82 Gs550e

[TAFF]

At present rebuilding gs550e and noticed on a forum that coils feed left coil feeds 1+4 cyl and right feeds 2+3, because my ht leads are 1 straight and 1 curved per coil , that tells me that mine had , no 1 fed1+3,no2 fed 2+4,,,, is this possible,,,,ps bike wont start with either choice but i,m putting that down to carb probs at the moment.. any suggestions would be greatfull

[Suzuki_Don]

The bike wont fire up on the confguration that you had. One coil fires 1 & 4 and the other coil fies up 2 & 3. When pistons 1 & 4 are at TDC then numbers 2 & 3 are at BDC. So with your configuration two of the cylinders would be firing with the pistons at the bottom of the stroke. It just would not start. Did you have it running with this setup before. Has the bike ever run since you have had it. Give us some history and we can help some more.

[TAFF]

hi,
its been off road for 12-13 years hence a rebuild, but have not touched the coil leads that i can remember, tried rebuilding carbs last year but no joy, may be i mixed them up , but as you state , its impossible to start the way i have it, will have another go at the week end , thanks for the swift reply
cheer:?

[BassCliff]

Hey howdy hey!

Mr. TAFF,

Below is my "official" unofficial welcome. It will have a lot of the information you need. If you can't find what your looking for, just ask. I've got thimbles full of useless information for you! :-D

Let it be known that on this day you are cordially and formally welcomed to the GSR Forum as a Junior Member in good standing with all the rights and privileges thereof. Further let it be known that your good standing can be improved with pictures (not you, your bike)! :grin:

Perhaps you've already seen these, but I like to remind all the new members. In addition to the carb rebuild series, I recommend visiting the garage section via the GSR Homepage and check out the Stator Papers. There's also a lot of great information in the Old Q&A section. I have some documentation on my little BikeCliff website to help get you familiar with doing routine maintenance tasks (note that it is 850G-specific but many tasks are common to all GS bikes). Other "user contributed" informational sites include those of Mr. bwringer, Mr. tfb and Mr. robertbarr.

And here are some edited quotes from one of our dear beloved gurus, Mr. bwringer, with ideas on basic needs (depending on initial condition), parts, and accessories.

***********Quoted from Mr. bwringer************
Carburetor maintenance:

Replace the intake boot o-rings, and possibly the intake boots. Here's the procedure:

http://bwringer.com/gs/intakeorings.html

Here's an overview of what happens with this particular problem:

http://cycleorings.com/intake.html

You'll also want to examine the boots between the carbs and the airbox. There's a good chance these are OK, but check them over.

And finally, if things still aren't exactly right, you'll want to order a set of o-rings for BS carbs from the GS owner's best friend, Robert Barr:
http://cycleorings.com

Once you receive these rare rings of delight, then you'll want to thoroughly clean and rebuild your carburetors. Here are step-by-step instructions that make this simple:

http://thegsresources.com/gs_carbrebuild.htm

***********************************
Every GS850 has (or had) a set of well-known issues that MUST be addressed before you have a solid baseline for further troubleshooting. It's a vintage bike, and it's quite common (as in, every single GS850 I have had contact with) that there are multiple problems that have crept up and slowly gotten worse over the years. It's not like a newer vehicle, where there's generally one problem at a time.

These common issues are:

1. Intake O-rings (install NEW OEM or Viton only - common nitrile O-rings will quickly deteriorate from heat)
2. Intake Boots (install NEW -- these cannot be repaired)
3. Valve clearances (more important than most people think)
4. Carb/airbox boots
5. Airbox sealing
6. Air filter sealing
7. Petcock (install a NEW one)
8. On '79 models, install new points or Dyna electronic ignition (or at least verify that the old points are working correctly)
9. On all models, it's fairly common to have problems with the spark plug caps. These are $3 or $4 each, and often worth replacing if you're keeping the stock coils/wires.
10. Stock exhaust with NO leaks or holes -- good seals at the head and at the junctions underneath.
***************************************
OEM Parts/Online Fiches:

I would definitely double and triple the recommendations to use Cycle Recycle II and Z1 Enterprises as much as possible. These guys are priceless resources. Z1 tends to have slightly better prices, CRC2 has a wider range of goodies available. If you're near Indy and can bring in an old part to match, CRC2 has a vast inventory of used parts.

