spark plugs - are they telling me anything ?

I beg to differ. Rather than for nothing, you collected extremely valuable data. You now know that the pilot jets have been increased by one size and the mains as well. You just saved yourself $$.
Now you need to check your needles to see if they have been shimmed. Once you collect that data you are ready to reassemble.
Let us know and we can move forward.

And why did you drain the tank? The petcock will keep it from leaking. I pull mine all the time with fuel in it.

And remind me never to have soup with you.

Well, I bit the bullet and pulled the carbs out, bloody hell, what a pain in the arse...took over an hour, and what a mess, I will be surprised if my boots or air box or something is not messed up now....that is for sure, what a struggle, and I know it's going to be a pain to get them back in....

And all this work for nothing........................................... ...

my jets seem to be correct, seems it either came this way and or the PO knew what he was doing, or the factory did, I don't know, but I have 120 main jets and 40 pilot jets, everything is as clean as it can be, well as clean as it was when I put the things in....

Going to double check the floats to make sure I set them correctly, but honestly I don't know what the problem is now, and this was a real time waster....ohhh well

here is what it all looks like

the tank was drained and removed



carbs are out







made a mess of the bar, have to repaint now...




Jets are 120 on the left and 40 on the right....check all but one of the carbs, and they are all the same.....yes I will check the last one as well




all looks good








so clean I could use them for a soup bowl and have dinner.....





so now what ?????????????????????????????????????

Ahhh, I failed to see you are in Canada.

[BigD_83]

...and check with SCI on the jets. They might be able to get them in to you PDQ

Wait wait wait.
First, all you have is a pipe, right? You should only need to go up 1 on the pilot jets, and 1 or 2 on the mains. The needles you can shim with 3mm stainless steel washers.
Z1 Enterprises sells those jets for ~$1.75 each IIRC. That would be 12 jets, for a total of $21 plus shipping, say $30. The washers you can get at your local Ace hardware for around $2.
Before you do any of that, however, ask someone like rapidray, Nessism or The Cafe Kid.
All you have is a pipe, which sounds better (to some). In order to make more drastic changes, you really need pods as well, since the air/fuel flow is an end-to-end thing. You have opened it up at one end, but not the other. So yeah, I can see upping the mains, but you may only need to adjust the pilot air screw out a turn or two more, rather than replacing those jets as well.
Measure twice, cut once.

So had a talk with Spyug and somehow the conversation turned to jets and that this might be the cause of the issues I am having, so if the jets are stock, it should have the following

117.5 for the Main
37.5 for the Pilot

now the only thing is I do have a Yosh 4-1 pipe on the bike

and if the jets are stock then it is wrong right off the bat.....

since I don't know what is in the carbs, I neglected to check and write down what is in them, I now have no choice but to pull them apart and check.

worse part is, I cannot find any jets locally in stock and I would like to go up by one or 2 jets sizes over stock on both, I have to order them in and won't get any until a bare minimum of Thursday give or take, and not knowing what I need, looks like I am in for about 80 bucks worth of jets 5 bucks each....yikes....

still going to try tomorrow to source some, but I doubt anyone close will have them, our shops really suck most times.....

Well time to go and rip apart the carbs and see what I have....


ohhhh and I don't even know where the needle is sitting at......


I really dropped the ball on this one........

.

somehow I don't think it's the caps, but can't rule them out

I don't thinks so either. They do go bad, however, as resistance can build up over time but in my experience, they either work or don't. When i got the first 550, it wouldn't fire on two cylinders and I thought it was a coil issue but my pro wrench suggested it would be the caps and he was right.

I was thinking of changing mine too as my spark is ok but could be better.

Can you measure how long the stock ones are and I can compare it with what I got for replacement.

Jeez these bikes are a bugger aren't they.

Spyug

[BigD_83]

How do they not fit? Is there not enough clearance past the valve cover?

NGK even has the XB05FP (or XD05FP) listed as the replacement parts for your model. I know they are shorter than the stock caps off my 650, but they worked for me. The difference between XD and XB is the D angle is 120* while the B angle is 102*, and one is 14mm and the other 12mm.

Have you thought about going for a straight cover like an SD05?

I did a little sleuthing. Your part number listed on Boulevard via google reveals they are used on the VX800 as well:

Here is an EBay listing of something that looks like your stockers:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NOS-Suzuki-VX800-VS800-Spark-Plug-Cap-33510-11410-/190622639316

For future reference, here is a link to the NGK codes:

http://www.sparkplugs.co.uk/pages/technical/ngk-plug-cap-code.htm

They (Z1 Enterprises) has nothing to match the OEM caps, all they have is the little short ones, and the short ones don't work, as they are short.....

somehow I don't think it's the caps, but can't rule them out

I am still digging and researching....

Dang it. Can't go with the long straight caps? Too short?

I know you've thought through this. There's got to be a solution though. Hmmm...

yup.....and this is how they compare to what my original ones look like.....








I even got them replaced with XD05F and VD05F


all are short......they don't have the long ones....


.

Are these they?

http://www.z1enterprises.com/ItemDetails.aspx?item=TU38-1007

Thanks GT

I have installed new plugs, and trimmed each lead wire, and put the caps back on, and added a bit of di-electric grease to each as well.

I ordered new caps, but no one has the correct ones, mine are long like 4 inches or so all the ones I kept getting are short ones 2 inch or so....so I had to keep the old caps...

mine just wont hold idle, she just goes lower and lower, and gets below 1000 and craps out, like she just won't stay at idle, even on say a downhill grade and in first gear, I get a feeling as if it will konk out at any time.....and it almost happens....

.

Hey GK. I had the same issue with my bike before the rebuild.

It was like the bike was dying. Power loss and stalling at red lights.

New plugs and caps took care of it for me. I have the original coils and wires.

Unfortunately no plug chops done, have not had the time as of yet....

Got a few other things going on, and the bike is not getting the attention I need to give it right now unfortunately

Hopefully things will settle down a bit soon, and I will be able to devote more time to remedy this problem...

Thanks for all the input