Got my 1989 GL1500 back from the shop this past weekend and got to ride it fully to work yesterday. I had the carbs rebuilt along with the rear brake cylinder (finally have back brakes I can count on!). That daggone engine runs so freakin' smooth now with the rebuilt carbs that I can barely believe it's the same bike. Gone are the flat spots; gone is the longer than normal warm-ups in the morning; gone is the hard starting. That bike rides as smooth as home-churned butter now. It was an expensive repair, but it got rid of a gas smell in the garage as well that resulted from flooding carbs. and hopefully it'll fix my drop in my MPG from 36-38 to 28. In any case, the performance boost and smoother ride alone are worth the price of admission.
The carbs on the older 1500's have been a bit of a pain if the bike isn't used alot. We've had some that required full rebuilds on the carbs, and some that just required a bit of cleaning on the jets, and one that only had one side acting up some.
Some patience and 3 or 4 tanks of gas with a double dose of seafoam run at highway speeds has always done the trick on any bike I have had that was sitting for awhile from neglect by previous owners.
I bought my 95 SE about a month ago with 30,000 miles, it has been sitting for the past year for sure but I suspect that it has sat unused for longer than that......idle was surging when I bought it. Took it to a local Honda dealer and had all fluids changed, timing belts, brakes replaced and carbs rebuilt......end result $3,000.00 bill.
$1,000.00 of it was to rebuilt the carbs........so YES $400.00 to rebuild the carbs is a GOOD deal.
Unfortunately, with older bikes, replacing brakes often means rebuilding them, which is expensive. The parts are fairly cheap, but the labor is killer. They may have had to replace the discs on your bike, too, which is what I need to do prior to state inspection next year. Plus, I want to do the timing belts since I don't know when or if they've been changed. All that will be another $1,000.
Glad you hear the bikes running great. I had my carbs done about 3 years ago. The bike performance improved quite a bit but didn't see much of a difference in the gas mileage.
I just had my first fill-up after the work; 28MPG to 32MPG. I was hoping for better since it was 36-38 a few weeks back. I assume that because it's running the best it has since I've owner it, 32mpg is probably where it should be. Of course, I need to check the plugs here shortly to make sure they look good.
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