Gl1000 Idle drops low when pulling up to a light

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goldwinggirl

goldwinggirl

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Bella my 1979 Goldwing, which is my daily driver, well its my only driver, just because I'm weird that way, Runs great. However lately when coming up to a light, the idle will drop below 500 rpm and sometimes what to die. If I blip the throttle is settles down and idles perfect at 950-1000 RPM. I need to check the carb sync, which I do every 4-6 months anyway.

Besides the idle issue it runs like a champ with zero other issues. I just had new tires put on so should be good for another few years yet.

So my question is what other things should I be looking at besides carb sync.Carbs had Randalls Kit installed last year and that made a Huge difference. Oh I did put 4 OZ of transmission fluid in the full tank and ran it 35 miles today. But so far no improvement. I turned the idle up just a hair and its better, but still a little annoying.

Thoughts.
 

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Have you cleaned/changed the air filter recently?
Good to hear that you have been getting plenty of use out of your bike since you decided to fix it rather than sell it :good: :moped:
 
The air cleaner looks fine, or did the last time I looked at it oh 1000 miles ago. It only has maybe 2500 miles on the air cleaner. For 4-5 years there I did not ride the bike that much. Shameful I know.

The bike starts easy with choke and gets good gas mileage now too. So very happy I kept the bike. It just runs so sweet now and the new tires make the ride smooth and grippy.

I am very happy I spent the money to get it running well. It's never run better. Next week I need to change the oil/filter and get my carb stick out and check the sync. Then sometime this winter I'll change the timing belts that has 10k on them now. Almost at 29k on the bike now.

Luckily the weather is mild enough here that I ride in the winter too, well down to 40 degrees anyway.
 
sounds great ...glad bike is running so good ..common deal... it usually a combination thing ...idle is the hardest thing to get right especially coming off throttle and back to idle ... snyc might help ..good move
 
Hi Beni, good to hear from you!! :clapping:

If I recall, you had to rebuild the carbs and the plenum was leaking? Are you sure that during the rebuild you set the floats correctly? Also, were you able to check to be sure the needles and seats are sealing? A possibility; leaking gas can cause off idle issues by flooding the engine at idle.
 
Might want to look at the ignition connections. Idle will be at lowest voltage and weak connections may lower it more. Which ignition are you running? ATF in the fuel is a good thing over time but not usually a "quick" fix.
 
When I rebuilt the carbs I triple checked the float height. I leaned the crabs over at an angle on the bench and made a gauge to check the float height. Then laid them flat and back at an angle again twice more to check and adjust again. They were as close to perfect as I could get. Measure from the top, highest part of the float bowl flange. It was not my first time in the carbs.

The original carb issue was leaking sealing rings between the plenum and carb body on #4. Think I had that from the git go 10 years ago

The lean out at idle after closing the throttle is a new thing just in the last month or so. I did notice that the left exhaust was stronger then the right, via the hands behind the exhaust check. But bike was on the side stand then. So think the carb sync might be off. Odds are some blonde chic forgot to tighten a lock nut...Blonde happens.

After the throttle blip, the idle is strong and steady at 1000 RPM, was 900 but turned it up this morning a hair. The bike runs well and starts easy with choke. Gas mileage is about 40 MPG and off idle acceleration is fine. Points are Dyna (which it came with), everything else engine wise is stock.
 
My gut agrees with Dan running rich a bit. Before starting in the a.m. Take a peak in the air cleaner and see if the plenum is dry or not. If a float is sticking, or not quite sealing, it could be leaking a little extra in. Wen you come to a stop, the fuel pump can catch up to the demand for fuel. One sticking float could then allow excess in that carb creating a rich condition. Blip the throttle, and you let in proper air mixture and it returns to normal. I chased this for a while on a 77 and it ended up being a groove worn into the tang on the float that presses the float valve shut.
 
It sounds to me like you have a throttle plate closing too far and when you Blip the throttle it opens, and stays cracked open with the vacuum the engine produces,...You really should sync the carburetors before considering anything else.
Get some gauges and sync them first before you start carburetor synchronization, I noticed on mine that 1 carb off makes a notable difference, or I have heard that some use a single gauge and go from cylinder to cylinder The set of 4 are inexpensive these days and even have the adapters and all.
 
[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=129071#p129071:2mybsnay said:
joedrum » Fri Aug 22, 2014 9:38 am[/url]":2mybsnay]
good point Zman ...loosen all sync screws and turn 1/8 turn down and see if it helps .. this will be great test and may just fix it completely
Click to expand...
Joe, that is a 50/50 chance of working , with those screw 1 carb goes up the other down If it goes further down on the carb that is closing too far it will make it worse but would certainly ID it as the problem..
Also I would re check the linking shaft and be sure you have the forked linkage between the 2 washers on the adjacent carb.
Just to say again GWgirl, be sure your gauges are synced to one another before you start the sync process, or if your using mercury all the better.
 
On my 1100 carbs the left side linkage link was worn which made syncing tricky as it would vary so after each tiny turn of a sync screw I had to blip the throttle for all the links to settle where they'd sit normally.
A very small turn of any one of the sync screws can make a very big difference and I found without gauges it was total hit and miss.
 
Darn Blonde moments. Ok, so it seems that somebody really did forget to tighten up the jam nut on the cross carburetor sync adjuster. When I checked the sync, the front to back sync on both sides were perfect. But the side to side was way off.

So after messing for 10 minutes, playing find the balance point, I once again have sync's carb's and added bonus, the jam nuts are all tight too.

Its back to being very well behaved and sweet idling bike again. Such a smooth running bike.

I also changed my oil and filter, which cough, might have been overdue, detailed the bike so now the bike and old Vetter bags shine. I also painted the old rusty chrome case guards, and remounted them. It looks so much nicer now.
 

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