[moose4jesus]

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The Data:

1978 Goldwing w/ 25Ksat idle for at least a year before I bought it last month.
Timing, compression, Dyna - ingnition, plugs, wires have just been checked and are fine.
Ihave OEM 4 carb unit- supposedly rebuilt in the last 2 years.

The throttleis sluggish at low RPM, and spit firing, Idled well though.



Latest Issue/ My screw-up?

So today I used Seafoam and fed 1/4 can right into the fuel line according to instructions I got the white smoke, etc. let it rest for 15 min, started it up and smoked it out. I put the other 1/4 can in the gas tank and filled it up with 93 octane.



Now it is running worse than ever. Stalling at each stop, back firing 2-3x in a row each time I roll of the throttle or downshift. I checked the plugs and two of them were somewhat fouled after the Seafoam so I cleaned them right up but it didn't help.

Any other advise?



:stumped:

 

[JerryH]

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No problem, just too much Seafoam. I quite often drain the carbs on my bikes, then fill them with Seafoam, start the engine (sort of, the engine doesn't run very good on pure Seafoam, but it will fire a few times, and make a lot of smoke) I do this to to suck pure Seafoam into the jets. If you have a way to turn the engine over with the starter with the ignition off, that will work too. But on all my other bikes, when you hit the kill switch, nothing works. I then let it soak in the carbs for 24 hours, and drain it out, then refill the carbs with gas. It will usually smoke for a few seconds and misfire a few times, because there is Seafoam still in the jets, but it clears up right away. I do not know if the Goldwing carbs have float bowl drain screws or not, if not, you will just have to ride it until they clear out. 1/4 can will not hurt anything in a Goldwing tank full of gas, if you are talking about a 16oz can. My Ninja 500 has a 4.9 gallon tank, and I've used 8oz in a tankful of gas in that several times.

There is a remote possibility that the Seafoam loosened up some dirt, and it plugged up the jets. One of the first things I do when I buy a used bike is to remove the carbs, and give them a thorough cleaning. Even though most of the bikes ran well, every single carb was filthy inside. I like to start out with clean carbs, and the only way to get them completely clean is to remove them, disassemble them, and clean them out by hand.

 

[AZgl1800]

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No problem at all. just let it smoke.
I use a full can of Sea Foam per tank on a semi-regular basis.

It smokes some, but who cares, it is behind you.
The important part is it helps to clean the idle passages.

My normal routine is similar to JerryK's

I pour in a full can of SF with maybe a gallon of fuel in the tank. I ride it around for a while to make sure the fuel/SF mix is thoroughly stirred.

I then let it idle for about 15 minutes or so to make sure it gets into the idle jets.

Then I shut it off and let it soak for a day or two or three.

Then I start it up, go get a full tank of fuel, and just drive it out.

No fuss, no mess. Keeps the idle jets clean.

Your bike sounds like the idle jets are really gunked up. It will take more than one dosing of the SF to clear things out...

 

[Anim8or Earl]

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My 78 behaved the same after Seafoam. I just rode it through a couple tanks of gas.

 

[77Pinto]

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moose4jesus wrote:

.....Any other advise?



:stumped:

Pull the carb.s off and rebuild them.



SeaFoam CAN loosen junk and get it stuck elsewhere and couse other or more issues.





Bill

 

[HomeBru]

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One of two things happened:

As Bill said, you may have loosened up some crud in the bowl that then got caught up in jets or ports. = REBUILD.

OR, you had everything adjusted to run smoothly on gummed up jets and ports and now they're cleared out and you're running rich.

If it doesn't ride out as others have suggested, sync the carbs and see if that helps. Otherwise you're looking at a rebuild.

I'm getting pretty good and pulling and re-installing carbs...

 

[maestro319]

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Hey HomeBru. why don't you take a road trip and come over here to Illinois and show me how to do my carbs. I'm sure they could use it. Then we go for a ride and I buy you lunch...dinner??

 

[moose4jesus]

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Thanks men for your input. I now own a shop manual but don't have any experience pulling carbs or cleaning/ rebuilding. Is it worth trying? What's the toughest thing to expect on the GL 1000?

