Fuel starvation?

[smartroad]

Hello all!

I am new to the GS500 (and to biking as a whole only passed test last July!). I hope people won't mind my newbie ignorance for a while, I may ask a few stupid questions, but I hope to be able to help out answering a few once my knowledge gets better!

Anyhoo, for the last couple of months I haven't been able to ride the bike She will start, after turning over for quite some time, on full choke. As soon as choke goes off, engine dies. Taking the plugs out and they are as dry as a bone with some brown colouring on them. I would have expected them to be soaking with fuel seeing as how long she was turning over for without igniting.

My mate thinks it is fuel starvation, either fuel filter clogged, fuel lines blocked or jets blocked. What, in your guys infinite wisdom, would you tackle first? Or do you think it is something else entirely?

Cheers, I really wanna get out on her again!

[Kasumi]

Well if plugs are dry to the bone and theres no firing then its definatly a fuel problem.

Best way to solve a fuel problem is to start simple. Work from where the fuel starts to where it ends up checking along the route for sufficient fuel flow.

First check is, the tank has fresh gas. then take the tank off and try pulling the hoses on the underside of the tank, fuel comes out? Ok work your way down the hoses to the petcock, fuel filters, carbs etc...

Follow the line the fuel goes checking that fuel is getting through at each point. If you find a point where its not coming out then you know the part just before it is the faulty one.

Thats the best way to be ABSOLUTELY sure you have isolated the problem that needs fixing.

I would hazard a guess that it is something to do with the petcock, they are a known problem on the GS and judging by the fact that both cylinders are dry this is one of the most likely causes as its not hugely common to have both carbs not letting fuel in, usually just one.

[ben2go]

Try to start the bike with the fuel valve on PRI(PRIME).If it starts and runs try this......
http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=19363.0

[CentralCoaster]

Yeah, try it in prime mode and see if that helps.

I thought my bike ran like shaZam! but I was just flooding it and trying to hard.  Plus the fuel selector valve doesn't always work in ON mode.

For now, I set it to prime (up), put on full choke, zero throttle, and hit the starter.  It starts perfectly and I let it warm up for a few minutes, then bring the choke down slowly.  It tends to want to stall at idle if I ride it too soon, but I'll feather it until I'm sure, especially when waiting at a busy intersection.

I stalled the bike out twice already at busy intersections, and it's not fun!

Don't forget to turn the valve back to ON position (down) when you're done, don't leave it in prime.