Motor Sound - 1981 Suzuki GS650L

[cRaShTeStDuMmY]

Recently we had to replace the brushes in my starter. Once everything was put back together it started just fine. While out riding I noticed a sudden loss in power going up a hill, so we went back to the house, checked our plugs found one fouled. Replaced all 4 just to be sure. Took it for another spin, in 3rd & 4th gear I noticed a tapping sound, more so after she warmed up some. Sitting at idle you don't hear it, usually not at all until you are in 3rd or 4th. Have not had one problem mechanically from this bike. She has about 36k on her now. Local mechanic said it was probably bad gas in the carbs, but we had treatment in carbs and the gas was less than a week old at most. Bike had been running fine up until the brushes went bad. Would anyone else have an idea of something wrong?

[QuaiChangKane]

Simple things first - check all of your plug wires. It would have been easy to knock one loose, hence the loss of power. The tapping noise could be the wire sparking to the frame at higher RPM's, and could lead to a fuel-fouled plug since it's not firing.

[tconroy]

Recently we had to replace the brushes in my starter. Once everything was put back together it started just fine. While out riding I noticed a sudden loss in power going up a hill, so we went back to the house, checked our plugs found one fouled. Replaced all 4 just to be sure. Took it for another spin, in 3rd & 4th gear I noticed a tapping sound, more so after she warmed up some. Sitting at idle you don't hear it, usually not at all until you are in 3rd or 4th. Have not had one problem mechanically from this bike. She has about 36k on her now. Local mechanic said it was probably bad gas in the carbs, but we had treatment in carbs and the gas was less than a week old at most. Bike had been running fine up until the brushes went bad. Would anyone else have an idea of something wrong?

Make sure all your pipes are heating up evenly as soon as your start it.Does it rev fine in neutral?Get some deep creep (sea foam) at the auto parts store and spray it in the carbs to help clear them out.I think you might be ready for a carb cleaning and new o-rings.The tapping sound is when your cylinder goes cold and she's all out of wack! Probably only running on 3 cylinders.Also get some sea foam liquid to put in the gas tank.This stuff works wonders!

[cRaShTeStDuMmY]

Thank You!

Will do all this immediately and let you know how it goes. Thanks so much for you time and information. What a super group.

[tconroy]

Just a bunch of guy's trying to keep the old bike's on the road so the price of new bike's will come down and we can actually afford one some day when were in our 50's!

[cRaShTeStDuMmY]

Update

We Did The Seafoam Nothing Changed, So We Pulled The Carbs, Low And Behold We Found What Looked Like A Bad Repair Broke On The Inside. Found Out That Our Motorcycle Mechanic Shop Did A Repair On The Carb When He Cleaned It And Didn't Say Anything About It. Well It Came Apart After A Year. I Think He Told My Husband, He Jb Welded It. I Thought Jb Weld Would Hold? Anyway They Are Suggesting Clean And Redo That No. 2 Carb And Then Buy A Set Of Carbs For The Bike That Are In Good Shape. Also The Filter Was Full Of Gas From Where It Was Flooding Into The Box From The Carbs. So We Are Cleaning, Replacing All O-rings And New Plug Ends While We Are At It. Any Suggestion On What Will Hold In The Carb Besides Jb Weld. It's The Piece That Holds The Float I Think Just A Corner Of It Otherwise It Lets It Move Freely. Thanks To Everyone That Replied, What A Wonderful Group.

[DimitriT]

A broken float post is very common on these. JB weld should hold it but you need to prep the surfaces carefully and let it cure for 24 hours in a warm place.

Has anyone tried aluminum solder?

[relic-rider]

I think JB weld is a hokey fix for a broken float post. My buddy almost wrecked his engine from a lean condition caused by a broken post and sticky float. I've done half-arsed fixes before, only to have them come back and bite me. I say just get a used carb body. There are still plenty of them out there.

[chef1366]

I think JB weld is a hokey fix for a broken float post. My buddy almost wrecked his engine from a lean condition caused by a broken post and sticky float. I've done half-arsed fixes before, only to have them come back and bite me. I say just get a used carb body. There are still plenty of them out there.

I agree.....................

[cRaShTeStDuMmY]

Repaired

Hubby repaired it with the JB Weld, replace the plug caps, cleaned the carbs and it ran like a scalded dog for about 20 miles, on the way home lost power again. We keep fouling plugs on no. 2 cylinder.

[cRaShTeStDuMmY]

Fixed Finally - Info

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone that replied.


We got the bike fixed, we were thinking we would need a complete rebuild, so we took the bike out to our local motorcycle repair person "Moore's Cycle" explained to him everything that was going on. He's awesome!

When pulling off the fuel tank so he could get a good look, he said he thought it was in the carbs and fuel lines. Come to find out our (petcock vacuum line to the fuel tank) was sucking down fuel and letting it pour back into no. 2 cylinder hence the fuel and oil washout.

We also had gas in our oil from this as well. For the time being he has blocked the vacuum line (ordered a new petcock as this one was leaking it all back into places it shouldn't go) installed a new spark plugs, changed the oil and filter and she is now running like a scalded dog. We are waiting for the petcock to come in so we can replace it and have it fixed right.

If anyone has a similar problem this might be your solution as well. If you need a better explanation I'll get hubby to tell me and I'll let you know as I'm not mechanically inclined. I can change the oil, change the plugs, small stuff but when it comes to engines I'm lost. However since I'm the only one that rides my bike, I can tell when she's not right.

But thanks to everyone for their help and solutions.