Hey guys, I know this isn't the ideal forum for this but I figured it was worth a shot.

I own a '82 GL1100 Honda Gold Wing motorcycle. I have had it for years and never had any issues with it.

Recently though it likes to overheat when pulling hills or and higher rpm stuff. Around town I never have any problems. I have already flushed the whole system, changed the T-stat, checked the radiator for excessive deposits, etc and there is no oil in the water or water in the oil. Basically everything is tip-top.

I guess the last thing would be the water pump, but it is a pricey item to buy if it isn't the problem.

Any suggestions guys? I really enjoy riding and can't afford a new bike right now.

Thanks in advance.

older bike ........ check out the manifolds to carb flanges .... the rubber cracks causing air leaks ..... same story on vacuum lines ... its also possible that you've got a plugged main jet or two .... causing a lean condition :)

older bike ........ check out the manifolds to carb flanges .... the rubber cracks causing air leaks ..... same story on vacuum lines ... its also possible that you've got a plugged main jet or two .... causing a lean condition :)

Yeah, I forgot to mention that. I just rebuilt all 4 carbs and replaced all the o-rings from the manifolds to heads. Just to make sure, I've sprayed carb cleaner on the rubber between the carbs and manifolds and the manifolds to heads while idling and nothing changes like a vacuum leak would suggest.

The whole bike was taken apart 2 years ago and all the gaskets, seals, and hoses were replaced except the case seals and head gaskets since they were super clean, no leaks etc.

Thanks anyway though.

what % are you running the anti freeze to water ratio at ?? anything over 40% antifreeze is not going to cool correctly ......

Did it run hot the last time you were able to ridethe bike before you rblt the carbs?

Its seeming like when you get it under a load up hill or when acceloraing hard it gets hot,lean fuel calibration and or retartded ign timing can do that so dbl chk the carb tuning & ign timing.

Also,since its an old bike could it possibly be carboned a lot up increasing compression cuaisng overheating issues? Get a hold of a good top end cleaner to use in the fuel and run that .

If the motor is carbomed up ic comp are you running 93 oct fuel? If not lower oct fuel can also cause the motor to run hotter too.

For example,I have a 77 kawi kz1000 i bought new in 77 and it ran fine on 87 & 89 fuel for yrs but sinces its carboned up over the yrs and todya's fule's have the lead removed/octain lowered/it's been oxygenated/and ethenol was added all the collectively affected my bike's fuel calibration & it ran hotter and pinged even with 93 oct fuel under load uphill or accelorating hard just like your bike but ran fine other then that,i also had new carb intakes/seals so no intake leaks causing lean issues.

I had to fatten up the fuel calibration like richen up the slide needles/inc pilot & main jets a little bit and also back off the timing a smidge to get it to run cooler and stop detonating on todays crappy 93 oct fuel.

Lastly, there removeable baffles in the ex pipes,if yes remove them and clean the carbon off the baffles witha wire brush. If they are dirty that will increase back pressure in the ex system thus cause the motor to run hotter too.

Scott

Are the carbs snyched?

Here is a good web site for Goldwings:

www.goldwingfacts.com/forums/forum1/

I have an 83 Goldwing that I just restored. Good luck

Manx96

Did it run hot the last time you were able to ridethe bike before you rblt the carbs?

Its seeming like when you get it under a load up hill or when acceloraing hard it gets hot,lean fuel calibration and or retartded ign timing can do that so dbl chk the carb tuning & ign timing.

Also,since its an old bike could it possibly be carboned a lot up increasing compression cuaisng overheating issues? Get a hold of a good top end cleaner to use in the fuel and run that .

If the motor is carbomed up ic comp are you running 93 oct fuel? If not lower oct fuel can also cause the motor to run hotter too.

For example,I have a 77 kawi kz1000 i bought new in 77 and it ran fine on 87 & 89 fuel for yrs but sinces its carboned up over the yrs and todya's fule's have the lead removed/octain lowered/it's been oxygenated/and ethenol was added all the collectively affected my bike's fuel calibration & it ran hotter and pinged even with 93 oct fuel under load uphill or accelorating hard just like your bike but ran fine other then that,i also had new carb intakes/seals so no intake leaks causing lean issues.

I had to fatten up the fuel calibration like richen up the slide needles/inc pilot & main jets a little bit and also back off the timing a smidge to get it to run cooler and stop detonating on todays crappy 93 oct fuel.

Lastly, there removeable baffles in the ex pipes,if yes remove them and clean the carbon off the baffles witha wire brush. If they are dirty that will increase back pressure in the ex system thus cause the motor to run hotter too.

