Engine only starts with starting fluid

[Hagan34]

I recently purchased a 1982 gs 1100e with only 4k original miles. That being said I knew I had some work to do so I cleaned the carbs upon many other things. I went to start it yesterday and it will only fire up with a spray of starting fluid. I've tried with the choke on and off as well as the petcock on prime and on positions. Plenty of fresh gas in the tank and I checked in the float bowls as well. I definitely cleaned the pilot jet so now I'm stuck. Any suggestions would be very appreciated!

thanks,

Jake

 

[fastbysuzuki]

Well if it fires up ok on sniffer (starting fluid) for now we would assume the sparks dept are working ish.
On the face of it sounds like you are not getting fuel to the engine.
Take the fuel pipe from the carbs turn the petcock to prime to ensure you are getting fuel.
How exactly did you clean the carbs ?
Did you check the float levels?
When you say "I checked the float bowls" what do you mean?
There is a good piece on cleaning the carbs here http://zeus.mtsac.edu/~cliff/storage/gs/mc_maint/GS_CV_Carb_Cleaning_Series.pdf
you can get the orings from a member here Robert Barr http://cycleorings.com/

 

[Steve]

It's nice to have clean pilot jets and fuel in the bowls, but there are many tiny passages between them. You need to disassemble the carbs and soak them in carb cleaner overnight, then re-assemble with new o-rings, NOT "carb rebuild" kits. O-rings are available from cycleorings.com.

.

 

[robertbarr]

Low miles on the bike, but the clock's been ticking on the intake O-rings for 36 years. Low-cost fix. Hard starting could also mean low compression / tight valves, but at 4k, I'd address the low-hanging fruit first.

 

[gustovh]

Pull the plug on one of the float bowls and see if you are even getting fuel to the carbs. It is possible that you connected the fuel line to one of the vent T's?
If no fuel in the carbs then remove the fuel line from the valve and attach a piece of tubing to the valve, disconnect the vacuum line from the carb and give it a suck, fuel should flow in all positions.

V

 

[bwringer]

Here's some REQUIRED reading for you:
https://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?171846-Top-10-Newbie-Mistakes


First, immediately dispose of that starting fluid in the proper, legal manner (I usually say throw it in the trash, but that's not a nice thing to do to to your trash). It does absolutely nothing useful, and you stand a good chance of damaging your engine or yourself. Starting fluid has no place in any garage.

Next, properly clean and rebuild your carbs. You've got some small passages plugged.

No, there are no shortcuts. The carbs must be disassembled.

No, you can't just spritz some carb cleaner. That's a lovely way to ruin some very expensive rubber parts.

Fortunately, this is a lot easier than it looks... the carb cleanup series will guide you through every step of the way. And it's cheap -- all you need is the o-ring kit mentioned above from http://www.cycleorings.com

Do NOT waste money on carb kits. They're useless, shoddy imitation junk.

Here's the Carb Cleanup Series:
https://thegsresources.com/carbclean.php