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Engine speed too high between shifts, GL1500.

1369 Views 6 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  bsldallas, 
medicj
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Folks;
I have an odd problem with my 1991 1500 SE. If you are in 5th or 4th gear and close the throttle, the engine speed stays between 1500 and 1800 RPM. When you down shift to 3rd or 2nd engine speed drops to normal, around 800 rpm.
Thought the throttle cables might be binding but they seem free. Throttle returns to closed position without any delays. The only thing that brings engine speed down appears to be when the clutch is disengaged and the gearbox shifted into one of the lower gears. As you might have guessed, this has increased the use of my brakes and gives very little engine braking in the higher gears, a real pain in the butt in hilly, rainy conditions!
The bike starts fine, has a good, steady idle at around 750-800 RPM and is getting good gas mileage by GL1500 standards. Lots of get up and go with 185,000 Km on the clock.
As always, thanks for any suggestion.
Medicj
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D
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Lets say you are running in 5th gear at 3,000 RPM's and down shift to 4th gear and close the throttle. The RPM's will actually increase for a while until the bike slows down. This is normal........!

If your RPM's drop to around 800 when you down shift to 3rd or 2nd gear, then you must be going relatively slow when you down shift.

The key here is "what speed are you traveling" in each gear at the time of down shift. That makes a difference in the RPM's after down shift.
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Hatchetman
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Need to clarify something here. if your in 4th or 5th, If you pull in the clutch & coast in those gears, will it idle or race?
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medicj
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The engine speed stays at around 1500 rpm coasting, with the clutch in. RPM will drop as soon as you select a lower gear and have kept the clutch pulled in. The problem almost seems connected to the gearshift selection. Moving the gearshift lever is what fixes the problem.

Beautiful bike but way more complex than my 1982.

Thanks,

Medicj
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medicj
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DB

Thanks for the reply, have a look at my reply to Hatchetman.

Thanks!
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William_86
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thats normal, when you push the clutch it does not release completely, there is still a light power transfer, the rear wheel is increasing the rpms of the engine, its normal and you have nothing to worry about. on my 1200 if i pull the clutch while cruising between 3 4 and 5 gear, the rpms will not drop to idle (800-900), the rpms stay around 1500.. most people do not notice this because shifting through gears takes less than a second and nobody waits for the rpms to drop to shift to the next gear.
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bsldallas
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Just food for thought, my 1100 did the same thing. It would spike up from like 1200 rpms to 1800 rpms while shifting. End result was: the slides in the carb's needed to be removed cleaned. This resolved my problem. I hope this helps.
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