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**Anonymous** · 06-10-2003, 12:49 AM

It is really not that bad. I just had the carbs off my 83 GS550L and they came off quite easily. The o-rings were in good shape the float bowl gaskets got a touch of permatex spraya gasket just to keep them attached to the bowl during installation. 2 cans of carb cleaner and a lot of compressed air. The only problem I did have is that one of my choke plungers was siezed in the bore. I soaked it in carb cleaner then soaked it in WD40 over night . Drilled a hole part way into it threaded in a wood srew and pried it out. Check around for the best price I could find was Ron Ayers. The bike will start now but revs too high I can't wait till the parts show up :roll:

Thanks,
Gavin Shafer

**chuckycheese** · 06-10-2003, 12:50 AM

Great message!

WOW!! I thought that was a very entertaining message and fun to read. First of all, I think your hunch about the STP causing the leak might well be correct. A good analogy is moss on a roof. Oftentimes, if you scrape the moss off of a roof, it will cause leaks since the moss was keeping it sealed....how's that for a great analogy??

Carb kits are really unnecessary (and often of poor quality) unless you're desperate for a missing part that can't be obtained in any other manner. Just clean the carbs good (after you take them all apart and remove ALL the rubber O-rings and jets). After that, soak them in carb cleaner....following that, you might want to run them through the dishwasher (a word of caution here...it works great for the carbs but, in the event that your wife finds out, it may not work out so well for you. :roll: (I know that from personal experience)

It sounds as though you may have to replace the float bowl gaskets if they're leaking now. (I've never changed mine in the past and have never had a leak). :? You'll also need to change the O-rings (or at least you should). The toughest part of the job is getting the carbs off and on..taking them apart and putting them back together is sort of easy and kind of fun.

After that, hopefully, your bike will run great!

Good luck!!

**Anonymous** · 06-11-2003, 04:54 PM

There's also a rather nice pictorial walk through on dismantling and cleaning the carbs elsewhere on this site.

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http://www.thegsresources.com/gs_carbrebuild.htm

**biker66** · 06-12-2003, 03:16 AM

If cleaning your carbs is that dramatic to you, you must have a very comfortable life...

**Anonymous** · 06-12-2003, 08:40 AM

If cleaning your carbs is to daunting then just remove them from the bike and take them to the dealer to clean. It is about a 1/2hour job so essentially about $30 to have it done. I did that to avoid having the carb cleaner around the house (I have a 2 year old who likes to get into everything.)

**Anonymous** · 06-27-2003, 02:24 AM

Finally at the keyboard again.

Thanx for the replies guys.

To answer that comment about life... yes. I guess I do have simple life.

But to tell you the truth, I am not trerrified of cleaning them out. IT's just that I know that it is pain in the as* ordeal. That's all. I have done it successfully in the past on honda 400.

Oh yeah, and by the way... great analogy with that moss on the roof. It was exactly like that. go figure.

I ordered carb rebuild kits. They supposibly come separately for each carb (not as 2 piece set). I figured, if I am gonna take it apart in the first place, why not do the job right.

The kits ran me $20 per carb (2 carbs). It seems bit steep comparing to some other bikes I inquired about but the other two places I checked didn't even have place to order those. And just do make it more annoying, there is a motorcycle dealer nearby but it's a KAWI. Should I switch the brand loyalty out of lazyness?? I guess not. I really like my SUZKI. If I didn't, I would have sold it or trashed it long time ago.

Tommorow they(kits) should be in. (If not then monday)

oh yeah, what do you suggest for fuel stop once I unhook line from the tank (there is still 3/4 fuel there.) Plug ??? Forceps ????

thanks in advance on any input.
Luke

**Anonymous** · 06-27-2003, 07:58 AM

Just note where everything comes from. The jets and slide needles are different for #1 and 4 than they are for #2 and 3. Someone had mine backwards when I bought my bike. I went through my cabs without even a book or anything. Gavin helped me with a lot of details. Thanks Gavin and have you got yours fixed yet?

**Anonymous** · 06-27-2003, 10:49 PM

I am still waiting on parts...

I am beginning to become impatient. I still have not recieved a manual I bought, I am still waiting for my chain, I am still waiting for my choke pluger....

Thanks,
Gavin Shafer

**Anonymous** · 07-11-2003, 08:57 PM

you are not gonna believe this

My dear friends, we have gathered here today..... oh.. wrong speech.

