[Ranamadad]

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For Father's day, my wife gave me a 1981 GL1100I with 8200 miles. It ran, but has needed some work because of a history of sitting, (hence the lower miles). I haven't done motorcycle work for about 30 years, and haven't owned in about 25, so I'm not fully configured to handle the fix up and maintainence yet.

I have already rebuilt the carbs, cleaned out the gas tank, replaced the fuel lines and filters. When I got it, the power "curve" was more like a mountain range, cutting out at different rpms, no power at others. After the work I have done, it runs much better but gas mileage is horrible, less than 25 mpg by my account.

I need to sync the carbs and am considering a purchase of appropriate guages. My question is, is it a good idea to spend money on guages or use that money to just get the bike shop-tuned. I don't mind the mechanical re-learning curve, I have fun doing it, but I also don't want to buy a Sears-full of new tools, (or do I ?).

Will the sync do all they say it will and boost my gas mileage and give back some power?

Thanks, and BTW, what is Mana?

 

[exavid]

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:waving::waving:Welcome to the Best Goldwing Site on the Internet Ranamadad!:waving::waving:

If the carbs are indeed far of sync getting them back in will improve the mileage and smoothness of the engine. One thing you didn't mention are the timing belts. At that bike's age I'd change them out right away. If a belt fails the results are just short of catastrophic.Honda charges an arm and a leg for these belts but they are less than half price at NAPA just ask for a pair of 250274 timing belts. Save some money in gauges, if you have a Harbor Freight (they are on the Internet too) near you they sell vacuum gauges for less than $10. I have a pair that I use for syncing. You sync the front pair then the rear then balance the fronts and rears. Do a search on the subject in the box above and you'll find a lot of info on both carb syncing and timing belt replacement.

There may be other issues with the gas mileage but change the belts (soon!) and sync the carbs and let us know how it's going.

Mana is a very valuable commodity that you can award to another member by clicking on his mana barrel. However there is a rat in the system somewhere some folks seem to get lots of mana without making more than a few inane posts while some of us who have many, many scintillating, enlightening, brilliant, spectacularly witty, posts can't get more than two even though others have attempted to add more.

This is a problem REDWING our curmudgeonly member emeritus who lives on a rocky isle in the Atlantic next to his mother country of Eire, and yours truly have humbly brought to the attention of the sure-to-be Sainted proprietor, the Most Excellent Wingnut, may his name ring through the Internet forever, and the some times harsh (some say evil) Wexman, the axman for our beloved Wingnut. (it doesn't hurt to lay it on with a shovel).

So far it seems to be intractable (hard to fix for those in the Norse settled areas of the USA and the less cognitively endowed members from Southern California). But I digress I will not plead and beg for mana like our revered REDWING so shamelessly did that his loyal dog Shep ran away from home in embarrassment... but I digress. I do that well so I like to do it often. If you were to read the FAQ forum you would learn many of these fascinating details.

As you can see asking about mana causes long rambling posts. In the future you might also avoid asking questions as to which is the best lubricating fluid or which brand of rubber thing that goes on the rims is the better or never, never, never mention nor look at the 'Deer Alerts' topic. Other than that, welcome and post often!

 

[GLester]

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exavid wrote:

Mana is a very valuable commodity that you can award to another member by clicking on his mana barrel. However there is a rat in the system somewhere some folks seem to get lots of mana without making more than a few inane posts while some of us who have many, many scintillating, enlightening, brilliant, spectacularly witty, posts can't get more than two even though others have attempted to add more.

This is a problem REDWING our curmudgeonly member emeritus who lives on a rocky isle in the Atlantic next to his mother country of Eire, and yours truly have humbly brought to the attention of the sure-to-be Sainted proprietor, the Most Excellent Wingnut, may his name ring through the Internet forever, and the some times harsh (some say evil) Wexman, the axman for our beloved Wingnut. (it doesn't hurt to lay it on with a shovel).

So far it seems to be intractable (hard to fix for those in the Norse settled areas of the USA and the less cognitively endowed members from Southern California). But I digress I will not plead and beg for mana like our revered REDWING so shamelessly did that his loyal dog Shep ran away from home in embarrassment... but I digress. I do that well so I like to do it often. If you were to read the FAQ forum you would learn many of these fascinating details.

As you can see asking about mana causes long rambling posts. In the future you might also avoid asking questions as to which is the best lubricating fluid or which brand of rubber thing that goes on the rims is the better or never, never, never mention nor look at the 'Deer Alerts' topic. Other than that, welcome and post often!

