Left Stranded...

[Honch777]

Well today I had taken my '93 E out for a short trip.  After gettin' onto the road, things were fine.  After about 3 mins of road time, I had lost all power and the engine stalled.  Luckily the people behind me slowed down and I wheeled my bike to the side of the road.  I let it sit for about 20 secs and it fired back up and ran just like normal.  Continued riding for another 5 mins to my destination and things were fine during that as well. 

After starting it back up and leaving an hour later, it also ran fine for about the first 3 mins again.  Same deal, it lost all power.  At the side of the road again, it would idle (roughly) and I could not get the RPMs above more than 2K playing with the throttle, adjusting all choke settings, petcock settings and even letting it sit and cool for a few.  Eventually I gave up and had to push my bike about 1/2 mile back to my storage facility (thankfully it wasn't farther away).


Any ideas as to what this could be?  Thanks.

[utgunslinger13]

Sounds like a vacum issue with the petcock.  I haven't experienced it personally but I've read quite a bit of people with similar problems being told to check their petcocks.  Try a search, there will probably be TONS of posts to peruse through.

Thanks,

Nick

[jeremy_nash]

it could be the vent on your gas cap being blocked, and not letting the gas flow properly.  next time it does it, try opening the gas cap and see f it still does it

[bucks1605]

it could be the vent on your gas cap being blocked, and not letting the gas flow properly.  next time it does it, try opening the gas cap and see f it still does it

This happened to me once, I pulled off opened up my cap and she started up and ran fine after that.

[fred]

I'm going to go with tank vent here as the most likely culprit. Next time you're riding it and it dies on you, pop open the gas cap and see if it will start right back up. If that doesn't fix it, try turning the petcock to prime. If the gas cap fixes it, you need to clean it, but there is a really good set of pictures floating around that will help you out. If putting the petcock on prime fixes it, you can either try and fix your petcock, get a new one, convert the old one to non-vacuum operation or get a different bike's petcock as per whatever search says. If neither of those things fixes it, start suspecting your coils... The gas cap and petcock seem to be super common problems though, it will likely be one of those...

[Honch777]

Well I rode it around on a alil side street today and it did the same thing after about 5 mins of riding.  Unfortunately the gas cap didn't help the situation. 

I took all the body parts off, checked the carbs / fuel lines up close, they seemed alright.

However turning the petcock to prime after shutting it off for about a min did work once I tried it, but only temporarily before it started runnin like crap again.

Any more suggestions?  Also how would I go about converting that petcock to non-vacuum? Thanks

[GeeP]

You'll need an adapter plate to mount on the tank and a Brass tractor fuel valve, available at NAPA.  The adapter plate can be made from 1/4 Aluminum with a hand drill, file, and 3/8" NPT tap.  They're also available from Pingel.

Mount the valve on the side of the frame, where you can get to it.  Install a hose barb in the adapter plate and on both sides of the valve.  Strip out all the petcock crap and plug the vacuum hose.

(Before going to all this trouble, bypass the petcock and see if that fixes things.)

[Farakin]

I had a similar problem...mine was the on/off valve on the tank...the bracket that holds the actual valve in the middle came off and it was slowly coming out hindering fuel flow to the frame petcock.

Check that as well

[Honch777]

 - UPDATE / BUMP -

Well I've followed the fuel cap cleaning guide to the "T," replaced all of my hoses and installed an inline filter, took the fuelcock off and inspected (which seems to work alright), rode it on all positions of the valve and yet I still have my problem. 

I ran this situation past my boss at work couple weeks ago, he seemed certain that this was an ignition problem.  Today I took the plugs out and cranked it over however I got no spark from either plug (strange because last time I was able to run it / ride it til the problem set in).

Stopped by a Suzuki shop and spoke to some of the parts counter guys, they suggested it could have been the spark plug caps. A mechanic buddy of mine also suggested it could be signal generator... which I hope it isnt, because that's a $370 part... So I'm alil lost here, any further suggestions?  Thanks.

[fred]

- UPDATE / BUMP -

Well I've followed the fuel cap cleaning guide to the "T," replaced all of my hoses and installed an inline filter, took the fuelcock off and inspected (which seems to work alright), rode it on all positions of the valve and yet I still have my problem. 

I ran this situation past my boss at work couple weeks ago, he seemed certain that this was an ignition problem.  Today I took the plugs out and cranked it over however I got no spark from either plug (strange because last time I was able to run it / ride it til the problem set in).

Stopped by a Suzuki shop and spoke to some of the parts counter guys, they suggested it could have been the spark plug caps. A mechanic buddy of mine also suggested it could be signal generator... which I hope it isnt, because that's a $370 part... So I'm alil lost here, any further suggestions?  Thanks.

Are your symptoms still the same? Did you test the tank vent by just opening the gas cap when you stalled out then trying to start it right away? Also, I'm not sure you mentioned it, but if you have a California model (or some European models, but I'm not sure which) bike, cleaning the gas cap did nothing because the vent is in a different place...

You need to redo the spark test. You probably missed something and tried to either start it with the kickstand down while in gear or without pulling in the clutch, either of which will cause the interlocks to stop spark.

You could start diagnosing more electrical system problems, but they are more likely to be random. The way you described the problem it seems like you can always start the bike, then ride it around for a while before it stalls. You also seemed to say that once it does stall, you can usually just let it sit then start it back up. This is more likely to be a fuel system problem than an electrical problem, especially since 3 minutes of riding isn't really enough to get the engine super hot to the point where things like partially bad coils would come in to play (I think, but now that I've said it, someone like Buddha will come along and correct me). I'm still placing my bets on fuel system.

[commuterdude]

try bypassing the frame mounted petcock with a fuel line straight from the tank to the carbs.  You'll need a simple on/off valve in the line, (try the lawnmower section of Lowe's/Home Depot)  and you'll need to plug the vacuum line to the left carb at the top  (I used a short length of fuel line with a 7mm bullet stuck in it, lol, just the bullet not the entire cartridge).   The GS frame mounted petcock needs to be thrown in the woods.

[Honch777]

Figured it out, it was a loose wire going into the signal generator.  Zip tied that back (ghetto I know, but its a $380 part...) to the point where it makes solid contact, runs like a scalded dog now