I inherited a GS550 from my father in law who had it sitting in his backyard for fifteen years, bowls full of gas, and everything. After a new battery and some starting fluid, it started right up, and made it home at 75+ mph. It never charged, but it wasn't a big deal because a full battery lasted a week without having to kick start it. Everything is stock, 4-2 exhaust, plain old airbox, and everything.
It sat for a month this winter (I drained the bowls) and when I got it going it didn't run right. It was backfiring, and couldn't go above 45mph and sort of sputtered and surged. So I looked on this Forum, and everything I found said "clean the carbs". Backfiring to me means a timing problem, but everything I read here said carbs, so what the hell. I figured it was high time anyways, so I dropped $150 just for the rubber boots between the carbs and heads, got new o-rings for the intake, o-rings for all the screws, and a little o-ring kit for the main jet and connecting things between carbs. I dipped and blew out everything, and surprisingly the carb were pretty clean after sitting for 15 years. I got everything perfect according to the book, or some things according to this forum that weren't in the book. I synched em great, and put the carbs back on.
Same thing. So, then I figured I would go with my gut instinct, and play with the timing. I tried the method by setting the widest gap to 14 thousandths, and then adjusting them to the timing mark. It fired right up! No backfiring at all! Idles strong too! But it won't rev!
I think that I never had a carb problem in the first place, it was just the points! But too late now, I've already screwed up the carbs, and now I'm stuck. Everything is right on the carbs, and clean. Whether I try to richen it or lean it out, it still won't rev. If I give it any throttle it just gets loud and throaty, but the RPM doesn't increase or decrease, it just gets loud. I took the carbs off again, cleaned them, resyched them even though there wasn't much of a change, no difference. I used a timing light and it's firing way before TDC, but I read on here that that is normal. SO I don't know what else the problem could be. I have no air leaks, no fuel leaks or blockages, clean filter, good gas, and everything. Could it be that this bike just hates me?
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