Exavid, since you are truely worthy of more mana for all that you do, I'll try to give you some.

Gene:waving::11red::11red::11red::cooler:

 

[exavid]

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GLester wrote:

Exavid, since you are truely worthy of more mana for all that you do, I'll try to give you some.

Gene:waving:

I'd argue your assumption, but I won't since you can't:goofygrin:

 

[hossners]

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I'm with exavid: purchase the guages and perform the sync yourself. Even if you pay $50 for a set from JC Whitney, you will be ahead in $$ and time doing it just once.

Also agree about the belts. It is time that gets to them, not the miles. There are plenty of posts about changing them. Do the work in this order: Belts, valve adjustment, then sync last. Did this on my '81 and has been running like a champ ever since. When the sync is out, it's terrible.

 

[Ranamadad]

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Thanks for the suggestions. The Belts, Valves, and Sync are now on my to do list.

My last bike was a Suzuki GS450 back in 1980, so the GW is quite the bigger bike, but it has grown on me already. I look forward to regular normal cruising.

 

[jsmith24]

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Hey Exavid,

Just so you know, you helped me once way back a few months and I gave you mana then...but alas, I find I am unable to give you more! Another rat in the system, as you say. I think we should be able to give mana to a kind soul more than once....say once every few months or so. At least that way you can see your appreciation level, and it won't be often enough for some people to just get crazy with it.

So for all of you who have helped me in the past, and there are many, I have always tried to give you the mana you deserve.

Vivit aurea ala!

Jack

 

[exavid]

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You can only give mana to a person once. That's fair, but there seems to be a limit to some people's mana. I tried to give our resident curmudgeon mana last spring and it wouldn't take. I tried to give the Wexman and our most generous proprietor mana but as you notice they both only have two mana. That's what they had before I tried to give well deserved mana. More surprising is that we have had members with three or four posts get a full four mana.

I just don't know what's the mana with mana! REDWING's efforts to have a high level investigationhas come to naught, it's obviously caused by a secret world wide conspiracy. In fact it may even be dangerous for me to bring this matter up.

Pardon me for a minute there's four guys in suits at the doo...

 

[Ranamadad]

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In doing the timing belt replacement, do I have to pull the radiator off in order to get to the timing belt covers, and subsequently the belt replacement? I've read a bunch of posts about it but haven't found one to address the radiator proximity and/or other clearence issues.

BTW, If I do have to move the radiator, does that mean purging the coolant in order to do so, or can it be simply moved away for clearance?

 

[Shooter]

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Hate to add more rain to your pristine parade mount,(8k miles). But yes you have to drain the coolant. It should be well over-due for a change any-way, as should be the hoses, back to NAPA. You should be able to get enough clearance by swinging the bottom of the rad forward after attending to the mounting bolts.

Another welcome to the best Goldwing forum on the net. And don't give Paul any manna, not that he isn't worthy, but such blatant begging--- from a new member. I'm sure he's got REDWING spinning in his bed.... Best of luck and keep us posted.

 

[exavid]

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Ranamadad wrote:

In doing the timing belt replacement, do I have to pull the radiator off in order to get to the timing belt covers, and subsequently the belt replacement? I've read a bunch of posts about it but haven't found one to address the radiator proximity and/or other clearence issues.

BTW, If I do have to move the radiator, does that mean purging the coolant in order to do so, or can it be simply moved away for clearance?

As Shooter said you can do it without pulling the radiator off. If you're doing it for the first time it might be beneficial to remove the radiator, it makes it easier to do, you can see what you're doing much more clearly. There's only a couple bolts on the bottom of the radiator to take off, you can leave the lower hose connected and take off the water pump spigot so you only have the upper hose to remove. That one is easiest done by pulling the hose off the engine end and leaving the hoses attached to the radiator. Other than that it's just a matter of disconnecting a couple of electrical connections. You'll find that getting the cover gaskets back on will be easier this way. I usually tack those gaskets to the cover with a light film of crazy glue, that way they can't fall off while you're juggling the covers back on. Just remember to turn the engine through at least 720 degrees slowly by hand with the sparkplugs out to make sure there's no error that will cause the pistons and valves to attempt to mate.

 

[johnmac]

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Ranamadad, Be sure to do as exavid says, and turn the engine over by hand (wrench on the alternator bolt) 2 or 3 full turns. It will help if you remove oll 4 spark plugs. That way if there is a problem, you won't think it's on a compression stroke and turn too hard.

