Need a part, but I do not know the name of it....

[vrecksler]

Hello everyone, this is my first post so I will begin with a brief intro. I have lurked here for a while but this is the first time I have needed the answer to a question that could not be found by searching the old posts.

I own a 1981 GS 1100X with 21,000 km and everything on it is original and stock. I bought it a little over a year ago with 19,000 km from an older gentleman who had the bike since new and it had been sitting in the garage for several years.

I am not so mechanically inclined but I am not afraid to get dirty and much around with a manual or online instructions in hand. Sometimes it works, others it does not, but I enjoy at least trying to do things on my own. In the first year I had to replace a lot of seals and rubber o-rings (chain too and thought about doing a 520 conversion but left it stock) but at the end of last winter I ran into a serious problem.

It was raining hard....sheets of rain were coming down actually, and I was on my way home from school. The bike started lurching a little, kind of sputtering like it was running out of gas. It finally died out a short while later and when I returned to the bike the next day I could not get it to start.

The problem was traced to the little black box thingy (igniter I think?) on the left side; I did not have the cover for it and procrastinated on picking up a used one reasoning that the battery light did not bother me that much, and I did not mind the missing cover. The rain must have shorted it and I was unsuccessful at repairing it, and I have no clue on the part number.

I have heard it is a few hundred bucks, but figured I would post here and see if anyone has a part number (stock or a suitable replacement from a different bike), the actual name (if I have it wrong), and where a good place to buy it is. Now that the weather is a bit nicer I would love to get it going again; have a DRZ SM to commute on but the 400cc revs a bit high when I am on the freeway, and the big seat on the GS is great for packing my lacrosse gear around.

Thanks!

[Rock]

Try here and you should find it. http://www.alpha-sports.com/suzuki_parts.htm
I get my parts from the dealer. I have a 78 gs1000 and they have been able to get all the factory parts I have asked for so far in a few days.

[robinjo]

I have a used iginitor unit off an '80 1100 in my parts stash but I would first find out if it was indeed the unit and not one or two coils failing due to the rain, that is pretty common. If it is indeed the ignitor I personally would buy a Dyna III instead of second hand parts.

[Tarbash 27]

i have a 79 gs750 and had this problem. i was riding to florida and i stopped at a hotel for the night, the next morning i noticed it rained. the bike was wet and so were the roads. as i was riding all of a sudden bike died like it was out of gas. i lost power. so i rigged it for a few hours until it dired up. what i didn was take the top fuse out of the 4. i put it in between were the number 1 fuse and number 2 go. this basically hotwired the bike and i had full power again. maybe that would work for you if you died out again just in case

[vrecksler]

Thanks guys, I will give some of that a try. I do know it is not the coil, I had already replaced the inside coil previous to that rainy day and both coils were fine. I will try the hot wiring idea for a short term solution but will make sure it is the igniter before going for a replacement.