Newbie.

[Stonesie]

Hello, I'm Matt from Doncaster in the UK and I don't have a GS500

My friend has just bought one to use over winter and I have a strange feeling that I will be spending some time with it's oily bits on my work bench.
Today it has conked out twice after about 15-20 miles it looses power then cuts out but will re-start after 10 minuets, it also clatters like mad and makes my own bike sound quiet (and my street triple is known for having a 'mechanical' sound from the front)

So I am here to gain some knowledge on these engines and hopefully will be able to add a little something to this forum.

The bike in question is a 1994 Gs500 with only 14K showing on the clock, so it should be barely run in really.
My plan so far
Full service
Check and clean the cam chain tensioner
Check and adjust valve shims, local bike shop should exchange old for new for a small fee I would have thought.
Check float heights and clean out the carbs, whole fuel system and if I can borrow a balancer then I will do that too.

Anything I have missed please let me know, I was trained up on EFI cars so carbs are something of a dark art to me.






Oh and a sly picture of mine...
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/5333/fyoy.jpg

[adidasguy]

Include gas in the tank inyour list.

First things to check for your situation:

* These GS500 tanks look like they have gas when there is less than a gallon remaining (and you need to switch to reserve). Try running on PRIME setting.
* Check the battery voltage and the charging (get out your meter to measure voltages)

It has been known for the timing pickup to act up when hot. However, you have 2 pickups so only one would go bad at a time so you'd still run, but just on one cylinder. Same with ignition unit. If there were issues, one side might go out but not common for both to fail at the same time.

[Stonesie]

Thank's for the reply, the tank has been replaced by the previous owner and looks rust free but after reading some threads on here I am thinking of replacing the fuel lines and checking to make sure the breather is clear. I got a message from my friend not long ago saying it had tried to do it again but she revved the **** off it and it settled down and carried on running.

The bike has done 500 miles since 2008 so probably needs some de-gunking.

I will test the charging system too, had a fried stator on my last bike and did some wiring loom repairs so I got myself familiar with those tests.



She's now convinced it was some cheap supermarket fuel, filled up with Esso and it's now running better... Funny, my car loves Esso, does between 30-50 miles more on a fill of that than other's... Her bike still sounds like a sack of spanners in a tumble dryer though.

[slipperymongoose]

Sounds like you have a good plan there good simple solid engineering with these engines so not much can go wrong and if it does it's an easy fix.

[yamahonkawazuki]

Include gas in the tank inyour list.

First things to check for your situation:

* These GS500 tanks look like they have gas when there is less than a gallon remaining (and you need to switch to reserve). Try running on PRIME setting.
* Check the battery voltage and the charging (get out your meter to measure voltages)

It has been known for the timing pickup to act up when hot. However, you have 2 pickups so only one would go bad at a time so you'd still run, but just on one cylinder. Same with ignition unit. If there were issues, one side might go out but not common for both to fail at the same time.

it being gravity fed, at low levels and NOT on prime will run out of fuel even with a gallon left. my first gs I knew of this but had  been caught out before like this. I usually rode on reserve or even prime at times but remembered toshut off prime or reserve. but usually left it on reserve but paid attention to the odometer