Topic: 1979 goldwing

[weltzing]

my godlwing runs kinda rough, 3 plugs look clean and seem to be burning fuel. the other front right, is black and dirty....could this be that the valves need adjusting or the rings are getting bad....?? i recently cleaned carbs and all passages are cleared. any help is appreciated thanks

[KB02]

Buy four new plugs and go for a ride. Check out the new plugs and see what they look like. Could just be a bad plug. Might be the carbs needing a clean and sync.

[weltzing]

they are all new plugs and the carbs have been cleaned, they dont really need to be synced because i didnt mess with the needle just took all the jets out and cleaned the passages.

[kirkn]

All the four cylinder goldwings are EXTREMELY sensitive to carb sync, so I think you DO need to sync 'em.  But, that said, I doubt it's carb sync that's causing one cylinder to run rich.

Valve adjustments are simple to do on a goldwing, so that shouldn't be too much wasted effort.

I'd be inclined to do a warm compression check first, looking for rings, etc.

Still, it seems unlikely that ONE cylinder would run rich from worn rings.  I mean, if one is worn out, chances are that all are tired.  I'd still look for a carb issue.  Or possibly a weak ignition / plug / coil / plug wire on that one cylinder.

Kirk

[weltzing]

have done a compression check they are all about 120

[chickenman_26]

120 psi is pretty low. But if they're all 120, then they should all burn the same, and the bike should run smooth...provided the carbs are synched. Follow Kirk's advice, and synch the carbs. These Wings have other common issues. One is that the plug wires get mushy, and the wire pulls out of the plug cap. The rubber boot covers it, so you can't see the disconnect. Pull gently on the wire, and see if it doesn't come right out of the cap. If so, that needs to get fixed. Head gaskets are another common issue with 4 cylinder Wings. I just finished putting new head gaskets in an '82 that had 190 psi compression in the cylinder that was leaking into the cooling system (and vice versa).

Stu

[weltzing]

oh wow a head gasket how much did that cost you? did you do it or take it to a shop? and how do you do a leakdown test?

[chickenman_26]

oh wow a head gasket how much did that cost you? did you do it or take it to a shop? and how do you do a leakdown test?

It didn't cost me anything, but it cost my customer plenty.   Just the cost of the gaskets is $57...each. There's 10 hours labor involved. Plus the cost of cam seals and a bunch of other O rings and gaskets. It ain't cheap. I'm not trying to scare you into thinking you have a bad head gasket - just alerting you to the possibility, because it's not uncommon on this model. Look at the cheap and easy stuff first - the stuff that might affect only one cylinder. Valve adjust and carb synch come to mind...

A leak down test is done with a leak down tester. Rather than try to explain it here, I'll give you this link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leak-down_tester
And here's a short video.

Stu