Carbs? Once more.

[abeman]

Hello,
I have recently bought a 94 GS500 here in Germany. Just a bike to get me around for a year. I have intently read the postings about carbs and see that losts of people have problems with them. Sorry to say, I am no different. Heres my problem.... Bike starts great, warms up nice, runs fairly well from 0 to 80km. But when I get up to speed, 90 km or better, she stats cutting out. Like shes starving for fuel. I get that sick feeling that shes gonna quit any minute. I can roll thru the throttle a little harder and the stmbling goes away for a few seconds but returns. I have purchased a new fuel filter, haven't put it on yet, I have put a whole bottle of carb cleaner in the tank and plan on cleaning out the petcock and all the lines. Anyone got any ideas to put me on the road of success here? Carb rebuild? Maybe an intermitting electrical problem?  HELP!! 

[Jerry_]

Abeman,

I'm sure the more experienced will chime in here, but having just purchased a 1997 GS500E last week, I can say that when I removed the tank, my fuel lines were found to be quite a mess.  The tank vent was kinked badly, and as soon as I moved the tank, I sprung a fuel leak.  This tells me that line was probably kinked as well.  Since I know for sure that my carbs have been "handled" by the previous owner, I decided to remove them and send them to The Buddha (resident carb guru) to have them properly jetted, cleaned, re-o-ringed as necessary and adjusted.  If my carbs were known to be stock, without previous owner intervention, I may have tried it myself, but Buddha's expert eye, great forum reputation and reasonable prices will take all of the guesswork out of this aspect of my maintenance as a new owner.  That will leave me:

1.  Check valve clearances.
2.  Clean and check spark plug gap.
3.  Change oil
4.  Replace all fuel lines

Hopefully these steps will get me going before the end of the season.

Good luck,

Jerry

[simon79]

Hello Abeman and welcome

'94 GS...well, you may be suffering from the infamous "Fuel starvation" problem, which especially affects pre-2001 models.
The carburettors may not be the culprits. The diaphragm into your fuel petcock may be torn instead, affecting vacuum-operated fuel feeding.
Try setting the knob on PRI instead than ON or RES, hit the Autobahn and see if the problem persists.
Remember:
-that running on PRI deprives you of the fuel reserve functionality (be sure to have enough fuel in the tank)
-to turn the valve back to ON or RES when parked.

By the way, a quick search on the site using "fuel starvation" and/or "petcock" will turn up LOTS of info.

Hope it helps.

[abeman]

F__kin A..... It is FIXED!!!!  You guys rock!
I did a search for starvation and petcock. Found the mod for the petcock, carried it out and blasted down the autobahn at 150k. Completely awesome!  One happy customer for sure.
Thanks guys!!!!!

[ohgood]

F__kin A..... It is FIXED!!!!  You guys rock!
I did a search for starvation and petcock. Found the mod for the petcock, carried it out and blasted down the autobahn at 150k. Completely awesome!  One happy customer for sure.
Thanks guys!!!!!

cool, you're set. and you have the autobahn to blast on. careful out there friend

welcome to the forum

[tripleb]

if you want to go a step further you can get a CRF 250 petcock and switch it out.

[simon79]

F__kin A..... It is FIXED!!!!  You guys rock!
I did a search for starvation and petcock. Found the mod for the petcock, carried it out and blasted down the autobahn at 150k. Completely awesome!  One happy customer for sure.
Thanks guys!!!!!

Good.
That's what they call "fun, fun, fun auf der Autobahn".
Enjoy