New GW 650 owner from Toronto

[Guest]

Hey Guys,

I recently picked up a 1981 Suzuki GS 650 that I am slowly bringing back to life. The original owner hadn't been riding the motorcycle much and as a result it wasn't able to start.

I immediately took out all the carbs and prepared to clean them only to find out that they were completely spotless and had already been cleaned. What I did notice was that one bronze washer was missing from carburetor 1, making the main jet sit about 2mm lower than the rest. I replaced the washer and reassembled the Carbs.

I then changed the oil, replaced the oil filter, cleaned the air filter and changed all spark plugs. Upon inspection plug 1 was dripping with oil, the same carb that was missing a washer. The other three seemed a bit lean. Once that was completed I reassembled the bike, set the petcock to prime and anxiously waited for the bowls to fill. I was able to find the sweet spot at about half choke to start the motorcycle. It would not enter an idle with the choke off but I was able to keep it running at half choke.

I put the bike away and this morning I attempted to start the bike again but it would not. I ended up draining the battery. To my surprise I noticed that in my haste I had left the petcock on prime overnight. Thinking that I had flooded the engine I took the plugs out noticed that they were ash white. I checked the oil and it did not smell of gas, I even hand cranked the pistons without sparkplugs to see if I could get any gas out of the "flooded engine" but there was none. The gas tank was still half full and seems that it hadn't drained at all. I checked the petcock and noticed that it does drain fine, however the angle that the fuel line was put, along with the inline fuel filter, must have created a jam and not allowed fuel to flow freely. I have purchased new fuel line and will see if changing it fixes the problem.

Here is a video of the bike running last time. To me it sounds like it is running very lean, which would explain the fuel starvation. Let me know what you guys think.

https://vid.me/mylX

[Gorminrider]

Hi,ivan! ...that's a lot of info for a first post and include some assumptions that make it difficult to get a handle on what's happening.... ie: that the bike should have a problem being left on prime ( it should not) , and, if you think that you might have fixed it taking the inline filter anfd kinked fuel line out, maybe we can wait for the result before getting excited.

BikeCliff's Website
You might need to start a thread but best place to start troubleshooting is this link and maybe try a search on carburettors on the forum too.

[ivan]

I am under the assumption that if the bike is left on prime overnight it will continue to drain into the bike until there is no more gas in the tank, especially since these carbs don't have an overflow option. Would this not be the case?

As a followup I changed the fuel line and can confirm that gas is flowing freely from the tank into the carbs. There was still no ignition however. My next course of action is to check the ignition coils and replace the battery.

[Gorminrider]

if the bike is left on prime overnight it will continue to drain into the bike until there is no more gas in the tank

Not if your floats,needles and seats work properly and they should, or you will overflow when the vacuum flow is enabled too...or at the least run pretty rich.
But you had better start a thread with your troubles.