Help!!!!!!!

[Suzuki mad]

Collected a truck to go to auction a few years ago. Gauge showed 1/4 tank and every 5 miles it would just stop. Sit for and hour and it would start and run for 5 miles.
When the repair guy turned out the fuel tap filter was full of rust from the bottom of the tank!

Start at the begining, which is drain the tank and take the fuel tap and filter out to check if its clogged up. Next is checking the tank for rust inside and sorting that. Then its fuel tap, down to carbs.

If its still playing up then check the electrics such as the coils etc.

Suzuki mad.

[justmount1]

i just had the carbs redone so i can rule that out i believe

[steve-lloyd]

i was wondering how would i put an inline filter that i always here people talking about on my bike.

Many owners don't seem to realise that there is already a fuel filter attached to the petcock, inside the gas tank, so why fit another filter outside?

[koolaid_kid]

Personally, I would call the in-tank one a strainer, rather than a filter. JMO.

[justmount1]

so i took the tank off and it looked like the surrounding areas of the petcock might have been wet. whats everyones take on this.

[justmount1]

will an air leak right there cause my bike to act up like it has been or am i looking for something else?

[nabrams]

An air leak would not prevent your bike from starting once warm.
It has to be either a fuel starvation issue or ignition components that quit when heated up fully (see the many posts on this topic).
Letting the bike sit for a while would solve either problem - ignition components would cool off and fuel would slowly seep through clogged areas.
It sounds like you haven't eliminated the possibility of fuel starvation, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to visually verify spark at the time of the problem (carry you spark plug remover tool with you). If you have good spark at the point of the problem, then you'll know it has to be fuel starvation.
Doing the above is what I call the "process-of-elimination" approach - verify everything - no guess work.

Having said that:
Why don't you search for the many posts on this forum (some by me) that list the many "sanity-check" steps/verifications needed.

[Ludeykrus]

I second the suggestion of eliminating ignition problems.

Carry a wrench and spark plug socket when you ride. Next time it dies and won't start, pull a plug, put it in the spark wire, and ground the ground strap to the cylinder head. Turn the bike over and see if it is getting spark.

[justmount1]

thank you i am still new at this so i was just asking everything first. this is my first bike. i guess since i have the tank off already i will look into fuel starvation problems first. pull tubes off carburator and flush tank maybe put a screen in the tank if i can figure out how to get one in. if there is no problems there i will start to look into the spark. so if there is no spark what do you guys suggest i check out? oh yeah before i forget. inside pipe on the drivers side didn't seem like it was as hot as other pipes the last time i drove it.

[justmount1]

ok so i have been looking through posts and was wondering where are the posts on the gs550L?

[Carmine]

Take the petcock out.
You'll see the 3" long screen, already in the tank, that you need to have a look at.

If you can't get the petcock's o-ring from your local parts shop have some gas-resistant gasket material to help the old O-ring seal, and put an order in for the O-ring...

[justmount1]

i have already looked at my petcock everything is fine there. i am to the conclusion that it is electronical. i am charging the battery now cause it went dead and i am going to run it and let it warm up. then i am going to check for spark. if there is no spark what should i start checking?

[jimcor]

i have already looked at my petcock everything is fine there.

You can't just look at that petcock and tell if it's OK. That particular petcock is notorious for going bad. There is no rebuild kit for it. If that's an original chances are very good that it's shot. Your problem sounds just like others with the 80 550L have had and it comes down to the petcock. Going to set you back about $70 bucks from the dealer. But the chances are very good that that's what the problem is.

[justmount1]

ok so today i went and warmed it up and it was running bad from the start so i pulled the plugs and had good spark but #2 and 3 were kind of black. plus # 2 was smoking when i pulled the plug from inside the cylinder. put a new plug in #2 and started blowing smoke from exhaust from excess oil from fouled plug still wouldn't start back up. any ideas would be great at this time

[justmount1]

is b7es the right kind of spark plugs to be running? that is what the shop put in it