Who would have "thunk" it.

So i got down and dirty to the whole business of carb clean up. First time is always the longest with the new bike because you want to remember where th parts actually go. Using my last two brain cells was better than nothing but limited brain power showed in the thinking process.

I cleaned both of them put them back on and ..... it took a while to suck the fuel in. Once it started, it ran like a .... yugo... good at first but inital image vanishes quick.

It would still flood. leak fuel out of the overflow and even as far as leaking into the air filter assembly. FFFFFUUUU*******KKK.
My first though was that it probably was leaking due to the faulty main fuel valve. Perhaps bad seating on the needle? Just in case I ordered the part. $37 for needle and tube. In the mean time, my dad kind of made me get into taking it off again. So we did. Clean stuff out.... put it on.. same thing. Runs like a swiss watch for maybe 2 minutes.. then back to the flooding again. We adjusted floats. Put it back on. Same thing.
took it off again, and bent the floats to extreme. put it on.
same thing.
took it off again.
ran experiment which might not be advised but it did prove something. We used water (as inhaling gas was not my wildest dream.) and poured it into the main fuel line using make shift syringe (to create pressure). while I was pouring water, my dad was holding both carbs with float tanks off. The results were as follows:
1)Water in line
2)floats hanging down.
3)water flowing freely through the fuel valve

NOW
4) he pushed float up
5) not a drop through
6) I blew through the carbs with my mouth while he help floats up.
7) couldnt make air slip through.

conclusion from the experiment: The fuel valve is air tight.

We cleaned carbs so there would be no water in them. Put them back on. It ran beautiful..... for another 3 minutes. Then back again to flooding!!!!!!

Lucipher better hide now!!!!!!!!!!

So, after couple of beers (no, actually I don't drink, but my dad does) we came up with a conclusion that there is nothing else that could possibly be wrong BUT

SINKING FLOATS

since they are made of foam(covered with plastic or something) they most likely will deteriorate with time and start sinking. Which actually explain why motor runs fine for couple of minutes. That's when the floats are dry and do work. When they fill with fuel.. they sink to the borrom. (or at least enough to keep flooding). Now I am waiting for the new floats. My dad ordered them and I think he said they were like $20-$30 for both or something like that.

That crap took most of my saturday, and by now I can make a technical drawing of both carbs from my memory. For God's sake, I have nighmares of floats chasing me while I swim in the gasoline!!
Well... not really, but I am ' ' <= that close though.

Time keeps ticking and I keep admiring my motorcycle in my back yard under the cover.

Anyway, that is what we (me and my dad) concluded from this excrutiating day.

If you believe that we missed something and feel that it might be worth checking out,,, LET ME KNOW!
Thanx guys.
P.S. There is no carb rebuild kit for '83 GS550L. You have to order each part separately from suzuki.

**Anonymous** · 07-11-2003, 09:43 PM

Shafer: be patient, motorcycle dealers make a lot of mistakes.

I just went to pick up a tire for my 400 and I found that they ordered a non-DOT dirtbike tire for me when I wanted a dualsport DOT tire. I've also been there to see a guy recieve a complete R6 body-kit when he owned a YZR600...

Steve

**Anonymous** · 07-26-2003, 02:35 AM

FFFFF-----UUUUUUU----CCCCCC-----KKKKKKKK-----!!!!!!!!

I am losing my mind right now. I have replaced the floats, set them right. changed the fuel valves. and yet the fuel still leaks through back to the air filter assemby (through the two small holes on the bottom of the air intake part of the carb. I went as far as setting floats at 24 mm and max recommended is 21.5. that did not have effect on the problem. I am really out of a friggin ideas right now. I checked those vacuum boots and they seem intact. Could there be a problem with them anyway ? Could it be a throttle slide or its needle???
To make my situation worse I went to my local part supplier and asked about price of new carbs ( I figured if they are resonalbe, I might bite the bullet.) She says, $450 for the right one and left one doesn't even show on her system. Then when checking certain part with suzuki dealer she asked about the carbs and found out that suzuki doesn't make them no more. Discontinued item. Ok so I figured go part by part. Throttle slide - discountinued. Needle inside slide, Discontinued.

