Well and truly baffled!! Heeelp!

[Anonymous]

Just bought an '83 GSX250S, that had been standing for a while in some guy's garage.

My friend is a BMW bike mechanic, so I figure he's probably got a reasonably good idea of what he is doing.

He said a bike needs three things to run.

1. Fuel. (check)
2. Spark. (check)
3. Compression (check)

Okay - fuel has been replaced, so it's not old crap that's been standing for years.

Brand new battery put in.

Both spark plugs have been replaced, tested thoroughly.

Carbs have been professionally cleaned.

Ignition coils have been replaced.

Compression has been tested until the cows came home.

Problem - Bike REFUSES to start. Me mate says he's completely baffled, might have to resort to the manual.

Heard from another friend about someone else with a similar problem, but once fixed the bike ran like a dream. Unfortunately, we have no idea what he did to fix it.

Does anyone have any suggestions???

This is my first bike - I would love for it to actually work.

8)

[Anonymous]

1. Are you getting spark?

2. Is there fuel in the carbs?

3. Do you have the air box on?

If all the answers are yes, then make sure your timing is correct. Also, use the choke and NO throttle.

[AOD]

yeah, set the choke to full, and crank it without touching anything.

if you crank it and nothing happens, pull a spark plug and see if its 'wet'. if so, you're getting fuel into the cylinders.

to check for spark, pull off a spark plug boot, stick in another spark plug, set the spark plug on the engine somewhere (so its grounded) and press the starter button and watch for spark.

if all else fails...timing has to be way off.

~Adam

[dgeorge]

One seemingly obvious thing, make sure the kill switch is set to run and I believe some of the bikes have a clutch switch and kick stand switch that need to be engaged ie clutch pulled in and kickstand up, could be wrong about those though. Just some thoughts I believe in the kiss priciple (keep it simple stupid) in other words check the simple stuff first.

[Anonymous]

Well and truly baffled!! Heeelp!

This happened to me while traveling cross country on my Yamaha XV920. I burned a valve (cannot lie, I ignored a service interval), got it to a place where there was a dealer and a friend to crash with, and what do you know? Dealer couldn't get it to start after repairing the valve! It took them *3* days to figure out they had the wrong spark plug boots on the wrong plugs. It had fuel, air, compression, spark, all that good stuff, but if you don't have the plugs firing in the right order, it won't run! Hope this is the simple solution to your problem.
Scott

[Anonymous]

well & truly baffled!! Heelp!!

I know, I know, it just occured to me that your 250 is most likely a single cylinder bike
Scott

[Anonymous]

Um... what's an airbox?? Yes there's fuel in the carbies, and yes, there is a strong blue spark. What is a 'wet' spark??

"One seemingly obvious thing, make sure the kill switch is set to run and I believe some of the bikes have a clutch switch and kick stand switch that need to be engaged ie clutch pulled in and kickstand up, could be wrong about those though. Just some thoughts I believe in the kiss priciple (keep it simple stupid) in other words check the simple stuff first."

I'll check out the clutch and kickstand things...

And my bike is a two cylinder, so what was that about spark plugs and spark plug boots in the wrong order??? That sounded promising.

[Anonymous]

http://www.suzukicycles.org/All-Suzuki/all_suzuki_models.html

Perhaps a parameter within the carb may be incorrectly set after the cleaning it got. Make certain that the engine is getting clean air. If there is a reserve fuel selector valve check it so that its not set to prime.

If you can't get it started and you've trouble shot it to death, try a second opinion with another mechanic. After a while if you've done all of the right things its good to get a fresh perspective. Especially since you have spent some time and $$ ressurecting it. Its probably something little and once you find it, it will fire right up . Keep digging, good luck 8)

[arveejay]

When the carbs were cleaned, were the choke circuits open in both the carb and the carb bowl?

[Anonymous]

well & truly baffled!! Heelp!!

Chantelle,
The dealer had reversed the plugs that the spark plug wires were attached to.......hmmm, lets see if I can explain this better. If sparkplug wire "A" should be attached to sparkplug "A", and wire B to sparkplug B, they got them mixed up and had sparkplug wire A attached to sparkplug B, and sparkplug wire B attached to sparkplug A. The engine won't run with the wires reversed--this would result in the plugs firing at the wrong time.
Clear as mud?
Scott

[saaz]

Such problems are a bit hard to diagnose from a distance..but at least I am in canberra!!

Sparkplug boot reversal is an easy one. Make sure fuel is actually getting to the carbs (is it coming out of the tap?). Easy to check wheter it is sparking...assume this has been done.

As BMs have engines, your friend would have checked all the really basic stuff. may be timefor the manual...

Just remember, it is only a man made mechanical device....if it follows the rules it should work!

[AOD]

'wet' spark was a reference to when you remove the spark plug after the engine cranks without firing. you pull the spark plug out of the engine and see if its wet/soaked in gas. then you know you're getting fuel into the cylinder head.

one question...is your bike actually turning over, or is it doing nothing when you press start?

as for the plug wire check...just swap the wires really quick and see what happens.

~Adam

[Don Lobacz]

Yes, the choke circuits can get plugged. Did you try starting it with starting fluid?