84 GS550ES rebuild

[Flaming Chainsaws]

So the bike is turning over like a champ but will not start. Feels like its getting suction. Still not starting though.

There are only four things that an engine needs to run. Fuel, spark, air, and sufficient cranking speed. You just rebuilt your carbs right? That should be good. Next thing I'd do is check for spark.

I hope that you don't have a faulty igniter...

[huahuahauzi]

I tested all the spark plug wires and they are all working. The spark plugs are all brand new, but I'm going to take them out and recheck the gap and see if they are perhaps wet. And everytime i try to start it with ether it either makes a nice piff sound or a big backfire and some white smoke.

[SVSooke]

Check the wires on to the coils are on right.mine where on wrong thanks to a PO.He switched the leads to make it work.When I put them right way round I got what you did.

[Flaming Chainsaws]

I tested all the spark plug wires and they are all working. The spark plugs are all brand new, but I'm going to take them out and recheck the gap and see if they are perhaps wet. And everytime i try to start it with ether it either makes a nice piff sound or a big backfire and some white smoke.

You mean something like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6WSQQWfK9w

The above problem is because of a faulty igniter. It had very nice spark but the spark was firing at the wrong times. Bought a new igniter and problem solved. But check if your plug wires are crossed.

[huahuahauzi]

You mean something like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6WSQQWfK9w

The above problem is because of a faulty igniter. It had very nice spark but the spark was firing at the wrong times. Bought a new igniter and problem solved. But check if your plug wires are crossed.

Yep thats what my bike is doing. I'll try out all the idea and get back to you. How can I test if the igniter is bad?

[huahuahauzi]

I went outside and noticed that both sides spark plug wires werent the same.

One looked like this:


The other looked like this:


So i switched the right side to match the other one.


Also noticed that the two inside plugs wires cross. Not sure if they are supposed to be like that.

[huahuahauzi]

Also, I pulled out one of the plugs and it looked like this:


It's definitely a little wet.

[spyug]

The coil on the left fires 1 and 4 the one on the right fires 2 and 3 so it looks like they were right to begin with. The last photo shows coil on the right is attached to plugs 3 and 4 which is not correct.

Do you have a manual to refer to? There is one on Cliff's site if you don't. It makes it a lot easier to have something to refer to.

Good luck with the project.

Spyug

[huahuahauzi]

Alright, got the wires in the right place now.

Funny story, I put the spark plug back in, put the wire on, and then just for fun decided to push the start button. It sprang right up and started, and continued to run, without a gas tank on.

So i put the gas tank and its been running ever since. But now I am running into an issue where if it is just idling it will eventually die and wont start again. So I wait about 5 minutes and it starts up again. Which leads me to believe it may be flooding.

How would I fix this?

[Smokinapankake]

I'd be sure to check your fuel flow. Disconnect the fuel line from the carbs but not from the petcock, put the end of the fuel line into a clean gas receptacle, and set your petcock to prime. If fuel flows, slows and then stops, you've got a vent problem. Open the filler cap and fuel should flow again.

My GPz did this because I plugged the vent when I coated the inside of the tank with Kreem. Took me several months to sort it out, but that's cuz I wasn't on GSR at the time.

[huahuahauzi]

Heres a couple pics of the bike atm. Solved the idleing issue, but i still starts hard sometimes. Also finally removed the ugly red foam grips and changed them out with black rubber ones.

[huahuahauzi]

Ive been riding the bike a lot lately and I'm loving it. Im still having the hard starting problem often, but ive figured out that i can still push start it and it will usually start right up. Any thoughts?

[spyug]

Two thoughts 1) Check and adjust the valve clearances 2) do the coil relay modification. Classic causes of hard starting are tight valves and voltage drop at the coils. The battery has to both turn over the engine and provide spark. If the battery is old or weak it can't do both easily. It takes a fair bit of current to turn the starter and that leaves little for the coils. doing the coil relay mod puts full voltage to the coils. It makes a big difference.

Good luck with it.

cheers,
Spyug

[huahuahauzi]

I think the bike is now eating oil. Here's the story.

I live about 45 minutes away from Seattle. One day, my wife and I hop on the bike and take a trip to Seattle. This was the first real expressway riding I've done on this bike. No problems along the way. We get there and hang out for a little while and then head home. No problems starting the bike at this point.

ABout half way home I notice that I'm low on as, so I get off at the next exit and pull in for some gas. Get it filled up, and I try to start it up, but it's having a hard time cranking. Almost sounding like a drained battery. So I decided that was most likely the issue. After a while I finally get it push started and drive it the rest of the way home and put it on a trickle charger.

The next day we wanted to drive the bike to Snoqualmi (about an hour drive) but when I go to start the bike, it is still having a hard time cranking, like the battery is dieing. So I hook it up to my truck to see if I can jump it, but that doesnt help at all. I had an extra quart of oil in my shed so I grab that an put it in. When I went to start it, and did the same thing for a couple seconds and then sprung into life with no issue.

I then drove it to the nearest auto store and got two more quarts and immediately put it in. It had been about a month since I had put oil in it (when I did an oil change) so I figured it must be slowly burning. So we decide to still take the drive. Get to Snoqualmi, and have no problem starting it up when we left. Drove from there to Seattle and when I got to Seattle, I once again could not get it started. Plenty of gas.

Eventually I get it started and drive home. I also got the battery checked out and it is fine.

The end.

[JEEPRUSTY]

Sally forth even unto the kingdom of the stator papers.
A dying battery and your oil are likely not related.

Engines do use oil especially at sustained high RPMs. Do you have the correct viscosity oil for the term range you are driving in?

I tried sneaking by with a 10w x oil in the past and found it gotten used up faster than 20-40.

3 qts? is mighty low indeed. Did you notice the oil pressure light come on? Does the light work?

Oh and if you have issues with a slow leak in a petcock or the needle valve o-rings you may be thining the oil. This would make it burn off.
Happens a lot in old cars that usually have short trips. On a high speed hot run the volatile diluted oil burns off.