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GS550L Won't run after carb work

  • Thread starter Thread starter scott808
  • Start date Start date
Starting Over

Starting Over

OK Here is the history:
I had the bike a few months and it ran fairly well.
The bike seems to run out of gas with two gallons in the tank.
The bike died at freeway speed suddenly, and would restart on after sitting for a long time.

I did a half ass carb cleaning and the bike would not start
I got grief from all you guys.
I did a by the book carb cleaning and found very little.
Bike did not start. Would only run on starting fluid.
Replaced O rings and checked for leaks.
Increased float level. Bike starts ocasionally but quits at idle then won't restart. But this is the first time it ran without starting fluid.
Checked gas flow by removing the bowl plugs. I get plenty of gas flowing.

What else can I do? Thanks
 
scott808 said:
OK Here is the history:
I had the bike a few months and it ran fairly well.
The bike seems to run out of gas with two gallons in the tank.
The bike died at freeway speed suddenly, and would restart on after sitting for a long time.

I did a half ass carb cleaning and the bike would not start
I got grief from all you guys.
I did a by the book carb cleaning and found very little.
Bike did not start. Would only run on starting fluid.
Replaced O rings and checked for leaks.
Increased float level. Bike starts ocasionally but quits at idle then won't restart. But this is the first time it ran without starting fluid.
Checked gas flow by removing the bowl plugs. I get plenty of gas flowing.

What else can I do? Thanks
Click to expand...

You need a lifeline badly my friend. Whatever is wrong is going to be simple but it may take a fresh set of eyeballs on it to see it. You mention carb, carb and carb. From the first I heard I thought it was petcock. Have you tried a gas bottle or aux tank? What exactly have you done to diagnose the petcock?

You need gas, air & fire to start a motor. Assuming you have the spark & air properly taken out of the equation then that leads us to gas. If you have done carbs properly you should have gas unless you are having flow restriction, broken or clogged petcock. Have you removed the petcock from tank ever to take a look at it?
 
same thing is happening to me on my 85... I soaked and rebuilt the carbs, new oring kit from cycleorings, adjusted everything to spec.. installed new orings on intake boots, installed carbs, primed carbs, used an aux tank, and it fired right up, idled great, rev'd great, ran till I shut it off.

Now it wont start no matter what I try.. not even with ether.. Maybe my problem is the same as yours... Hopefully one of us can figure this out and get our bikes running. Never give up hope,, its gotta be something simple were missing.

Rick
 
dark7068 said:
same thing is happening to me on my 85... I soaked and rebuilt the carbs, new oring kit from cycleorings, adjusted everything to spec.. installed new orings on intake boots, installed carbs, primed carbs, used an aux tank, and it fired right up, idled great, rev'd great, ran till I shut it off.

Now it wont start no matter what I try.. not even with ether.. Maybe my problem is the same as yours... Hopefully one of us can figure this out and get our bikes running. Never give up hope,, its gotta be something simple were missing.

Rick
Click to expand...

Will it still start on the bottle though or is this with bottle on now that it won't start?
 
Have you done a compression test on each of your cylinders? Get yourself a tester that has a 12mm adapter and see if you have enough compression.

I have an 1984 GS550L. Just started it up tonight after letting it sit for 11 years. Rebuilt the carbs. I have the same problem as you. It starts with the choke but will not run without the choke on. When I twist the throttle it stalls. Once I get a 12mm adapter for my compression tester I will check compression.

Let us know if you make any progress.
 
well mine hasn't started. it ran great right after I cleaned and new orings in my carbs,, fired right up and idled, rev'd up real quick, sounded real sweet.. now the damn thing wont even catch with gas or ether after turning over.. been trying for 2 weeks... stick it in the back of the garage and it can sit..
 
dark7068 said:
well mine hasn't started. it ran great right after I cleaned and new orings in my carbs,, fired right up and idled, rev'd up real quick, sounded real sweet.. now the damn thing wont even catch with gas or ether after turning over.. been trying for 2 weeks... stick it in the back of the garage and it can sit..
Click to expand...

it don't sound like carbs are the issue..

.
 
ive had the carbs off about 5 times making sure I didn't forget something and clean spotless.. the thing ran great right after I put it together and adjusted it.. now just turns over and drains the battery... not cool :twistedevil:
 
I appreciate everyone's attention to the carbs, but are you looking at the ignition too (didn't see a response to hjfisk's post below)?

Are you checking for spark? Is it fat and blue?

Are you charging the battery between attempts to start?

What's your voltage at the coils? Across battery? <- those two should be within about 1V of each other.

Spark plugs new, or at least clean (insulator end soaked in white vinegar overnight to clean)?

What's your cap -> cap resistance across each coil?

Also, have we checked valve clearances yet?

Are the carbs getting bench sync'd before re-installation?

All clamps and boots tight and in good shape?

(If you can get it to start and idle for a bit) Are all the pipes getting hot at the same rate?

You can have a mixture that's a bit off and still run. You can have weak spark and still run. You can have somewhat tight valves and still run. You can be somewhat out of sync and still run. Try to run with all of these things a little bit off and maybe not so much...

In the early days my bike would occasionally die on me. It would run great for a while, then just die. But it wasn't a "running out of fuel" death, like it lost power, sputtered and coughed then eventually gave up - it was full-bore to nothing. The igniter was overheating and would just die. Let it sit for 15 minutes or so and it would start again and go another half hour until it died again. Later I would have issues with stalling at stops. That was largely weak spark, coupled with needle seat o-rings that were leaking and giving a bit of a rich run.

Carbs can certainly be maddening at times, but you might be looking at multiple issues here.
 
I have spark its kinda weak but there, I let battery charge between trying to start,, voltage is 12.65.. should be plenty to start Id think. float bowls are filling up.. im done for now lol
 
what is goin on, removed and inspected both carbs Again and still wont start. put fuel down spark plug holes and started for a sec so it has to be carb related right?.
 
Scott, I got mine to run idle and rev good.. It was my floats weren't set right.. they were around 15mm or so, which apparently is to low.. they need to be 20.5mm or close.. I reset mine to 20.5ish and it starts real quick,, maybe check your float height again?
 
Steve said:
How can there be a response to his "post below", when his post is 21 posts ABOVE yours? :-k

.
Click to expand...

I believe the forum software defaults to displaying the posts in reverse chronological order. Most people, I would imagine, change this immediately to preserve their sanity. It's possible that some don't. :)
 
OK, OK, OK. After four years I FINALLY went in and changed the display order from the default. Honestly didn't bother me though :)
 
While you were there, did you also change it to show 40 posts per page?

Makes it MUCH easier to read longer threads. :D

.
 
scott808 did you replace the 4 large O rings between the head and intake stubs?
 
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