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GS550 Carb has a very small needle clip

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Although I have a '79 GS550E, it has the square top cover carbs. Not the elongated cover on the GS550 in the manual. The needle is help in place by a very small U shaped clip that I have never seen before. Naturally, I lost one! The float does not hold the needle in place, like most needle valves. The only YouTube video is 5 years old, but it shows the clip. The video guy said to try this forum and see if anyone knows where these clips can be bought. Any help is greatly appreciated to this newby!

In all my research so far I cannot find the clips. Thanks!
 
Is it a little "U" shaped plate with a tiny screw hole on opposite end of the "U"? look up "80" model 550L parts fische, carb. # 47 in picture. suzuki part # 13373-39110....Maybe??
 
Here's a diagram from the Suzuki 1979 GS550E service manual. Is this the carb that you have???

1979gs550carb.jpg

If it is, then you are using the wrong service manual. The carbs from the '77 & '78 are very different, as you say. In '79, on the E, they used the Mikuni BSW30SS. The '79 service manual has 15 pages on how to work on them.

The L model from 1979 also used the BSW30SS carbs, and I assume that the 1980 E & L models did as well. After that???????????
 
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Although I have a '79 GS550E, it has the square top cover carbs. Not the elongated cover on the GS550 in the manual. The needle is help in place by a very small U shaped clip that I have never seen before. Naturally, I lost one! The float does not hold the needle in place, like most needle valves. The only YouTube video is 5 years old, but it shows the clip. The video guy said to try this forum and see if anyone knows where these clips can be bought. Any help is greatly appreciated to this newby!

In all my research so far I cannot find the clips. Thanks!

Is it a little "U" shaped plate with a tiny screw hole on opposite end of the "U"? look up "80" model 550L parts fische, carb. # 47 in picture. suzuki part # 13373-39110....Maybe??

It is not yhe hold down U shaped tab with a screw hole. That holds the needle seat in place, I am needing the spring clip on the needle itself, below the float
 
Sorry to say, it is the correct Carb, but the small spring clip holding down the needle itself is not shown. Only one YouTube video out of all the carb videos for the GS550 shows the clip and the video is 7 years old. All the parts lists, diagrams, rebuild videos, manuals all show yhe diagram you sent, but it is not the correct one for the small hold down clip on the needle itself. Thanks for the try!
 
This is the 2013 video that shows the spring clip at 15:00 exactly. After the Tab is removed you can see the small clip on top of the needle valve. This author is the fellow who suggested I try this forum for best results. Thanks again
 
Here's a diagram from the Suzuki 1979 GS550E service manual. Is this the carb that you have???

View attachment 62893

If it is, then you are using the wrong service manual. The carbs from the '77 & '78 are very different, as you say. In '79, on the E, they used the Mikuni BSW30SS. The '79 service manual has 15 pages on how to work on them.

The L model from 1979 also used the BSW30SS carbs, and I assume that the 1980 E & L models did as well. After that???????????

This information about the carbs is wrong. Those twin throat carbs were introduced in 1983 for the 16V GS550.
 
The clip is not sold separately. It's part of the float valve assembly.
 
I've got 15 pages of photos in the service manual. If you can tell me where exactly in the diagram this spring clip is, I might be able to nail it down. I don't know which needle you are referring to.
 
This information about the carbs is wrong. Those twin throat carbs were introduced in 1983 for the 16V GS550.

Perhaps, but it's a genuine Suzuki service manual for the GS550E -- which I thought came out in 1979. Is that wrong? Perhaps the GS550E from 1979 to 1982 used a different carb???? That would put my GS550E manual into 1983 or later.
 
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Perhaps, but it's a genuine Suzuki service manual for the GS550EN -- which I thought came out in 1979. Is that wrong?

The carbs the OP has are similar those in the carb rebuild tutorial linked in my signature.
 
The clip is not sold separately. It's part of the float valve assembly.

Edit: I don't think you need those clips. Most similar GS carbs don't have them and the brand new Mikuni float valves don't use the clips either.
 
I just checked and you are correct. The GS550E manual that I have is for the 16 valve engine. I was originally misinformed that it was for earlier bikes. Nice to know. No big surprise that there is a lot of bad/missing/incomplete info on the WEB.
 
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