So your bike sputtered and stalled. You look in the tank and it seems that there is at least 1/2 a tank, that can't be the problem, it must be something else. Wrong. You need fuel.
The GS500 tank looks full when empty. Switch to reserve and try to start, a few times, it takes a while. My bike gets about 100 miles before a refuel, my bike has work done, so not great MPG, but the tank still looks as full when it sputters and dies when I run out of fuel. So, MPG does not matter at this time. My reserve is about a gallon, i think ?, cause when i fill her up, in goes 3 1/2 gallons. Always seems to help when the bike starts to die to put fuel in, even if it might be something else, thats a start.
I think fuel makes it go or something? :whisper:
yeah the way the tank is built is crap it looks fine and full but you got less than a 1/4 of a tank.
If you usually take 3-1/2 gallons when you buy gas that means you have 1 gallon left if you have an older GS with the 4.5 gallon tank. That means you're hitting reserve territory and if you have it set to ON your float bowls will run dry. When you're low on fuel it will restart easier if you set the petcock to PRI. The carbs will fill right away without cranking the engine.
I always know when I'm low on gas: a while ago I retrofitted the bike with a crude homebuilt fuel injection system which included modifying the tank to house a honda civic fuel pump (overkill, I found out later)
now I know that if the fuel is "above the pump", ie the pump is completely wetted by gas, I can make it home from toronto (about 50km). anything below that is my "reserve". of course, I dont have a petcock anymore, so I just use the fuel return as the feed to my carbs.
PS: if anyone has two throttle bodies w/ injectors lying around I'd love to revive this project. last time I used the civic fuel pump and dodge turbo minivan injectors... it worked, but the generator couldnt support the load of the fuel pump. I even solved the MAP sensor issue that buell/harley had before they used map sensors (for a few years they used a TPS, alpha-n injection system... I solved that problem in two days!)
Do you have any up close pictures of this Mod?
nope, and i wouldnt really want to show them either. I mounted the injectors into the head by drilling out the intake tube, then hose clamped all the fuel lines and "rail" together, then assembled the microcontroller to a power converter and a few FETs to drive the wideband oxygen sensor and injectors.
the electronics were mounted to a peice of wood, the injectors were wired down, and I used the carbs as throttle bodies (no gas line to the carb means it only throttles air)
the net cost of the project was the microcontroller, the rest of the parts were scav'ed. took about two weeks of evenings to get it all assembled and programmed.
then it occurred to me you probably are more interested in my in-tank fuel pump mod... that doesn't look nearly as bad. I made a bulkhead out of a steel plate (1.5mm) and mounted the fuel pump to it, also welded in a fuel send and return pipe to the bulkhead. then i cut a rectangle in the bottom of the tank, drilled and tapped the tank and bulkhead, and used a cork gasket with a bit of "motoseal" (gasoline proof grey liquid sealer, it has a pic of a motorcycle on the package, go permetex!)
The positive electrical wire is passed through the bulkhead through a brass bolt, installed concentrically to a nylon bolt, tighly clamping the bulkhead, with the requisite sealant.
overall it was a hack job, but it ran and I got to drag my bike up to the 3rd floor of our brand new engineering building and stink it all up with gas at the end.
The bike wouldnt run by itself however becuase the honda pump took at least 10 amps of electricity, meaning it needed a car battery to keep the voltage from dropping so low it reset the microcontroller. If i were to do it again i'd add another power converter for the fuel pump and a fuel pressure sensor (then maybe go returnless! yehah!)