1996 GL1500 Carburetor Repair
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This page: Carb removal from the bike.
Go to: Carb separation.
Go to: Carb overhaul.
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Job recap:
First all the plastic parts have to come away.
Remove the seat, the fairing lowers the shelter and the side panels, the pockets and all the side covers and so on.
Then remove the air cleaner top and the air filter.
This picture is a little bit out of order as the carbs are already removed, but it is the only picture I have with all the tupperware removed.
It should give you the idea, everything must come off to get to the carbs.
This view is from the left side. You are looking at the lower air cleaner pan, and you can see a little bit of the carbs underneath. Note the two vacuum hoses that attach to the pan. The one with the pink tape and the one with the green tape. The green one is already disconnected.
When removing the lower pan, there are 5 hoses to disconnect, the two mentioned above, one in the forward right corner, and two at the rear off center toward the left.
There are 2 bolts to loosen, one on each side toward the rear. You can see the brass colored one in the picture right next to the green piece of tape. There is a like one on the opposite side. And there are 6 screws that need to be undone. 3 around each carb barrel.
There are two more screws toward the rear left center. These may or may not work depending on the condition of the plastic. When I tried to loosen these screws, they just spun in place. I ended up having to remove these two hoses by hand. However, these screws hold on a plastic connector that these two hoses connect to. You should be able to unscrew them which will disconnect the plastic connector from the air pan. This will save you from trying to unclamp and reclamp these two hoses. You can leave these hoses connected to the connector. On mine, I had to remove them by hand.
Gently lift the pan and remove the hoses.
Removing the hoses isn't as bad as reinstalling them, but it is a challenge. The two hoses on the left side you see in this picture just slip off and you can get to them easily. The one in the front right corner has a clam and is hard to get to. It is a real bear to remove. You can't get to it very easily. The two on the right rear should stay attached to their connector, so they aren't so bad.
I strongly suggest having 3 pairs of 11 inch pliars, one pair with a 90 degree bend, one pair with a 45 degree bend, and one straight pair. You will use all three.
In all there are 3 hoses that make this job a real bitch. The one on the front right corner of the air box, and there are two antifreeze hoses that go to the front of the carburetors. (And I didn't get any pictures of any of these 3, sorry). If you don't cuss, after this job you will cuss like a sailor because of these 3. There isn't any slack in any of these 3 so you will suffer because you don't have any space to work between the pan and the bike frame/parts.
This picture is of the right side carb with the carbs still in the bike.
The double arrows point to two vacuum hoses. #19 is on top, #18 is on the bottom. (This will be important to remember when you reconnect them.)
The other arrow points to the hose that connects to the air pan. One of the ones that I referred to earlier. Possibly the hardest one to deal with.
I didn't take any more pictures of removal of the carburetors. But as best I can describe, it went like this:
First, disconnect the vacuum hoses on the left and right. Two on the right with pink tape, and one on the left with pink tape.
Second,you have to loosen the carbs from the intake manifolds.
Lots of arrows in this picture.
The two yellow arrows point to the clamps on the rubber boots that connect the carbs to the intake manifolds.
The clamps are double clamps. On each boot, there is a clamp holding the boots to the intakes, and a clamp holding the boots to the carbs.
You are going to need an 18 inch phillips screwdriver. You have to go in from the sides, working your way around the leg vents. You will see the two phillips screws one stacked over the other. Loosen the top on on both sides. Then you jiggle, rock, pull, pry the carbs up to break them free of the boots.
A word of caution, if you choose to pry, be careful what you pry against. I was afraid of breaking something on the carbs, I didn't. But I did bend the heck out of the frame piece that holds that brass colored bolt. The one that bolts down the lower half of the air cleaner pan.
You will have enough play in the carbs to rock them back and reach the antifreeze hoses.
Oh, now is a good time to drain the antifreeze from the bike.
The green arrows point to the antifreeze hoses. (difficult)
The blue arrow points to the fuel line.
The red arrows point to the difficult hoses that go to the lower air cleaner pan. Remember, in my case, I had to remove two of these hoses at the clamps because I couldn't unscrew the connector. Assuming you don't have the same problem, you should have a black connector still connected to these two hoses at the lower left. The other red arrow goes to the hose at the forward right. This one is a real tough one. Absolutely, this one is the toughest one of the entire job.
The white arrow points to two hoses that attach to the lower side of the carbs. These are drain hoses, and snake around the right side of the bike and open end at the rear of the engine. These two can be worked up so that you have slack in these. so these are the last to disconnect.
Back to the coolant hoses. These are really difficult because there isn't any slack, plus there isn't any room to get to them.
See this picture of the front of the carbs (removed):
The upper arrows point to vacuum hoses that connect to the pink tape hoses on the right.
The middle arrow points to the bar that connects the two throttle valves to eachother.
The lower arrows point to the tubes that the coolant hoses connect to.
Here's the tough part of it. There isn't enough room to work, so the hoses and the bar get in the way. Disconnect the vacuum hoses at the arrows to give yourself more working room. The bar you just have to live with.
Then disconnect the coolant hoses.
This is the same picture. but this time the arrows are pointing to cable connections.
The single arrow on the left (the right side of the carbs) points to the bracket that holds the choke cable. The bracket is spun down in this picture and hiding behind the hoses. But you can see the screw. Remove the choke cable.
The triple arrows points to the cruise control cable bracket and the lever. One time I undid the two screws to loosen the cruise control cable, another time I loosened the nut on the cable and pulled the cable out of the bracket. Either way works.
This is the rear of the carbs:
The arrows point to the bracket that holds the throttle cables.
Loosen the throttle cables and disconnect.
You should have two remaining hoses at the bottom, they are drain hoses. Disconnect them. Any remaining connections that I may have forgotten, go ahead and disconnect and the carbs will be free.
Go to: Carb job summary page.
This page: Carb removal from the bike.
Go to: Carb separation.
Go to: Carb overhaul.
Go to: Misc pictures.
Return to: Jim's Goldwing page.
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