[pggreeney]

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Ok, so here's the lowdown; I bought this 82 GL 1100 for 350.00 complete bike except for battery cover, go figure, the guy said it sat for over three years but ran pretty good before that. I checked the compression (cold) good on all cylinders, turned it over and listened for anything obvious.....sounded good.

I knew I would have to pull the carbs off and clean them up at the least to get it to run, so I did, and they were pretty bad. I pulled the tank, cleaned it out, changed fuel filter and put it all back together. I bought a new battery and changed out the relay, pulled off the starter, disassymbled cleaned and inspected and tested all good, put it all back together. Lubed all the cabels I fired it up and dialed in the carbs as best as possible by ear, and it has run, but not right... So I hooked the vacum gauge up and and the left bank has poor vacum, the guage was ossilating back forth very fast and in the red zone on #1 around 5Hg.inch and#2 a little higher. I checked the vacum test ports to make sure they weren't blocked. So at this point I was depressed, I checked the other side and both cylinders were reading 20+hg.inch in the green with a slight ossilation on both.

So I'm thinking intake valves aren't seating at best, or worse maybe they are bent from a timing jump.... I sprayed some WD40 around the intake ports while it was running to see if the idle whould change to indicate maybe a leak at the intake manifold, but nothing.

Is there anything I may be missing here? before I pull off the valve cover and inspect the cam/valve terrain..... I really don't want to pull the head. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Patrick

 

[chris in va]

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You don't have to pull the head. Just check the timing marks on the camshafts and flywheel.

Now when you did a carb rebuild, what exactly did you do? I had to install a full kit from Randakk for it to run right, and even then it took about 3-4 carb synchs for the knock to go away. I also had to hose out the guts with good carb cleaner. Amazing what dripped out after that procedure.

 

[RB]

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Check/set the valves..all round. Check timing.

 

[rayworx]

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RB is absoutely correct!! Adjust the valves first thing, do all of them and then recheck. If there wasn't a tight valve on the left side then you'll want to have a leakdown test performed. Most decent shops can do a leakdown test and it would be money well invested. Compression tests don't tell the whole story when it comes to engine condition... a leakdown test tells more of the complete story about the rings, valves, headgaskets.

 

[retiredintime]

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I would think that if the compression was good then the vacuum would be good also. Do you have just one guage? It sounds like the sync between the two banks of carbs is off. That would cause one side to have less vacuum than the other. Do a sync between the two banks to make the vacuum readings the same.....

 

[cycleman]

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If your compression is good then there is nothing major wrong with the mechanics of the engine. Your problems are with the carbs and I would sort that out before I started taking something else apart.

If you go to the nakedgoldwing site or just do a search on this site there is some pretty good info out there on bringing a sitting wing back to life.

 

[goldwingnut]

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I agree with retiredintime There is a screw to adjust the right side to the same as the left side. The sync is probably still off between the two banks. The oscilation is probable too large a restrictor hole in the vacuum guage line.

 

[sandiegobrass]

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retiredintime wrote:

... It sounds like the sync between the two banks of carbs is off. That would cause one side to have less vacuum than the other. Do a sync between the two banks to make the vacuum readings the same.....

Carb sync is the most likely problem.. can't see how you could have "good" compression if there were a valve or timing issue....

 

[pggreeney]

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Hi,

Thanks for all the replies and feed back. I'm new to the forum and this is the first Goldwing I have owned, its been a long time since I worked on a bike with more than one carb.lol so forgive me if I'm a bit rusty. I sat there staring at this bike in the shop last night thinking about it. I read and re-read my manuels before posting this messages, after reading all the replies several things make since now.

