No sign of life - HELP!!

[hikermikem]

I've been playing with an "82 GS650G that I found with less than 5K miles on it. However, it was sitting for quite a while so the first thing I did was take the carbs apart & dip, then replace all the jets & clean, clean clean, everywhere.

The insides of the carbs looked horrible - like they sat on the bottom of the ocean for a couple of years. The po said the bike had last run in the Spring of 2006, but I can't believe it could have run looking at the carbs!

While I was getting carb replacement parts & dipping, I checked/fixed the following:

- installed new intake o-rings - all 8 boots were in very good condition.
- cleaned & re-oiled the air cleaner
- new fuel/vaccum lines
- dissassembled & cleaned all electrical connections
- 4 new plugs
- new battery
- bench tested coils, both primary & secondary taps dead on spec
- removed & cleaned all 4 spark plug cap & connections.
- cleaned & flushed fuel tank (tank had previously been Kreemed)
- installed new petcock
- dissassembled & cleaned gas cap
- cylinder compression numbers were very good, all cyl's 155-159.
- recited voodo chats & sprinkled chicken feathers around the bike.

I reassembled the "now spotless" carb rack, performed a bench top sync, set the float heights to spec, and set all 4 mixture screws 1.5 turns out.

Then the moment of truth - turned it over (and over, and over...) and NOTHING! No pops, spits, FU's - nothing.

VERY DISSAPOINTED

Pulled the plugs - smelled gas, but they weren't really wet or burnt at all. I checked for spark against the engine case on all plugs - all sparks looked strong & blue.

Now i'm scratching my head for answers - I would have thought the bike would have at least farted a few times, but nothing happened at all.

Any ideas or suggestions at this point will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Mike

[rpickle]

Hi. With fuel and spark, you should sputter... I would guess the choke (fuel enrichment deal) may not be working correctly or it needs the cable adjusted.

If it were some kind of safety, like the clutch lever, I would think that you would not have spark.

Sorry, not a great deal of help.

Good luck.

Rick

[babcockdonald]

Does it sound like the starter is turning? Have you checked the starter to see what condition it is in?

[smagnusen]

did you check your timing? I know you smelled gas, but are you sure you're getting gas in all cyls? I just went through a similar experiance and I needed to prime my carbs for a long time (minute or two) before the bike fired up. As a side note my petcock does not have a pri position so I had to put suction on the vacuum tube to prime. Also, 1.5 turns out may be a little lean? You may want to back them out a bit more and see if that helps.

[Nessism]

Did you set the petcock to Prime to let fuel into the float bowls?

[ta473]

no start

check your compression. you may have to add some mystery oil to the spark plug holes and let it sit a few days . this should break lose the rings and she should run.

[t3rmin]

check your compression. you may have to add some mystery oil to the spark plug holes and let it sit a few days . this should break lose the rings and she should run.

He already said his compression was good...



Maybe you have plug wires on the wrong cyls? I switched two the other day by accident and it took me a while to figure out why I was only running on 2... One coil handles inside cyls and the other handles outside. Switch 'em and see what happens.

[hikermikem]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys - and yes, I did check the plug wires, they were all on the correct cylinders.

I'm going to pull the bowl plugs and make sure there's gas in there first, perhaps even verify the bowl fuel level with my homemade sight gage.

I'll also check that the signal gen is sending the spark at the right times, and also try some starting fluid. I've never used ether before - do you just spray it into the airbox on the backside of the filter and hope for the best??

Thanks again, don't be shy if you have any ideas!!

Mike

[smagnusen]

I think many here will agree not to use the starting fluid, especially in the manner which you describe. Wave off!

If things are correct, which they will need to be for your bike to run properly, you will not need the starting fluid.

[Nessism]

I'm going to pull the bowl plugs and make sure there's gas in there first, perhaps even verify the bowl fuel level with my homemade sight gage.

Thanks again, don't be shy if you have any ideas!!

Mike

You sound pretty knowledgeable Mike, and on the right track. My guess is that the float bowls are not filling properly for some reason. You might want to check to see if gas flows out of the petcock when there is a vacuum present and when set to Prime. If there is gas present you shouldn't have to mess around with ether.

Just in case you don't know, these GS bikes like full choke and no throttle opening to light. The engine will race like mad to about 4000rpm under choke but you can reduce the amount of choke after the bike starts..

Good luck.

[hikermikem]

Thanks again for the input, I was toying with the ether idea only because I've invested a lot of effort into this bike, & I wanted some assurance that it runs!!

Yeah, I basically know enough to be dangerous - most of my knowledge has come from all the fine minds that inhabit these forms (and of course by making a LOT of mistakes).

I too think there's a fuel problem, and i will verify the basics tonight.

I'll report back when i know more.

Regards,

Mike

[hikermikem]

UPDATE - It's alive...

Well, well... well... Simple things do indeed work best. I have struggled to start this new project bike ('82 650G) and today it happened.

After checking practicaly everything there is to check with no success, here's what I figured. The bike had not run for over a year & the gas in the carbs had varnished the entire fuel system, including the valve seats.

So, I reasoned the valves must be so gunked up they wouldn't allow any fuel to be "sucked" into the combustion chamber. I removed all 4 vac sync screws and using an 18" length of fuel hose with a small plastic pipette duct taped on the end, I sucked up some gas & then "blew" it into the vent holes in each carb inlet boot. Installed the the sync screws back into the boots & POW, the bike started without issue. Once started, the vacuum process then pulled the fuel from the carbs & now the bike is running very well - i haven't even vac sync'ed the carbs yet & it's running smoothly & holding a strong idle at 1K.

Anyway, I'm a happy guy now, & a bit smarter too!!

[bradleymaynar]

Just curious, since I didn't see you mention it, what condition is the tank in? The PO of my 1100 smartly drained the gas from the tank before storage, but failed to drain the carbs. But if the tank still had gas left in it when it was parked, it'd likely be in the same condition as the carbs were.

Brad bt

[hikermikem]

The PO had Kreemed the tank previously, but I gotta tell ya, there was lots of sediment & debris in the tank when I checked it. Also, the mounting bolts for the petcock had been silicone to prevent leaking, so of course I had to buy the real seals for the new petcock i installed.

Lots & lots of flushing before I put the new petcock on too.

Mike