Dude ... I will bet I will make your bike start on a 1/2 dead battery ... send me your damn carbs.
You need to jet it, but if that's not making sense ... stop doing anything to it, send me the carbs and $45 + shipping. I will guarantee you it will run like new (what a joke - it ran like sheite when new) ...
BTW smelling gas ... unless you've been to a mexican restaurant recently ... can be a sign you're gas fouling. Not what you're hoping it means.
BTW I actually never have a fully charged battery when jetting a bike for the first time. My goal is to have it start no matter what. On a dead battery ... not if it will weakly crank it ... it should start.
Now your valves are set right That has to be ... else it will give you grief. And yes it will need to be done even with a compression tester.
Cool.
Srinath.

srinath - we may have a deal.  i'll PM you.

Quote from: baco99 on November 27, 2006, 10:23:18 AM
OK.  I need to bring this back because I think the issue is with spark, not gas.  When I hook the bike up to the car and jump start it, it fires after only 2 or 3 attempts.  It does NOT start with either a jumper back or the battery.  I know I need a battery, but can I get one with a higher CCA rating?  can the battery box be modified to hold a larger one?

Read my new "Whos Having Spark Problem" Post it may help you out. 

There is 3 guys here claiming their spark is bad. I am going to bet 90% of those are carburetion or other extraneous.
Baco - carbs.
Mjn - Corrosion followed by carbs.
Jughead - Sparkplug.
I think all the sparks are OK, you're just getting shafted by somehting else.
Cool.
Srinath.

Quote from: annguyen1981 on November 27, 2006, 11:41:03 AM
Here's an update on my situation...

Stupid me cleaned off the corrosion that was on the negative battery terminal.  Works like a charm now.

update:

The GS had troble starting yesterday after I was at work.  I didn't ride for about 7 hours and the temp was around 45.

Little corrosion on the negative terminal.  I had to jump it.



This morning, it was a bit colder, but the bike started ok.  And it sat like that overnight for about 10 hours.

Weird.

I took the battery to the dealer, and they said the machine stated that it was a good battery, but needed a charge.

Any ideas on this one?

Charge it, clean it and see if it dies again. You may not be charging when running, or barely charging. Batteries re charge themselves if they are good and you've not let them entirely die.
Cool.
Srinath.