Scott

I rebuilt/sync'd the carb after the overheating started. There is no ignition timing adjustment and the timing belts are fine. I have run several upper cylinder cleaners and lubes, none have helped. I always run the best and highest octane fuel I can. I've never heard it ping, even when its already overheating. My mufflers/pipes are the stock single piece unit and to buy new one's are $600+. I thought the mufflers might be backed up too, but I haven't had any power loss since this started.

I forgot to mention earlier that when the bike is really hot and overheating I had some other riders tell me that a little oil smoke (burning) comes out of the left side tailpipe on accel or under load (hill climbing). If the bike is cool or even hot and not under load, no smoking at all.

Also, when the bike is really hot it starts breaking up and wants to die.

Are the carbs snyched?

See above...

Does the fan actually work? Honda had a lot of problems with the temp sensors not triggering the electric fan back in the early/mid '80's.

Hi Cable,your bike definately hase a strange problem going on.

What yr in your Goldwing?

I have also been working on 2 & 4 stroke bikes for 36+ yrs and have some suggestions for you to chk out.

You stated "Also, when the bike is really hot it starts breaking up and wants to die"

With that in mind chk these thinkgs out.

* If your bike is 20-30 yrs old the fins on the radiator could be partially corroded/rotted which is hard to see when its suttle. But what happens in that case is the tubes in the rad can transfer the heat to the fins so they can pull/remove/disapate the heas from the radiator tubes and overheating is the result. I have seen this happen mult times over the yrs with classic cars and can happen to bikes with raidaotrs too. The corrosion can be very suttle which you cant always see well with an un aided eye so dont count out a bad raidator as that alone could be your problem.

* Bad coolent temp sensor that turns fans on? But that would be more of an issue in traffic and the fans should not normaly be activated/running when at cruise speeds when the radiator is seeing more airflow unless its really hot out or the cooling fins ar partially rotted as i already mentioned above.

* Were you able to verify good coolent flow in the cooling system? I ask this because possibly the impeller came/or broke off the water pump causing no coolent flow so pull it to check that out too.

* You mentioned getting new $600 pipes,if they are not stock rep and are a different style/design performance oriented system the carbs could simply be calibrated/jetted too lean because the new exhuast has less back pressure. If you didnt recalibrate the carbs for an aftermarket perf ex try moving the clips on the needles in the slides down 1-2 slots and increase pilot jets by 1 step & main jets by 2 steps iup from stock.

Again,pulling/applying some choke when the motor starts to run poorly will tell you the answer to that one if the motor is running too lean and needs some more fuel.

* You said there is no ign timing adj,ther has to be some kind of mech or electronic adv somewhere on the bike. Check to see if the mech adv is jamed/stuck and cant advnace as rpms increase. Even thogh there is no timing adj you should stillne able to chk it,do you have a service/rep manual that covers that?

* Also,since there is not timing adj as you stated does your elec igc have a feature in it that is supposed to adv the timing under certain operating cond and that went bad.
I had a 73 h2 750 kawi 2 stroke tripple(had 5 h1 500's too) that had an issue where the bike ran ok under load getting into it but at light/partial throttle cruise the elec ign was not working propely and it causedan intermittant misfire that drove me nut's untill if figured that out.

* Is there any type of vacuum sensore that could have gone bad that controls ign timing whenh motor is up to operating temp,is under load going up hill, or when throttle is opened futher like when getting on it? If thats the case that sensor could have gone bad and isnt adv the timing or retartding the timing when it should casuing problems.

* Do you have one of the vacuum operated fuel petcocks thats gone bad that doesnt allow enough fuel into the motor esp under a load up hill resulting in excessively lean mixtures resulting in overheating exp up hill under a load? Chk that out too as it could be bad or a vacuume leak could cause it not to work properly.

* When the motor gets hot and is misfiring or starting to die going up a hill try partially applying some choke to enrich the mix a little and it that helps even just for a moment untill fuel supply is basically used up that tells you it's a fuel supply issue of some kind and where to look next which would be to chk/replace the petcock and re-chek the float lvls if i were you at that point.

* Did the carb kits included new main & pilot jets along with slide neelds? you also need to verify that the kit had the correct pilot & main jets for your bike along with proper slide needles. This is assuming you have slide carbs like most jap bikes had back in the day.

* Still assuming you have slide carbs did you place the clips on the slide needles too far up in the upper slots making resulting in a very lean mix esp if the carb kits had too lean of main jets which you didnt catch during rbld,that could also cause your type of issue too.

Scott