HELP!

[Janders]

I just recently purchased my first  bike, a 2001 gs500. I am having problems with the idle on it, it constantly dies when idling, and petrol is leaking...a bit excessively...from the drain hose. When trying to start it I doest seem to fire right up, now I figured it may be possibly the cold weather, but this happened again after riding it in the daytime for an hour. The engine was running extremely hot at this point. Has anyone had similar problems with their bike? If so, please give me suggestions. I replaced the battery yesterday when it just clicked upon starting. Thanks!

[gsmetal]

You might have some crappy gas and / or your jets might be a little clogged.

You may want to try some carb cleaner and run some good gas through. You might also want to change your spark plugs.

I often use some stuff called "TECHRON". You can get it at Target and Wal-Mart as well.

Don't go nuts with this stuff. Put a 1/4 bottle in and then run a tank. It will help if you can fill up the tank with new gas and then add the Techron. Your bike wants to run and chances are pretty good you just need to run her a little bit.

Take note, there are two types of Techron - the watered down version ($5.00 per bottle) and the full blown Techron ($9.99 per bottle)

You want the full blown stuff - but only add 1/4 bottle per tank.

[gsmetal]

Oh yeah.....I see from your post that you are leaking fuel from the drain tube....A sure sign of clogged jets or a stuck float.

[Grainbelt]

Bringing this back from the dead. Methinks I have the same issues.

~40 degrees F today.

Start bike, choke on, warm it up. revs at 3-4 grand, eventually get it down to no choke, idle at 1500 but a bit sputtery.

Eventually idle slows down to about 900 RPMs, and even if I rev it up a bit it won't keep running and then dies.  And won't start. At all, choke or no choke.

Also: left the bike on prime by accident for an hour and leaked a good bit of gas on my garage floor.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm carb-stupid. Having used the search function and found this thread, should I a) dump some carb cleaner in it, be ready to go when its warmed up and take off that instant for some continuous 4-5k RPM (highway) riding? or b) take the carbs off, buy a rebuild kit, and risk screwing it up even worse.

Appreciate any thoughts. Its a 93 that I've had since last march, started these symptoms last october when it was cold and it hadn't been ridden for a month while I moved. Now I'm coming off of a winter storage stint since october with stabil in the tank.  Maybe the carbs are just gummed up?

[scratch]

Carb cleaner needs to sit a while to 'soak' and disolve the deposits.  Search 'Yamaha carb cleaner' with username seshadri_srinath.

Personally, I'd set the petcock to PRI and open the drain screw on each floatbowl, for a few seconds, to 'flush' the offending debris that may be keeping open the float needle, and leaking gas all over the floor.

[Grainbelt]

Tried the drain and flush method, didn't improve the situation.  I've been debating removing the carbs to edumacate myself, this looks like a good excuse. Who knows what else I'll find in there.

Anybody else who may search and find this thread later: If, like me, you don't have fuel line laying around the garage, but have some condoms that you think will work, steer clear of lubricated ones, they're hard to hold up to the drain spout. 

[jnande4176]

Wow, you gotta admire ingenuity. I would never thought of using condoms to do something like that. Maybe on old water bottle or Ziploc Freezer Bag (then you can bury the bag in the ground, prime it with fuse, and light the fuse. This followed by major hauling ass results in a huge, firey explosion that looks like artillery shells hitting if done correctly. PS, don't ask how I know! ) Anyway, I had a 1974 Chevrolet Nova Custom that sat for 20 years in a garage and just wouldn't run at all. I just sprayed some carb cleaner in the carb intakes, let is settle, sprayed some more, then let it sit for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Then, I primed the carb with a little gasoline down the carb intakes to mix with the carb cleaner (carb cleaner tends to choke your engine out), turned the key, and she purred like brand new. You may want to consider removing your tank, hooking up a small bottle filled with gasoline to your fuel line, starting the bike, and spraying some cleaner into the carb intakes while giving the bike a little throttle. It will bog a little when you spray the carb cleaner, but will purr nice after you do this 5-10 times. Should clean everything up real nice for ya. Hope this helps.