If have a 1991 GS 500 E with 4000 miles on it.  I bought it off my buddy who did not ride it for the past year.  He let gas in the tank with no stabilizer and the pit chicken set to  PRI.  He redid the carbs two years ago.  I changed the plugs, and changed the fuel.  Took it out today for about 5 miles and it was fine.  I am afraid to take it far since I don't want to get stuck!  Again!

Any idea's.  It does not backfire as I have seen from similar posts.  This is my first bike but I am mechanically inclined, just afraid to mess with the carbs if I don't have to.  Also I drove the bike in the  PRI position since that is something I read on this site.  Maybe a new pitcock? 

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Tom

Get a Clymer manual and have a go at the carbs, they are good quality and not too complicated.  Otherwise one of our forum members, a Mr. Buddha, will set them straight for a very reasonable fee.  It does sound like you have a petcock issue, the proper hose routing is available on this page (or the wik)i.   Is your tank shutoff facing the interior of the frame?  Mine was reversed when I got the bike, had to switch the hoses around.

He sounds awfully rich ... petcock maybe, but this just may be super rich due to very high floats ...
Cool.
Buddha.

Have a read thru these links.It will be helpful.If not now, in the future.

I had problems with my bike running on PRIme.The orifice inside is half the size as the ON and REServe.This cause fuel starvation also.
http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=19363.0

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=36958.0

Here's a good how to on GS carb cleaning.Not very difficult.
http://gstwin.com/carb_work.htm

Float height check and correction.
http://www.bbburma.net/FloatHeight.htm
http://cgi.stanford.edu/~sanjayd/gs500/Maintenance/FloatHeight



I wanna add that valves that are out of adjustment cause a low vacuum in the carbs.This causes the engine to seem as tho it's starving of fuel.
Always check valve clearances before balancing carbs.

Here's a valve check video by our own Kerry Burton.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2015554469142545363&q=suzuki+gs500

Balancing carbs.There's more helpful info in this link besides the $5 carb balancing.
http://cgi.stanford.edu/~sanjayd/gs500/Maintenance/5CarbSync


Hope this helps.

Thanks guys.  I checked the fuel lines that my friend changed and I replaced and he had them backwords.  Not sure if that will mean anything but I am going check the float levels and ride it a while with high test and see if I can clean out the cobwebs.  If that does not work I will drop the bowls and clean out the carb.  I got the clymer book with the bike so that should help also.

I also am planing on putting an in-line fuel filter before the carb; any tricks?  I was going to use a run of the mill tractor filter of something like that since I noticed a little rust going on in the tank (again it sat for a while)  Not sure how to get that out yet but again any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again

Tom

What about the battery? A battery does not like to sit untended for a year.

You need to be careful about fuel filters - the GS does not have a fuel pump, so you need to be sure you don't use a filter that requires fluid pressure. Most cars filters are not acceptable (not sure about tractor filters though )

The first thing I did was change the battery so that should be ok.  I'm not sure about filters either but I thought I would give it a try.

I would check the signal generator, on right side of bike behind the suzuki cover, the two pickups should read about 300 ohms. If it is bad it will cause some crazy stuff. Like no power.

Signal generator dying will cause it to lose 1 cyl. Very obvious to spot.
Cool.
Buddha.

Drained the old gass, put 93 octane in with a little bid of gumout, installed a fuel filter, changed the plugs and has not givin me a problem for 120 miles.  How do I get it to not burn so rich?  Is there and air/fuel mixture screw?

Hi, just wondering if this problem was permenantly solved?  I have an '89 that did something similar to me when I was on my last ride of the season.  Left my house, jumped on the highway and after about 5 miles, the bike started hesitating - I stayed on the throttle and then the bike stalled.  It wouldn't start for about 10 minutes and then all of a sudden it fired right up.  Rode another 50 miles with no problems whatsover.  I had just filled the tank with fresh 91 octane.  The bike has ~ 20,000 miles on it.

Any ideas?  Wondering if there's anything I should attack while it's stored for the winter.

Quote from: rivetc78 on January 27, 2009, 04:03:50 PM
Hi, just wondering if this problem was permenantly solved?  I have an '89 that did something similar to me when I was on my last ride of the season.  Left my house, jumped on the highway and after about 5 miles, the bike started hesitating - I stayed on the throttle and then the bike stalled.  It wouldn't start for about 10 minutes and then all of a sudden it fired right up.  Rode another 50 miles with no problems whatsover.  I had just filled the tank with fresh 91 octane.  The bike has ~ 20,000 miles on it.

Any ideas?  Wondering if there's anything I should attack while it's stored for the winter.

You could check your tank vent... If you aren't riding it during the winter, it might not be possible to diagnose the problem very easily... I'm a lazy mechanic though, I'd just wait until it died again while riding and then try to figure out what's wrong...

Guys, Everything works great except on the highway!  Doing about 65-75 MPH and then boom, nothing, I can keep it kind of going if I max out the throttle but no power then usually dies.  Wait a couple minutes and then It will go again. 

Could this have anything to due with fuel lines?  Vacume in the line? 

Quote from: tom42 on January 27, 2009, 06:52:33 PM
Guys, Everything works great except on the highway!  Doing about 65-75 MPH and then boom, nothing, I can keep it kind of going if I max out the throttle but no power then usually dies.  Wait a couple minutes and then It will go again. 

Could this have anything to due with fuel lines?  Vacume in the line? 

Sounds like a classic vacuum operated petcock failure to me...

Thanks Fred!  I searched on google for "gs500 petcock" and a wealth of information popped up.  I found this site that seems to nail my problem on the head.  http://www.gs-500.info/index.php?title=Dies_whilst_riding_at_full_throttle

Check it out.

Quote from: rivetc78 on January 27, 2009, 08:00:42 PM
Thanks Fred!  I searched on google for "gs500 petcock" and a wealth of information popped up.  I found this site that seems to nail my problem on the head.  http://www.gs-500.info/index.php?title=Dies_whilst_riding_at_full_throttle

Check it out.

That looks like a really good run down of things to check. There is a very high probability that one of the suggestions on that page will solve your problem.

Would a new petcock from a newer model fix it?  I can't ride for a couple months since It is colder than a... you get the idea, and would like to fix it while I can't ride.

Quote from: tom42 on January 28, 2009, 12:43:36 PM
Would a new petcock from a newer model fix it?  I can't ride for a couple months since It is colder than a... you get the idea, and would like to fix it while I can't ride.

It would fix it if the petcock is really the problem.... It is a pretty cheap item, so you could just go ahead and replace it...

Quote from: tom42 on January 27, 2009, 06:52:33 PM
Guys, Everything works great except on the highway!  Doing about 65-75 MPH and then boom, nothing, I can keep it kind of going if I max out the throttle but no power then usually dies.  Wait a couple minutes and then It will go again. 

Sounds more like the tank vent is clogged - easy to check if it is - opening the fuel filler (after it dies) will either cut "10/a couple" minutes down to a few seconds, or will have no effect. There's a detailed post on cleaning it around here someplace.