About to sell this &*$#!#% thing

[eastern]

The clutch seems fine. I just replaced the clutch cable and adjusted it.

It's weird. It runs great and then all of a sudden at 3/4 to WOT...it has no more power. It will climb above 6,000 rpms in the first few gears but as I go to 4th, 5th and 6th...not at all. It just gets worse as you go higher in gear...that is...when it hits 6,000 at least. In sixth at 6,000 rpm at WOT there are no increases in RPMs...it just stays at 55 or close to 60mph. It doesnt go faster unless you are going downhill...but still no increases in RPM.

[eastern]

There is no inline fuel filter.

[Kcwiro]

this can be stupid but when I had an issue like this the bottom part of my main airbox had come loose on the bottom of the rubber boot and ofcourse when I got up to speed it would sputter. Also check all your hoses don't have any crud or bends... I hold my fuel line straight via a zp tie since I wanted slack for tank removal...

Other stumping issues I had were solved with a re-sync of the carbs... also with the coils... there is a thread for a coil mod that ensures you get full battery voltage to the coils.. my bike had a 3 volt drop from battery to coils... once i did the coil relay mod I got all but .2v back... huge improvement.. dont' give up.. also call em crazy but for 6th gear on my friends 550E .... I don't count on that gear for an acceleration I run the other five hard and use 6th for what it is cruising and economy.

JMO on that one I'm sure others might disagree. Keep at it since once you get everything solved the bikes tend to run trouble free once you ge tthe quirks figured out. I didn't know jack when I got my bike and I am definately better off with all the issues I have had so my comfort dealign with these kind of problems is hard to get testy.

Good Luck!

[chef1366]

This is also a symptom of an igniter going bad. I have a good one of you want to give it a shot.

[chef1366]

coil wont fire left side
I would check the wiring from the ignitor to coil for any breaks are faults,if not that,check ignitor with 1 1/2 volt battery to blue and green wires on ignitor side with ignition on and with number 3 and 4 spark plug grounded to head connected to spark plug wires. When connected to batt the number 4 plug should fire,when batt disconnected number 3 plug should fire. Make sure blue wire is connected to positive + and green to neg-.
Good luck!

Thanks cmart45.

[duaneage]

It sounds like the slides in the carbs are not going up. Remove the top of each carb, one at a time, and see if the slides are moving freely. Loose or bad connections between the air box and the carbs can do this, the clamps need to be tight and no leaks. If there are missing screws on the carb body on top, or if they are loose the slides won't lift. Also the diaphragms should be seated properly, they only go in one way and there is a tab that orients them.

Above about 5000 rpm the slides lift up needles that allow more fuel into the engine. If that does not happen, or if 1 (or2) carbs don't lift the needles the engine is not going to produce power and will hit the wall. It will seem like a fuel delivery problem when it really is a internal carb problem.

I speak for many when I say we wish we were there to help diagnose this, it is probably something simple and easy to fix. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, you'll laugh about it later.

[Suzuki mad]

I would kindly suggest that you have blocked fine metal filters inside the carbs.

Its located under the float needle.

Suzuki mad

[duaneage]

Another fix that makes sense.

To test this out remove one of the bowl drains and catch the fuel that runs out in a baby food jar. When you turn the petcock to PRI a strong flow should come through

[eastern]

coil wont fire left side
I would check the wiring from the ignitor to coil for any breaks are faults,if not that,check ignitor with 1 1/2 volt battery to blue and green wires on ignitor side with ignition on and with number 3 and 4 spark plug grounded to head connected to spark plug wires. When connected to batt the number 4 plug should fire,when batt disconnected number 3 plug should fire. Make sure blue wire is connected to positive + and green to neg-.
Good luck!

Thanks cmart45.

Now exactly how would I go about doing this? I can check for breaks or resistance from the ignitor to the coils, but how would I apply a 1.5 volt battery? Do they sell these at the store? How and where exactly would you apply the battery?

[eastern]

I have the day off today so I will yank those carbs off again and check the slides, diaphrams, and the small dome filter in the float needles. Also when I checked the height of the floats yesterday the spring was too weak to hold the floats up, so I simply moved the floats manually until the tab made contact with the needle and measured from there. They were all within spec. I don't think that would be a problem because they have been like that since I first cleaned the carbs and it ran great...even without being synced.

Another thing I noted yesterday was that when I tried to set the mixture screws on top the #1 carb for some reason wouldn't respond to any changes. It is hard for me to tell the difference in any of them to begin with, but even the others will bog down when almost seating them. #1 didn't bog down at all. It didn't show any difference with any setting I put it at. They are all currently at 3.5 turns from lightly seated.

Hey Chef...could it also be that the ignitor could test fine at idle but under load start acting up? All the pipes were super hot and would vaporize any water that I sprayed on them with a water bottle so the coils seem to be firing with some authority at idle.

[eastern]

Well I haven't been able to check the carbs yet as more pressing issues have come to light...mowing the yard, cleaning off back patio, etc. Anyways, I took a quick glance at the ignitor...I believe that it is located on the bottom of the airbox on the 1980 GS550L...and noticed that ground wire insulation has been apparently burned partially off. Maybe this could be the problem with the ignitor?

[doctorgonzo]

The two choices of open to all owners of 30 year old bikes.
A. Be very, very, very wealthy
B. Learn to enjoy the time spent tinkering with it almost as much as the time riding it.

[chef1366]

Now exactly how would I go about doing this? I can check for breaks or resistance from the ignitor to the coils, but how would I apply a 1.5 volt battery? Do they sell these at the store? How and where exactly would you apply the battery?

Disconnect the plug that connects the crank trigger to the igniter. The igniter side to the plug connect jumper wires on the two tabs in the plug. Now do the battery trick with the ignition on. Make sure the kill switch is on on.

[salty_monk]

When I did this I just taped a wire to each end of a 1.5volt duracell & stripped & twisted the other ends to use as probes. Crude but effective.

Mine was faulty.

Dan