 

[Ranamadad]

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Thanks guys. I appreciate your answers to questions that seem to be too simplistic. This is the only two-wheel ride I have right now and I'd rather ask a simple question and get a valuable answer. Maybe it'll save me some grief. I'll let you know how it goes...

 

[Ranamadad]

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I have a new twist to my saga. I changed out my timing belts with no problem. (I paid about $27 each for 2 Gates T274/Napa 25-0274 timing belts). The tear down for installation went as you guys described, and I DID turn the motor by hand several full turns to be sure both sides were toothed correctly.

When I got my covers off, I discovered tar on the left side cover. In fact, tar had dripped and subsequently hardened on my cover, the upper radiator hose, and a bit of the frame. It seems to have dripped from what I assume to be the spark control unit. Obviously not a good thing.

I am waiting on delivery of a set of guages from JCW to do the synch, which would get me to the place exhavid and hossners suggested; meaning timing belt, valves, then synch. How much could this Spark Control unit play into the mileage/power band trouble I described? Are there 2 of them? How much to replace them and how hard are they to find?

Thanks again for your input.

BTW, I saw on the calendar there was a get-together in Joplin, Mo this weekend. I'm disappointed because I'll be passing through Joplin NEXT weekend :?

 

[exavid]

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It isn't a good sign to have the wax dripping out of a potted module. You bike has a single spark unit (it's a dual CDI box) the 82 and 83 use a two single units. They show up on eBay often enough and you should be able to get one from a salvage yard. I wouldn't hesitate getting a used one, they don't fail often. The CDI could easily cause you mileage problems and power loss.

 

[Ranamadad]

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Thanks, Paul. Sorry about mispelling exavid. I was about to fall asleep when I was proofreading. I actually changed it once from an even worse spelling:baffled:

 

[exavid]

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Ranamadad, that doesn't matter, calling me late for dinner, now that DOES matter!!

 

[Ranamadad]

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Ok! Thought a little progress report would be in order.

I got my 4 Synch Guages from JCW and was pleased to see them work as expected. These are the steps I took:

• I put the Wing on it's center stand.
• Attached the tubing to the vacuum connectors.
• Set the guages just so- so I could see them easily.
• Started the wing and warmed it up.

(BTW, I'm not being suspenseful, I just want to be clear. It, um, still runs-I didn't manage to kill it.)

• Set idle just short of 1000.
• Damped out the oscillations on the guages.
• Paired up Cyls 1 & 3.
• Paired up Cyls 2 & 4.
• Paired up left and right.

In the process, I saw the idle runaway a couple of times from 1K to over 3K, managed to get it smoking like a YKWhat, and got some significant backfires. Eventually, all 4 were synched with each other, and I got the idle back down to just shy of 1K. I took it out and she still has a ton of lag to it when I accelerate through mid-band (2500-3500 RPM).

Could I still need to adjust the pilot screws from their repair manual settings? (By that, I mean that during the carb rebuild, Clymer said to preset the screws 2 turns out from seated). And then, how do I get a dang screwdriver under there to adjust the fool things??

I imagine I'm looking for a silver bullet to fix this thing, cause I'm afraid I missed something in the carb rebuild and am doomed to try it again. I'll do it, but the enthusiasm to tackle it is gone this cool, crisp evening, for sure.

 

[Ranamadad]

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Two whole months... I didn't realize that long had transpired.

I have opted to take my ride in to Piper Performance here in North Richland Hills and get him to do a diagnostic for me. I wanna do the repair work, but I want to do work that will get the Wing running, not a lot of easter egg hunting. That'll put me into the new year before I can ride again.

Since I'm gonna pay this guy to tell me some stuff about my bike, is there anything you can think of I should ask about specifically? As a reminder, this thing has about 8200 miles on it. I did change the timing belts, set the valves, synch the carbs, and some other simple tasks. Now I want to ask intelligent questions from the guy.

TIA for any input you have time for.

 

[Hawker22]

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Ranamadad:

Unless you are pretty sure that this place is knowledgeable about classic Goldwings, you may be wasting time and money by having them do a diag. on your bike. From reading what you have already done, it would appear that you have already shown that you have the knack and knowledge to get the rest done--with a bunch of help from all the gurus on this forum.

I am the "frugal" type and I hate to see anyone throw away money needlessly. Just my opinion--others may say that a diag. is worthwhile.