Dang ol' Starting problems

[baz666]

83 GS750ES parked all winter in garage.
Ran fine back then.
Now won't start.
Bike cranks like crazy with a new battery.
Cranks when I put screwdriver across solenoid poles.
When I use a lot of Quick Start it almost fires but not quite.
The sparks are yellowish blue and there seem to be two of them on each plug. Maybe that's just my vision. And I wouldn't call the spark "fat".
I tested the ohms on the coils, at both ends and they read normal.
Could it be the caps themselves or plugs wires?
I'm thinking a combination of clogged carbs and old plug caps/wires
but any ideas at all would be most welcome.
thanks,
baz

[Steve]

Did you stabilize the fuel before you stored the bike for the winter?

When is the last time you adjusted the valves?

Did you turn the petcock to PRIme to fill the bowls?

Have you changed the air in the tires from "storage" air to "riding" air?

Please get rid of the "Quick Start".

.

[spyug]

These bikes are hard to start at times and its usually due to one or two things:
a) valves not properly adjusted.
b)lack of full voltage to the coils
c) bad or under powered battery ( even brand new ones can be junk)
d) clogged starting circuits in the carbs

One thing I've experienced a time or two with different bikes is that if the battery voltage drops below 12.4 volts or so when cranking it won't fire. There is often enough voltage to spin the starter for quite a few minutes but not enough to do that and supply the coils with full voltage.

Another issue can be that the wiring in the circuit to the coils can have corroded connectors causing resistance and the full voltage available from the battery may then drop by as much as 1 to 1.5 volts or more. The coil relay mod is the sure fire (no pun intended) solution. I'm thinking this could be a big part of your problem. You can check this by measuring the voltage from the battery through the different connections on that circuit all the way to the coils. You will need to refer to your wiring diagram for this but its not hard.

The gas up here does go bad quickly and if its not stabilized it likely has gone gummy in the carbs. As you know the only solution for that is a strip, dip and rebuild.

As Steve mentions, "Quick Start" very bad for bikes. Use too much and you can blow off the head. A spray bottle of gas is much safer but if its fuel starved its again likely clogged carb jets or passages.

If the coils spec out, its unlikely the plug leads are bad. You could try and change plugs but you are getting spark just not healthy spark so I again think the coils are not getting full voltage.

I hope this helps a wee bit.

Good luck,
Spyug

[baz666]

Thanks for you help Spyug,
I adjusted the valves and as I said the battery is new but it is a cheap Energizer (yes, they make bike/utility batteries) so when I get home from work I'll check and see what kind of voltage it reads at the coils leads coming out of the wiring harness.
Also, after sitting all winter with old gas - and I did use stabilizer but maybe it wasn't enough and I'm thinking that the gas up here in Canada is so bad that the small amount of stabilizer I used wasn't enough and the carbs are gummed up.
So, as you itemized...
a) valves not properly adjusted - DONE
b)lack of full voltage to the coils - WILL TEST
c) bad or under powered battery ( even brand new ones can be junk)- WILL TEST
d) clogged starting circuits in the carbs - IF IT DOESN'T START WITH A DIFFERENT, FULLY CHARGED BATTERY, IT'LL BE TIME TO REMOVE AND CLEAN CARBS.
Any other tips you may have would also be much appreciated.
thanks,
baz

[Don-lo]

Gas tank has enough gas?

Put in new spark plugs

Warm the engine for 5 mins with a hair dryer

Turn choke on full. Do not open the throttle at all!

If it doesn't start immediately, carbs are plugged. Even after it starts, it may run bad, never clearing out, which means plugged carbs too.