The whole rubberish "boot" membrane with the attached shaft is $100 a piece. Should I attempt that last one or not even bother???
Is there place where I can find rebuilt or new carbs for this one??? You see, my problem is that suzuki has decided to change their design of carbs in the '83 to 2 carbs being combined into one assembly. Then it continued for like a year. It is rather rare model so there is a problem with certain parts.

Do you guys have any suggestions as to what could be wrong here ? is there a part of this diabolic system that I am not aware of and should check??
This is overall rundown of the situation:

When I set my floats at 20.5mm i don't get overburn smoke from pipes. The throttle is responsive.
Starts easy.
All spark plugs work fine.

At times it does seem like it "holds" the rpm a bit as if it were a 2 stroke. (You know when on older 2 stroke you accidentally twist throttle, it kind of hugs the rpm there for a second or 3 longer)
But that's rare.

The only problem is that fuel that leaks backward through those tiny holes on the bottom of the air intake. And it happens like 1.5 drops to 2 drops a second.

I would really hate to lose the motorcycle cuz the engine pulls nice. it has only 14K miles on it and I like the power and handling. It is in overall good shape except that annoying and dangerous quirk.

I have taken those carbs well over 20 times now and I could probably draw you technical drawing from memory down to the tenth of a mm.

Help me Ronda, help, help me Ronda.

**Anonymous** · 07-28-2003, 11:44 AM

Did you get it figured out? you may have a float needle not seating properly or your o-ring may be bad for your float needle housing.. Im new to bikes, but Im learning. My bike was flooding like crazy, and a stuck float needle fixed that problem.. Im working on the 750 other problems now and making SLOW progress.
Good Luck
Tom

**frosty5011** · 07-28-2003, 12:33 PM

Luke,

Take your carbs off a 21st time, and do the following to see where they are leaking from.

Take off all the float bowls. Now that you have them off, re-check your float height. Now stand the carbs up upright on your workbench. Hopefully, you have a small bench vise the assist you in that area. They need to be upright and level, just like they would be on the bike, and resting on the main jets. Make some small shims out of pcs of wood that will be thick enough to just barely close your float valves, when installed under each float. (Depending on your float height, these will be approx. 1/4"). Put one of those shims under each float.

At this point, you should now have a carb rack (minus float bowls), standing upright on your workbench.....with the floats closed, as they would be if there were fuel in the bowls. Attach a clear foot-long piece of tubing to the fuel inlet in the carbs, and add some fuel. Fill it up enough to where the fuel level is somewhere around the middle of the clear tubing. If your float valves are working correctly.....it should fill up quickly. Make a small mark on the hose with a magic marker, where the fuel level is.....so that you can see if the fuel level drops (it shouldn't - except for evaporation if you leave it set long enough

) The bottoms of your carbs should still be nice and dry. You can momentarily remove each shim, so make sure that fuel will flow, and close it off again to ensure that the seats, even when wet with fuel, are still closing completely.

Also, did you maybe oil your air filter recently? Are you sure that it is fuel, not oil that is dripping out of your airbox?

PS - I also go one step further. To test my float heights, I have 4 clear plastic containers, almost exact size of float bowls. I set the carbs up (as in pic above).....but this time, each carb body standing in it's container. I can now also see what my "exact" float height (fuel level) is with each carb. And yes, each float does vary a little as far as buoyancy (sp?) is concerned. Using calipers beforehand to set exact float height (making sure all are equal), and then checking with this method afterwards, you can see that they can vary between 1/2 to 1-1/2 mm. I use this "wet" test to make sure they really are equal.

**granny_rocket** · 07-28-2003, 01:14 PM

dude, I currently have the same exact problem! Bike runs extremely rich and at idle it pours (ok, maybe it doesn't pour) fuel outta the airbox overflow tube.

I've concluded its the float valve assemblies which I just bought new from Cycle-Recycle http://www.crc2onlinecatalog.com They should be here today or tommorow....

If not the float valves, it could very well be your petcock leaking. If the petcock doesn't seal right when there's low vacuum, it dumps too much gas. Also keep in mind that it could be the o-ring around the float valve assy. Hope ya put a new one in when you cleaned out the carbs!

I feel your pain....i've pulled my carbs off the bike (no joke) 10 times in the last month to try and assess the problem! Lets just hope my float valves are really what's bad!

Good Luck,
-Al Conforti

Announcement

My most dreaded thought knocked on the door. CARB CLEANUP !!

My most dreaded thought knocked on the door. CARB CLEANUP !!

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