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Carb Draining

  • Thread starter Thread starter fritalian
  • Start date Start date
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fritalian

Guest
I'll be winterizing my '83 GS550ES for the first time but, I'm not sure how to drain the carbs properly. I intend to add Sea Foam to the fuel tank first, then run the engine for a while.
My question is, after I turn the petcock to the off position and run the bike to stall, how do I drain the remainder of the fuel from the float bowls?
I tried the forum search function to find out more about winterizing a GS, but for the last hour I've been getting nothing but: "Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 475816 bytes) in /home/thegsres/public_html/_forum/search.php on line 1160"... whatever that means.
Thanks for the help.
 
Remove the drain plug on the bottom of the float bowl
 
First of all, if you have a stock petcock, you don't have an OFF position.
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Second, if you have Seafoam in the gas, there is no need to drain the carbs.

Just fill the tank, park the bike, connect a battery tender, cover the bike with a sheet and don't start it up until you are ready to RIDE for at least half an hour. You will do more damage than good if you start it up every so often, just to "hear it purr" or "to charge the battery".

.
 
According to Bike Bandit's parts Fisch, there is a drain plug in the bottom of the float bowl. #50 and #51 if this link works. I have done the lazy boy drain, by pulling the vacuum line off the petcock and plugging it, then run it until its dead. You will need to run it on choke in the end.

I believe in draining them, but don't always.

http://www.bikebandit.com/1983-suzuki-gs550ed/o/m6068#sch237729
 
Last edited:
Hi,

fritalian said:
"Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 475816 bytes) in /home/thegsres/public_html/_forum/search.php on line 1160"... whatever that means.
Click to expand...

Click into your User CP (near the upper left corner of the forum pages) and change a setting in your "user control panel".

Once in your User CP, under the "Settings & Options" section, click on "Edit Options" in the left column.

On the next page, look under the "Thread Display Options" section. Click the pull-down menu in the "Thread Display Mode" box and change it to "Linear - Oldest First" (or '-Newest First' if you want the newest posts on top).

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the "Save Changes" button.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff
 
If you drain your carbs, no matter how well you do it. You will leave tiny amounts of gas inside tiny places in your carbs. This tiny amount of gas will evaporate out, leaving only varnish behind. Even with Seafoam or Stabil, tiny amounts will still evaporate over time leaving goo behind.

I treat my tank, ride it to the gas station, top it off ,ride it home and park it.

On a bike that I know is going to be stored for more than a year, I will pull the carbs, clean them, and put them away clean and dry. I also squirt little "fog" oil on top of the pistons, and pull the battery.
 
What you say is true, but the worst that can happen if you have a problem with varnish or goo is that you will have to remove the carbs and clean them. Your solution, while fail safe on the face of it, does not avoid that.

I've had carbs get gummed up when I drained them though. Right now, I've got a 850G that I haven't started since '09. I'll be interested to see how it is when I pull it out from behind the boat maybe next summer. Of couse I can't remember if the carbs were drained or not.

keman said:
If you drain your carbs, no matter how well you do it. You will leave tiny amounts of gas inside tiny places in your carbs. This tiny amount of gas will evaporate out, leaving only varnish behind. Even with Seafoam or Stabil, tiny amounts will still evaporate over time leaving goo behind.

I treat my tank, ride it to the gas station, top it off ,ride it home and park it.

On a bike that I know is going to be stored for more than a year, I will pull the carbs, clean them, and put them away clean and dry. I also squirt little "fog" oil on top of the pistons, and pull the battery.
Click to expand...
 
The only fool-proof way, as Keman stated, is to remove the carbs. and store them clean & dry. Small amounts of fuel will be left in the carbs. after draining, otherwise. We tried various techniques when storing fleet equipment but nothing is fool-proof for longer storage.

A problem in leaving carbs. on the bike, unless there is some protection against moisture and other corrosives, is that dry carbs. will corrode. The problem is annoying if corrosion occurs externally but can make recovering the carbs. impractical if it takes place within passages. Been there many times trying to recover carbs. for customers.

We tried draining, flushing with isopropyl alcohol and then drying with low pressure air but not convinced that this is fool -proof protection against corrosion. I love those movies in which someone finds a WW1 aircraft, works on it through part of the movie and then flies off into the sunset.;)

Fogging the engine is typically overlooked but can be of great benefit in order to reduce corrosion to combustion chamber, intake and exhaust system. Exhaust system corrosion can be much more of a problem in storage than gumming up the carbs.
 
What if one pulls the fuel line from the gas tank. Then runs the engine until the gas is gone, and fills the the carb bowls with carb spray through the fuel line. Run for a couple of seconds, and parks it for the season ? Or does the carb spray destroy the O rings ?
 
bccap said:
What if one pulls the fuel line from the gas tank. Then runs the engine until the gas is gone, and fills the the carb bowls with carb spray through the fuel line. Run for a couple of seconds, and parks it for the season ? Or does the carb spray destroy the O rings ?
Click to expand...


Carb spray will eat your O rings.
 
As long as the O-rings aren't submerged in carb spray for a long time they will be fine.
 
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