Hi everyone, as I said I have recently bought a 2000 Suzuki GS500E.  It was sitting for at least a few years (I'm not sure how many exactly).  I changed the oil, spark plugs, and bought a new battery.  I also cleaned out the carbs (twice) and changed the gas.  Then I added seafoam to the gas. 

Right now I can get the bike to start but it wont idle.  It also bogs and usually takes a bit of slight throttle until the rpms climb.  Then I can hold it at higher rpms but if I left off the throttle it will die instantly.  I really have no idea what to do at this point.  Any help would be appreciated. 

Also, just curious, but why are pop quizzes mandatory to do anything on this site?  That's kind of weird and frustrating when trying to just figure out a problem.   

Sounds like a fueling problem , even though you cleaned the carbs it still sounds like a fueling problem to me. Did you remove the mixture screws on the carb and make sure those passages were clean ? When you say you cleaned them , how far did you disassemble them to clean them?


The questions go away after a few posts . I don't have to answer them any more. Don't know how many you have to post or whatever but the do go away eventually.

Welcome!
Simple things first. Did you try setting the idle with the idle screw on the carb?

@EDIT: Also, does your choke mechanism work, and do you use it?

Yes these guys are right. If you got em clean even once, you need to adjust the butterflies to get enough air and fuel in to keep idle.
Of course if you didn't get it clean enough, your pilot circuit is clogged. The air screw, the choke and pilot circuit are all fed by the pilot jet.
Did you remove it and clean it and the passages etc ?
Cool.
Buddha.

Is the mixture screw the same as the pilot screw?  Sorry it's been a long time since I've worked on a carburetor before. 

I pulled the jets out and sprayed them out with carb cleaner and also with guitar string.  I also sprayed carb cleaner through every other orifice in the carb and tried to unblock anything in those spaces with guitar string as well. 

I tried the idle screw on the carb.  It's definitely something else that's causing it to bog and die. 

I removed the pilot jet yesterday and cleaned it out but it's still not working properly.  I got it to idle for a minute after spraying carb cleaner around while it's running (not in the intake) and finding a spot it seems was sucking in air (from the carb into the motor).  I adjusted the clamp and it idled for like 5 seconds which is longer tha it has since I bought it.   

I know I need to adjust the pilot jet but I'm not sure exactly how to go about that.  I read it should be between 1.5 and 3 turns out.  Does that sound correct? 

You cant adjust the pilot jet.
The screw you set to 3 out is called air screw, and its in the front to the bottom of the carb in a round little hole type fitting.
Sometimes its called pilot screw, I don't like to use that term, Its also called mixture screw which is OK. Or Air mix screw.

Idle screw is the part with the huge plastic or metal head also facing the bottom, but its only 1 between the 2 carbs.

Cool.
Buddha.