New owner

[garyholc01]

Hi everyone, I recently bought a Suzuki GS650GT off my uncle, its a 1981 model, import (I live in UK). My uncle has had it for the past 4 years and its been sat in the garage, he's done about 150 miles in all the 4 years he had it, so decided last month to sell it.

I bought it off him, but before that he took it to a local garage to have the bike checked out. They stripped the carbs and cleaned them all etc. and the bike runs very nice now. Lovely smooth ride thanks to the shaft drive.

However, the thing wont idle. Coming to a junction in 1st the bike will idle for a few seconds, but then the idle gets really slow and the bike stalls. It starts ok immediately after but at standstill I have to open the throttle slightly. The bike idles around 500 rpm which to me seems slow.

It will start easily on a cold day with the choke out, but once the bike warms up, the engine runs slowly even with the choke fully out and then stalls.

I am going to take the bike back to the garage to let them have another look, but from doing a search on this site it would appear I am not alone in my problems. Seems to be a common problem amongst those people with the same carbs who have cleaned them.

I'm not very mechanical minded and before I go back to the garage I was wondering if you could point me in the direction of what I should suggest may be wrong, or if there are any tests I can do myself. Like I said, the bike runs lovely when on a run, its just when I come to a stop and after a second or two, it stalls.

Here is a link to a picture of the bike:

http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/alton1993/ds_DSC00645.jpg

Welcome any comments, great site by the way, has been very helpful already.

[flyingace]

Welcome aboard!

There is an large idle adjustment screw underneath the bank of carbs, between #2 and #3. It's big enough to turn with your bare fingers. Find it and turn it clockwise until you reach 1000-1100 rpm. If this has no effect, there's probably something wrong with the carbs, airbox, etc.

[garyholc01]

Thanks for the reply. Can I get to the screw easily without having to remove anything? Also by the way, my fuel guage dosent work, which again I see is a common fault, and I have seen the brilliant guide to fixing it in the Tips and Tricks section, however, is there any guide here on how to remove the fuel tank?

I didnt realise the fuel tank was so small - infact I dont know if there is fuel in the reserve. If I put fuel in the tank, will it automatically fill up the reserve if the reserve is empty.

Thanks

[dpep]

Thanks for the reply. Can I get to the screw easily without having to remove anything? Also by the way, my fuel guage dosent work, which again I see is a common fault, and I have seen the brilliant guide to fixing it in the Tips and Tricks section, however, is there any guide here on how to remove the fuel tank?

I didnt realise the fuel tank was so small - infact I dont know if there is fuel in the reserve. If I put fuel in the tank, will it automatically fill up the reserve if the reserve is empty.

Thanks

You should be able to get to the idle set screw without removing anything from the bike. You will probably have to bend your hand and wrist a bit; and be careful to keep your hands away from the engine. You want to do the adjusttment after it has warmed up.

And yes the reserve is replenished at fill up. It is not a separate section of the tank. It is just the fuel at the bottom. The reserve position just opens up a port lower down in the tank than the regular "fuel on" position.

[bwringer]

Wear thin leather gloves when adjusting the idle -- I have an old ratty pair of summer riding gloves with gauntlets that I use when mucking with idle speed on a hot engine.

If you can't get a consistent good 1,000 - 1,100 rpm idle, you may also have a problem with an intake leak of some sort. This is most commonly caused by old cracked intake boots, bad intake boot o-rings (if your bike has these), or bad boots between the airbox and carbs. A good shop should have checked for intake leaks, but you never know.

You can spray water or WD-40 around the intake boots and see if there are changes in the idle RPM, or stumbling or odd smoke coming out the exhaust -- anything to indicate that the water or WD-40 has been sucked into the engine.

[garyholc01]

Thank you all for your replies, will try your suggestions. I can get a nice idle at around 1000 when I holod the throttle open, so I guess there is no reason why I shouldnt be able to do this with the idle screw, which I managed to find today.

Just out of interest, what is the recommended idle speed for these bikes?

[beby99]

Just out of interest, what is the recommended idle speed for these bikes?

If you can't get a consistent good 1,000 - 1,100 rpm idle, you may also have a problem with an intake leak of some sort..

What he said ^

Nice bike BTW...how many miles on it?

[garyholc01]

only 21,000 miles, 2 owners, local bike, imported in 1992 not sure where from though. Yeah loving the bike may just add a nice screen to the front. Cheers for your help.