GS 550 carb settings

[BBRMotosports]

Hey guys this is my first post. My neighbor got a 77 GS550 in a basket. It melted a hold in number 4 piston. It was taken apart from the previous owner and he brought it to me. I run a motosports shop but mainly MX bikes, snowmobile's and ATV's. anyways I rebuilt the top end with all 4 new pistons and rings, lapped the valves all seal well, replaced the guide seals, shimmed the valves and Assembled the top end. Now the carbs were complete junk and missing parts so I found him a set on eBay that were on a "running" bike. I got them and and one of the needles were bent and it looked like the air screw and i'm guessing it may be called the fuel mixture screw? on the bottom of the carb were all played with. I took them completely apart minus the screw on the bottom of the carb and cleaned the he!! out of them. They are spotless! I got the bike to start but it will only start on carb cleaner and will not keep running on it's own. I have never played with one of these bikes so I need some guidence here. Does anyone know what everything should be set at? I have a clymer book and set the floats to what they said, and they said to start with the air screw at 2 turns. My main concern is the screw by the bowl. The book says they are set from the factory and pretty much not to tough them when i can tell they were played with. What should that be set at? Any help is appreciated Thanks Mike

[Nessism]

Fuel screw at 7/8 turn (bottom screw), air screw at 1.75. You are wasting your time unless you changed the O-rings on the intake boots, and preferably inside the carbs as well. Bike won't run without the airbox either, and a good filter inside.

Info like this is in the archives...

[BBRMotosports]

I should check in the gasket kit I got to see if it had o-ring's for it. The air filter was all eaten by mice so I figured I would atleast try to run it without. The owner wanted to just run single filters is that fine on this thing?

[BBRMotosports]

Also what o-rings in the carb?

[Nessism]

I should check in the gasket kit I got to see if it had o-ring's for it. The air filter was all eaten by mice so I figured I would atleast try to run it without. The owner wanted to just run single filters is that fine on this thing?

Also what o-rings in the carb?

You need to rejet if anything changes in the intake system. No air filter, pod air filters, even changes to the exhaust will likely force rejetting to get the bike to run right. Failing to rejet can damage the engine.

As for what O-rings in the carbs: all of them. And the intake pipe boot O-rings are sure to leak unless they have been replaced at some point.

Photo for inspiration...

[BBRMotosports]

I'll start with setting the carb like you said and ill try to convince him to just get a replacement filter element so I don't need to re jet this thing. I didn't think it actually wouldnt run without the airbox but i'll see what happens. I'm deafinatly not new to jetting bikes but i really don't want to mess with this thing anymore than I have to for the fact that i'm not getting paid for it haha. Ill replace the intake boot o-rings too

[BassCliff]

Greetings and Salutations!!

Hi Mr. BBRMotorsports,

If you want to fix it properly, the links below should help.

Let me dump a TON of information on you and share some GS lovin'.

I just stopped by to welcome you to the forum in my own, special way.

If there's anything you'd like to know about the Suzuki GS model bikes, and most others actually, you've come to the right place. There's a lot of knowledge and experience here in the community. Come on in and let me say "HOoooowwwDY!"....

Here is your very own magical, mystical, mythical, mind-expanding "mega-welcome". Please take notice of the "Top 10 Common Issues", "Top 15 Tips For GS Happiness", the Carb Cleanup Series, and the Stator Papers. All of these tasks must be addressed in order to have a safe, reliable machine. This is what NOT to do: Top 10 Newbie Mistakes. Now let me roll out the welcome mat for you...



Please click here for your mega-welcome, chock full of tips, suggestions, links to vendors, and other information. Then feel free to visit my little BikeCliff website where I've been collecting the wisdom of this generous community. Don't forget, we like pictures! Not you, your bike!

Thanks for joining us. Keep us informed.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff