Spark Question

[OLJOCLARK]

Hello ,,from Alabama. I Haven't Posted In A While,,cause I Ain't Had No Problems! But Now I Have A Question. I Have A 1978 Gs 550e That I Put Back Together Last Winter. Until Now,,,no Firing Or Charging Issues. The Bike Has Always Been A Little Slow Picking Up On Two Cylinders At Start Up.i've Gotten Thru This By Priming And Puffing Air In The Vent Tubes.after This ,,,good Starting The Rest Of The Day.it Sat About Two Weeks,i Tried To Start,,battery Seemed Ample Enough To Turn It Over As Usual,,but Barely Fires And No Start.battery Checks At About 10.50 Volts When Trying To Crank And Goes Back To 12 Or So Sitting. With A Battery Charger Hooked Up, Still No Firing. The Plugs Are Fairly New,, About 500 Miles On Them.last Night I Charged The Battery,showing About 13 Volts,,still No Start This Morning.then I Replaced All Four Plugs,and It Started Right Up All Four Cylinders And Is Running Great. I Cleaned The Old Plugs 2 Times Yesterday, They Had A Little Carbon On Them ,not Much. Were The Plugs Old Enough Or Dirty Enough Or Burnt All At Once? That Kinda Throws Me.maybe A Combination Of A Lot Of Things?i Havent Been Thru The Stator Papers Yet,i Guess It's Time.it Did Overflow Battery Acid At One Point,,,down On The Frame.i Cant Find Where The Battery Is Cracked Anywhere. Did The Battery Kill All My Plugs At Once? If Any One Has Any Input On This Would Be Helpful. Thanks ....oljo From Alabam

[tkent02]

Troubleshoot using the Stator Papers, repair what's wrong. We can't guess any more than you can without hooking up a meter to it.
Consider doing that mod to use a relay to power the ignition.

[Killer2600]

Battery killing the plugs, never heard that one before so I seriously doubt it. Far more likely to kill the coils if the regulator goes out and the battery gets really over-voltaged. I'm guess old fouled plugs combined with weak spark is what gave you trouble, new plugs can mask the troubles of a weak spark.

[SqDancerLynn1]

Check and make sure you have 12 volts on the coils, could have weak spark.. It may also help to clean the start/run switch also, as they can get intermittant
I had a GS1000e years ago, if it sat for 4-5 days would sometimes kill the battrey trying to start it. Would start instantly with jump. if the battery is more than 3 years old I would replace it.. New battery fixed my problem.

[OLJOCLARK]

Thanks

Thanks,,folks For The Input. I Guess I'll Go Thru The Stator Process Just To Be More Confident About What's Going On. I Think I Jinxed It By Buying An Old 80 Model Kawasaki 750 Twin. I Couldn't Help Myself!there Both Out On The Lawn Now,,grazing Together. I Hope They Work It Out! Thanks Again For Your Input.not Much Suzuki Talk Around My Part Of The World. Oljo From Alabam