I have an 84 GS. It was running great, except a little missing during cruise. At times, when I would shift gears, it like flooded out or bogged down. I could fix it by shifting to the next gear and giving it more gas. Didn't think much of it because it did not happen all of the time. (Had a 79 w/ the same problem) Well, last week, I got in to drive to work and the darn thing just would not idle. It ran very rough. I pulled off the vacuum line from the bottom of the air breather, I believe it was the coasting valve. Plugged it up w/ a 1/2" bolt and it smoothed out, yet I do not have any low to mid range pick up at all, even before I plugged up the vacuum line. I have good acceleration if I floor it, but the low to mid range sucks. Is this a vacuum or carb problem?

 

seems like it is probably a vaccum leak. if you dont have emissions testing i would remove the rats nest, that way you dont have to worry about going crazy trying to find leaks. i think to find a vac leak you spray starter fluid around the lines with engine on and if the engine speed increses the leak is in that area cause some of the fluid goes through the hole into the engine.

 

Ether is too dangerous to use for that purpose, I'd use carb cleaner instead. Squirt it around the vacuum lines and fittings and if the motor rpms drop, there's your leak.

 

lol yea sorry i was just going from memory, i guess i remembered wrong. it sounded kinda dangerous but i thought thats what it was

 

What is the rats nest, what do I remove and is this recommended for better performance?

 

It simplifies things to remove it, but technically, it won't enhance performance. Most of it has to due with idle-to-main circuit enrichening for emissions concerns. It does virtually nothing at cruise and acceleration, however does do funny things for the systen during decelleration.

It sounds to me like you're suffering from a fuel starvation problem probably caused by a dirty fuel filter.

 

I was running into to the same problem and more. I removed the rats nest this weekend which helped. But I was also having other problems with idle speed (can't get it under 1200 rpms) and something is going on with the choke.

 

three ways to high idle;
rediculously screwed up mixture adjustment- which, if the idle speed has'nt been tampered with, will probably only ever get lean enough for a 1100 RPM idle before it putters out;

Linkage hang-up/binding, ect. The butterfly valves are being stopped from closing to the position set by the idle screw. Could be the choke mechanism or the T-shaft linkage. Or crap.

VACUUM LEAK!

20 year old rubber is going to be brittle instead of elastic. The plastic tees and solenoids suffer the same affliction from years of fume laden heat.
They're toasted. This is the best reason to remove all the emissions crap.
If your carb's leakin, the emission **** aint workin anyhow.

 

What do I remove? Are there any previous threads that tell me how?

 

Vacuum leaks usually cause the engine to idle lower, rather than higher.