Hey Guys.
I'm riding a '99 GS500E with 24.000 km on it. I just brought it out last week after 3 months of storage for the winter and I haven't had any problems with it until this morning. It's very windy and rainy, but I have experienced similar conditions before. However, this time during the last km of my trip it nearly died on me during a red light. Idle fell below 1k and for the rest of the trip I had to keep it at 2-3k+ revs and it was very unsteady if revs fell below 3k. When I got to the parking lot where it's not nearly as windy i let it idle for a few secs and it seemed okay, but I still adjusted the idle screw up to 1,5k idle. I'm thinking the heavy wind combined with rain might've resulted in water in the air filter, but I don't know if that would produce such symptoms? Do you have any suggestions?

Btw I was riding "up-wind" or what you call it - the wind was head on =)

I had the exact same problem with mine. Mine was crashed and on the right hand side the Suzuki emblem was missing which meant that water could get in to the pickups. I glued a piece of a beer can there. I also insulated the ignition coils with silica gel all around the connections. Also, after the last service one of the vacuum caps disappeared from the carburettors.. I put in a small wooden stick to block that. And the last thing, I switched the fuel petcock to PRI. Now the bike doesn't die in heavy rain, even after a few hours of riding. Don't ask me, which one was the main culprit... I think in my case it was a combined effect.. running out of fuel due to the lost vacuum cap and fuel petcock problems, and loosing spark due to water getting into the pickups and the ignition coils.

Usually when I'm in heavy head-on wind I experience fuel starvation when the petcock is in the "ON" mode which is cured by putting it in "PRI". I don't think fuel starvation is the case here. I rode to work just now and when I got there after 10 min of highway riding (120 km/h) at around 6k revs (no problems on the highway at all) it died on me when I parked. I tried to start it up again - it backfired and wouldn't idle without me "massaging" the throttle. The backfire got me thinking that perhaps it's time to sort out valve clearances?

Same symptoms as on mine... it gets the fuel but no sparks... look at your pickups and ignition coil or ht lead... somewhere water is getting in. I would say it's the pickups. Also, check the little cap on the carbs where you would connect the instrument to synch the carbs. Just my 2 cents worth..

Problem solved. Moist/water had got into the carbs due to bad weather. I drained the carbs and she's running great now! I guess that's one of the drawbacks when you start the season this early. That and the f****** cold! Still beats public transport though. Thanks for the suggestions =)

Just wondering, are you running the stock intake (airbox)?

Quote from: 4strings on March 10, 2011, 01:41:04 PM
Just wondering, are you running the stock intake (airbox)?

Yes it's 100% stock

Only thing is it's limited to 34 hk until I get a "full" license.

A stock bike shouldn't get water into the intake unless you ride it into a creek.  Stock air intake is right under the seat about 30" in the air, completely out of the rain.  It must have been raining HARD!

I've seen this sort of thing happen to folks using individual pod air filters, but not with the air box.  This makes me suspect, like a couple others here, that the ignition was getting wet.  Something like old spark plug wires may work when it's dry but short-out when wet.  Corrosion likes to form where the plug wire connects to the ignition coils as well.  Look for corrosion there and trim them and re-connect if needed.  Your tank may not be venting well either.  Check the hole in the cap.  I suspect something along those lines.