Starting Technique - '79 GS550E

[Anonymous]

Just found this site - looks great.

I have a 1979 GS550E, with around 6.5K miles on it. It's in very good condition. This is my first bike. I have very little experience working on bikes (or cars), but otherwise feel fairly comfortable doing almost any sort of mechanical or electrical work. If the bike needs any work, I am planning on doing as much of it myself as possible.

I am having difficulties starting the bike, and I'm not sure if the behavoir is normal, a problem with my technique, or a problem with the bike.

If this problem is already addressed elsewhere, I apologize, but I couldn't find it. A link to the other post would be great.

The bike is hard to start - even on very warm days (90+ F), I have to start on full choke, multiple attempts to start (5-6), with either the electric or the kick starter. Once it's going, it sounds a bit rough for a while (although I don't really have much to compare it to). Even cracking the throttle makes the engine die, instatntly. I have to close the choke very slowly - in small increments, over a period of 3-10 minutes (depending on weather, I think). Any attempt to open the throttle or put the bike in gear stalls it until the choke is 90% closed.

After I get the choke closed completely, the bike seems to run fine. (Although again - I don't really have anything to compare it to. The only bikes I've ridden before were little 125 and 250cc Hondas in an MSF class, that sounded very different)

Is this normal? Am I doing something wrong? Is there something wrong with the bike?

On a related note, I've seen some discussion about auto. vs. manual petcocks. On my bike, the fuel valve has 3 positions: On, Pri., and Res. Which is it? What, exactly, does the "Pri." positon do? I thought it was for squiritng liquid fuel directly into the cylinders, but some of the posts suggest it's for priming the carbs. What (if any) part should this play in starting the bike?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Juliean.

[SqDancerLynn1]

You may need the carbs cleaned but for most GS bikes
Cold starting = full choke and NO throtle and gradually close the choke as the bike warms up
The fuel petcock On is where you would normally leave the valve IT is turned ON/Off by engine vacuum
Reserve = is usually about 1 gal of fuel befor the tank is completely empty.
Prime = free flow of fuel. Generall if the carbs have been drained or if my bike has sat for a few days I will put it on prime for a few seconds before trying to start to make sure that the fuel bowls are full. Don't forget to turn it back to the On position

[Anonymous]

Starts hard

Welcome to the club neighbor!! Sounds like you may have picked up a bike that has sat for a while. Look in the GS Garage for the pictorial on cleaning carbs. It's a worthwhile read, definately worth printing. As you'll see by the majority of posts on any motorcycle forum, carbs are the most troublesome item on bikes. All it takes is a little bit of dirt to mess them up. The other item that may concern you is the carb boots(they crack) and o-rings between the boot and the head(they also crack).
The petcock you have is a vacuum operated or automatic type. On is on, Res is reserve and Prime is for filling the bowls on the carbs after a teardown or after winter startup. When in prime position, the fuel should run freely out of the tank(not good if your float seats don't seat) In On or Res. a vacuum from the carbs opens the diaphragm in the petcock allowing fuel to flow then shuts it when vacuum is gone. Do yourself a favor and get a manual for your bike from Suzuki or e-bay. Also, it's real easy to spend the better part of a day here reading the forums. These guys are so knowledgeable that if we opened a shop with all of the info here, we'd probably put ourselves out of business from lack of job security Enjoy, Bob

[Anonymous]

I do have the Clymer manual.

I have no idea how long the bike has sat before I bought it, but it does sit around a fair amount now - I don't get alot of riding time, hopefully this fall I will have more time. In the 1.5 years I've owned the bike, I've only got about 40 miles on it

However, the problem occurred the first time I started it, which was about a week after we bought it.

The carb tutorial in the GS Garage is for later model bikes, isn't it? The 1980+ TSCC models? Is it still applicable to the 1979?

Thanks,
Juliean.

[AOD]

nope, the 77-79 bikes had VM carbs, and non-TSCC heads. we have 2 valves per cylinder instead of 4.

your warmup process sounded alot like my recently aquired 79 GS550. it sat in a barn for over a year and i got it running without a carb cleaning, but it never warmed up good. it would have to be choked for 5-10 minutes, even driving it with the choke on for 5 minutes. generally if you have the bike choked, you dont want to use the throttle...it will not run right. when the choke isn't on 100%, you can try some throttle, but it seems you have more problems with that.

i suggest you start by taking off the carbs and giving them a cleaning. its not too hard or scarey, i think its more of a pain getting the carbs out of the actual bike then cleaning them. you're going to do some easy stuff like spray out the bowls and the jets with cleaner and compressed air (or blowing through it like me ) and if you want for good measure replace some orings, which are hard to find (order through Suzuki).

i suggest cleaning them, trying the orings that are on there, and seeing how it runs. make sure you've given it a new set of spark plugs and you have your points gap set properly. that is very important to running well.

email me or post on here, i'm willing to help. i'm doing this work on my second GS550 now...i'm gonna be an expert soon, hehe.

~Adam

[AOD]

i'll also add, that today here at work i read through the Clymers manual to kill some time. it has a pretty good walk through on carb dissamebly and a diagram of how the carb comes apart. this will help in case you forget where stuff goes. 8)

~Adam

[Anonymous]

Is there any way to clean the carbs without removing them? Maybe flush something through the fuel system or the air-intake?

I've seen a friend clean his car carb by removing the air filter and spraying carb cleaner into the air intake, can anything like that be done?

Are the o-rings you mention part of the carb rebuild kits I've seen out there? Are they available separetely anywhere (I'd rather not spend $60 on 8 o-rings...)?

Considering how little I ride, is it worth adding fuel stabilizer to the fuel on a regular basis? I didn't do this at all, including over the winter, but as far as I can tell, there was no drop in performance, nor did it get any harder to start...

Thanks,

[Billy Ricks]

You should be able to get a complete set of o-rings here, http://home.att.net/~robert.barr/. As for a simple way of cleaning your carbs, there really aren't any shortcuts. With as little riding as you do the carbs are likely varnished up. It takes a complete disassembly to do it right. You don't have to take the rack apart, but all the jets and such need to come out and the jets and passages spray thoroughly with injector cleaner. In the future start with a fresh tank of fuel and use a stabilizer such as Stabil to reduce carb problems.

[AOD]

Billy, those o-rings are for CV carbs, the kit is not designed for VM type carbs.

~Adam

[Hotblack]

Before you dig into those carbs it would be worthwile to check your plugs if you haven't already. Make sure they're not fouled or worn, and make sure you're getting good spark to all of them. Running a lot of choke (enrichment) can foul the plugs, especially if the ignition is on the weak side. Also check the points and make sure the dwell and timing is set correctly. This is all much easier to deal with than opening carbs, so should always be checked first. You might even consider throwing new plugs in it just to be sure.

[Anonymous]

Don't have my Clymer handy - Do I need special equipment to check the points? Isn't there a strobe light or something I need? I have a pretty full shop, as well as access to machine tools, but almost no automotive equipment, and would rather buy as little as necessary.

[Hotblack]

Feeler guages will work fine for the point gap (dwell), and Clymer will tell you how to set the static timing (engine off, no timing light needed). As long as those are reasonably close and you're getting good spark you should be able to rule out ignition problems. Then you get to touch the carbs. Carburettor is French for "do not touch", but most of us would be walking - or worse - stuck in a car if we paid attention to that one 8O