1984 GSX550E poor running

[84gsx]

Hi everyone.

I have a 1984 GSX550E which I've owned for a year or so and has never run right. It was bought on the assumption that it just needed a carb clean to run but that wasnt the case. First issue was a cross threaded spark plug which meant swapping the cylinder head, but that didnt fully solve the problem as the bike only ran intermittently. Carbs have been cleaned numerous times, most recently with brand new jets and gaskets, along with rust treating and sealing the tank and rebuilding the petcock with a new fuel filter. Valve clearances have been set recently.
,
At the present moment the bike will start on choke and run for 5 mins ish until it dies and then cannot be restarted until it has been left for 20 mins.

Whilst waiting for a new battery and spark plugs to be delivered, I decided to check the igniter resistances and found that every single one was different to what the table in the manual stated, all of them reading either 0 or MOhms rather than the KOhms it should read. This no doubt means the igniter is broken in some way, however I am still getting spark at every plug which is confusing. Electronics is definitely my weak point so any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

[tom203]

Describe your carb cleaning technique.....

[84gsx]

Stripped down completely - jets/float/needle/fuel filter/diaphragm all removed. Carb cleaner and compressed air through all passages, just had brand new main and pilot jets.

[LAB3]

I'm sure others will chime in on the carb issues. A good thing to do would be to check the resistance of the spark plug caps, those separate from the plug wires with a good tug and then measure the resistance of the caps themselves. It's usually a good idea to clip off about 1/4" of the old wire and reinsert them anyway to make sure you have good contact, I'd give that a try.

[rphillips]

Is there be a problem running spark plug caps, with no resistors? Seems that would omit that problem. Yrs ago we would removed the resistor from the cap & pack the void full of copper wire.

[LAB3]

Is there be a problem running spark plug caps, with no resistors? Seems that would omit that problem. Yrs ago we would removed the resistor from the cap & pack the void full of copper wire.

Not sure but my sense is that since the circuit was designed for there to be resistance there it should probably stay that way. Actually, about this time last year I found that the stock non-resistor plugs for my GS450 where no longer being made. Was going to just use the resistor plug that superseded it and swap out the caps for non-resistor but ended up coming across a set. SO, in this case, if the caps are out of range I'd probably go that route. Two of the caps on my Goldwing where shot to the point where they didn't fire (very often)