Frustration continues

[satchmo]

Ok ladies and gents. Same round of problems as before.

1977 GS550b ...........Rebuilt carbs, recharged battery. The damn thing won't start. Starter motor works fine. Spark's a little on the weak side (although I didn't check until I'd worn down the battery a bit)...

So.....working on the advice of the group, I recharged the battery, checked the points ( I took an emory board to them, re-gapped them, set the timing).

FYI, both of my points have little white circles in the middle of the contacts, is this normal? Are they ruined?........

I then primed the carbs, and tried to fire her up. No dice. 30 secs of cranking. no dice.

Tried the starter fluid in the airbox. 30 secs of cranking, No dice. however, with the start fluid, I got a couple of loud gunshots from the mufflers followed by some blackish smoke (did I ruin something?)

So now, my battery is run down again. That's another thing that's bugging me. Is it normal for a battery to be run down from maybe 2min total of cranking?

I'm at my wits end guys. The weather is too nice to spend my one free day a week wrenching. I need some help here.

Satch

[bybowtie]

Have you checked your coils? Also have you sync'd your carbs?

[satchmo]

The coils were replaced last year with a used set thanks to Earl.

I manually synced the carbs, but I can't properly sync them, because I can't get the bloody thing running.

It should be mentioned that it was running prior to the carb rebuild. The carbs were leaking a little around the float bowl gaskets, so I decided to rebuild them. I was also running quite rich, which was anothe reason for the rebuild.

It's really frustrating to have a poorly running bike, sink hours into the thing and come out with a non-running bike. Sorry for the tone, I'm just fed up. I would take it to someone who knows better, but I can't afford to.

Thanks for the help guys. Awaiting more replies.

[SqDancerLynn1]

I would change the coils. I had a simillar problem with my 79GS850 w/points. It had been acting up & riding down the road it would die and backfire. Few days later I went somewhere and going home it would NOT start. Finally got it to start by having some one give me a push. The next day I could not get it to start at all and I checked the spark (weak). I changed the condensers/points,cleaned the carbs again. No luck replaced the coils and it fired right up

[Anonymous]

Is the gas making it to the cylinders? Is it even making it to the float bowls? Full choke and no throttle should give you some sort of sputtering at the very least.

Steve

[satchmo]

I am getting a little sputtering, but it won't come to life.
The gas is making it to the cylinders, the plugs are wet. It just won't start.

I'll check the specs on the coils again. Is it really possible they'd go bad when they're just sitting for 5 months?

Satch

[redliner1973]

Sounds like a severe case of flooding to me, you saying it is rich, float gasket leaky, and that big 'bang' out the tailpipe after using starting fluid ( I am thinking of fuel collecting in the pipe after prior attempted starts). But leaky floats come to mind first, the leaking, and the richness......Go back over the 'simple' stuff first, the petcock, clean plugs, check for good spark, ohm coil, you know, the basics. AS for your battery, well, pretty much 2 minutes is about all you get. the batteries on these bikes are pretty small, and if they are not real 'new' they go quick. :twisted:

[saaz]

After my recent experinces, also check that the plug leads and plug caps are ok. This has caused me grief the last few months. The resistance through each spark plug cap is 5K ohms, but mine tested ok cold, played up when warm.

[Anonymous]

Alex this looks too much like an electrical problem. Make sure your bullet connectors to the coils are good, not corroded. make sure all wiring to the coils are good. do a spark test by taking your plugs out one at a time and laying them against the cylinder head and cranking it to look for spark. do it for each one cause one could work and the other three not. do you have your air box on? is the filter in it? If not it will likely get too much air when you crank it. Make sure your battery is new or freshly charged before you test the spark. make sure all your fuses are good and in place too.

[Anonymous]

Hey,
I've had problems starting my bike before and I find that making sure it's in neutral can help. Maybe because if the engine doesn't have to do anything besides turn itself it's a little more efficient, might get a couple more seconds out of your battery too Try "bump starting" it too, or whatever you want to call it when you get moving with it in gear and the clutch in, then release the clutch quickly. I always parked at the top of my driveway last summer and would start down in second, clutch in, push the starter button and with a little speed let the clutch out. If you can get it running then you could properly sync the carbs and maybe eliminate some possible problems from your list. Best of luck, and if you try the downhill thing, do it on pavement, not gravel or sand if possible.

[first timer]

are you useing fresh plugs or the old black ones? try putting a new set of plugs properly gap in, i had problems starting when i did my rebuild then i put new plugs in and it started right up.

-ryan

[nabrams]

Satchmo,

I don't know if this is the first time you've rebuilt carbs or not. If it is your first time, don't be discouraged. I had to do mine 5 or 6 times till I got all the variables right.
You had a running bike before the carb rebuild, so I'd guess your main problem is with the carbs. However, it is possible that other factors are just borderline enough that a slightly worse carb situation would expose those issues as well.

Before tearing the carbs down again, verify all the easy stuff first:
1. Put in brand new plugs - I can't tell you how much time I've wasted just to finally realize that my plugs were so wet and fouled that the bike had no chance of starting. This is especially common after doing carb related stuff.
2. Verify your air filter element and box and boots are all set up properly and that there are NO air leaks.
3. Using those new plugs, check that each one is sparking. If the bike is properly carbureted, even a faily weak spark should ignite the fuel/air mixture.
4. Verify that your petcock is letting fuel through to all carbs.

If all of the above checks out OK and you still can't get her started, then it's time to tear into those carbs again. Make sure your floats aren't leaking (there should be no liquid sloshing around inside of them) - I once overlooked that very important test and spent many hours fiddling with other things till I remebered to check if my floats were leaking. Sure enough, one of them was leaking like a sieve.

[KennyJ]

I'll take the side of...Flooding! When you are cranking, your voltage is down for all other circuits, thus if you have a really wet charge, it will not fire. Bump starting could work, it lets all the availabe current (yes I know I am mixing and matching terms) get to the ignition, and could possibly fire.

The pop is from all the unburnt fuel in the exhaust finally firing off.

Take the plugs out, crank the engine over for a few seconds to dry out the cylinders. Install fresh plugs, disconnect the fuel tank and try to start it (don't forget to plug the vacuum line to the tank). It sould probably fire and run OK until the fuel level drops, then it will start to pick up steam as the mixture leans out until it finally quits. If if follows this scenerio, guess it is time to pull the carbs again. Finicky little buggers compared to an old leakmaster Holley.

Kenny