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Bike died after idling, wouldn't start

  • Thread starter Thread starter nifey
  • Start date Start date
N

nifey

Guest
I have an 82 GS550L and the other day I was going for a ride with my friend. After idling for a few minutes, maybe 10?, while we were checking air pressure teh bike stalled and refused to start for about 2 hours. I had an 40 minute ride to get to him and had no problems. The plugs all look good, idle is about 1000-1500, and the pipes are heating pretty evenly. Numbers 3 and 4 seem to heat up slightly quicker. We also checked spark and it was present although small. Since then I haven't been able to get the problem to repaet itself but I am nervous about going on a longer ride. The following day i tried pulling plug wires and 1 & 2 would kill the engine when pulled but 3 & 4 would cause it to idle rough. I thought I read something similar to this in a thread about the coils getting hot but in 3 days of searching I couldn't turn up the thread. The left coil (sitting on the bike) goes to 1 & 4, the right coil goes to 2 & 3. There are also numbers on the plug wires so i assume the are original. I also noticed I got a shock pulling 1 & 2 but not 3 & 4 I don't know if that makes a difference. Thanks for any help or ideas.
 
It's possible it might be the coil overheating but it sounds to me like it might simply be the engine overheated and/or you experienced vapor lock. That's when things get so hot that the fuel in the carbs and or fuel line vaporizes. This creates a really lean condition which will prevent the bike from restarting until it's cool again and the gasoline returns to a liquid state. That's probably all it is. Ten minutes idling is a bit much to ask of an air cooled engine that needs to move to be cooled. It's probably a simple as that. Electrical troubles are possible but I've found that when electrical components go bad, they usually go bad and stay bad. Sometimes though, coils will develop problems when they heat up. Seems like you should be able to reproduce that problem though.
 
Thanks, i had a suspicion it might be that simple but being new to GS's I definately wanted a second opinion. As soon as I get a good day I want to go for a nice long ride but didn't want to get stuck in bf egypt and try to find someone with a truck. Thanks again, this site is amazing.
 
Getting a shock when pulling plugs 1 & 2? Wouldn't that indicate that the wires are bad?
 
nifey said:
I have an 82 GS550L and the other day I was going for a ride with my friend. After idling for a few minutes, maybe 10?, while we were checking air pressure teh bike stalled and refused to start for about 2 hours. I had an 40 minute ride to get to him and had no problems. The plugs all look good, idle is about 1000-1500, and the pipes are heating pretty evenly. Numbers 3 and 4 seem to heat up slightly quicker. We also checked spark and it was present although small. Since then I haven't been able to get the problem to repaet itself but I am nervous about going on a longer ride. The following day i tried pulling plug wires and 1 & 2 would kill the engine when pulled but 3 & 4 would cause it to idle rough. I thought I read something similar to this in a thread about the coils getting hot but in 3 days of searching I couldn't turn up the thread. The left coil (sitting on the bike) goes to 1 & 4, the right coil goes to 2 & 3. There are also numbers on the plug wires so i assume the are original. I also noticed I got a shock pulling 1 & 2 but not 3 & 4 I don't know if that makes a difference. Thanks for any help or ideas.
Click to expand...

Coils work 1&4 and 2&3 so that does not make sense. And air cooled bikes
don't like to sit an idle. You may have just killed the battery .
 
Is there a way to change just the wires? I'v seen the replecement caps but not the whole wire. I haven't noticed any spaking around the wires at night.
 
rckrzy1 said:
Coils work 1&4 and 2&3 so that does not make sense. And air cooled bikes
don't like to sit an idle. You may have just killed the battery .
Click to expand...

Dumb question, but the bike doesn't maintain a charge at idle? My battery has been dying on me while working on the bike. I thought I got ripped when I bought a new battery. I keep having to charge it to work on the bike.
Oh yeah, the plug wires still work if you get shocked, mine shock me all the time through the boot and I still get enough spark to run
 
I believe since I have raised the idle the bike is charging better. Previously if I was trying to check something I got maybe 2 starts and 5 minutes with the key on before the headlights would drain the battery enough to need a jump. The neutral light still dims with the turn signals though. I'm going to do the check in the stator papers as soon qas I can get my friend to help with the multimeter. I don't quite understand them and don't want to accidently fry something.
 
nifey said:
I believe since I have raised the idle the bike is charging better. Previously if I was trying to check something I got maybe 2 starts and 5 minutes with the key on before the headlights would drain the battery enough to need a jump. The neutral light still dims with the turn signals though. I'm going to do the check in the stator papers as soon qas I can get my friend to help with the multimeter. I don't quite understand them and don't want to accidently fry something.
Click to expand...

The charging system doesn't really work unless the r.p.ms. are at or above 4000. Sitting and idling will suck the battery dead pretty fast.
 
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