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Bike will not idle

  • Thread starter Thread starter bmlbytes
  • Start date Start date
B

bmlbytes

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Hey I have a quick question about my bike.

Back in November I had a TON of maintenance done on my bike. The carbs were synched, the bowl gaskets and manifold seals were replaced, the petcock valve was replaced, and the drive chain and sprockets were replaced.

Now Im having another issue I would think is a problem with the carbs. The bike has a very hard time starting. Sometimes it wont start with the electric ignition, but it will with the kick start. Sometimes its the other way around. If the bike stalls, it takes it even longer to start up again.

I also have to hold the throttle the entire time I'm riding. If I stop at a street light, and I let go of the throttle, the bike will stall after a few seconds.

I adjusted the throttle up in hopes that the bikes idle speed was just too low, but that doesn't help.

Any ideas what the problem might be?

EDIT: It's a '79 Suzuki GS550L
 
First off, when you changed out the gaskets and synched it, did you tear down and actually dip each carb for 24 hours? How many turns out are the mixture screws? Do you have stock pipes and jets? How's the battery? Did you follow all of the recommended maintenance tips in Basscliff's site? If it's stalling at the light then it sounds like it's lean
 
bmlbytes said:
Hey I have a quick question about my bike.

Back in November I had a TON of maintenance done on my bike. The carbs were synched, the bowl gaskets and manifold seals were replaced, the petcock valve was replaced, and the drive chain and sprockets were replaced.

Now Im having another issue I would think is a problem with the carbs.

EDIT: It's a '79 Suzuki GS550L
Click to expand...
Did it run ok after the "TON of maintenance" and only recently go sour?Was your petcock replaced with a vaccuum operated petcock- is the vaccuum hose connected to intake manifold?
 
Hi,

Click HERE. Have you done everything? Have you gone through both lists and all of the recommendations? Shortcuts lead to frustration.



Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff
 
cowboyup3371 - I actually paid a mechanic to do it since he did a ton of work. I'm a college student and cant afford to pay a mechanic to do it again though. The notes he gave me said he cleaned and synched the carbs. The pipes I do not believe are stock, but the mechanic (who is actually a performance shop) was supposed to check the carbs for the right setting on that. The battery is fairly new. I did do many of Basscliffs things, and the mechanic did a lot of them too. Almost all of Basscliff's site has been done.

tom203 - The bike ran like it was brand new after I got it back from the mechanic. It hasn't worked well in about a month. When I brought the bike to the performance shop the guy replaced the petcock valve. He said he had to do some modifications to replace the valve with a "manual" one instead of a vacuum one. He also advised me to turn the gas off every time I got off the bike.

Big T - I'm a poor college student going to a school for computer science (I'm a nerd and haven't done much with any sort of vehicle). Any good tutorial on doing that?

Octain - The carbs were cleaned and synched in November, could they go bad this quickly?

Basscliff - Almost every single thing on that website, both preventative and things to fix problems have already been done, and by a professional.
 
Did the performance shop guy remember to cap the vacuum port on the carbs if he "eliminated" the vacuum feature?
 
Would that take a few months to show up? That sounds like a problem that would be immediately recognizable. My bike ran great for 2 or 3 months after that.
 
Well if he did adjust the valves maybe he went on the tight side of the spec and they are now out of spec.

If you racked up a lot of miles this would show up.
Can you do a compression check.

I cannot imagine a kick starter spinning a bike over faster than the electric starter but you may be part jackrabbit.
 
Ok..It was a possibility, but i didnt realise that you ran it for 2 or 3 months after he did the petcock. Could the petcock now be failing totally? Maybe getting so bad its not letting the right flow?? HMM..
 
JEEPRUSTY- What tools would I need to do a compression check? Sounds like I would need some special ones. I think that the reason the kick starter works sometimes, is the battery might be getting weak after trying to start it. While I am having this problem, I am putting the battery on a maintainer every weekend. The charger says the battery charges to full, but it usually takes about an hour for it to say that.

Petcock is brand new as of November. I should be able to test the petcock by removing the hose and seeing if it flows in a steady stream right?
 
Know any mechanic buds? Same one any car mechanic uses.. It a tube with the guage on top that screws into the sparl plug hole. You crank the bike afew revs and the needle will set itself at the highest pressure that it reads.
 
Yes on the petcock check. remove the fuel line to the carbs. Get a piece of line to put on the petcock and a clear 2 litre pop bottle. The stream should be steady and at least as big as the hole in the test line..good strong even flow is what your looking for.
 
Valves will burn if neglected. You might want to investigate.
 
So it ran fine for 2 to 3 months after the maintenance and then something happenned. Maybe a load of bad gas.Do something simple - Drain all gas from tank and fuel bowls ( dispose of it in your car), put fresh stuff in.
 
chuck hahn - I went to Auto Zone and rented the compression gauge. From the far left side of the bike to the far right side, here are the compressions: 120, 115, 100, 120
 
Go to BASSCLIFF WEBSITE and theres a free download service manual fo rht ebike..It should have all the factory engine specs. I was thinking that the valves need as second look at.
 
Last edited:
Well its technically still within the range of the manual, but on the low end. The manual says:
Standard: 128psi - 171psi.
Limit: 92 psi
Max difference among each cylinder: 28psi
Click to expand...
Again (for quick comparison) my pressures were 120, 115, 100, 120

So technically, all pressures are above 92psi and no cylinder is more than 28psi different from another one.

This might not be an ideal result, but is it the problem I am having? I will check the petcock valve and the electrical tomorrow. I NEED it to not be the valves. :) I can't afford to have someone rebuild the engine, and I don't have the time or knowledge to do it myself.
 
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