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83 gs550L HELP ME!

  • Thread starter Thread starter colinlesser
  • Start date Start date
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colinlesser

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ok im new here and pretty new to bikes but not mechanics. I picked up this bike last night for $400, it was running enough to go down the street then die. We moved it to my shop and it ran last night for a few minutes before i turned it off and left. Come backl this morning and no spark on either coil. i saw 1 really weak spark once but never again. Im guessing a stator or somthing liek that? how should i proceed? what tests do i need to do and how do i do them?
 
Check your welcome email you received. It will have links to many things including the bikecliffs web site which hosts many how to's including links to the electrical tests.
 
Alas it was running. A good thing. It died probably not charging.
Do a search on the stator papers get a cheap meter and do the tests.

Run it by jumpering to a non running car. If it runs fine then well golly BINGO the achilles heel of all GS of hat era.
 
JEEPRUSTY said:
Alas it was running. A good thing. It died probably not charging.
Do a search on the stator papers get a cheap meter and do the tests.

Run it by jumpering to a non running car. If it runs fine then well golly BINGO the achilles heel of all neglected GS of hat era.
Click to expand...


Fixed it for you.
 
Basically, you bought an old bike that is probably decades behind on maintenance. The only way to get it running good and reliably is to get it caught up on its maintenance. This tends to clear up the vast majority of issues, and gives a good baseline for troubleshooting the rest. We get a lot of people through here who think they can just do enough to get it running and then give up and sell the bike because they think they got a lemon.

How do you know what maintenance to do? See the link in my signature for the mega-welcome and click through to BassCliff's site for factory service manuals, tutorials, and gobs of other information. Between that site and this forum, everything you need to know maintenance and troubleshooting-wise is at your fingertips.

Welcome!
 
the stator pages stuff talks about testing it running and whatnot, it wont run without spark so does that mean the stator is not the spark issue
 
Just curious as to whether the bike was cranking slower the next morning or not. That would give you a clue to what the problem is as well. If the bike was still cranking over fine, but you have no spark, then it may not be a stator issue. GS550's seem to be take a dump on their igniters lately but Troubleshoot your problem before you start to change out parts. Lots of information on BassCliff's site that will help you.
 
its on a our shop charger, batterys fully charged. i saw a tiny weak spark earlier but none after the one time. it cranks great and when it ran it ran suprisingly good, he had the carbs rebuilt and synced about a year ago, also replaced another module but not the ignitor. i apologize for if i seem kinda difficult ive had a accident years ago that makes it to where i have comprehnesion problems lol.
 
we have noticed one coil is signifigantly warmer when we try to fire it but still no spark anywhere
 
Doesn't sound like a charging issue. Check the connection to your coils but I'm putting money on the igniter. Did you put the charger on the battery before or after you found the no spark issue?
 
im thinking ignitor as well, is there a test procedure for finding out?
 
Well just got it running , i guess its the kill switch, will the ks allow it to crank but not power the coils?
 
yea spoke too soon, back to nothing again, ran awesome tho lol, so is there a test for checking out the ignitor?
 
Could this be nothing more than a loose wire somewhere? Coils and other things do not heal and unheal themselves.
Do get the manual from the link I posted. There is a testing procedure for all components but I have three working ignitors and on two perfectly working meters the values say they should be dead.
 
yea but a bad ignitor could intermitently work in theroy right?
 
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