http://denniskirk.com - Put in your bike model and see what they have.
http://oldbikebarn.com - seems to be slowly regaining a decent reputation, but it's still caveat emptor. They don't have anything you can't get elsewhere at a better price anyway.
http://www.babbittsonline.com/ - Decent parts prices. Spendy shipping. Don't give you part numbers at all. Useful cross-reference if you obtain a part number elsewhere. Efficient service.
http://bikebandit.com - Fastest. Middlin' prices. Uses their own parts numbering system to obfuscate price comparisons -- can be very confusing for large orders. Cheapest shipping, so total cost usually isn't too bad.
http://flatoutmotorcycles.com - Slow. Cheapest parts prices, crazy shipping costs. Don't expect progress updates or much communication. Real Suzuki part numbers.
http://alpha-sports.com - Exorbitant parts prices. Different type of fiche interface that's quite useful at times, especially with superceded part numbers. Real parts numbers. Shipping cost and speed unknown due to insane, unholy pricing.

Stainless Bolts, Viton o-rings, metric taps, dies, assorted hard-to-find supplies and materials, etc:

http://mcmaster.com - Fast, cheap shipping, good prices. No order minimum, but many items like bolts come in packs of 25 or 50. Excellent resource.
http://motorcycleseatcovers.com - Great quality, perfect fit (on original seat foam), and available for pretty much every bike ever made. Avoid the textured vinyl -- it's perforated.
http://newenough.com - You DO have riding gear, don't you? Great clearances, always outstanding prices and impeccable service.
***************End Quote**********************
Here are some extra parts links:

The Rice Paddy (salvage/used)
http://www.ricepaddymotorcycles.com
Ron Ayers Motorsports
http://www.ronayers.com
MR Cycles
http://www.mrcycles.com
Lots of info/pictures here:

http://www.suzukicycles.org

Thanks for joining us. Keep us informed of your progress. There's lots of good folk with good experience here.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff
(The unofficial GSR greeter)

[catbed]

i think it may be "thimbles"

[tone]

As you say the left coil should fire 1+4 & the right coil 2+3 but all that goes out of the window if someone has swapped the coil wires around either coil to coil or top & bottom on either/both coils :-D

[Suzuki_Don]

A wiring diagram will tell you which color wires from the ignition go to the respective coils for 1&4 and 2&3. It is then a simple matter of then running the HT leads to those cylinders if the leads are long enough. If they aren't then do a search on the forum, plenty of threads about replacing HT leads. I think Z1 sell a connector to attach londer Ht leads.

[TAFF]

checked out wiring on feeds to coils , they are correct as wiring diag, so must admit to sometime swapping plug caps , will change o rings on boots due to another article i came across on the forum, so its carbs off and on again this weekend, will have to get more 3x2, thanks to all for the tips , will keep you informed if i get the beast going, good website/forum
[-o<

[Steve]

With it being out of commission for 12-13 years, you need to be sure to clean the carbs VERY thoroughly, not just a quick squirt and spray so things look clean. There is stuff buried deep in the narrow passages that will give you headaches as long as it remains in there. When you clean the carbs, it's best to dip them in Berryman's or Gunk carb cleaner, but you need to get all the non-metallic items out before you dip them. This is also a good time to get the o-rings mentioned by brother BassCliff above.

If you take the time to go through some of the links in BassCliff's 'welcome', you will see suggestions for cleaning all the electrical connections and adjusting the valves, too. All that stuff should really be checked every so often, anyway, so it's a good time to establish a good baseline.


.

[TAFF]

Cheers Steve,
Just a quick update,
Its been off the road since 93 and undecided what to do with it, so last year tried starting it, ended up spending about 2 weeks stipping the carbs completly and rebuilt them with kits from {Z1}still wouldnt go {obviously looking back now must of been ht lead problem} gave up, and this year deciced to give it another go, so stipped the motor,cleaned, new gaskets,seals,reground valves etc,loads of elbow grease , and just put engine back in frame 2 weeks ago to see if i could get it going, just came across the GS forum last week , which then gave me a lot more confidence, or determination so its looking more likely that i,ll get the beast going again, then i,m tempted to start throwing money at it making it roadworthy again, all good fun,
thanks for your tips