next. Halleluia!

There might be time for a road trip out to the Black Hills yet this year.

don

 

[dan filipi]

centurion94 » Wed Oct 16, 2013 4:28 pm[/url]":ec4wft7h]
Uhhh, okay, so... why would anyone oil a paper air filter? That's what I realized they'd done when I went to get a new one. Same color of paper and everything. Remember the old saying "don't stare directly into the sun"? You could do that with the old filter and barely see any area of light, but it wasn't until I compared it to the new one that I realized they wuz anchovies in the ice cream. The new filter is in and tomorrow we will go for a ride up I-80 and see what happens on the same route. The only issue I have is that the round recess in the metal top of the filter is 3mm too shallow to fully accommodate the corresponding "bump" in the underside of the airbox lid. So I replaced the wing nut with a regular nut and dogged it down tight with a socket wrench. There's still a little gap between the top edge of the airbox and the underside of the lid which I may try to seal with some foam weatherstrip.

Does this make sense to anyone? That filter did not look excessively dirty like some that scream for replacement, at least to my mind. What kind of chance is there that this was causing the problem with loss of power yesterday?

And the good news is that I just started her up and let it run for a few minutes - no carb leaks, just like before that road trip ten years ago. Wet one day, dry the next. Halleluia!

There might be time for a road trip out to the Black Hills yet this year.

don

There was a reason I mentioned checking it.

 

[Ansimp]

centurion94 » Thu Oct 17, 2013 9:28 am[/url]":3hsco733]
There might be time for a road trip out to the Black Hills yet this year.

don

Hopefully soon I will post some video of our great ride in August. We loved Newcastle Wy and the ride through the Black Hills west was fantastic especially as we had ridden from Sturgis through Deadwood and Lead beforehand. :good: :moped: :good:

 

[centurion94]

Dan, I meant to quote you on my last post and I forgot - please forgive me. I'll advise tomorrow and hope you're right!

 

[centurion94]

No test ride today, too much other stuff got in the way. Some good news, however, read someplace that taking out the sending unit and hosing it out with carb cleaner will put it back to work. It did - runs like a new one. Now I'm praying that the new $10 air filter will be as effective with the power loss issue. Will advise...

 

[centurion94]

Well, all was good, for a while. Ran 70mph on the interstate, up grades with more throttle and rolled off on the other side, held 70 without problem. And then again, it started dogging on me in 5th gear. Absolutely would not go above 4200 rpm and the speed would fall off from 60 into the high 50's. When I backed off the throttle a little, the rpm's would hold fall off but the speed would come up a little. Back in town, it would do the same thing when coming back up through the gears, but it was intermittent. Plenty of torgue for a few seconds and then back to dogging.

The funnest part is that I went through almost a half tank of gas in under 30 miles.

:Awe:

 

[dan filipi]

Going through that much gas, it has to be flodding.
Float levels too high, float needles leaking.
Possibly vacuum slides sticking up.

 

[centurion94]

Going through that much gas, it has to be flodding.
Float levels too high, float needles leaking.
Possibly vacuum slides sticking up.

Somehow I knew those carbs were coming back off, again.... I set the float heights within microns of each other - 15.5 mm from the bottom of the float to the bottom of the carburetor body, right? The horizontal line on the side of the floats is now parallel to the edge of the carb body. Although it used to run fine when the floats were at about 22-26mm or so, I don't remember which, and they were all even, too... and this never happened before. The bummer is that for the first 12-15 miles or so, everything was great!

Brand new float needles and seats. Checked the vaccum slides a dozen times while they were off - pushed them sown and the spring would slowly but immediately begin pushing them up to a uniform height.

Is it possible that these floats (again - 1982 GL1100 Interstate with 29,000 miles) should have been set to wherever they were?

Is it Halloween yet?

don

 

[dan filipi]

Are those authentic Honda needles and seats?
That does make a difference since there are variations from the stock design to aftermarkets which could cause a lot of headache in getting the adjustment where it needs to be.

It's well worth the effort to set up a temp fuel container about 4 feet above the rack so actual fuel level in the bowls can be checked and verify raw gas isn't spilling into the plenum or down the intake tubes.
Can also verify the needle is shutting off gas when the floats are lifted to their adjustment.

 

[centurion94]

I think the carbs are coming back off again, right? And is the 15.5mm right? The way I measured it? The carbs are coming off again, right?

 

[dan filipi]

Yes your measurement is right.

Ya know you could do the remote tank I mentioned and see if any gas spills over, but I'm thinkin the rack needs to come out to check it closer.