its dead again

[niko]

man my bike ran great for 30 miles, and now it sucks again... its an 85 gs550l only 6400 miles and i was having trouble with it stalling at idle, found an airleak on one of the airbox to carb boots and sealed it up, and it ran like a charm, all over town never stalled or anything. next day i had it idling to adjust the headlight and it died, i couldn't get it restarted. next day i went back, it started on full choke but didn't want to idle off choke and when it finally did it would still die when decelerating, at first it would start back up right away every time it stalled, then it didn;t want to anymore would crank for longer etc. now it wont start at all, the battery is drained from cranking so i have it on a charger will start messing with it again tomorrow, i checked spark before the battery drained and it is still there, plugs were a little dark, i think i need to change out the air filter as it was in the bike when i got it and is dirty i have cleaned the carbs, replaced igniter and battery. don't know if it's worth mentioning but there were problems with all of the lights when i got it: headlight and taillight were both burnt out and i replaced them fairly shortly before having the problems, could the lights just be draining electrical or something, the headlight is an aftermarket h4 installed by po, anyway any thoughts would be appreciated this thing is starting to drive me nuts.

thanks

[chef1366]

I bet you are overcharging. Check the R/R with a multitester and the Stator Papers.

http://www.thegsresources.com/garage/gs_statorfault.htm

[niko]

what do you mean by overcharging, that the stator is putting out to much power, why would that kill the bike at idle?

[chef1366]

The stator always puts out too much. The R/R regulates it.

[duaneage]

what do you mean by overcharging, that the stator is putting out to much power, why would that kill the bike at idle?

I think you have two problems, neither are related.

The burnt lights are a sign of a bad RR. On a Suzuki that is a common problem.

The running bad and stalling are likely caused by fuel delivery problems, how does the fuel flow look coming from the tank? I would start with the fuel delivery and work forward.

First things first and that is you have to fix the charging problem or you will tank the battery and buy light bulbs. After that we can look at the fuel problems.

with only 6400 miles on it you have a creampuff, but sitting around not doing anything is bad for old motorcycles, and people too. Be patient and you'll be tooling around in no time.

[chef1366]

Not if he fried his new igniter.

[duaneage]

The ignitor is not much more than a switch with some pulse shaping, and the transistors used in it are actually rated for a lot more than 17 volts, 60 actually. Lightbulbs can't sink the extra heat generated by overvoltage so they just burn up. The TO-220 cases on the transistors in the ignitor will tolerate a lot of abuse.


He needs to troubleshoot this one thing at a time, too many changes and he won't know what is going on.

Fix the overcharging problems first.

[chef1366]

The ignitor is not much more than a switch with some pulse shaping, and the transistors used in it are actually rated for a lot more than 17 volts, 60 actually. Lightbulbs can't sink the extra heat generated by overvoltage so they just burn up. The TO-220 cases on the transistors in the ignitor will tolerate a lot of abuse.


He needs to troubleshoot this one thing at a time, too many changes and he won't know what is going on.

Fix the overcharging problems first.

I didn't know that. Thanks!