So...sadly this isnt about a gs500F as mine was recently involved in a crash. Just bought a 1991 suzuki across (GSX250F)  about 2 weeks ago as a temporary bike until i get compensated by insurance.

The problem is as follows:

Drained the battery a couple of days ago when i left the bike in park mode at work. Managed to hill start the bike and then recharge the battery on the way home. Since then it had been starting fine. Today i went to turn the bike on and the lights came on fine, then all of a sudden every indicator light went out. So i tried to hill start it. It fired up but then several things happened:

1) There was no throttle response whatsoever, if anything opening the throttle would lower the idleling rpm.
2) the tacho needle was bouncing around between 3 and 8 thousand rpm while in neutral
3) when i eased the clutch out there was no power at all and would stall even though the needle was showing high rpms.

i thought perhaps the reserve tank was not being utilised with dead battery as its not a manual reserve switch that i was used to on the gs, so i went down to the gas station and picked up a 10L jerry can and fuel but that didnt really help.

Also after i switch the bike off it failed to hill start again until it had sat for an hour or two. then when i hill started it again i had the same problem of no throttle response and a bouncing rpm needle.

Additional info: ive been getting REALLY bad fuel consumption. a 15L tank was getitng me only 150km and it smelt like it was running really rich. I know i need to take it to a mechanic but im a bit strapped for cash so id like to know what it could be so i dont get bulloh my goodnessted by a stealership.

Thanks alot!

Roshan

Was the engine revving up and down when the tacho was bouncing? because the tacho could just be playing up as it does it did it on my mates bike even though he wasnt revving..
if its been running rich then thats why you will be consuming more fuel... that would need to be changed via your carb fuel/air mix screw...
could be loads of problems... wiring is a mess which cause cause shorting of the battery causing it to cut out and not want to fire up.. have you checked the state of the battery?
have you checked your throttle connections? if your carbs are running really rich it can just cause it to flood and have little or no throttle response(did this on my superdream project).

there are loads of things that could cause these problems... id try and rule out everything you can before you go to a mechanic etc.
im not a pro at bikes. only know the basics.. but if you eliminate everything that could be related to throttle response.. rpm fluctuation.. bike losing electrical power... then you will get closer to the problem. it could be multiple problems causing this.

or someone could come along after me and be like nah its this. simple to fix... but id try and rule out the little things first personally.

Note to community: GPX250 was known as the Ninja 250 in the North American market

First of all, forget what the tachometer needle is saying for a minute.  What was the engine doing while the needle was bouncing? Was it running steadily? Was it at idle or were you holding some revs?

Two things come to mind:
1) make sure your battery is charged up. Weak battery can mean weak spark in some designs. We want to rule that out.

2) could be stale / watery / generally crappy gas. Drain out the carburetor bowls and chuck the gas. Maybe drain 'em for a few minutes to get some gas out of the tank, too. Refill the tank with the fresh gas you bought recently. Does this make any difference? It would be nice to discover it was just water in the carb bowls. That would save you $$

Report back here with your results.

Addendum:

Another easy thing to check is the choke mechanism on the carburetor.  Is it moving back and forth freely when you move the lever on the handlebar? If the choke is stuck "on" it will cause the poor running you're describing.

Let's work on the engine running first, and tackle the wonky tachometer later.

specially on older bikes the revs can fluctuate with the choke out. mine does that sometimes. but not as much as your saying

hey 5th Ave thanks for the advice. i meant to write GSX250F not GPX my bad.

when i hillstarted the bike it was idling at what would normally be like 800 rpm without any throttle. The tacko needle was flying around. The strange thing is that when i started the bike the second time the throttle actually had some response and it revved up normally, then about 10 seconds later , and after id go about 200metres down the hill the same problem occured where i was getting no response and no power with the bike barely idling and producing a very rich petrol smell. (had to push the bike back up the hill to my mate house  )

Thanks for the help guys. any more tips would be appreciated!

i think my first port of call will be to get a new battery in there. btw is that a fairly easy job or will i need to find a way to get the bike into the shop?

Cheers
Roshan

oh and the choke is moving freely. same at the throttle it does nothing to increase engine revs

if the engine wasn't revving when your tach was bouncing around, make sure your tach cable is attached properly. those thing tend to rattle loose from the gauge cluster. mine came loose and the bike had the exact same symptoms before it fell out entirely.

sounds also like it might be time for a carb cleaning. does the bike have carburetors or is it fuel injected? idk.

are you sure you're running on both cylinders? really bad fuel economy can be indicative of a dead cylinder. I know nothing specifically regarding the make and model you're asking about so just stabbing at the dark. hope it helped. good luck.

would be carbs i would imagine... The battery should be simple enough. dont know your bike but they are usually typically towards the right hand side behind the side panels. usually easily accessable and very easy to change.

This problem is screaming "bad battery and/or bad battery connections".

GSX250F eh?......what an oddball that was. If it was the same as the grey imports we got over here it is a water-cooled 250cc inline 4, you sit on the tank and put your shopping where the tank should be.  If I remember it had all sorts of electrical gizmos like a remote tank release, an illuminated "luggage compartment", a digital clock and more idiot lights than Four mile island. It also had some weird electrically operated carbs and a semi-pressurised fuel system that employed an electrically operated pump.......... It was supposed to be innovative but strangely enough none of the so called innovations were even seen on a Suzuki motorcycle again.

The biggest giveaway is the fact your tacho went daft, IIRC  its electrically operated like the ones on the Gs500Fs and they too go daft when there is not enough volts in the system, so will the "electric" carbs and fuel delivery system. I believe your non starting problem is down to the battery, buy a new one and see what happens.........the other problems? you will stuggle, not many people will know the answer due to the fact the bike is practically unique.

The manual might help: http://www.scribd.com/doc/413315/Suzuki-GSX250F-Service-Manual

http://suzukiacross.org/2007/05/30/fix-fallen-throttle-slide-holders/

thanks for all the help guys. Got a bit of spare time just a matter of trying to get it back to my place from my mates. then ill install a new battery and deal with the
carbs running rich afterwards. ill try to update this if/when i get something done! 

roshan

Ok so i replaced the battery and started it up. Ran fine. Used a multimeter and when i was revving it the voltage rose to 14 - 14.5 and at idle it was about 13 so that would suggest the regulator rectifier is working.

So while bringing it from my mates place where it broke down, i had an accident. Was in the left lane and a car in the lane next to me swerved into my lane without checking his mirrors. His left rear clipped the front of my bike and i went down. Not badly injured just bruise ribs and some road rash on my knees. wasnt wearing my dragins unfortunately, just normal jeans which shredded pretty easily.

Now i got out of hospital yesterday arvo, today i went to look at the bike which was sitting in the parking lot near the accident site. i managed to ride it back to my place so i could put it undercover (raining alot here).

Main problem aside from broken indicators and mirrors is that the case cover is leaking oil pretty badly. when the bike slid it ground a hole in the left casing. Is this repairable and seperate part to the engine or is my only hope to weld over the hole or do i need to buy a whole new engine??

Oh and yeh the driver stopped 50m up the road for about 10 seconds, saw that i wasnt getting up and sped off. Dont have his plates or anything so im going to have to repair this myself. Hopefully my insurance pay out from when the gs500 was crashed will come soon so i can start to repair this.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Roshan

2 bike 2 wrecks you may wanna start driving a big truck glad your ok and that sucks about wrecking your temp bike while waiting for the insurance money from the gs

think ill install a semitrailer horn on my bike. its about the only way to get these idiot cagers to pay some attention 

I have a pair of loud horns on my bike.  Ugly but effective.