I didn't rebuild the carbs, I just cleaned them out as good as I could without having them cold tanked. I will cold tank/and buy a rebuild kit next. I will check ignition/cam timing see if everything jibes. I guess it is true if the compression is good the valves must be seeting, but a leak down test would be telling. I only have one vacum guage at the moment, so I can see how insufficient that is now. I'll check around to see if I can rent the quad gauge. I'm on a real limited budget, (four kids to feed)lol so I try to do everything myself if I can. I've been turning wrenches for a long time but these Goldwings are a different critter.=) It was suggested to me if I wanted a solid reliable bike that will last forever the Goldwing was the way to go. So after seeing an ad on Craigslist for this bike I jumped on it. I am pretty confident about working on most motors, so maybe to confident here =) and now I'm getting the tune up.......lol I will folow through on the suggestions and let you all know how it goes.

Thanks,
Patrick

 

[sandiegobrass]

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Patrick... as you have probably figured out.. one gage won't quite do it... you can do it with two though.. You balance 1 to 3.. then 2 to 4 then 4 to 3... that last step is balancing each side to each other.. If you do use two, make sure you hook them once to the same source to see the relative error then you can compensate.... and I agree.. the gold wing muticarb system is a learning curve.. a lot of people here (me included ) have had them in and out a few times before they get all the nooks an crannies cleaned.. while learning... after doin it right, though.. it will perform very well.. SDB/Jim

 

[exavid]

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Sounds like your carbs are well out of synchronization. Probably sounds like your engine has a nasty knock when opening the throttle from idle in gear too.

You really don't need a quad gauge. I get by just fine with two cheap vacuum gauges from Harbor Freight. I use a pair of air valves meant for an aquarium I got from a pet shop in line with the vacuum gauges. To balance the carbs you only need to connect to one side at a time. Balance the #2 and #4 carbs, then #1 and #3. The screws in between the carbs on the throttle shafts are the adjusters. Once you have the two carbs on each side matched, match the two sides with the vacuum gauges hooked to #4 and #3 carb and use the screw on the throttle shaft of #4 just behind the carb.

Normally you will get a lot of flutter in the vacuum gauge at a slow idle. Set the idle up a little faster, say around 1500 rpm to get things roughed in then adjust it down to 1000 and refine the adjustment. Do a search on this forum on carb balancing and you'll find a lot of information and pictures.

 

[pggreeney]

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I went up to Harbor Freight today and bought a new compression tester and two new vacuum gauges. I checked back here for more info on carb sync and see I'm on the same wave leangth.lol I really appreciate the help from you guy's, this has got to be the best forum I have found on the Goldwings! I'll see if the carbs can be dialed in with the two new gauges and set the adj. screws the way exavid and sandiegobrass described. I have a feeling they will need to be re-cleaned and re-built before they sync. right but it's worth a try this way. I did see in one forum that some of you guys use Seafoam to help clean the carbs out while running so I got some of that too.

Yes I was alarmed to hear a "knock" at low idle that cleared up with higher rpm when I got it running, I was thinking all kinds of things....lol the manuals I have say nothing about the drive chain slapping, only the worst possible things; wrist pin, piston slap, rod, main bearing etc... had I not learned about the drive chain slapping around when carbs are out of sync or a major miss fire in one cylinder etc. I would have pulled it apart for fear of causing more harm to internal parts.

Thanks again.=)
Patrick

 

[RB]

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Read this first..

http://www.randakks.com/TechTips.htm#44

 

[dingdong]

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Patrick; This has nothing to do with your question but you need to change the timing belts. This is a must on all old wings that you don't know the history of. also you can't look at the belts to determine if they are good. If you break a belt on either side the mininum damage is bent valves. Worst case is broken pistons. Someone here will know the part numbers for Gates belts. Good luck! Tom

 

[rayworx]

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I can understand the disbelief concerning having a good compression reading but still having tight valves. :baffled:We went through this at Honda tech school many years ago and actually demonstrated it on an engine. After adjusting an intake valve to -.01mm too tight we performed a compression test and a leakdown test. The compression test was within 10psi from the previous test but the leakdown test showed 75% leakage through the tight valve.
So.... take this word of wisdom with a grain of salt if you wish but it's true.:waving: