Hey guys!

I got my GS500E going this past wednesday and she drove great!!! Had her up to 110 before backing off!  Drove her home on the return trip from work she drove the same as going, just fine!

Then on my trip to work thurs night she died on me while riding her!  Waited for 15 minutes she'd sart up, go well through the gears and about a mile or two she'd start losing power again! She dont just straight out die... she loses pwer then jerks forward with powrer then loses again and so on till she dies. Ican wait for 15 minutes and she starts up again then i go into the same thing!@!!!

Can someone help me?

I can pretty much be sure that it's a carb issue, but what?

I do have a inline filter and it's clean! (see thru type)

Do you have gas? (stupid question but...)

Could be a vaccume leak, try riding with the petcock on "PRI"

Could be a vaccume building up inside the tank, try riding with the gas cap open but not wide open. (just cracked open)

Could be dirt in the carbs.

Could be a dirty screen inside the tank.



Start somewhere and you'll find it.  It took me a few months to figure out mine.  

:x

I'm guessing that its a fuel tank issue. there is an opening on the top of the tank that will relieve pressure as fuel is taken out of the tank. if it becomes blocked, fuel will stop coming out of the tank once the negative pressure in the tank overcomes the force of gravity taking the fuel out. Eventually, the pressure will re-equalize and the motor will run again and the cycle starts over.

Make sure you have fuel in the tank. Next time it happens, try opening the fuel tank. If you hear a hiss, and your bike starts right up again, you have found your problem. I know there is a post here about how to clean that vent out.

Yea tank vent has my vote too ... Tank vents through the cap ... so you may not want to have a tight fitting tank bag ... someone I know had that happen ...  :lol:
Cool.
Srinath.

Quote from: JeffDDo you have gas? (stupid question but...)

Sigh.  Yeah.  That caused me hours of problems and about 300 bucks before I realized my bike had no problems at all.  Of course, having the problem that didn't exist fixed.... well that caused real problems

Man, the EXACT same thing was happenin to me. It'd run fine for a mile maybe, but then it'd start jerkin around and the throttle response sucked. I thought my floats were stuck or had some gunk in my fuel filter, but idiot me, I just needed some gas.

Ok, I'll try the tank trick out, but don't feel that is the issue. There is a gap between the cap and ring already so I can basically grag the key cover and pull up on it and it will log up and down about a 1/32 of an inch.

Checked out the float height by the hose trick..........and the right side, (sitting on it), is just under the gasket by 1/4 inch while the left side is at 1/2 inch under the gasket line.

I ran the bike the first day with the petcock valve lever, (long end at 12 o'clock), in the up position. Understand I was not to ride in the PRI position(nine o'clock).....am I wrong on that?

!/2 tank of gas in tank

When sitting and the petcock lever is on fuel (12 o'clock), I get gas dripping form the inlet face to the filter area. What could this be?

Thank you for the continuded help....recheck this post after church  Sunday morning!

Quote from: josh28Checked out the float height by the hose trick..........and the right side, (sitting on it), is just under the gasket by 1/4 inch while the left side is at 1/2 inch under the gasket line.

That's something you will want to tweak if/when you ever open up the carbs.  But THAT day shouldn't need to be TO-day.  Read on....

Quote from: josh28I ran the bike the first day with the petcock valve lever, (long end at 12 o'clock), in the up position. Understand I was not to ride in the PRI position(nine o'clock).....am I wrong on that?

There's nothing wrong with running in the PRIme position ... unless you have a leak somewhere, which it sounds like you do.   :x

Quote from: josh28!/2 tank of gas in tank

Don't you believe it!     At least, not until you fill up and the tank takes 2.5 gallons or less.  When I first got my GS I was fooled by the apparent fuel level in the tank, too.  It looked like there was plenty, but I had to switch to PRIme until I finally filled up.

You didn't mention the model year, but you did say that you got a GS500E, which means 1989-2000.  Since you're in TX I'll assume that the bike is a non-California model.  Your tank should hold a total of 4.5 gallons, with a REServe of approximately 1 gallon.  In other words, you should be able to burn 3.5 gallons with the fuel switch in the ON position before your bike does what you originally described and forces you to switch to REServe.  Somewhere around 1/2 gallon later you will have to either switch to PRIme or push.

Quote from: josh28Ok, I'll try the tank trick out, but don't feel that is the issue. There is a gap between the cap and ring already so I can basically grag the key cover and pull up on it and it will log up and down about a 1/32 of an inch.

Checked out the float height by the hose trick..........and the right side, (sitting on it), is just under the gasket by 1/4 inch while the left side is at 1/2 inch under the gasket line.

I ran the bike the first day with the petcock valve lever, (long end at 12 o'clock), in the up position. Understand I was not to ride in the PRI position(nine o'clock).....am I wrong on that?

!/2 tank of gas in tank

When sitting and the petcock lever is on fuel (12 o'clock), I get gas dripping form the inlet face to the filter area. What could this be?

Thank you for the continuded help....recheck this post after church  Sunday morning!

Wait a sec ... 1/2 inch under gasket and 1/4 inch under on the other one ... OK I am surprised it even ran ... its gotta be level wiht the gasket ... and if its under by 1-2mm that will be bad ... I set them both essentially equal ... but well under 1 mm diff is close enough IMHO ... and at gasket level.
The rest as kerry said. Yea leaks, gas level is deceptive cos the pickup is high in the tank not right at the bottom ... etc ...
Cool.
Srinath.

My one float was above by like a 1/4 inch and it would foul that plug out, so it doesnt take much either way to mess things up down there.

Ok, Checked the gas, empty! But after getting more in her she ran for about five minutes and died out. :dunno:

Kerry, I'm in need of some fuel hose routing info:

With an aftermarket airfilter mounted (no air box) where would the propper routing of the houses be placed? It is fitted with a K&N double recepticle flter that is mounted to the carb inlet units directly. The hose connecting the twocarbs on the upper front side is not connected to anything....where does it need to go? Also noticed that my manual shows that the vacuum hoses are to connect to the canister..... ihave no hoses or canister! :dunno:

I'm going to get some pics for you to see tonight and try to get them to you ASAP! then you can SEE what I'm dealing with!

Quote from: josh28Ok, Checked the gas, empty! But after getting more in her she ran for about five minutes and died out. :dunno:

Did you try opening the fuel tank?

Quote from: josh28Kerry, I'm in need of some fuel hose routing info:

Well, I'm not kerry, but this is a link to his diagram.

yes i did. since there is no gaskets between the locking mechanism and the tank it's no need to open, but did any how to be sure.

Hey Josh!  Let's go through the pics one at a time:

1) Tank-mounted petcock (from the left side of the bike).
This looks fine.  The REServe hose is on the left (in the front) and the ON hose is on the right (in the rear).



2) Frame-mounted fuel selector switch (from the left side of the bike)
This also looks fine, except that the vacuum hose is not attached to the carbs.  (We'll get to that in Picture #4.)

* On the right (in the rear) is the REServe supply hose.
* On the left (in the front) from closest to farthest: ON supply hose, main fuel supply to the carbs, vacuum hose.[/list:u]Question: Is there a hose clamp of any kind on the vacuum hose?  It's hard to tell from the photo.

3) Entire fuel system
Everything looks almost perfect here:

* The hoses from the tank-mounted petcock to the frame-mounted Fuel Selector Switch are hooked up correctly.

* The hose with the (aftermarket) fuel filter seems to be hooked up correctly, too.  (It should attach to the lower T-connector between the carbs.)

* BUT the vacuum line from the fuel selector switch is not attached.  We'll talk about where that belongs with the next picture.[/list:u]

4) Carburetor close-up (from the right side of the bike)
The arrow points to a vacuum takeoff.  On all 3 of my pre-2001 bikes the vacuum hose from the fuel selector switch has been attached to the identical takeoff on the left carburetor.  It probably doesn't matter(?) which carb the vacuum is taken from, but make sure that the unused takeoff is capped.

On 2001+ models, the vacuum hose IS attached to the right carb.




5) Carburetor close-up (from the front of the bike)
The section of coat hanger in the front is bent around the choke actuator rod (my term).  Manipulating the choke lever pushes this rod from side to side and displaces both of the choke plungers.  I can't tell from the photo whether or not the actuator rod is correctly attached to the plungers.

The hose attached to the top T-connector between the carbs does not connect to anything else.  It is normally draped over the airbox and the open end is situated between the airbox and the battery box.  (See the drawn diagram on the page that goat linked you to.)  My understanding is that this hose provides "atmospheric reference pressure", which is what pushes fuel up out of the float bowls and through the jets when a partial vacuum is created by air flowing past the upper ends of the jets.  The open end of the hose is tucked away in a "quiet" spot so that the reference pressure doesn't vary wildly with crosswinds or other turbulent air.

BTW, the two black rubber "towers" in this picture and the previous one are additional vacuum caps.  To synchronize the carburetors you remove those caps, attach your carb synch tool to the vacuum takeoffs underneath them, and make adjustments by turning the spring-loaded Phillips-head screw between the carbs.


6) and 7) K&N "Lunchbox" filter
I have no personal experience with this kind of filter, but it attaches to the rear of the carbs in place of the stock airbox.  There should be a short vent hose which normally goes between the top of the valve cover and the stock airbox.  When you replace the airbox with a lunchbox filter (or 2 separate "pod" filters) the airbox end of the vent hose should be capped with a one-way filter of some kind.

Quote from: josh28Also noticed that my manual shows that the vacuum hoses are to connect to the canister..... ihave no hoses or canister!  :dunno:

Are you saying that you don't have items 1 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 in the (Haynes) diagram below?  That's OK ... those are emissions-related parts specific to the California models.


One last note about the tank-mounted petcock that is circled in the diagram above.  The hoses are drawn correctly (attached to the right inlets and outlets on the petcock and the fuel selector switch) but the petcock itself has been rotated 180 degrees.  (That makes it very hard to turn the petcock ON and OFF!)  If you use this diagram to route your hoses you need to know about this inaccuracy.  Otherwise, since the filter inside the fuel tank is normally out-of-sight, you will "cross" the ON and REServe hoses.  That means that if you ride with the fuel selector switch set to ON it will really pull from the lower REServe level inside the tank.  And THAT means that when the bike starts coughing and you switch to REServe ... you will have already USED your reserve!  

Thanks Keryy!

To let you know first off the choke acctuator rod does work fine.

It is the vaccum hoses that troubles me as well as how a normal taknk lock seal should look like? Mine has nothing to cousion it to stay tightly shut.

Also was wondering if the o-rings under the top caps of the carbs, if they where possibly not sealing would that make the bike do the "funky chicken dance" and die? :dunno:

I'm sratching my head as well as my rear end on this!

Thanks for the continued help!

Quote from: josh28It is the vaccum hoses that troubles me

Tell me more.  Is there a vacuum takeoff on the left carb like the one you photograped on the right carb?  Do you have those little wire clamps on each end of the hose?  Are there any cracks or splits in the vacuum hose itself?  What else is troubling you?

Quote from: josh28as well as how a normal taknk lock seal should look like? Mine has nothing to cushion it to stay tightly shut.

Here is what mine looks like.  (Photo was taken for a different purpose.)

Quote from: josh28Also was wondering if the o-rings under the top caps of the carbs, if they where possibly not sealing would that make the bike do the "funky chicken dance" and die? :dunno:

I know that if those O-rings are broken or flattened or missing that weird things will happen, but I'm not sure exactly what.  (Haven't "been there, done that" myself yet.)

Ok, the lock portion in your pic. shows a rubber gasket on bottom of the ring...... All I have is from the springs up, no gasket in connected ring. looks klike I'm going to need a new lock assembly! Good thing is I'm a Cert. Locksmith and can either rekey the key cylinder, or swap out for the old one!

Ok, heres the good news, great news and newly bad news!

GO0D:
Put carbs back together and repaired the vac hoses. Bike is now back in one piece!

Great:
Fixing the vaccum hoses solved the problem of the "Funky chicken jerk" and dying!

Bad:
Now the bike whruns well at idle, but when I ingage the 1st gear to go forward it "boggs down" and dies.


More pics coming to you Kerry!

Can someone put Kerry on the payroll!? He is the king of instructional posting   non-caffeinated root beer toast

I got the pics, Josh.  I'll post 'em sometime tonight.  (Probably LATE.  :dunno: )