 

[JerryH]

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moose4jesus wrote:

Thanks men for your input. I now own a shop manual but don't have any experience pulling carbs or cleaning/ rebuilding. Is it worth trying? What's the toughest thing to expect on the GL 1000?

If you have the manual it should be pretty straightforward. Once you get the carbs off, I would do one at the time, and not mix any parts, Be careful and use the right tools, carbs are made of fairly soft metal, and it is easy to strip out screw heads. If you mess up any screws, or find any messed up ones, you can get SS Allen screws at Lowes that are an exact replacement. Use spray carb cleaner like Gumout, and wear eye protection. That stuff hurts like *&%^$#[email protected] if you get it in your eyes. I would remove the jets and clean them with the small E string from a guitar. It is way too small to do any damage, and you can be sure the jets are completely clean.

I removed the entire fuel injection system from my LTD, and used an electric engraver to engrave the position of the parts on everything RR RF LR LF

 

[glhonda]

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moose4jesus wrote:

Thanks men for your input. I now own a shop manual but don't have any experience pulling carbs or cleaning/ rebuilding. Is it worth trying? What's the toughest thing to expect on the GL 1000?

Do yourself a favor. Head over to Randakk's and read his information. It's dead nuts accurate, and you don't have to worry about any "bum" information given by people who "think" they know carbs.

I've done a couple racks. The information is invalueable.

 

[GregForesi]

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moose4jesus wrote:

Thanks men for your input. I now own a shop manual but don't have any experience pulling carbs or cleaning/ rebuilding. Is it worth trying? What's the toughest thing to expect on the GL 1000?

Read Randakk. If it still runs crummy after putting another couple of tanks of just gasoline through it then you're going to need a rebuild. He sells full kits with a video on how to do it. If your carbs were truly rebuilt fairly recently then maybe they will just need to be pulled and cleaned out again. How does the inside of the fuel tank look?



If this is a "new to you" bike then change the timing belts. It's an interference engine and if a belt breaks you'll bend at least one valve.



Waterpump, head gaskets and carbs are more tedious than difficult. If the stator dies you have to take the engine out so I'd call that the toughest. On the other hand you get to paint and detail it.

 

[moose4jesus]

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Greg thanks for the reply. I attempted pulling the carb last night but got hung up on pulling off the throttle cable and choke cable. I'm not feeling at all confident in this and I hate that feeling. To answer your question the inside of the tank isn't spotless but doesn't look concerning.



BTW- I love your White Trash wing. Looks awesome. Also I grew up in Milford- just live a half hour south of you in Canton.



Blessings,

Moose

 

[schuvwj]

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Moose good luck with your carbs!


Bill

 

[nomados]

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moose4jesus wrote:

Greg thanks for the reply. I attempted pulling the carb last night but got hung up on pulling off the throttle cable and choke cable. I'm not feeling at all confident in this and I hate that feeling. To answer your question the inside of the tank isn't spotless but doesn't look concerning.



BTW- I love your White Trash wing. Looks awesome. Also I grew up in Milford- just live a half hour south of you in Canton.



Blessings,

Moose

Ironically, those throttle cables are the toughest parts of the carb pull/ clean job, at least for me anyway. Needs tiny little hands.... Once you get the air box out, the cables loosened at the handlebar, it's a bit of a "dance" which hand to use, where to reach down through, etc. Take your time with some wrenches and you'll get it. Once the cables are off the rest is very easy. I don't loosen the bank to get the cables, I leave it solid. Once the cables are off and the whole bank is loose, I find it easier to undo the air cut off from the top, as you can jockey it into position to get a cordless drill on it with a long extension. Becoming familiar with pulling the banks off and giving them a cleaning is an important part of GL1000 ownership I'm afraid, but it's good.
You get "street cred" when the neighbour drives by on his Hawg and you have four carbs upside down pulling the bowls off looking for the wayward bits of tank rust that even the mighty Seafoam has no hope in dissolving. :cooldevil:
When you see the shock in their faces as you're wrestling with half of an octopus, just nod nonchalantly, but do not expect the same in return.