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Fuel, smoke and fire coming out of GL1100 tail pipe.

1710 Views 8 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  mzandmywing, 
J
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Hello all,

I'm new and just picked up an 82 GL 1100 a few weeks ago in Phoenix. The previous owner said he rebuilt the carbs, and gave me the old parts. I checked the air filter, plugs, and oil. Then road it around a couple of hundred miles. It seemed to do ok, bogging down occasionally like starving for fuel. With some missing/popping at idle. It also blew some smoke on start up and under full throttle. Then one night I got on the gas and turned to look for smoke but saw sparks instead!

But it did well enough I thought, to ride back to AR. pulling a small trailer. Call me crazy. And man my but was sore! The first day between Flagstaff and Albuquerque it ran kind of ruff. I had to stop every 100mls or so and fill up with gas and clean the plugs on the left side (carbon on the front, oil on the rear plug.) I thought maybe it just didn't like the elevation of the mountains. Because the second day when I dropped down to the flats it ran better, I checked the plugs a couple of times, they weren't too bad. Which I replaced the two with a hotter ones on that side once I arrived.

I had put a few hundred miles on the bike since with no additional problems. Then last night after filling up, I pull out of the station and it bogged down and wouldn't hardly run. Later I noticed raw gas and peaces of soot coming out of the left tail pipe. It will run ok now, with smoke coming out of both pipes. It has spark on all four but when I pull the plug wire off on the front left at idle, it doesn't seem to change anything.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.:?
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Hatchetman
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Hello Jhook & welcome to the forum! I think you have a good bike there, just needs to be set right! The carbs are most likely out due to improper float levels. just 2 millimeters off will cause lean or rich conditions. When tuned properly these bikes are kinda like the space shuttle for power! Once re built properly, the carbs must be sinced for low end smoothness. You mentioned some popping. This might be due to sticking air cut off's in the carbs. I think your best bet is to pull them, Clean them out & re set your floats.
If you do a compression test, make sure your battery is topped up, throttle wide open, choke off & all 4 plugs out. You should see around 140 to 170 depending on the condition of your engine. Keep us posted!!!
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GWEddie
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Carbs have to be the first suspect. Flames coming out the pipes might mean some flooding and the excess gas igniting at times.
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ding dong
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You may be glad you have the old parts. Depending on what carb kit was used you just might be better off with some of the old parts. By your description I also agree that this guy had no idea what he was doing. All good advise above.
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L
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Sounds like the previous owner may have installed an AFTERBURNER for more power?





Steve
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cyclewizard
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LDCSteve wrote:
Sounds like the previous owner may have installed an AFTERBURNER for more power?





Steve
Click to expand...
Steve, you crack me up.....lmao.....
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rb7632
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This has all been very good advise from some very wise members. I will only add that after you check the things listed I would replace the timing belts. If you don;t know when they were replaced don't guess. They may "look" fine but they always do right up until the time the fail. Then it is too late. Major engine damage will occur.

Just my humble opinion of course.

:action:
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dan filipi
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The flames and soot are caused by WAY too rich.
The raw gas is washing out the carbon in the mufflers and igniting inside.
Do up the carbs properly and it will run much better.
At this point I might suspect the badly over rich condition flooding the plug and may be being mistaken for oil burning.
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mzandmywing
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Sounds cool flames and all.... But not a good thing
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