Bought bike with carbs off..You guessed it Carb Problem

[sladerunner]

I just bought a 1994 GS500E..the previous owner traded it. He found that it ran, but no very good. He pulled the dual carb assembly off, but winter set in and never got around to taking the carbs apart to clean them....Now this is where I came in. I've pulled them apart 3 times now. 1st time was just a soak in hot water and soap..with the last time in carb cleaner.

It starts up fine cold or hot, but will only idle. As soon as you give it a tiny bit of gas it dies.

Any ideas on what might cause this. The CV valves....or what ever you call them operate smoothly with the finger up and down. There seems to be good vacuum getting to them. The only jets that I found that's adjustable was about 3 1/2 turns out each and that's what I set them at, but not sure if that's correct.

Any help would be great!

Thanks

[GQROD]

Do a meticulous cleaning on them, every orifice, every jet must be clean.

Does this carb set up have acceleration enrichment circuits? if so- if vacuum operated you have to check this in order to see if this circuit has failed and that may be why when you give it gas it bogs and dies, meaning it may not be giving enough fuel to transition from idle to mid-range smoothly.

[Steve]

Do you have any kind of air filter attached?

CV carbs need to have some restriction to operate above idle speed. If you don't want to take the time to attach pods or the stock airbox just for testing, fold a shop rag in half, hold it over the carb intakes and zip-tie it to the outer carbs. This will not be accurate enough for jetting checks, but it will allow the bike to run.

.

[Suzuki mad]

OK, not a GS but a Suzuki GSF.

Pull the top of the carbs apart 2 screws you should have a smll O ring. Pull that out you can reuse it. Pull the diaphrams out with the side/needle attached. If there is any signs of pinching on the diaphram it will need to be changed.

Now look down the space provided by the removal. You should see a silver or brass hole where the needle goes.

IS that round or oval shaped?

Turn carbs over remove float bowl. Remove floats and needle valve. This is done by 1 screw. Then the main jet and pilot jet. Remove them. Do not remove the screw threaded air jet unless you count how many turns to seated.

Check the main and pilot jets for blockages and dirt.

Once the main jet is out you can tap the silver/brass emulsion tube out. If the emulsion tube is oval replace it. If the main jet is damaged due to the emulsion tube being oval change them. If they are one part replace them.

Rebuild in reverse order. You can use all the cleaned parts and the O rings but it best practice to use a new float bowl gasket.

Hope that helps.

Suzuki mad

[sladerunner]

Fixed the problem

Ok..I fixed it. I'll follow that with "I'M AN IDIOT"

LOL..I had the main jet needle rod in backwards...In other words they just rode in the air valves and did not come down thru to fit into the main jets!

I could have sworn, I payed attention to how they came out, but obviously not.

If anything, I hope my problem will help someone else in the future, as I'm sure I'm not the first nor the last to make this mistake.

Thanks for all your help guys.

[psyguy]

I had the main jet needle rod in backwards...In other words they just rode in the air valves and did not come down thru to fit into the main jets!

you mean you had the actual needles upside down
thats so cool

[OhioEric]

I love a happy ending...