[escogold]

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Long before I rebuilt the carb system on the 1200 I may have gotten the 1 and 3 jet needles reversed. Bike's runnin' so much better since the rebuild except it dogs down just off idle. Once she hits around 1500 rpm it's great. I haven't done the sync/drop yet. Is there a simple way to tell which needle is the no. 1 and which is the no. 3?

 

[Bike...and Dennis]

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There is no difference between the needles when new. The reason they say to keep them in the same place is to allow for wear patterns. Just change them back and see if it helps.

What you describe sounds like something more serious though. My guess would be a vacuumproblem or the advance not working correctly. The CA models have some pretty complex vacuum hose routing.

 

[GLGREZMONKI]

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As Dennis says switch them back and see if it makes a difference......as for the off idle bog/hesitation I have found the best fix for that is to raise the needles a little bit using small #4 washers as shims. (I use stainless) It is an easy and cheap job that can be accomplished quickly without removing the completecarb assembly. Just remove the carb tops, remove the spring, use a 8mm socket to remove the needle retainer from the piston.Remove the needle and place a washer on it. Then reverse your steps to put it back together. Be careful with the diaphram as they can easily be damaged and they are expensive to replace. After you get the carbs back together do a carb sync and you may find that your hesitation is gone. If it is not, simply remove the washers and you are back to where you were. 95% of the time this trick rids the 1200 of that hesitation.................GM

 

[escogold]

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thanks Dennis. i did replace all the vacuum lines. it is acting like the advance is not working properly. i've worked with vacuum advance on cars but never on my bike. back to the books!

 

[escogold]

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thanks GM. my other 12 doesn't have any hesitation but the gray one is pretty pronounced. it ran this way before the rebuild. when it gets past the bog it seems like it sort of surges or at least comes on harder than it should so, as Dennis suggested, i'm thinking vacuum advance may be a possibility. is there a quick and dirty test for VA like plugging a line? i'll copy that trick to my desktop. thanks again. btw i tried adjusting the air/fuel mixture screws and got no response from 2,4 and (as best i can recall)3 but did get a drop from no. 1. another concern.

 

[Bike...and Dennis]

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Hi again, Esco.

The best way to test the ECU is to replace it with a known good one. And since you have other GL12s, you can easily pull one from another bike and plug it in to the questionable runner to see if it helps. There was a test in the manual, I think, but I can't find it now.

 

[escogold]

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now why didn't i think of that?!! can't get to it now but i'll try it later and post results. thx

 

[escogold]

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I swapped ICU's and it didn't make a bit of difference so the good news- it's not the ICU. The bad news- it's not the ICU. Still haven't done the sync/drop yet so it can only get better after that. Last week I tried to do a simple idle drop by ear. I was a little chagrined because I didn't get any noticeable response to turning in the pilot screws until the last one which happened to be no. 1 I believe. Ya I know not exactly the textbook approach but I didn't do anything dumb like torque down on the pilot screws. Anyway, just the lame attempt at the idle drop made a noticeable difference in the off idle bog problem I'm experiencing. I wonder if the timing is off. I just got my first Goldwing about 6 months ago so I've got a lot to learn. Timing inspection plug? Doh! Right now I've got all the pilot screws roughly 3 turns out. Cali calls for 3 and a half but heck I was afraid they'd fall out at that setting. I'll keep at it thanks y'all for the help.